@Arvia
Yeah with Stirge it was easy and no regrets but I dunno maybe it's because it not long happened and I had actually spoken to her before she was taken it just felt different.
Hmm maybe because with Stirge it was a less emotional decision but with Yesgar it was more emotional...I wanted him gone.
Today i explored a cave i found previously while looking for Werewolf's, finished Mutamin's Challenge, entered a graveyard crypt and Broke into a Wizard's Tower.
Found a Cave near the Farms while looking for Werewolf's but this one had Bears so didn't come back until now.
2 normal bears and a Dire Bear that was a bit of a toughy, hit him with Web than Icestorm but it didn't do much "Barely Injured", used Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility and Interposing hand to keep him at bay until he died.
found some Mephit's, Imp's and a dead adventurer with "Treaties on Forgotten Heroes" may be interesting to someone.
More Mephit's and Imp's, found a Well with a underwater passage which required a higher Constitution to hold breath long enough to the other side.
Pulled a chain hanging from above and Maegel appeared, he challenged me to answer a question and got it right, he was suspicious and after i told him i new the knowledge from a book i only just found he was very disappointed bu ti answered correctly and got The Watchmans Helm.
Me and several others went to the Green Griffin Inn basement to begin Mutamin's Challenge costing us 500gp each, time to buff.
Spider's! a lot of them and several Ettercap's so glad i kept the Thieves Hood for the poison immunity, after several close calls found a crystal skull and continued.
Found a Queens Spider.
she did not survive and i found Horrid Wilting
2 hallways, Dire Hell Hounds or Traps....very close call with the Hounds and another Heal Potion used
A Yuan-ti, this could be a problem.
She wanted me to answer a riddle or be destroyed so i answered.
My answer was wrong...Revat's Mum may have been right about my Intelligence.
She had a crystal frog.
Next floor down and 1 of the adventurers is dead.
He tried door 16 but it was wrong, turned out each door lead to a chest and when you try to open it if it's the wrong one you get spike trapped...I've got Stoneskine so that's not a problem.
Undead than after healing Gam here he said he was ambushed my Invisible Creatures.
Invisible Stalker's, i kept them bunched up at the door and used Acid Breath but they still managed to cause some damage...another Heal Potion down.
They guarded a crystal egg.
Gorkan was waiting for me, he looks like a fighter...ready Interposing Hand.
After my Valiant retreat he did not survive.
His axe looked different and it is missing a Notch...is this important?
Many Spider's!
After another Valiant Retreat to a doorway i used a scroll of Cloud Kill to soften them up.
The final rooms and another riddle, "a box with neither hinges, key, not lid, yet inside is a golden treasure hid"...i have 3 treasures Skull, Frog and Egg hmm i wonder.
Obviously it was egg and was teleported out, Mutamin gave me this armor...hmm that's not particularly use to me.
Next to the Green Griffin Inn was a graveyard overflowing with Undead...this could be a problem, the Caretaker was more concerned about how much he could charge me for the key to the Crypt.
Zombie Lord, Zombie Warriors and a Corpse hand...ok.
More Zombies.
Skeleton Chieftain!
That actually went pretty well.
Retreat!
Umm is that a Lich?
Drew out his guards first than retreated to prepare Lesser Spell Mantle and Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm.
It was going so well than he casted Evard's Black Tentacles...Spell Mantles don't protect against it and another death
so disappointed, but he had the Imaskar Tome of Life, Eltoora in town is looking for these.
After talking to Eltoora she told me to go through the portal behind her and use the Wizard Lab and inside there was a magic chest and a bookcase, a note inside said to put a Fenberry and Quartz crystal into the chest and cast Endure Elements, got a Ring of Elemental Resistance...nice she than told me the Tome of Ice is in a Tower nearby.
After talking to the bridge guard i tried to convince him to let me in but no matter what i said he wouldn't and i said the wrong thing and he didn't survive.
as soon as i entered the Tower the Flesh Golems ran for the gong alarm.
Bugbear guards came out to defend the Tower.
Found a glowing bookcase.
The tome of ice.
Went through the door the guards came from.
Searched the chests in the guard room and found a Star of Calimshan and a necklace, someones gotta want this Gem.
After a quick Boss battle he surrendered, i had the book and some Gem so i decided to leave.
i wish i had another way of doing this, i wanted the book but i couldn't get in contact with Wanev inside, did i miss something? i would've been more than happy to work for him in exchange for the Book or some sort of deal, instead i broke and entered than killed his guards who where only doing their job than beat up the owner...i'm a criminal now, maybe i should be playing evil.
Took the book to Eltoora and followed the instructions, Amulet of Natural Armor +3.
That's enough for today, i'm gonna take a break tomorrow...i wasn't feeling it today.
Next though I'll be looking for the Missing Druids.
@Cerabelus, condolences, Brother Toras caused me to respawn, too.
Well, I would argue with you about Wanev if you were playing a good aligned character, but you're Chaotic Neutral, right? They're officially mad, so I guess anything makes sense.
*************************
Here's the continuation of my progress in the Ao Encampment and the Valley of the Winds.
I'm quite glad that Slaads here are definitely evil, so that Protection from Evil makes me immune to their stun. There were neutral Slaad in the castle with the two brothers in the OC, that was bad.
I met Formigans (ant people) fighting Slaads and then attacking me, went into their hive. They attacked me, but I only fought the warriors, not the workers (but sometimes they seemed to transform). When a queen spoke to me through the hive mind, I started to run towards her without fighting anyone, and they turned neutral at her command. I made an alliance with them to come to my help against the Slaad. There was a bug where one of the warriors kept hitting me even after turning blue, but I ran away without having to fight him.
I didn't take anything from their lair.
Then, a thieving rat with a fancy taste:
I tried to shoot it with a bow, but it ran in circles and was so fast that I always missed, and I didn't feel like wasting my elemental arrows. Let it keep the diamond.
I stumbled into the portal room earlier than intended.
I hate Gray Slaads. But I drew the red ones out of his reach to fight them, and then went back for him. The Crystal to summon the Formigans had vanished after the fight. I forgot to use it.
Roleplaying dictates to go immediately after the hooded figure, but I wanted to complete the ruins first. I had no idea if and when I would be able to return when I followed her, so I bought quite a lot of potions and kits, and a Ring of Insight for Lore+5, to put it on for emergency identification.
I fought a strong shield guardian golem and got a ring, something against petrification (useless for me, as I'm not using a companion) and a Necklace of Fireballs.
That gave me an idea when I found the hidden door. I know it's a bit cheesy, but I was curious what might be behind the basilisks. So, I drank a potion of invisibility, went in, threw a fireball and went out again. I repeated that 4 times, then I was out of Potions of Invisibility, but there was one remaining basilisk, right next to the door.
So, I took potions of Eagle's Splendor and Speed, cast Divine Favor, went in and hit it with my sword. Once engaged in melee, it didn't use its gaze attack.
I went in to explore the room, and then the shock:
Another basilisk, uninjured, in the back of the room! And that had been my last fireball. But I escaped unpetrified, and that was already something.
I thought about leaving and not pushing my luck any further, but then I decided to try again, while the Potion of Speed was still active. I equipped my longbow and went in again.
Gah! It doesn't have a far reach, and I was fast. I got out again. The potion of speed had worn off, but it was Near Death, so I took the risk, went in again and shot a last arrow.
Hm. I was pretty sure that the sphinx was guarding the sarcophagi. I left them alone. Later I read somewhere that I could have used the ointment against petrification on the sphinx to answer a riddle and get some XP, but it doesn't matter.
Behind the basilisk room was another room with a machine to make magic balls of whatever from reagents like Slaad's Tongues, Belladonna and whatever. I had sold them all for 1gp just now because I thought I wouldn't find another use for them in this game. Doesn't matter.
I went back to the portal room, did what I had to do (I decided not to look at the numbers provided by @BelgarathMTH), using one of my items (which then look like a bag) and the torch (which would continue to look like a torch when placed in another room) to narrow it down and then, after the events that I won't spoil for unknowing people, I reached Chapter Two, awoke as a slave to Master Ashtara and had to fight Shield Golems without having had the opportunity to rest since meeting the basilisks. I was glad to have a bag full of potions, because the Shield Guardians were very hard to kill and dealt enormous damage. Ashtara had good AC improving items, but right now I couldn't afford any of them.
At last I had found a place where the game allowed me to rest. Thank Torm.
Apart from the Shield Golems, there were far too many creepy spiders suddenly dropping down from the ceiling. I hate it when they do that.
Somewhere between all that, I reached level 10.
Those two guys both at once would have been the death of me, but I managed to run around one of them inside its alcove, so that they couldn't fight me together.
I gained a lot of XP in these areas, for the fights, for discovering all the places related to the Winds, and also in the end for having killed all the shield golems (I made the same decision about the Butler Golem, left him, his master and their rooms alone).
Arriving to tell Ashtara about my success made me hit level 11. Good roll!
I had found enough loot to be able to buy a Large Shield+3 (1 better than my Valiant Shield, and lighter), and an Amulet of Natural Armor +3.
He also has a Ring of Protection +3 and Bracers of Armor +3, but I can't afford them yet.
I had learned why I needed the winds and where to find them, so I went to the library first, to face the Wise Wind. After all the annoying mephits, I got sucked into a book and promised to find someone's beloved. I stumbled into a very, very dangerous place. Unholy Crusaders, Unholy Priestesses, a Grand Matron and a Devil! Wonderful...
I was *not* going to fight them on their terms. I always ran in just long enough to catch somebody's attention, and then back to the door, right around the corner, to avoid the others's spells while engaging them in melee.
Then the Devil.
But the poor young woman was dead already.
Until now, Rune Pillars had always contained important information. The middle one was trapped. I decided to tank the trap in case I missed something vital otherwise. A gooooood decision.
Ouch. But at least I saved and didn't get level drained.
Aaaaaaaah I can't believe it, that's amazing! Boots of Speed! Look at that, an extra attack and AC 35! And I can run *fast*!
(And that means I can reach 37 if I can afford Ashtara's other two items later...)
I continued my way through another story, landing in Hell.
I tried to help him, but arrows of any kind wouldn't hurt the succubi, so I had to wait for the tentacles to disappear to fight them with my sword. After that, I healed him and talked to him. I don't remember everything, but he told me about his punishment and that I couldn't help him, and I think it was him who told me how to find the Wise Wind by writing a story and entering, as I had with their stories. He gave me an inkwell, so I went back to the library to write into the empty book.
Oh, and I had found a Greater Amulet of Health and a blue Nymph Cloak+5. I'm keeping the Amulet just in case, and wearing the cloak, but I'm not getting too attached to them, in case they disappear. [oh gods don't let the Boots of Speed vanish).
I didn't know that the first lines of the story would influence in which setting I had to fight the Wise Wind. I chose the option that sounded best and was marked with "Insight", and it brought me here (and nowing to expect an extremely hard fight, I had buffed with everything I could find in my spellbook and inventory):
He had an incredibly high damage resistance and damage reduction, and he kept teleporting around and turning invisible. Quite annoying. Without my Holy Avenger and Divine Favor, I don't think I could have damaged him.
In the end, the fight hadn't been as difficult as I had expected. His dreaded Storm of Vengeance had only started to hit me a moment before his death, although it kept hitting after that, and I was afraid that the Stun might keep me from healing myself in time. But it wore off, and it was over.
@BelgarathMTH , you didn't find the Boots of Speed, did you? I think that's what made the huge difference here.
There was a chest on the island, with a few diamonds, rubies and such things.
Then I went back and saw that I had the possibility to rewrite the other two novels to give happy endings to the two young people and the mage. Later I read that I could have done that before fighting the wind, to recruit their help, but I guess it doesn't matter now.
I had made enough money to buy the Bracers of Armor +3, too, that means I have AC 36 now and am ready to go to catch the next wind.
Level: 11
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 2 (Kobolds in the Elven Crypt, J'Nah)
@Arvia , The Boots of Speed you got were an incredibly lucky RNG roll. That middle trapped column just had junk in it when I blasted it open with arrows.
You fought the evil priestesses and the devil a lot smarter than I did. It didn't even occur to me to run back for the door and set up a choke point, or to try to pull them a few at a time.
It looks like you didn't finish rewriting the stories to rescue the wizard from hell and to fix the story of the pauper and the princess so that the princess lived, and the pauper became a warrior. If you fix their stories, the warrior prince and the wizard you rescue will assist you in fighting the Wise Wind, although they weren't able to save me from the stuns the first time I tried the fight. I'd say the Boots of Speed definitely made a huge difference, because it had a lot more stuns coming if you hadn't been able to kill it so fast.
Regardless, congratulations on winning that fight without a reload. That was a major accomplishment! I don't think the other two Winds fights are as hard, so you're coming into the home stretch. You should be finishing the game pretty soon, probably without much more trouble, especially not with those amazing boots! Congratulations on getting those - that was like you hit the jackpot on a slot machine.
I should probably address the rules for this playthrough. This is going to be a no-reload challenge, but with a caveat. I'll continue to play the character but will have to begin the module all over again that he died in. After pondering it a bit last night, I like his backstory too much to just throw him away. I'm also really wanting to get to play TMGS sooner rather than later too, so concessions must be made. Obviously, I'm not going to type out a bunch of stuff over and over again, so any recordings will come after the module is completed. If the characters do die, I'll probably type out something like I did a few comments up.
I usually play NWN2 on normal rules, but ramped them up to "D&D hardcore" on the difficulty bar. If a PC falls and drops below -10HP, they're dead and require a raise or rez to get back up, so it could get expensive really quick if battles are played carelessly. Deliberateness will be the new watchword.
With that said, the restart count is officially at 1.
The Zelbross Affair - Complete, no reload
The Greypeaks -1 restart
The Maimed God's Saga -
@Arvia
Yeah with Stirge it was easy and no regrets but I dunno maybe it's because it not long happened and I had actually spoken to her before she was taken it just felt different.
Hmm maybe because with Stirge it was a less emotional decision but with Yesgar it was more emotional...I wanted him gone.
I can totally understand that. As a mom, Stirge was a pretty emotional "Die, evil scum!" decision for me.
I killed the gnome in BG2 in the Copper Coronet, too, although he surrendered and tried to run away. But he had murdered a halfling child and taken his stuffed bear, and he deserved to be haunted by the boy's ghost and to be killed! That story always breaks my heart. My son hasn't ever gone to sleep without his stuffed Gorilla during the last 8 years. I see Wellyn aching for his bear to find rest, and I think of my son, and I find that I can be quite merciless.
@Arvia
Yeah with Stirge it was easy and no regrets but I dunno maybe it's because it not long happened and I had actually spoken to her before she was taken it just felt different.
Hmm maybe because with Stirge it was a less emotional decision but with Yesgar it was more emotional...I wanted him gone.
I can totally understand that. As a mom, Stirge was a pretty emotional "Die, evil scum!" decision for me.
I killed the gnome in BG2 in the Copper Coronet, too, although he surrendered and tried to run away. But he had murdered a halfling child and taken his stuffed bear, and he deserved to be haunted by the boy's ghost and to be killed! That story always breaks my heart. My son hasn't ever gone to sleep without his stuffed Gorilla during the last 8 years. I see Wellyn aching for his bear to find rest, and I think of my son, and I find that I can be quite merciless.
i wish for that quest that you could use raise dead or resurrection to bring wellyn back, at that point, its quite possible to have at least raise dead, and if you did use one of those options, it should be one that would increase your REP by 1 or something
they had something like this in ToB, but still, it would have been good hindsight to have that for wellyn as well
@sarevok57 , I understand the feeling, but even Raise Dead has its limitations... or there wouldn't be graveyards. Life is cruel sometimes, and we can't save everyone (like that sidequest in Luskan, that made me feel pretty bad, too)... but of course we should never stop trying.
I've finished the Undermountain, found out what happened to Halaster, and am proceeding on into the Underdark. I'm on the first level now of drow territory. So far, everything is very easy to fight. I've not run into anything I would call a dangerous boss or a difficult fight yet.
Hotu is very generous with treasure and magic items. Maybe too generous. I just found Boots of Speed off a random trash mob leader. My current gear is Cowl of Mind Protection (dyed bright copper), Nymph Cloak +5 (dyed red - it didn't come in blue, and I still haven't found blue dye), Red Dragon Armor (dyed copper), Boots of Speed, Belt of Guiding Light, Amulet of Natural Armor +3, Ring of Protection +3, Captain's Ring (+2 to saves), Cold Steel Longsword (blue lightsaber, still holding on to my green scimitar lightsaber, which has the Keen property, and may actually be the better weapon, because of that.)AC is at 40.
I found Tomi, and as always, he has a lot of funny things to say. I sent Red Tiger back to the inn. I found Linu and also sent her back to the inn.
Tomi also had a lot to say about Aribeth:
I made level 18, gained a feat, and took Divine Shield. I remember fights later in HotU where the melee enemies can hit AC 40 pretty easily, and an additional 6-7 AC could be a very helpful "Oh crap" button to have. I got an extra first level spell slot, and filled it with another Endure Elements for now, although I almost wanted to take another Divine Favor, and I might change that out, later.
I'm getting close to epic levels, so I did some research. I think I am just going to keep taking paladin levels until I get Divine Might and Extra Turning, then maybe some Fighter levels thereafter with the hope of working on Weapon Specialization Longsword. I can't see any benefit I would get from taking Champion of Torm levels, other than increased saving throws. The feat list for Champion of Torm is quite restricted, and I don't really need any of those feats.
Of course, the Champion of Torm levels would add with my paladin levels to increase abilities like Lay on Hands and Smite Evil. So, I'm still not 100 percent sure. I might stick with paladin levels until I also have Extra Smiting, Great Smiting, Armor Skin, Epic Charisma, and more of that sort of thing.
I'll post interesting fights, or fights where I almost die, or I actually do die, as soon as I run into any of those. So far, there's really not been anything that interesting to report.
At first, everything went as I thought. The maze in the crypt was pretty annoying, the fight against the Death Wind was okay (except for the Greater Wind Zombie landing a critical with his scythe, taking 72 HP at once, but I had been at full health and my Lay on Hands was boosted enough to heal that completely), the maze in the Arcane Tower with the Shadow Plane was even more confusing, but I didn't get killed by any tentacles and defeated the shadow lich, too, with careful running in circles to avoid being targeted by *all* spellcasters at once.
And then, when I had opened the Tower of the Winds or however it was called, I suddenly didn't take damage anymore. At first I was excited, thought I had overlooked an item's feat, or that some boosted ability was blocking something.
I fought the medusa handmaidens (good that my saving throws were very high because of my high Charisma bonus with Nymph Cloak +5 and Eagle's Splendor, because some of them used their gaze attack twice, not once. That was scary.), was extremely excited to find a Red Dragon Armor in a chest, reaching AC 39. But then, the 0 damage even when hit on a 20 continued and made me suspicious. I started to look into Endurance, check my spells and items and see if anything was stacking. I couldn't find anything.
I continued to play, thought okay, maybe those wisps and everything are just too weak. But even Heurodis never harmed me, even Evard's Black Tentacles were showing "damage (0), damage (0)" and so on. It was very boring and very easy, and I found out that it was quite a common bug after the shadow plane. But I really don't feel like starting all over again. I know the story now, and I'm not 100% sure where the bug started. My last hard save is during the maze that leads to the shadow plane and back (that was the last wind that I fought), and I really don't feel like playing that all over again.
I also noticed now, checking my screenshots, that it had started in the room with the shadow lich already.
So, SoU is filed under "good to know the story, won't play it again". I've found posts about this bug that were *eleven* years old. So, they will never get fixed.
I'm going to forget this as soon as possible and will take my Level 16 Arvia of Tyr into HotU soon.
The experiment with the other build was okay. I had taken Divine Might at level 12 and tried it. It does improve the damage output if your charisma bonus is high enough, and lasts long enough for a fight. And since it spends one Turn Undead, you can use it more often if you have more Turn Undead. I just don't think this feat makes much sense at low levels.
Anyway, SoU? Hmph.
******************************************
@BelgarathMTH, that was interesting to read, especially the part with Tomi about Aribeth. And your equipment is great already! Looking forward to getting there soon with my "real" paladin from the OC. I don't know, SoU was okay as a story, but somehow I didn't identify much with my character there. Must have been the weird name or something . And the 4 bugs that I've encountered, two of them severe (Dorna not doing her job, the 0 damage thing, vanishing rune stones, and I had my Valiant Armor vanish as soon as I put it into the Magic Bag when I put on the Red Dragon Armor).
And there were typos. "it's" instead of "its" in the epilogue, for example. That can't be so hard to correct!
@Arvia
It's hard to believe I've never experienced these bugs in SOU, I remember once years ago on a multiplayer OC game where someone had heavily altered the Campaign I got Invulnerability once and we cheesed Karlat's tower in Chapter 2.
All my experiences in SOU have been good and I ended up liking that character more.
Well I hope HOTU is a better experience for you.
In my game Rei'Leena started as Chaotic Neutral but in chapter 1 became Chaotic Good, maybe I should be trying harder to stay neutral but I keep wanting to help people.
It happens in NWN 2 as well I start Neutral but I just keep helping everyone I can, I love to find treasure and if I see a crypt and there's no sign of goodness I don't hesitate to take what I want which is definitely a bit dodgy, I dont steal from the elven crypt in SOU but the Evil crypt in the Interlude I clean the place out.
My morality definitely sways a bit back and forth.
@sarevok57 , I understand the feeling, but even Raise Dead has its limitations... or there wouldn't be graveyards. Life is cruel sometimes, and we can't save everyone (like that sidequest in Luskan, that made me feel pretty bad, too)... but of course we should never stop trying.
FWIW in 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder...
Raise Dead requires the body to be intact and dead no longer than 1 day per caster level. Costs 5,000 gold.
Resurrection requires a fragment of the body to exist (like a hair or fingernail is enough) and 10 years per caster level. Costs 10,000 gold.
True Resurrection just requires you to name the deceased and no more than 10 years per caster level. Costs 25,000 gold.
So if you're a super rich adventurer you can bring a lot of people back...but you're potentially spending as much money to bring them back as most people make in a lifetime.
And in NWN they elected to remove the cost to raises (except for item cost).
I'm quite glad that Slaads here are definitely evil, so that Protection from Evil makes me immune to their stun.
That's interesting, I never noticed that. By default Slaads are all Chaotic Neutral (both in lore and the default toolset creatures) but there are custom ones in the Interlude that are Neutral Evil (not even Chaotic Evil!). How curious.
@sarevok57 , I understand the feeling, but even Raise Dead has its limitations... or there wouldn't be graveyards. Life is cruel sometimes, and we can't save everyone (like that sidequest in Luskan, that made me feel pretty bad, too)... but of course we should never stop trying.
FWIW in 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder...
Raise Dead requires the body to be intact and dead no longer than 1 day per caster level. Costs 5,000 gold.
Resurrection requires a fragment of the body to exist (like a hair or fingernail is enough) and 10 years per caster level. Costs 10,000 gold.
True Resurrection just requires you to name the deceased and no more than 10 years per caster level. Costs 25,000 gold.
So if you're a super rich adventurer you can bring a lot of people back...but you're potentially spending as much money to bring them back as most people make in a lifetime.
And in NWN they elected to remove the cost to raises (except for item cost).
I'm quite glad that Slaads here are definitely evil, so that Protection from Evil makes me immune to their stun.
That's interesting, I never noticed that. By default Slaads are all Chaotic Neutral (both in lore and the default toolset creatures) but there are custom ones in the Interlude that are Neutral Evil (not even Chaotic Evil!). How curious.
ah, but in the BG series if your party casts raise dead or resurrection in theory the body could be dead for months regardless and the only difference is that raise dead starts you off with 1 HP and resurrection starts you off with full health
in ToB they do make a note of it that raising some back from the dead is expensive ( especially if you do use temples to do it, it can be quite costly ) when you bring back that dude in saradush
i just think it would have been neato if you could use a raising spell to bring back wellyn instead and perhaps gain some REP doing so, since REP gain in BG 2 is a bit more work than it is in BG 1, and this could have been one of those great situations where a good party would gladly accept this REP gain and evil parties could still finish the quest without gaining the REP gain
Had a little time today so investigated the disappearance of the 3 Druids and healed the forest.
after my less than good behavior in Wanev's tower i decidied to keep a low profile in the forest because the Druids said the animals in the forest weren't themselves.
This Deer straight up charged me as soon as i arrived so i tried to talk to the Dryad nearby.
She was less than pleased that i was here but after nearly killing her she slightly regained her composure and told me "The rage...it burns me up...makes me want to kill you", i convinced her to flee.
decided to use the 2nd lvl Invisibility spell to scout around and found a cave.
Spiders again! and Ettercaps too, i thought if the missing druids ran from the forest animals they may run to this cave so i decided to clear out the spider den.
after several rooms full of spiders and Sword Spiders...these Sword Spiders are nothing compared to the ones in Baldur's Gate, found the Queen.
She did not survive, used Interposing Hand again and Acid Breath than slashing time and lvl 13!
Searching cocoons and found Orlane the Druid, as i suspected he ran from the forest animals (a Deer) than ran into this cave, Queeny was about to snack.
On my way out found some Boots of Elvenkind, it was at this point i realized my current boots where less than good and replaced them.
After resting and going Invis again found a house.
Turns out this house is filled with hostile Nymph Slaves but I'm still Invis so decided to search around for info on the forest and found this guy...i feel like I've interrupted something.
Found the Nymph and after she tried to charm me and failed i told her I'm trying to heal the forest and she apologized and told me a story she heard about how to reach the Spirit of the Forest.
Than she told me about a "Terribly Ugly Old Crone" who lives nearby, that's not very nice.
While looking in the chest for book and Dagger she told me about found this Vanity Mirror, the other day Soloman said i was average looking...What! I'm Gorgeous!
Now that the Slaves where no longer hostile i looked around (the Pixies and Grig's where still Hostile so i avoided them) found Teran the Druid in another room, while running from the forest animals he decided to hide in the Nymph's house, he mentioned hearing "stories about Nymph's"...stories? I'm not sure what you mean.
Opened this door and ran in...set off a trap that killed 2 Slaves...woops.
In the rooms found a Lock of Nymph's hair, I'll just borrow this i...i may need it to heal the forest...yeah.
Outside in a campsite found some Spirit Poison, I'm sure there's nothing suspicious about that.
In the next area continued to stay Invis and found a cave behind a waterfall, inside was a home with Invisible Stalkers, Air Elementals And Mephit's, i thought about starting a fight but decide to check around first.
Another glowing bookcase and found the Tome of Resonance...I'll just confiscate this because it's dangerous and you know I'm looking out for peoples safety.
Found a Ring of Holiness...if only i where a Cleric, a ring of Wizardry would be nicer.
Found the "Old Crone" Setara and she was a little displeased that i killed her servants...but i didn't i was Invisible...i just walked past them, anyway she had the 3rd druid locked up and wanted the Nymph's Vanity Mirror in exchange...put i want it, she was quite pleased and gave the prison key and some Gem.
Tried to leave while still Invis and after opening the door her own Air Elementals attacked her??? so i decided that she lost control of them and saved her than decided to cleanse the house on the way out.
Freed the Druid and told her to go.
While cleansing found 2 water Elementals, used my new spell Circle of Death...all too easy
Back outside and followed the ritual to enter the Spirit's realm, went Invisible again and found Relmar total crazy and Rhyming and after some persuasion he was more than willing to tell me what happen and where the Cure was for the Spirit, than i said goodbye and he tried to kill me...he did not survive.
Found the Cure right where he said, nice of crazy Relmar to be so truthful.
Found the Spirit and it was completely unaware of me, after dispelling and nearly killing it gave the cure and all is well with the world, or maybe just the forest.
finished both quests and went to the Wizard Lab to make....a Wand of Lightning
Well i think that went pretty good, no deaths today and minimal casualties (except the Deer, many spiders, Planar creatures, 1 Flesh Golem, and Relmar...oh and those 2 Nymph Slaves...sorry).
@Cerabelus , your character's changing (chaotic) attitude is interesting to follow and some of your explanations for the changes are funny .
Come over to the Light!
I didn't like the Nymph. But interesting how a spellcaster can get by invisibly without killing her slaves. Of course that requires metaknowledge, or the habit to go invisibly into unknown territory.
Warning: Deekin is the only companion you can take into Chapter Two. If you have any good gear on any other companion, make sure to get it back before you talk to Halaster! You will not be given a chance to do it once that conversation is started. I lost a Boots of Speed and some other good items I had on Tomi that way, but I'm not reloading to get it back.
So, I was asking myself, "Why are there six inventory pages of top-rate gear in this one chest? Maugrim's Journal? Wait a minute, this is all the gear that was on my imported character that was taken at the beginning. The portal stone that now doesn't do anything is even in here. Okay, nice to have my green lightsaber back, and my Holy Shield."
I cast Divine Shield for the first time, and with that, my AC hit 50.
I made level 19. Nothing much exciting at this level.
I'll be using Deekin and Valen, the tiefling weapon master.
*The giant looks down at the corpses of the 5 humans, 1 dwarf and two animal companions, kicking the dwarf so solidly that when he flies into the wall, what was left of his skull cracks open like an egg. Eyeing his handiwork, the giantkind asks his chieftain, "Do we take these back with us?" The giantkind answers back, "No." Grab their goods for the horde, but leave these...soon to be fetid carcasses where they lay."
And...I knew I should have just cheated in a few raise scrolls, but no...I had to press forward without the paladin and cleric, kept the dwarf up front and pressed onward, hoping to find that dratted ghostly visage merchant again. Time to take a break from this module for a bit. Maybe after the weekend is over I'll start it again.
The Zelbross Affair - Complete, no reload
The Greypeaks -2 restart
The Maimed God's Saga -
@EnialusMeliamne , Condolences on your frustrating experience with your middle module, but kudos on how you write up your total party wipes. That's very clever, and you made me smile despite the tragedy.
******************
We have rescued a cursed city of Avariel by reconstructing the magic mirror that cursed them, and defeated a drow matron seeking the mirror's power in the process. Later, we secured an alliance with sentient golems to assist in the defense of the followers of Ellistrae from the Valsharess. (Drow for "Queen".)
*********************
So, shortly after taking the riverboat to the island inhabited by the cursed Avariel, we made level 20. The most exciting thing about that was gaining my last level four spell slot, so now I have three Holy Avenger spells on tap.
In order to free the Avariel from their curse, and defeat the drow matron who wanted the cursed item for herself, we had to collect five of the fragments of the broken mirror, and bring them to the throne room. We had to defeat a castle full of driders, a mage tower full of demons, and a temple with a medusa in it, (by running for a potion that would make us immune to petrification so we could talk to her and convince her to give up her mirror shard).
We also had to ummm, let's say, "Force Persuade" a merchant to give up a mirror shard in exchange for a "cursed" coin. A deception, but a necessary one.
In the final battle of the module, we wound up with four shards to the drow matron's one. These could be used to activate pillars in the room that do different things to give us an advantage, including summoning copies of myself. I very well may not have needed the pillars, as I more or less have Thor's powers at this level, but I decided to not take any chances.
The Avariel were grateful to be freed from the curse of the mirror, and gave us the repaired mirror as a reward. I think it's far too dangerous for us to use, being cursed and all, so I turned it in to the Temple of Ellistrae at the drow rebel's camp.
In the lost dungeon of the golem people, we found a dead gnome with some very helpful items. His armor could only be worn by another "shortie", but he had this helmet that actually does what a helmet is supposed to do, and protects from critical hits:
And this hammer that demolishes golems. I will use it for the rest of this scenario.
Those two magic items helped me to defeat an enormously powerful guardian golem blocking the way to the lower level. There's a puzzle that can weaken the thing, I think, but I had no idea how to solve the puzzle based on what I could find. So, I just ordered Deekin and Valen back, and attacked the thing at full strength. I had to use Holy Avenger and Divine Favor to be able to hit it, and I needed at least one Potion of Heal, and quite a few healer's kits. This was the hardest fight I've encountered so far. I didn't think to take a picture, sorry.
Valen has an annoying habit of refusing any order to "Stand Your Ground", so you have to leave him *way* back if you don't want to get distracted trying to keep him alive during harder fights.
So, on the lower level, we encountered two factions of golems. One was based on a flesh golem model with the leader being based on a demon. The others were based on gnomes. Just to keep this explanation shorter rather than longer, the "demon" golems were obviously evil, and wanted the golem people to stay in that dungeon forever, even though their Maker had been missing for 500 years. The "gnome" golem leader wanted them to claim their freedom and leave the dungeon.
I had to choose a direction of exploration, and I encountered the demon golems first. The only way to avoid a fight was to agree to help them. I was going to be very pissed off if I didn't get a chance to change sides! Luckily, once I got deep enough into gnome golem territory, I was escorted to *their* leader, and I agreed to help *them* instead. Be careful not to say "Demon guy sent me to destroy you." I'm pretty sure that would start hostilities and lock in the evil outcome.
The demon golem leader dies:
The good golem leader thanks us and agrees to assist in the defense of the rebel drow camp:
Completing that scenario gave me level 21. I got a new feat and took Divine Might. Also, I gained the title "Epic Paladin", so I thought that was cool.
Some impressions so far:
I'm having great fun with HotU, but so far, the combat is kind of ridiculously easy. I think HotU suffers from the same D&D problem a lot of people point out about Throne of Bhaal - With characters at epic level, there's really no way to give them any challenge without cheesy instakill, or "invulnerable until you figure out how to get rid of the invulnerability" or "unlimited summons" boss mechanics.
Also, NWN subverts the "Warriors are Linear, Wizards are Quadratic" trope. Well-built melee characters have an *enormous* power advantage over casters at high levels in NWN. The first time I played HotU, I played it as a bard, and I almost never got through that guardian golem encounter. Maybe a mage or cleric would have an easier time, I'm not sure. But I can say for sure that my paladin wrecked that guardian golem using the magic golem warhammer (which my bard couldn't use, and neither could a mage or even a cleric who hadn't take the Martial Weapons feat), and Holy Avenger and Divine Favor.
I'm pretty sure the guardian golem was magic immune, so I'm not sure how a mage would fare any better than my bard from long ago.
Also, there's really not much main story to HotU. All the different scenarios have interesting, self-contained stories to them, but the main story is pretty much "Waterdeep is being attacked by drow, led by their Queen, who has seen a vision of you and wants to kill you, and she has a devil bound to her service. Find her and stop her." That's about it for a main story.
Again, that doesn't mean I'm not having fun, but so far, out of the original content, I'm most impressed with the OC. *shrug*
Yeah, I didn’t stay away from the mod for too long. I’m back to nearly where I would have been on the first TPK. I’m hoping the third time is a charm! ?
Went to the Charwood, found more Undead, more planar creatures, and another Cultist.
Ran past the Farms and found the "Haunted Forest"...ran back out to memorize new anti-undead spell...I'm not scared.
Testing out my new spell "Undeath to Death"
While searching the area i found this scroll, some words where written in despicable CAPS "Nether Shall Rule" hmm not sure what that means right now.
Testing out my new spell again
Found a glowing Obelisk and next to it a dead adventurer's journal, "Netherese Temple", "Ruin of Gur-Atol", now i'm intrigued.
Used the Obelisk and remembering the scroll from before "Nether Shall Rule", portal opened and without resting to recuperate anti-undead spells just ran in.
I totally didn't get scared and run away i was using a tactical retreat...these are my deep level tactics, after my valiant victory i found a Sarcophagus and a Mummy Lord emerged..good thing Mummy's are weak to fire...searched the rest of the temple...found a crappy magic rod
Back outside and after using my special tactics, went Invis again and got the Skeleton Chieftain first.
They were guarding this Cold Iron Blade...nice.
In the next area found Quint here totally crazy and surrounded but corpses, at least i'm not crazy...i'm a beacon of mental stability.
After talking to the less than helpful locals i decided to stop off at the Inn for a quick Pint, found another crazy guy totally freaking out.
After a quick persuasion he told me he is one of the Cultist's i'm looking for, tried to press him further but he got upset...he did not survive but he dropped a Doublebladed Flaming Lightsaber... i prefer Dual Sabers.
Than found the Mayor and he was a little less than useful but after a quick persuade he mentioned the tower nearby, when i told him i'll go in he tried to tell me no but i already left.
Ahh my new Cold Iron Blade is actually a Blue Lightsaber.
Upon entry found a chest with a note and key, grabbed the key and ignored the note...i don't have time for note reading I've gotta help the Mayor, ran to the door on the right and found a Doom Knight...maybe i should've read that note.
He ripped through my Stoneskin but Improved Invisibility saved the day.
At the end of the hallway found a Ghoul Ravager...the Doom Knight was better, after ignoring another note spoke to "The Guardian" it called me Judge and beckoned for me to "Gather the Oaths"...Hence for i shall be known as Judge Rei'Leena...what am i judging?, well I'll figure that out later I've gotta help the Mayor, 2 doors upstairs...went left.
After spotting the fire creatures used my special tactics again and memorized more Ice spells, started with Circle of Death.
At the end of the hallway found a Huge Fire Elemental...i absolutely ran away than regained my composure, gave him a Cone of Cold doing 67 damage
After picking the locked Gate found...It's Another Lich!, Attack!, oh the moment i killed him he instantly returned, maybe i should talk to him, so it turns out this guy thought he could become a "Noble Baelnorn" by finishing the ritual with human sacrifice...many children at once, Ok my only wish right now is that he die but i did that already so i need to find something more permanent.
Out of curiosity i search for Baelnorn info and turns out their not like Lich's, very rare and some don't need Phylactery's as they are "Bestowed" the gift by the Elven Seldarine, they retain their alignment and many are Lawful Good and don't appear as Skeleton but are mostly still Elven "clue to a baelnorn's nature was the existence of shriveled and wrinkled skin turning slightly translucent over time" that actually sound pretty good for a very old Elven Wizard to become the City's Immortal Protector and Scholar.
While searching found another glowing bookcase, obviously this Tome of Fire is being misused...confiscated.
Found Karlat's Journal it say's "Guilt" "Tricked Brother" Blah Blah Blah "Greater Good" Blah Blah "Belial" whatever your a Murderous Idiot.
Hmm summoning "Belial Lord of Fire" i knew he misused that Imaskar Book, time to chat with Belial...what could go wrong.
Oh Shi#@ that's quite the big Red Lightsaber you have their, turns out this Belial helped Karlat become a Lich than told him he needed to kill the towns children to complete the bonding with the phylactery and the children would come back to life...and Karlat believed that? what a complete and total idiot, how does mass murder end with you becoming a "Noble Baelnorn"?
With Karlat and Belial's Oaths in hand i was gonna end the investigation but to be thorough i went to crazy Quint's tower (now i see why he went crazy), memorized Undeath to Death than started clearing the tower, very weak undead.
Found a glowing chest this time and the last Imaskar Book, book of Death...this families reputation tells me to confiscate this also.
Quint's Journal speaks of a kind man and optimistic nature, I'm forced to think back to Fenthick but Quint does admit some suspicion at Karlat's request to have "All the Children" over, the cause of Quint's madness is clear, he feels guilt for bringing the children, for not seeing his brothers darkness growing.
A Bodak! use Undeath to Death!
It Failed!, after several valiant retreats down the halls i survived 4 death gazes from the Bodak, god damn it that was super lucky and i had to use Interposing hand again to stop the beat down he was giving me, i totally didn't panic.
Quint confirmed what i already discovered but added he stole Karlat's phylactery than Quint's god Lathander intervened.
After handing in the Oath's, Quint and Karlat confirmed their sides but i declaired neither where solely guilty and called for Belial's, he gloated about his manipulation and declared we could not punish him.
i had 2 choices, trap everyone for all eternity including the guardian, Quint, the towns people in a never ending perpetual existence trapped here or take the Phylactery and free everyone from eternal nothingness.
If i had the option Karlat and Belial alone would be trapped in eternal darkness never to be released for all eternity but i chose freedom.
My answer to the guardian about my choice was everyone should be free but i only did this because others where in eternal torment for the crimes of 2 people and since i'm not able to punish only them we'll have to deal with them another time if i ever get the opportunity, certainly not the outcome i wanted.
Outside the Mayor stayed back long enough to thank me for ending their torment and allowing them to pass on.
Karlat's Phylactery has 1 use of Sanctuary per day.
Used the Tomes and made...a Staff of Power & Ring of Protection +3, i have no use for either
Handed in 1 of the Cultist Journal's and Aribeth declared the investigation over and we go to Luskan to investigate the Arcane Brotherhood, i still had another Cultist Journal but she didn't want to talk about that, after talking to Aarin Gend the Spymaster for the first time this whole chapter i kept chatting with him about his past and he told a sad love story between him and a woman who was trying to kill Nasher...he killed her , than he gave me an Amulet...are we special friends now?
Well i know that wasn't the best end to the Charwood section but choice made and off to Luskan i got.
Turns out i missed a side Quest, There's a guy in the Port's Tavern that has a quest for Serpent gems, Wanev, Setara & Zamithra have them, was that my way in to talk to Wanev? oh well too late now.
the Golem walking the Halls say's 2 words in a different language and the Golem guarding the way down say 2 different words.
you look around for a book translating them to numbers, next to the door leading down is a control room, change the left and right panels and glowing numbers appear, use the translated words to numbers and activate the central control panel to get rid of the walking golem than the second numbers for the guarding golem.
if i remember correctly that was the way to solve it.
Did you leave the Island or are you gonna continue?
On another side note, in NWN 2 the 5th lvl spell Dismissal works differently, when used on any Planar Creatures in the radius they have to make a Will save or be sent back to their plane.
On NWN 1 it only seemed to work on creatures that have "Summoned" in their name .
Haven't finished Luskan yet but after several side quests and taking out Baram i feel the need to post early.
Upon entering Luskan and seeing the chaos around i decided to go to the nearest building, an Inn called The Cutless to ask question.
Found 2 people who've had loved ones take by 2 different High Captains, Kurth & Baram are battling for power and Baram took Londa's 9 children for some reason and Kurth took Elynwyd's sister Evaine because she caught his eye.
Next i stopped at the Wink & Tickle for more details on the current events.
Found a magic Lever in a Common chest, Spoke to Erb about his "Customer" having his personal Ring and wants it back, Yvette conceived a child with a "Customer" and he has stolen the baby, apparently Galrone is a cruel man...this is top priority, than spoke to Oreth and he and the Owner are being forced to work for both High Captains and he wants them both dead...so far i don't see a moral issue taking out either, Oreth also gave me key's to secret entrances to Kurth and Baram's domains.
Off to rescue Yvette's baby first battled through the war torn city to some housing and found Galrone's name on the map.
Found Galrone in a locked apartment type housing, he was more worried that Yvette was gonna come to demand his money than the child's well being so i offered money to him and he wanted 1000gp's...talked him down to 250gp.
Yvette and the baby are reunited and fled the city...good.
Erb's "Customers" house was nearby so stopped in there first, she was reluctant to part with the Ring but i saw a "Finesse" dialogue option about breaking rules and after some persuasion she apologized and Erb got his ring back than fled the city, I've never seen a Finesse dialogue option before anyway decided to do some shopping and check in with Aaron Gend before going against Baram.
After visiting several shops Colmarr here had a Quest and sold a Blade of the Gladiator...now i have a Blue & Green Lightsabers
Skimmed over this next section...it was boring to report.
Oreth said Baram's secret entrance was in the sewers so after searching the sewers found many undead and Baram's thugs and a non violent Ghoul, he had a quest to kill his brother who was also a Ghoul who had their amulet so i did and behind the hostile Ghoul was another Lever in a chest, got the Ghoul's amulet and gave it back, the non violent Ghoul gave me the last Lever to fix the machine and the key to the door than teleported away and after finishing Colmarr's quest to fix a potion making machine i got.
There is combinations to the machines Levers but i don't remember the combinations from last time and i don't feel like figuring them out.
After getting that "treasure" i told Colmarr his machine was fixed and went to the secret entrance of Baram's Lair.
Since the fate of 9 children is at stake i went in Buffed and Invisible and search around keeping a low profile, didn't find any indication of children so went to the next area.
These 2 Yuan-ti were performing a ritual creating undead but after doing a quick search found no indication of children again.
Couldn't open the door to the next area so decided to interrupt the ritual.
go a key and according to this book Baram has Gargoyle statues bestowing protections.
Destroyed the Gargoyles first with Magic Missile.
Dispelled his protections from a distance than he went Invisible so i did the same, than he came looking for me over here so i took the first move and tried to shiv him.
Instant Regret.
After playing cat and mouse with Invis potions he stopped taking them and made a challenging pose at me...i was baited.
Instant Regret again, barely managed to get away and downed another Invis potion.
After healing and casting my second Greater Stoneskin, hit him with Bigby's Interposing Hand than charged him.
Even with a -10 debuff to attack he still managed to take down the Greater Stoneskin before i got the SOB...what a beast.
I don't know how i survived that but it's time to continue the search.
In the very last room i found spiders and cocoons, and the children's Nanny.
...
After feeling like a failure i rested and buffed up and used Improved Invisibility, all i had to do was leave as their was nothing left here...
After Killing every last one of them i left.
She ran out and charged straight at them, i couldn't stop it.
I have what i need to enter the Brotherhood Tower...but i'm going after Kurth next
Well that was horrible but i won't be deterred, Kurth falls today.
@EnialusMeliamne , I'l second what the wiser paladin said. I really like how you write .
@BelgarathMTH , if you find combat in HotU ridiculously easy, you obviously were more careful than me and did *not* accidentally step on a sleeping dragon's toes...
But more of that later. Anyway, if combat is too easy, maybe HotU really was balanced for the lower leveled import from SoU?
I've started HotU, with 16th level Arvia of Tyr from the OC.
I woke up in an inn to the sound of someone in my room! I jumped up, finding a drow thief! Fortunately I had a dagger and killed the drow, but he or she had made my chest with all my belongings vanish. At least I had money for replacement until I could get my stuff back.
I'm *not* going to question why an experienced adventurer in an unknown city sleeps with 90.000 GP hidden in her underwear, but keeps her sword in a chest a few steps away from the bed.
The innkeeper's daughter asked me to take what I need from the armory. There was a lot of stuff there, but I decided to be honest, because this was meant to be for everyone defending Waterdeep, so I only took what I could use, not what I could sell.
I also found a small bag on a table in the armory, and while it looked tempting, I didn't think it would be right to take it, especially with the amount of money that I still have. One Rogue Stone must be enough for the moment.
During the fight at the well downstairs I noticed that Darkness is not as crippling as I had feared, even without Blind Fight, but I still plan to take that feat as soon as possible. What I noticed was my dreadful AC, so even when the other adventurers ran after the beholder, I took Durnan's advice and went to buy better equipment first. This is what I ended up with:
Full Plate +3, Tower Shield +3, Cold Iron Blade (aka Blue Lightsaber), Belt of Guiding Light, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Amulet of Natural Armor +3 and Ring of Protection +3. I would have liked a Nymph Cloak, too, but couldn't afford it right now. Then I noticed, shocked, that I had only two healing kits and two Potions of Cure Critical wounds, but I recruited Deekin and he had some stuff in his inventory that he didn't need or couldn't use (like a magic short sword, and some gemstones), so I sold those to buy healing supplies for the two of us as seen in the screenshot above.
I considered it justified, because we were traveling together and the supplies were for both of us. Of course I took none of his items to use for myself and didn't sell any items that I thought he would need. I left him the dagger and shield, too, in case he might need extra protection. He has Point Blank Shot to use his crossbow in melee, but you never know.
I also didn't sell the items I had from the innkeeper's armory. As soon as I found or bought better replacement, I put them back where I got them, for other defenders of the city to use. Now I only have the Ring of Resistance+1 (can't afford a +2 one yet) and the Longbow+2 left from there.
I went into the well with Deekin (told him to advance as a bard, not a dragon disciple, please. His bard song is powerful, and I don't want his AI to cast spells right now). He's cute, funny, and has useful information.
We saved a kobold from the Undermountain and Durnan gave him a cleaning job.
We fought some drow and some monsters, without much trouble, and we have found and resurrected Sharwyn and the Red Tiger guy (can't remember his first name) until now and sent them back to the inn for the moment. I didn't disturb the sleeping kings and gave the creepy mirrors a wide berth.
Then, the almost disaster.
I entered a dark room. Deekin, remaining outside: "Ummm... maybe let's not disturb the sleeping dragon?"
Arvia, turning around: "Dragon, what dragon?" *steps on a trap, door slams shut* Dragon: "Roooooaaaaarrrrr!" Oh, crap!
And don't you frown now because of my low health bar, @BelgarathMTH ! I had already used quite a powerful Lay on Hands and one or two other healing kits from my inventory that don't show up in my quickbar. Divine Favor had been lost trying to cast it with him close, and I *had* to take the risk with Holy Sword, otherwise I would never deal enough damage before he killed me. But then I needed to run and keep healing myself further. I even tried the door again.
The screenshot above was showing me after another healing kit and four potions of Cure Critical Wounds. I had *not* tried to run around with my HP so low. But what can I do if I need three potions to compensate for one of his strikes... I *had* to turn around and fight the beast (after another two healing kits, of course). My healing skills and supplies were not enough to counter his damage for much longer, I hadn't found any Potions of Heal yet.
I prayed to Tyr (I just wrote "Torm" instead... forgot that I had chosen Tyr in the OC. I like Torm more) and turned around to face the dragon. At least now, close enough to the door, Deekin supported me with his Bard Song from outside. I still needed another healing kit and another potion to barely survive this.
*sinks to the ground, panting and with trembling knees*
Going to step much more carefully and do a full stop whenever Deekin says something in the future...
(amazing amount of XP, by the way, but I *really* could have lived without this nail-biting encounter! I was quite certain that this would be my first death in HotU.)
We found a white rod somewhere, which seems to have something to do with the pillars blocking a pathway, but I haven't found out more about that yet, and we've proceeded from the central into the south part of the Undermountain. I also found enough loot to buy a better armor for Deekin. He can use medium armor, so I got him a Chainmail+3, improving his AC from 22 to 24. Not much, I know, but I can't do more for him right now and he's not supposed to tank, anyway. I also cast my second Bull's Strength on him after resting. As spells I'm currently using PfE, 2 Divine Favor, 2 Bull's Strength (one for him, one for me), Eagle's Splendor, Greater Magic Weapon, and Holy Sword (Divine Favor and Holy Sword being kept for special situations, the others cast after rest).
And of course, after getting the armor for Deekin, all the excess money went into as many potions of Cure Critical Wounds and healing kits as I could afford.
Level: 16
Reloads: 0 (I have reset my counter, too complicated otherwise)
I think HotU suffers from the same D&D problem a lot of people point out about Throne of Bhaal - With characters at epic level, there's really no way to give them any challenge without cheesy instakill, or "invulnerable until you figure out how to get rid of the invulnerability" or "unlimited summons" boss mechanics.
The Bioware campaigns are notorious for being easy overall, particularly HotU once you get the ability to amp up your weapons in Chapter 2 (getting your weapon to +10 ASAP is a major, massive, insane boost in power).
I'd suggest you play the Swordflight series, the Aielund Saga (less challenging than Swordflight but still far more difficult than the Bioware campaigns), or my Siege of the Heavens (if you want a shorter romp where you start at 40 instantly).
I know of a few other challenging modules but unfortunately they aren't epic level and thus aren't relevant to your quote.
I am curious, though -- what separates a cheesy from a non-cheesy instakill?
Also, how exactly are you defining unlimited summons?
Also, NWN subverts the "Warriors are Linear, Wizards are Quadratic" trope. Well-built melee characters have an *enormous* power advantage over casters at high levels in NWN. The first time I played HotU, I played it as a bard, and I almost never got through that guardian golem encounter. Maybe a mage or cleric would have an easier time, I'm not sure.
Time Stop + Empowered IGMS + Empowered IGMS + Time Stop + Empowered IGMS + Empowered IGMS + Time Stop +Empowered IGMS + Empowered IGMS = 1260ish damage with 3 level 9 and 6 level 8 spells used with no saving throw and no damage resistance typically (also, the enemy literally can't even move or react during that). Casters are still broken at high end, though less insanely so than at 20.
HotU in particular does amp up warriors a lot with the +10 weapons you can get at level 25ish if you want but overall casters are still the most broken thing out there. Pick a fight you've done and I'd be happy to show you how a caster can crush it.
And Bards do not count as casters in this case -- we're talking about level 9 spellcasters (bards are level 6).
Not much, I know, but I can't do more for him right now and he's not supposed to tank, anyway.
If you have him take RDD levels for the stat boosts he winds up being surprisingly effective at it. Though making sure he gets to at least Bard 16 is helpful due to that being one of the last major Bard Song boosts.
Well things are looking up, Kurth's Dead, found and explored some ruins, scoured all 9 levels of the arcane tower than the roof.
In the Sewers there is a locked vault, i got the key from Londa before she died.
Through the secret entrance to Kurth's Docks area through the docks sewers.
Just some bugbears in the sewers, no problem.
Attacked Kurth's men, no holds barred.
"Ancient Illusk" "Evil of Voleron the Damned", gotta save Evaine than i'm coming back.
Nothing special in Kurth's Lair, killed baddies, searched the whole place, found a Smooth Token and Glowing Sphere and put it into the demonic portal to close it.
He did not survive.
Found Evaine locked up than she Teleported away, recalled to make sure she got back than she and her brother fled the city.
Told Oreth both Captains are dead and he was very pleased.
Back to the Ruins entrance, defeated a Scythe wielding Skeleton than put it's head on the alter.
Many Undead, forgot to memorize Undeath to Death...woops.
Using my vast intelligence and bravery i ran circles around the zombies than used Acid Breath to hit as many as possible.
The next door challenge was a Fallen Hero, he looked like a toughy with that Blue Lightsaber.
Used Interposing Hand than Greater Missile Storm and finishing with 2 Icestorms.
Used the item i got from the Fallen Hero...his heart
Tip...Shadow Fiends aren't immune to Acid
Up till now all the Mummy's have been weak to fire...this ones immune but weak to Electrical???
The Water Elelmental's bowl opens the final door.
Another Lich!
I ran back and drew out the lesser undead and picked them off before facing Voleron, got 2 undeath to death's, and multiple single target spells ready, also Lesser Spell Mantle and drank my last Haste Potion.
YES!! used 2 Undeath to Death's and got him with the second, 110 Divine damage
WOW +5 Ring of Protection.
The Arcane tower was pretty boring, mostly lesser enemies and minor loot, considering it's a Brotherhood tower i always expect more and usually get disappointed
Found this guy with his friend Fred.
Another Lich but this one was pretty weak compared to the others.
on the 9th Level behind a Vrook found Dragon Slippers , and just when i was complaining about the loot.
...after they finished, the only enemy worth the worry was Gorgoth, he actually made me retreat and use Interposing Hand again and Icestorms.
i was searching the last of the containers and....
Justiciar Holar,
I received your courier letter today while returning from an expedition into the Greypeaks. I shall depart for Riverford and arrive upon a ten-day after resting and refitting here in Loudwater.
A hunting trip for game with my companions led us to a deep excursion into the bowels of the mountains themselves. I fear the Zhentarim have gained quite a foothold in these parts, and their pacts with depraved creatures of the underdark is just the most recent example to which they will stoop to further their gains. The Zelbross plot had nothing on this most recent scheme which saw
a caravan master selling passengers via an underground network of thieves and giantkind, eventually leading the captives to the bowels of a mindflayer lair! It would seem that Loudwater was under threat as well.
We barely succeeded in the rescue, Tyr be praised. I don't know how the Zelbross affair and this most recent scheme are linked, but given the cunning, deceptive nature of the Black Network, a link is probable. Dorian and the rest of our adventuring party will continue to search for Zhentarim forces here in the region and given the threat from,
Llorhk
I suspect they will be kept quite busy in my absence. I'm sure they'll find the linking piece of evidence as well. It must be a great need if Tyr wills me to leave this investigation undone, but I trust Torm's paladin will lead the team well. May Tyr's eternal wisdom guide you. Ever your friend and student,
Hugh Calderwood
OOC:
Note: After the party died a third time on this module, again to giants, last night, I gave up on the modified reload for this module. I'll recommence the modified reload in TGMS, which is up next.
The Zelbross Affair - 0 reloads
The Greypeaks - Stupid giants...
The Maimed God's Saga - In progress.
Comments
Yeah with Stirge it was easy and no regrets but I dunno maybe it's because it not long happened and I had actually spoken to her before she was taken it just felt different.
Hmm maybe because with Stirge it was a less emotional decision but with Yesgar it was more emotional...I wanted him gone.
Found a Cave near the Farms while looking for Werewolf's but this one had Bears so didn't come back until now.
2 normal bears and a Dire Bear that was a bit of a toughy, hit him with Web than Icestorm but it didn't do much "Barely Injured", used Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility and Interposing hand to keep him at bay until he died.
found some Mephit's, Imp's and a dead adventurer with "Treaties on Forgotten Heroes" may be interesting to someone.
More Mephit's and Imp's, found a Well with a underwater passage which required a higher Constitution to hold breath long enough to the other side.
Pulled a chain hanging from above and Maegel appeared, he challenged me to answer a question and got it right, he was suspicious and after i told him i new the knowledge from a book i only just found he was very disappointed bu ti answered correctly and got The Watchmans Helm.
Me and several others went to the Green Griffin Inn basement to begin Mutamin's Challenge costing us 500gp each, time to buff.
Spider's! a lot of them and several Ettercap's so glad i kept the Thieves Hood for the poison immunity, after several close calls found a crystal skull and continued.
Found a Queens Spider.
she did not survive and i found Horrid Wilting
2 hallways, Dire Hell Hounds or Traps....very close call with the Hounds and another Heal Potion used
A Yuan-ti, this could be a problem.
She wanted me to answer a riddle or be destroyed so i answered.
My answer was wrong...Revat's Mum may have been right about my Intelligence.
She had a crystal frog.
Next floor down and 1 of the adventurers is dead.
He tried door 16 but it was wrong, turned out each door lead to a chest and when you try to open it if it's the wrong one you get spike trapped...I've got Stoneskine so that's not a problem.
Undead than after healing Gam here he said he was ambushed my Invisible Creatures.
Invisible Stalker's, i kept them bunched up at the door and used Acid Breath but they still managed to cause some damage...another Heal Potion down.
They guarded a crystal egg.
Gorkan was waiting for me, he looks like a fighter...ready Interposing Hand.
After my Valiant retreat he did not survive.
His axe looked different and it is missing a Notch...is this important?
Many Spider's!
After another Valiant Retreat to a doorway i used a scroll of Cloud Kill to soften them up.
The final rooms and another riddle, "a box with neither hinges, key, not lid, yet inside is a golden treasure hid"...i have 3 treasures Skull, Frog and Egg hmm i wonder.
Obviously it was egg and was teleported out, Mutamin gave me this armor...hmm that's not particularly use to me.
Next to the Green Griffin Inn was a graveyard overflowing with Undead...this could be a problem, the Caretaker was more concerned about how much he could charge me for the key to the Crypt.
Zombie Lord, Zombie Warriors and a Corpse hand...ok.
More Zombies.
Skeleton Chieftain!
That actually went pretty well.
Retreat!
Umm is that a Lich?
Drew out his guards first than retreated to prepare Lesser Spell Mantle and Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm.
It was going so well than he casted Evard's Black Tentacles...Spell Mantles don't protect against it and another death
so disappointed, but he had the Imaskar Tome of Life, Eltoora in town is looking for these.
After talking to Eltoora she told me to go through the portal behind her and use the Wizard Lab and inside there was a magic chest and a bookcase, a note inside said to put a Fenberry and Quartz crystal into the chest and cast Endure Elements, got a Ring of Elemental Resistance...nice she than told me the Tome of Ice is in a Tower nearby.
After talking to the bridge guard i tried to convince him to let me in but no matter what i said he wouldn't and i said the wrong thing and he didn't survive.
as soon as i entered the Tower the Flesh Golems ran for the gong alarm.
Bugbear guards came out to defend the Tower.
Found a glowing bookcase.
The tome of ice.
Went through the door the guards came from.
Searched the chests in the guard room and found a Star of Calimshan and a necklace, someones gotta want this Gem.
After a quick Boss battle he surrendered, i had the book and some Gem so i decided to leave.
i wish i had another way of doing this, i wanted the book but i couldn't get in contact with Wanev inside, did i miss something? i would've been more than happy to work for him in exchange for the Book or some sort of deal, instead i broke and entered than killed his guards who where only doing their job than beat up the owner...i'm a criminal now, maybe i should be playing evil.
Took the book to Eltoora and followed the instructions, Amulet of Natural Armor +3.
That's enough for today, i'm gonna take a break tomorrow...i wasn't feeling it today.
Next though I'll be looking for the Missing Druids.
Well, I would argue with you about Wanev if you were playing a good aligned character, but you're Chaotic Neutral, right? They're officially mad, so I guess anything makes sense.
*************************
Here's the continuation of my progress in the Ao Encampment and the Valley of the Winds.
I'm quite glad that Slaads here are definitely evil, so that Protection from Evil makes me immune to their stun. There were neutral Slaad in the castle with the two brothers in the OC, that was bad.
I met Formigans (ant people) fighting Slaads and then attacking me, went into their hive. They attacked me, but I only fought the warriors, not the workers (but sometimes they seemed to transform). When a queen spoke to me through the hive mind, I started to run towards her without fighting anyone, and they turned neutral at her command. I made an alliance with them to come to my help against the Slaad. There was a bug where one of the warriors kept hitting me even after turning blue, but I ran away without having to fight him.
I didn't take anything from their lair.
Then, a thieving rat with a fancy taste:
I tried to shoot it with a bow, but it ran in circles and was so fast that I always missed, and I didn't feel like wasting my elemental arrows. Let it keep the diamond.
I stumbled into the portal room earlier than intended.
I hate Gray Slaads. But I drew the red ones out of his reach to fight them, and then went back for him. The Crystal to summon the Formigans had vanished after the fight. I forgot to use it.
Roleplaying dictates to go immediately after the hooded figure, but I wanted to complete the ruins first. I had no idea if and when I would be able to return when I followed her, so I bought quite a lot of potions and kits, and a Ring of Insight for Lore+5, to put it on for emergency identification.
I fought a strong shield guardian golem and got a ring, something against petrification (useless for me, as I'm not using a companion) and a Necklace of Fireballs.
That gave me an idea when I found the hidden door. I know it's a bit cheesy, but I was curious what might be behind the basilisks. So, I drank a potion of invisibility, went in, threw a fireball and went out again. I repeated that 4 times, then I was out of Potions of Invisibility, but there was one remaining basilisk, right next to the door.
So, I took potions of Eagle's Splendor and Speed, cast Divine Favor, went in and hit it with my sword. Once engaged in melee, it didn't use its gaze attack.
I went in to explore the room, and then the shock:
Another basilisk, uninjured, in the back of the room! And that had been my last fireball. But I escaped unpetrified, and that was already something.
I thought about leaving and not pushing my luck any further, but then I decided to try again, while the Potion of Speed was still active. I equipped my longbow and went in again.
Gah! It doesn't have a far reach, and I was fast. I got out again. The potion of speed had worn off, but it was Near Death, so I took the risk, went in again and shot a last arrow.
Hm. I was pretty sure that the sphinx was guarding the sarcophagi. I left them alone. Later I read somewhere that I could have used the ointment against petrification on the sphinx to answer a riddle and get some XP, but it doesn't matter.
Behind the basilisk room was another room with a machine to make magic balls of whatever from reagents like Slaad's Tongues, Belladonna and whatever. I had sold them all for 1gp just now because I thought I wouldn't find another use for them in this game. Doesn't matter.
I went back to the portal room, did what I had to do (I decided not to look at the numbers provided by @BelgarathMTH), using one of my items (which then look like a bag) and the torch (which would continue to look like a torch when placed in another room) to narrow it down and then, after the events that I won't spoil for unknowing people, I reached Chapter Two, awoke as a slave to Master Ashtara and had to fight Shield Golems without having had the opportunity to rest since meeting the basilisks. I was glad to have a bag full of potions, because the Shield Guardians were very hard to kill and dealt enormous damage. Ashtara had good AC improving items, but right now I couldn't afford any of them.
At last I had found a place where the game allowed me to rest. Thank Torm.
Apart from the Shield Golems, there were far too many creepy spiders suddenly dropping down from the ceiling. I hate it when they do that.
Somewhere between all that, I reached level 10.
Those two guys both at once would have been the death of me, but I managed to run around one of them inside its alcove, so that they couldn't fight me together.
I gained a lot of XP in these areas, for the fights, for discovering all the places related to the Winds, and also in the end for having killed all the shield golems (I made the same decision about the Butler Golem, left him, his master and their rooms alone).
Arriving to tell Ashtara about my success made me hit level 11. Good roll!
I had found enough loot to be able to buy a Large Shield+3 (1 better than my Valiant Shield, and lighter), and an Amulet of Natural Armor +3.
He also has a Ring of Protection +3 and Bracers of Armor +3, but I can't afford them yet.
I had learned why I needed the winds and where to find them, so I went to the library first, to face the Wise Wind. After all the annoying mephits, I got sucked into a book and promised to find someone's beloved. I stumbled into a very, very dangerous place. Unholy Crusaders, Unholy Priestesses, a Grand Matron and a Devil! Wonderful...
I was *not* going to fight them on their terms. I always ran in just long enough to catch somebody's attention, and then back to the door, right around the corner, to avoid the others's spells while engaging them in melee.
Then the Devil.
But the poor young woman was dead already.
Until now, Rune Pillars had always contained important information. The middle one was trapped. I decided to tank the trap in case I missed something vital otherwise. A gooooood decision.
Ouch. But at least I saved and didn't get level drained.
Aaaaaaaah I can't believe it, that's amazing! Boots of Speed! Look at that, an extra attack and AC 35! And I can run *fast*!
(And that means I can reach 37 if I can afford Ashtara's other two items later...)
I continued my way through another story, landing in Hell.
I tried to help him, but arrows of any kind wouldn't hurt the succubi, so I had to wait for the tentacles to disappear to fight them with my sword. After that, I healed him and talked to him. I don't remember everything, but he told me about his punishment and that I couldn't help him, and I think it was him who told me how to find the Wise Wind by writing a story and entering, as I had with their stories. He gave me an inkwell, so I went back to the library to write into the empty book.
Oh, and I had found a Greater Amulet of Health and a blue Nymph Cloak+5. I'm keeping the Amulet just in case, and wearing the cloak, but I'm not getting too attached to them, in case they disappear. [oh gods don't let the Boots of Speed vanish).
I didn't know that the first lines of the story would influence in which setting I had to fight the Wise Wind. I chose the option that sounded best and was marked with "Insight", and it brought me here (and nowing to expect an extremely hard fight, I had buffed with everything I could find in my spellbook and inventory):
He had an incredibly high damage resistance and damage reduction, and he kept teleporting around and turning invisible. Quite annoying. Without my Holy Avenger and Divine Favor, I don't think I could have damaged him.
In the end, the fight hadn't been as difficult as I had expected. His dreaded Storm of Vengeance had only started to hit me a moment before his death, although it kept hitting after that, and I was afraid that the Stun might keep me from healing myself in time. But it wore off, and it was over.
@BelgarathMTH , you didn't find the Boots of Speed, did you? I think that's what made the huge difference here.
There was a chest on the island, with a few diamonds, rubies and such things.
Then I went back and saw that I had the possibility to rewrite the other two novels to give happy endings to the two young people and the mage. Later I read that I could have done that before fighting the wind, to recruit their help, but I guess it doesn't matter now.
I had made enough money to buy the Bracers of Armor +3, too, that means I have AC 36 now and am ready to go to catch the next wind.
Level: 11
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 2 (Kobolds in the Elven Crypt, J'Nah)
You fought the evil priestesses and the devil a lot smarter than I did. It didn't even occur to me to run back for the door and set up a choke point, or to try to pull them a few at a time.
It looks like you didn't finish rewriting the stories to rescue the wizard from hell and to fix the story of the pauper and the princess so that the princess lived, and the pauper became a warrior. If you fix their stories, the warrior prince and the wizard you rescue will assist you in fighting the Wise Wind, although they weren't able to save me from the stuns the first time I tried the fight. I'd say the Boots of Speed definitely made a huge difference, because it had a lot more stuns coming if you hadn't been able to kill it so fast.
Regardless, congratulations on winning that fight without a reload. That was a major accomplishment! I don't think the other two Winds fights are as hard, so you're coming into the home stretch. You should be finishing the game pretty soon, probably without much more trouble, especially not with those amazing boots! Congratulations on getting those - that was like you hit the jackpot on a slot machine.
Edit: And when it happened, I was afraid I would have to fight the wind a second time
I'm not braver, just more curious and less wise
I usually play NWN2 on normal rules, but ramped them up to "D&D hardcore" on the difficulty bar. If a PC falls and drops below -10HP, they're dead and require a raise or rez to get back up, so it could get expensive really quick if battles are played carelessly. Deliberateness will be the new watchword.
With that said, the restart count is officially at 1.
The Zelbross Affair - Complete, no reload
The Greypeaks -1 restart
The Maimed God's Saga -
I can totally understand that. As a mom, Stirge was a pretty emotional "Die, evil scum!" decision for me.
I killed the gnome in BG2 in the Copper Coronet, too, although he surrendered and tried to run away. But he had murdered a halfling child and taken his stuffed bear, and he deserved to be haunted by the boy's ghost and to be killed! That story always breaks my heart. My son hasn't ever gone to sleep without his stuffed Gorilla during the last 8 years. I see Wellyn aching for his bear to find rest, and I think of my son, and I find that I can be quite merciless.
i wish for that quest that you could use raise dead or resurrection to bring wellyn back, at that point, its quite possible to have at least raise dead, and if you did use one of those options, it should be one that would increase your REP by 1 or something
they had something like this in ToB, but still, it would have been good hindsight to have that for wellyn as well
Hotu is very generous with treasure and magic items. Maybe too generous. I just found Boots of Speed off a random trash mob leader. My current gear is Cowl of Mind Protection (dyed bright copper), Nymph Cloak +5 (dyed red - it didn't come in blue, and I still haven't found blue dye), Red Dragon Armor (dyed copper), Boots of Speed, Belt of Guiding Light, Amulet of Natural Armor +3, Ring of Protection +3, Captain's Ring (+2 to saves), Cold Steel Longsword (blue lightsaber, still holding on to my green scimitar lightsaber, which has the Keen property, and may actually be the better weapon, because of that.)AC is at 40.
I found Tomi, and as always, he has a lot of funny things to say. I sent Red Tiger back to the inn. I found Linu and also sent her back to the inn.
Tomi also had a lot to say about Aribeth:
I made level 18, gained a feat, and took Divine Shield. I remember fights later in HotU where the melee enemies can hit AC 40 pretty easily, and an additional 6-7 AC could be a very helpful "Oh crap" button to have. I got an extra first level spell slot, and filled it with another Endure Elements for now, although I almost wanted to take another Divine Favor, and I might change that out, later.
I'm getting close to epic levels, so I did some research. I think I am just going to keep taking paladin levels until I get Divine Might and Extra Turning, then maybe some Fighter levels thereafter with the hope of working on Weapon Specialization Longsword. I can't see any benefit I would get from taking Champion of Torm levels, other than increased saving throws. The feat list for Champion of Torm is quite restricted, and I don't really need any of those feats.
Of course, the Champion of Torm levels would add with my paladin levels to increase abilities like Lay on Hands and Smite Evil. So, I'm still not 100 percent sure. I might stick with paladin levels until I also have Extra Smiting, Great Smiting, Armor Skin, Epic Charisma, and more of that sort of thing.
I'll post interesting fights, or fights where I almost die, or I actually do die, as soon as I run into any of those. So far, there's really not been anything that interesting to report.
Reloads:0
Level: 18
Companion Deaths: 0
At first, everything went as I thought. The maze in the crypt was pretty annoying, the fight against the Death Wind was okay (except for the Greater Wind Zombie landing a critical with his scythe, taking 72 HP at once, but I had been at full health and my Lay on Hands was boosted enough to heal that completely), the maze in the Arcane Tower with the Shadow Plane was even more confusing, but I didn't get killed by any tentacles and defeated the shadow lich, too, with careful running in circles to avoid being targeted by *all* spellcasters at once.
And then, when I had opened the Tower of the Winds or however it was called, I suddenly didn't take damage anymore. At first I was excited, thought I had overlooked an item's feat, or that some boosted ability was blocking something.
I fought the medusa handmaidens (good that my saving throws were very high because of my high Charisma bonus with Nymph Cloak +5 and Eagle's Splendor, because some of them used their gaze attack twice, not once. That was scary.), was extremely excited to find a Red Dragon Armor in a chest, reaching AC 39. But then, the 0 damage even when hit on a 20 continued and made me suspicious. I started to look into Endurance, check my spells and items and see if anything was stacking. I couldn't find anything.
I continued to play, thought okay, maybe those wisps and everything are just too weak. But even Heurodis never harmed me, even Evard's Black Tentacles were showing "damage (0), damage (0)" and so on. It was very boring and very easy, and I found out that it was quite a common bug after the shadow plane. But I really don't feel like starting all over again. I know the story now, and I'm not 100% sure where the bug started. My last hard save is during the maze that leads to the shadow plane and back (that was the last wind that I fought), and I really don't feel like playing that all over again.
I also noticed now, checking my screenshots, that it had started in the room with the shadow lich already.
So, SoU is filed under "good to know the story, won't play it again". I've found posts about this bug that were *eleven* years old. So, they will never get fixed.
I'm going to forget this as soon as possible and will take my Level 16 Arvia of Tyr into HotU soon.
The experiment with the other build was okay. I had taken Divine Might at level 12 and tried it. It does improve the damage output if your charisma bonus is high enough, and lasts long enough for a fight. And since it spends one Turn Undead, you can use it more often if you have more Turn Undead. I just don't think this feat makes much sense at low levels.
Anyway, SoU? Hmph.
******************************************
@BelgarathMTH, that was interesting to read, especially the part with Tomi about Aribeth. And your equipment is great already! Looking forward to getting there soon with my "real" paladin from the OC. I don't know, SoU was okay as a story, but somehow I didn't identify much with my character there. Must have been the weird name or something
And there were typos. "it's" instead of "its" in the epilogue, for example. That can't be so hard to correct!
It's hard to believe I've never experienced these bugs in SOU, I remember once years ago on a multiplayer OC game where someone had heavily altered the Campaign I got Invulnerability once and we cheesed Karlat's tower in Chapter 2.
All my experiences in SOU have been good and I ended up liking that character more.
Well I hope HOTU is a better experience for you.
In my game Rei'Leena started as Chaotic Neutral but in chapter 1 became Chaotic Good, maybe I should be trying harder to stay neutral but I keep wanting to help people.
It happens in NWN 2 as well I start Neutral but I just keep helping everyone I can, I love to find treasure and if I see a crypt and there's no sign of goodness I don't hesitate to take what I want which is definitely a bit dodgy, I dont steal from the elven crypt in SOU but the Evil crypt in the Interlude I clean the place out.
My morality definitely sways a bit back and forth.
FWIW in 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder...
Raise Dead requires the body to be intact and dead no longer than 1 day per caster level. Costs 5,000 gold.
Resurrection requires a fragment of the body to exist (like a hair or fingernail is enough) and 10 years per caster level. Costs 10,000 gold.
True Resurrection just requires you to name the deceased and no more than 10 years per caster level. Costs 25,000 gold.
So if you're a super rich adventurer you can bring a lot of people back...but you're potentially spending as much money to bring them back as most people make in a lifetime.
And in NWN they elected to remove the cost to raises (except for item cost).
That's interesting, I never noticed that. By default Slaads are all Chaotic Neutral (both in lore and the default toolset creatures) but there are custom ones in the Interlude that are Neutral Evil (not even Chaotic Evil!). How curious.
ah, but in the BG series if your party casts raise dead or resurrection in theory the body could be dead for months regardless and the only difference is that raise dead starts you off with 1 HP and resurrection starts you off with full health
in ToB they do make a note of it that raising some back from the dead is expensive ( especially if you do use temples to do it, it can be quite costly ) when you bring back that dude in saradush
i just think it would have been neato if you could use a raising spell to bring back wellyn instead and perhaps gain some REP doing so, since REP gain in BG 2 is a bit more work than it is in BG 1, and this could have been one of those great situations where a good party would gladly accept this REP gain and evil parties could still finish the quest without gaining the REP gain
after my less than good behavior in Wanev's tower i decidied to keep a low profile in the forest because the Druids said the animals in the forest weren't themselves.
This Deer straight up charged me as soon as i arrived so i tried to talk to the Dryad nearby.
She was less than pleased that i was here but after nearly killing her she slightly regained her composure and told me "The rage...it burns me up...makes me want to kill you", i convinced her to flee.
decided to use the 2nd lvl Invisibility spell to scout around and found a cave.
Spiders again! and Ettercaps too, i thought if the missing druids ran from the forest animals they may run to this cave so i decided to clear out the spider den.
after several rooms full of spiders and Sword Spiders...these Sword Spiders are nothing compared to the ones in Baldur's Gate, found the Queen.
She did not survive, used Interposing Hand again and Acid Breath than slashing time and lvl 13!
Searching cocoons and found Orlane the Druid, as i suspected he ran from the forest animals (a Deer) than ran into this cave, Queeny was about to snack.
On my way out found some Boots of Elvenkind, it was at this point i realized my current boots where less than good and replaced them.
After resting and going Invis again found a house.
Turns out this house is filled with hostile Nymph Slaves but I'm still Invis so decided to search around for info on the forest and found this guy...i feel like I've interrupted something.
Found the Nymph and after she tried to charm me and failed i told her I'm trying to heal the forest and she apologized and told me a story she heard about how to reach the Spirit of the Forest.
Than she told me about a "Terribly Ugly Old Crone" who lives nearby, that's not very nice.
While looking in the chest for book and Dagger she told me about found this Vanity Mirror, the other day Soloman said i was average looking...What! I'm Gorgeous!
Now that the Slaves where no longer hostile i looked around (the Pixies and Grig's where still Hostile so i avoided them) found Teran the Druid in another room, while running from the forest animals he decided to hide in the Nymph's house, he mentioned hearing "stories about Nymph's"...stories? I'm not sure what you mean.
Opened this door and ran in...set off a trap that killed 2 Slaves...woops.
In the rooms found a Lock of Nymph's hair, I'll just borrow this i...i may need it to heal the forest...yeah.
Outside in a campsite found some Spirit Poison, I'm sure there's nothing suspicious about that.
In the next area continued to stay Invis and found a cave behind a waterfall, inside was a home with Invisible Stalkers, Air Elementals And Mephit's, i thought about starting a fight but decide to check around first.
Another glowing bookcase and found the Tome of Resonance...I'll just confiscate this because it's dangerous and you know I'm looking out for peoples safety.
Found a Ring of Holiness...if only i where a Cleric, a ring of Wizardry would be nicer.
Found the "Old Crone" Setara and she was a little displeased that i killed her servants...but i didn't i was Invisible...i just walked past them, anyway she had the 3rd druid locked up and wanted the Nymph's Vanity Mirror in exchange...put i want it, she was quite pleased and gave the prison key and some Gem.
Tried to leave while still Invis and after opening the door her own Air Elementals attacked her??? so i decided that she lost control of them and saved her than decided to cleanse the house on the way out.
Freed the Druid and told her to go.
While cleansing found 2 water Elementals, used my new spell Circle of Death...all too easy
Back outside and followed the ritual to enter the Spirit's realm, went Invisible again and found Relmar total crazy and Rhyming and after some persuasion he was more than willing to tell me what happen and where the Cure was for the Spirit, than i said goodbye and he tried to kill me...he did not survive.
Found the Cure right where he said, nice of crazy Relmar to be so truthful.
Found the Spirit and it was completely unaware of me, after dispelling and nearly killing it gave the cure and all is well with the world, or maybe just the forest.
finished both quests and went to the Wizard Lab to make....a Wand of Lightning
Well i think that went pretty good, no deaths today and minimal casualties (except the Deer, many spiders, Planar creatures, 1 Flesh Golem, and Relmar...oh and those 2 Nymph Slaves...sorry).
Come over to the Light!
I didn't like the Nymph. But interesting how a spellcaster can get by invisibly without killing her slaves. Of course that requires metaknowledge, or the habit to go invisibly into unknown territory.
Warning: Deekin is the only companion you can take into Chapter Two. If you have any good gear on any other companion, make sure to get it back before you talk to Halaster! You will not be given a chance to do it once that conversation is started. I lost a Boots of Speed and some other good items I had on Tomi that way, but I'm not reloading to get it back.
So, I was asking myself, "Why are there six inventory pages of top-rate gear in this one chest? Maugrim's Journal? Wait a minute, this is all the gear that was on my imported character that was taken at the beginning. The portal stone that now doesn't do anything is even in here. Okay, nice to have my green lightsaber back, and my Holy Shield."
I cast Divine Shield for the first time, and with that, my AC hit 50.
I made level 19. Nothing much exciting at this level.
I'll be using Deekin and Valen, the tiefling weapon master.
Reloads: 0
Companion Deaths: 0
Level: 19
And...I knew I should have just cheated in a few raise scrolls, but no...I had to press forward without the paladin and cleric, kept the dwarf up front and pressed onward, hoping to find that dratted ghostly visage merchant again. Time to take a break from this module for a bit. Maybe after the weekend is over I'll start it again.
The Zelbross Affair - Complete, no reload
The Greypeaks -2 restart
The Maimed God's Saga -
******************
We have rescued a cursed city of Avariel by reconstructing the magic mirror that cursed them, and defeated a drow matron seeking the mirror's power in the process. Later, we secured an alliance with sentient golems to assist in the defense of the followers of Ellistrae from the Valsharess. (Drow for "Queen".)
*********************
So, shortly after taking the riverboat to the island inhabited by the cursed Avariel, we made level 20. The most exciting thing about that was gaining my last level four spell slot, so now I have three Holy Avenger spells on tap.
In order to free the Avariel from their curse, and defeat the drow matron who wanted the cursed item for herself, we had to collect five of the fragments of the broken mirror, and bring them to the throne room. We had to defeat a castle full of driders, a mage tower full of demons, and a temple with a medusa in it, (by running for a potion that would make us immune to petrification so we could talk to her and convince her to give up her mirror shard).
We also had to ummm, let's say, "Force Persuade" a merchant to give up a mirror shard in exchange for a "cursed" coin. A deception, but a necessary one.
In the final battle of the module, we wound up with four shards to the drow matron's one. These could be used to activate pillars in the room that do different things to give us an advantage, including summoning copies of myself. I very well may not have needed the pillars, as I more or less have Thor's powers at this level, but I decided to not take any chances.
The Avariel were grateful to be freed from the curse of the mirror, and gave us the repaired mirror as a reward. I think it's far too dangerous for us to use, being cursed and all, so I turned it in to the Temple of Ellistrae at the drow rebel's camp.
In the lost dungeon of the golem people, we found a dead gnome with some very helpful items. His armor could only be worn by another "shortie", but he had this helmet that actually does what a helmet is supposed to do, and protects from critical hits:
And this hammer that demolishes golems. I will use it for the rest of this scenario.
Those two magic items helped me to defeat an enormously powerful guardian golem blocking the way to the lower level. There's a puzzle that can weaken the thing, I think, but I had no idea how to solve the puzzle based on what I could find. So, I just ordered Deekin and Valen back, and attacked the thing at full strength. I had to use Holy Avenger and Divine Favor to be able to hit it, and I needed at least one Potion of Heal, and quite a few healer's kits. This was the hardest fight I've encountered so far. I didn't think to take a picture, sorry.
Valen has an annoying habit of refusing any order to "Stand Your Ground", so you have to leave him *way* back if you don't want to get distracted trying to keep him alive during harder fights.
So, on the lower level, we encountered two factions of golems. One was based on a flesh golem model with the leader being based on a demon. The others were based on gnomes. Just to keep this explanation shorter rather than longer, the "demon" golems were obviously evil, and wanted the golem people to stay in that dungeon forever, even though their Maker had been missing for 500 years. The "gnome" golem leader wanted them to claim their freedom and leave the dungeon.
I had to choose a direction of exploration, and I encountered the demon golems first. The only way to avoid a fight was to agree to help them. I was going to be very pissed off if I didn't get a chance to change sides! Luckily, once I got deep enough into gnome golem territory, I was escorted to *their* leader, and I agreed to help *them* instead. Be careful not to say "Demon guy sent me to destroy you." I'm pretty sure that would start hostilities and lock in the evil outcome.
The demon golem leader dies:
The good golem leader thanks us and agrees to assist in the defense of the rebel drow camp:
Completing that scenario gave me level 21. I got a new feat and took Divine Might. Also, I gained the title "Epic Paladin", so I thought that was cool.
Some impressions so far:
I'm having great fun with HotU, but so far, the combat is kind of ridiculously easy. I think HotU suffers from the same D&D problem a lot of people point out about Throne of Bhaal - With characters at epic level, there's really no way to give them any challenge without cheesy instakill, or "invulnerable until you figure out how to get rid of the invulnerability" or "unlimited summons" boss mechanics.
Also, NWN subverts the "Warriors are Linear, Wizards are Quadratic" trope. Well-built melee characters have an *enormous* power advantage over casters at high levels in NWN. The first time I played HotU, I played it as a bard, and I almost never got through that guardian golem encounter. Maybe a mage or cleric would have an easier time, I'm not sure. But I can say for sure that my paladin wrecked that guardian golem using the magic golem warhammer (which my bard couldn't use, and neither could a mage or even a cleric who hadn't take the Martial Weapons feat), and Holy Avenger and Divine Favor.
I'm pretty sure the guardian golem was magic immune, so I'm not sure how a mage would fare any better than my bard from long ago.
Also, there's really not much main story to HotU. All the different scenarios have interesting, self-contained stories to them, but the main story is pretty much "Waterdeep is being attacked by drow, led by their Queen, who has seen a vision of you and wants to kill you, and she has a devil bound to her service. Find her and stop her." That's about it for a main story.
Again, that doesn't mean I'm not having fun, but so far, out of the original content, I'm most impressed with the OC. *shrug*
Reloads: 0
Companion Deaths: 0
Level: 21
Ran past the Farms and found the "Haunted Forest"...ran back out to memorize new anti-undead spell...I'm not scared.
Testing out my new spell "Undeath to Death"
While searching the area i found this scroll, some words where written in despicable CAPS "Nether Shall Rule" hmm not sure what that means right now.
Testing out my new spell again
Found a glowing Obelisk and next to it a dead adventurer's journal, "Netherese Temple", "Ruin of Gur-Atol", now i'm intrigued.
Used the Obelisk and remembering the scroll from before "Nether Shall Rule", portal opened and without resting to recuperate anti-undead spells just ran in.
I totally didn't get scared and run away i was using a tactical retreat...these are my deep level tactics, after my valiant victory i found a Sarcophagus and a Mummy Lord emerged..good thing Mummy's are weak to fire...searched the rest of the temple...found a crappy magic rod
Back outside and after using my special tactics, went Invis again and got the Skeleton Chieftain first.
They were guarding this Cold Iron Blade...nice.
In the next area found Quint here totally crazy and surrounded but corpses, at least i'm not crazy...i'm a beacon of mental stability.
After talking to the less than helpful locals i decided to stop off at the Inn for a quick Pint, found another crazy guy totally freaking out.
After a quick persuasion he told me he is one of the Cultist's i'm looking for, tried to press him further but he got upset...he did not survive but he dropped a Doublebladed Flaming Lightsaber... i prefer Dual Sabers.
Than found the Mayor and he was a little less than useful but after a quick persuade he mentioned the tower nearby, when i told him i'll go in he tried to tell me no but i already left.
Ahh my new Cold Iron Blade is actually a Blue Lightsaber.
Upon entry found a chest with a note and key, grabbed the key and ignored the note...i don't have time for note reading I've gotta help the Mayor, ran to the door on the right and found a Doom Knight...maybe i should've read that note.
He ripped through my Stoneskin but Improved Invisibility saved the day.
At the end of the hallway found a Ghoul Ravager...the Doom Knight was better, after ignoring another note spoke to "The Guardian" it called me Judge and beckoned for me to "Gather the Oaths"...Hence for i shall be known as Judge Rei'Leena...what am i judging?, well I'll figure that out later I've gotta help the Mayor, 2 doors upstairs...went left.
After spotting the fire creatures used my special tactics again and memorized more Ice spells, started with Circle of Death.
At the end of the hallway found a Huge Fire Elemental...i absolutely ran away than regained my composure, gave him a Cone of Cold doing 67 damage
After picking the locked Gate found...It's Another Lich!, Attack!, oh the moment i killed him he instantly returned, maybe i should talk to him, so it turns out this guy thought he could become a "Noble Baelnorn" by finishing the ritual with human sacrifice...many children at once, Ok my only wish right now is that he die but i did that already so i need to find something more permanent.
Out of curiosity i search for Baelnorn info and turns out their not like Lich's, very rare and some don't need Phylactery's as they are "Bestowed" the gift by the Elven Seldarine, they retain their alignment and many are Lawful Good and don't appear as Skeleton but are mostly still Elven "clue to a baelnorn's nature was the existence of shriveled and wrinkled skin turning slightly translucent over time" that actually sound pretty good for a very old Elven Wizard to become the City's Immortal Protector and Scholar.
While searching found another glowing bookcase, obviously this Tome of Fire is being misused...confiscated.
Found Karlat's Journal it say's "Guilt" "Tricked Brother" Blah Blah Blah "Greater Good" Blah Blah "Belial" whatever your a Murderous Idiot.
Hmm summoning "Belial Lord of Fire" i knew he misused that Imaskar Book, time to chat with Belial...what could go wrong.
Oh Shi#@ that's quite the big Red Lightsaber you have their, turns out this Belial helped Karlat become a Lich than told him he needed to kill the towns children to complete the bonding with the phylactery and the children would come back to life...and Karlat believed that? what a complete and total idiot, how does mass murder end with you becoming a "Noble Baelnorn"?
With Karlat and Belial's Oaths in hand i was gonna end the investigation but to be thorough i went to crazy Quint's tower (now i see why he went crazy), memorized Undeath to Death than started clearing the tower, very weak undead.
Found a glowing chest this time and the last Imaskar Book, book of Death...this families reputation tells me to confiscate this also.
Quint's Journal speaks of a kind man and optimistic nature, I'm forced to think back to Fenthick but Quint does admit some suspicion at Karlat's request to have "All the Children" over, the cause of Quint's madness is clear, he feels guilt for bringing the children, for not seeing his brothers darkness growing.
A Bodak! use Undeath to Death!
It Failed!, after several valiant retreats down the halls i survived 4 death gazes from the Bodak, god damn it that was super lucky and i had to use Interposing hand again to stop the beat down he was giving me, i totally didn't panic.
Quint confirmed what i already discovered but added he stole Karlat's phylactery than Quint's god Lathander intervened.
After handing in the Oath's, Quint and Karlat confirmed their sides but i declaired neither where solely guilty and called for Belial's, he gloated about his manipulation and declared we could not punish him.
i had 2 choices, trap everyone for all eternity including the guardian, Quint, the towns people in a never ending perpetual existence trapped here or take the Phylactery and free everyone from eternal nothingness.
If i had the option Karlat and Belial alone would be trapped in eternal darkness never to be released for all eternity but i chose freedom.
My answer to the guardian about my choice was everyone should be free but i only did this because others where in eternal torment for the crimes of 2 people and since i'm not able to punish only them we'll have to deal with them another time if i ever get the opportunity, certainly not the outcome i wanted.
Outside the Mayor stayed back long enough to thank me for ending their torment and allowing them to pass on.
Karlat's Phylactery has 1 use of Sanctuary per day.
Used the Tomes and made...a Staff of Power & Ring of Protection +3, i have no use for either
Handed in 1 of the Cultist Journal's and Aribeth declared the investigation over and we go to Luskan to investigate the Arcane Brotherhood, i still had another Cultist Journal but she didn't want to talk about that, after talking to Aarin Gend the Spymaster for the first time this whole chapter i kept chatting with him about his past and he told a sad love story between him and a woman who was trying to kill Nasher...he killed her
Well i know that wasn't the best end to the Charwood section but choice made and off to Luskan i got.
Turns out i missed a side Quest, There's a guy in the Port's Tavern that has a quest for Serpent gems, Wanev, Setara & Zamithra have them, was that my way in to talk to Wanev? oh well too late now.
The Golem Puzzle.
you look around for a book translating them to numbers, next to the door leading down is a control room, change the left and right panels and glowing numbers appear, use the translated words to numbers and activate the central control panel to get rid of the walking golem than the second numbers for the guarding golem.
if i remember correctly that was the way to solve it.
Did you leave the Island or are you gonna continue?
On NWN 1 it only seemed to work on creatures that have "Summoned" in their name
Upon entering Luskan and seeing the chaos around i decided to go to the nearest building, an Inn called The Cutless to ask question.
Found 2 people who've had loved ones take by 2 different High Captains, Kurth & Baram are battling for power and Baram took Londa's 9 children for some reason and Kurth took Elynwyd's sister Evaine because she caught his eye.
Next i stopped at the Wink & Tickle for more details on the current events.
Found a magic Lever in a Common chest, Spoke to Erb about his "Customer" having his personal Ring and wants it back, Yvette conceived a child with a "Customer" and he has stolen the baby, apparently Galrone is a cruel man...this is top priority, than spoke to Oreth and he and the Owner are being forced to work for both High Captains and he wants them both dead...so far i don't see a moral issue taking out either, Oreth also gave me key's to secret entrances to Kurth and Baram's domains.
Off to rescue Yvette's baby first battled through the war torn city to some housing and found Galrone's name on the map.
Found Galrone in a locked apartment type housing, he was more worried that Yvette was gonna come to demand his money than the child's well being so i offered money to him and he wanted 1000gp's...talked him down to 250gp.
Yvette and the baby are reunited and fled the city...good.
Erb's "Customers" house was nearby so stopped in there first, she was reluctant to part with the Ring but i saw a "Finesse" dialogue option about breaking rules and after some persuasion she apologized and Erb got his ring back than fled the city, I've never seen a Finesse dialogue option before anyway decided to do some shopping and check in with Aaron Gend before going against Baram.
After visiting several shops Colmarr here had a Quest and sold a Blade of the Gladiator...now i have a Blue & Green Lightsabers
Skimmed over this next section...it was boring to report.
Oreth said Baram's secret entrance was in the sewers so after searching the sewers found many undead and Baram's thugs and a non violent Ghoul, he had a quest to kill his brother who was also a Ghoul who had their amulet so i did and behind the hostile Ghoul was another Lever in a chest, got the Ghoul's amulet and gave it back, the non violent Ghoul gave me the last Lever to fix the machine and the key to the door than teleported away and after finishing Colmarr's quest to fix a potion making machine i got.
There is combinations to the machines Levers but i don't remember the combinations from last time and i don't feel like figuring them out.
After getting that "treasure" i told Colmarr his machine was fixed and went to the secret entrance of Baram's Lair.
Since the fate of 9 children is at stake i went in Buffed and Invisible and search around keeping a low profile, didn't find any indication of children so went to the next area.
These 2 Yuan-ti were performing a ritual creating undead but after doing a quick search found no indication of children again.
Couldn't open the door to the next area so decided to interrupt the ritual.
go a key and according to this book Baram has Gargoyle statues bestowing protections.
Destroyed the Gargoyles first with Magic Missile.
Dispelled his protections from a distance than he went Invisible so i did the same, than he came looking for me over here so i took the first move and tried to shiv him.
Instant Regret.
After playing cat and mouse with Invis potions he stopped taking them and made a challenging pose at me...i was baited.
Instant Regret again, barely managed to get away and downed another Invis potion.
After healing and casting my second Greater Stoneskin, hit him with Bigby's Interposing Hand than charged him.
Even with a -10 debuff to attack he still managed to take down the Greater Stoneskin before i got the SOB...what a beast.
I don't know how i survived that but it's time to continue the search.
In the very last room i found spiders and cocoons, and the children's Nanny.
...
After feeling like a failure i rested and buffed up and used Improved Invisibility, all i had to do was leave as their was nothing left here...
After Killing every last one of them i left.
She ran out and charged straight at them, i couldn't stop it.
I have what i need to enter the Brotherhood Tower...but i'm going after Kurth next
Well that was horrible but i won't be deterred, Kurth falls today.
@BelgarathMTH , if you find combat in HotU ridiculously easy, you obviously were more careful than me and did *not* accidentally step on a sleeping dragon's toes...
But more of that later. Anyway, if combat is too easy, maybe HotU really was balanced for the lower leveled import from SoU?
I've started HotU, with 16th level Arvia of Tyr from the OC.
I woke up in an inn to the sound of someone in my room! I jumped up, finding a drow thief! Fortunately I had a dagger and killed the drow, but he or she had made my chest with all my belongings vanish. At least I had money for replacement until I could get my stuff back.
I'm *not* going to question why an experienced adventurer in an unknown city sleeps with 90.000 GP hidden in her underwear, but keeps her sword in a chest a few steps away from the bed.
The innkeeper's daughter asked me to take what I need from the armory. There was a lot of stuff there, but I decided to be honest, because this was meant to be for everyone defending Waterdeep, so I only took what I could use, not what I could sell.
I also found a small bag on a table in the armory, and while it looked tempting, I didn't think it would be right to take it, especially with the amount of money that I still have. One Rogue Stone must be enough for the moment.
During the fight at the well downstairs I noticed that Darkness is not as crippling as I had feared, even without Blind Fight, but I still plan to take that feat as soon as possible. What I noticed was my dreadful AC, so even when the other adventurers ran after the beholder, I took Durnan's advice and went to buy better equipment first. This is what I ended up with:
Full Plate +3, Tower Shield +3, Cold Iron Blade (aka Blue Lightsaber), Belt of Guiding Light, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Amulet of Natural Armor +3 and Ring of Protection +3. I would have liked a Nymph Cloak, too, but couldn't afford it right now. Then I noticed, shocked, that I had only two healing kits and two Potions of Cure Critical wounds, but I recruited Deekin and he had some stuff in his inventory that he didn't need or couldn't use (like a magic short sword, and some gemstones), so I sold those to buy healing supplies for the two of us as seen in the screenshot above.
I considered it justified, because we were traveling together and the supplies were for both of us. Of course I took none of his items to use for myself and didn't sell any items that I thought he would need. I left him the dagger and shield, too, in case he might need extra protection. He has Point Blank Shot to use his crossbow in melee, but you never know.
I also didn't sell the items I had from the innkeeper's armory. As soon as I found or bought better replacement, I put them back where I got them, for other defenders of the city to use. Now I only have the Ring of Resistance+1 (can't afford a +2 one yet) and the Longbow+2 left from there.
I went into the well with Deekin (told him to advance as a bard, not a dragon disciple, please. His bard song is powerful, and I don't want his AI to cast spells right now). He's cute, funny, and has useful information.
We saved a kobold from the Undermountain and Durnan gave him a cleaning job.
We fought some drow and some monsters, without much trouble, and we have found and resurrected Sharwyn and the Red Tiger guy (can't remember his first name) until now and sent them back to the inn for the moment. I didn't disturb the sleeping kings and gave the creepy mirrors a wide berth.
Then, the almost disaster.
I entered a dark room. Deekin, remaining outside: "Ummm... maybe let's not disturb the sleeping dragon?"
Arvia, turning around: "Dragon, what dragon?" *steps on a trap, door slams shut* Dragon: "Roooooaaaaarrrrr!" Oh, crap!
And don't you frown now because of my low health bar, @BelgarathMTH ! I had already used quite a powerful Lay on Hands and one or two other healing kits from my inventory that don't show up in my quickbar. Divine Favor had been lost trying to cast it with him close, and I *had* to take the risk with Holy Sword, otherwise I would never deal enough damage before he killed me. But then I needed to run and keep healing myself further. I even tried the door again.
The screenshot above was showing me after another healing kit and four potions of Cure Critical Wounds. I had *not* tried to run around with my HP so low. But what can I do if I need three potions to compensate for one of his strikes... I *had* to turn around and fight the beast (after another two healing kits, of course). My healing skills and supplies were not enough to counter his damage for much longer, I hadn't found any Potions of Heal yet.
I prayed to Tyr (I just wrote "Torm" instead... forgot that I had chosen Tyr in the OC. I like Torm more) and turned around to face the dragon. At least now, close enough to the door, Deekin supported me with his Bard Song from outside. I still needed another healing kit and another potion to barely survive this.
*sinks to the ground, panting and with trembling knees*
Going to step much more carefully and do a full stop whenever Deekin says something in the future...
(amazing amount of XP, by the way, but I *really* could have lived without this nail-biting encounter! I was quite certain that this would be my first death in HotU.)
We found a white rod somewhere, which seems to have something to do with the pillars blocking a pathway, but I haven't found out more about that yet, and we've proceeded from the central into the south part of the Undermountain. I also found enough loot to buy a better armor for Deekin. He can use medium armor, so I got him a Chainmail+3, improving his AC from 22 to 24. Not much, I know, but I can't do more for him right now and he's not supposed to tank, anyway. I also cast my second Bull's Strength on him after resting. As spells I'm currently using PfE, 2 Divine Favor, 2 Bull's Strength (one for him, one for me), Eagle's Splendor, Greater Magic Weapon, and Holy Sword (Divine Favor and Holy Sword being kept for special situations, the others cast after rest).
And of course, after getting the armor for Deekin, all the excess money went into as many potions of Cure Critical Wounds and healing kits as I could afford.
Level: 16
Reloads: 0 (I have reset my counter, too complicated otherwise)
The Bioware campaigns are notorious for being easy overall, particularly HotU once you get the ability to amp up your weapons in Chapter 2 (getting your weapon to +10 ASAP is a major, massive, insane boost in power).
I'd suggest you play the Swordflight series, the Aielund Saga (less challenging than Swordflight but still far more difficult than the Bioware campaigns), or my Siege of the Heavens (if you want a shorter romp where you start at 40 instantly).
I know of a few other challenging modules but unfortunately they aren't epic level and thus aren't relevant to your quote.
I am curious, though -- what separates a cheesy from a non-cheesy instakill?
Also, how exactly are you defining unlimited summons?
Time Stop + Empowered IGMS + Empowered IGMS + Time Stop + Empowered IGMS + Empowered IGMS + Time Stop +Empowered IGMS + Empowered IGMS = 1260ish damage with 3 level 9 and 6 level 8 spells used with no saving throw and no damage resistance typically (also, the enemy literally can't even move or react during that). Casters are still broken at high end, though less insanely so than at 20.
HotU in particular does amp up warriors a lot with the +10 weapons you can get at level 25ish if you want but overall casters are still the most broken thing out there. Pick a fight you've done and I'd be happy to show you how a caster can crush it.
And Bards do not count as casters in this case -- we're talking about level 9 spellcasters (bards are level 6).
Mestil's Acid Sheath/Elemental Shield, laugh as it takes 70+ damage per hit against you.
If you have him take RDD levels for the stat boosts he winds up being surprisingly effective at it. Though making sure he gets to at least Bard 16 is helpful due to that being one of the last major Bard Song boosts.
In the Sewers there is a locked vault, i got the key from Londa before she died.
Through the secret entrance to Kurth's Docks area through the docks sewers.
Just some bugbears in the sewers, no problem.
Attacked Kurth's men, no holds barred.
"Ancient Illusk" "Evil of Voleron the Damned", gotta save Evaine than i'm coming back.
Nothing special in Kurth's Lair, killed baddies, searched the whole place, found a Smooth Token and Glowing Sphere and put it into the demonic portal to close it.
He did not survive.
Found Evaine locked up than she Teleported away, recalled to make sure she got back than she and her brother fled the city.
Told Oreth both Captains are dead and he was very pleased.
Back to the Ruins entrance, defeated a Scythe wielding Skeleton than put it's head on the alter.
Many Undead, forgot to memorize Undeath to Death...woops.
Using my vast intelligence and bravery i ran circles around the zombies than used Acid Breath to hit as many as possible.
The next door challenge was a Fallen Hero, he looked like a toughy with that Blue Lightsaber.
Used Interposing Hand than Greater Missile Storm and finishing with 2 Icestorms.
Used the item i got from the Fallen Hero...his heart
Tip...Shadow Fiends aren't immune to Acid
Up till now all the Mummy's have been weak to fire...this ones immune but weak to Electrical???
The Water Elelmental's bowl opens the final door.
Another Lich!
I ran back and drew out the lesser undead and picked them off before facing Voleron, got 2 undeath to death's, and multiple single target spells ready, also Lesser Spell Mantle and drank my last Haste Potion.
YES!! used 2 Undeath to Death's and got him with the second, 110 Divine damage
WOW +5 Ring of Protection.
The Arcane tower was pretty boring, mostly lesser enemies and minor loot, considering it's a Brotherhood tower i always expect more and usually get disappointed
Found this guy with his friend Fred.
Another Lich but this one was pretty weak compared to the others.
on the 9th Level behind a Vrook found Dragon Slippers
i was searching the last of the containers and....
YES!!
Oh Chapter 3 is gonna be good i think.
Justiciar Holar,
I received your courier letter today while returning from an expedition into the Greypeaks. I shall depart for Riverford and arrive upon a ten-day after resting and refitting here in Loudwater.
A hunting trip for game with my companions led us to a deep excursion into the bowels of the mountains themselves. I fear the Zhentarim have gained quite a foothold in these parts, and their pacts with depraved creatures of the underdark is just the most recent example to which they will stoop to further their gains. The Zelbross plot had nothing on this most recent scheme which saw
Dorian and the rest of our adventuring party will continue to search for Zhentarim forces here in the region and given the threat from,
May Tyr's eternal wisdom guide you. Ever your friend and student,
Hugh Calderwood
OOC:
Note: After the party died a third time on this module, again to giants, last night, I gave up on the modified reload for this module. I'll recommence the modified reload in TGMS, which is up next.
The Zelbross Affair - 0 reloads
The Greypeaks - Stupid giants...
The Maimed God's Saga - In progress.
Edit: A date.