So, once the finale is triggered, you can never rest again until you finish Chapter Two, and the final battle is huge, involving armies, and then the Valsharess, with no chance to rest. I really don't see how a mage or a buff-dependent cleric could do this scenario without metagaming to be sure to have all spell slots recharged before the battle gets force-started, completely beyond player control. I consider this a major design flaw in this HotU chapter.
There's an automatic rest before the battle.
Thanks for the instructions on how to disable critical fails. I might go into my .ini and see if I can do that.
I'm not sure what you mean by "automatic rest before the battle". There was a cutscene that said "Now we wait the night and rest" or something like that, but my buff spells did not recharge. Another failed script or bug, perhaps? I had to do the final fight with no buff spells available, except for my Divine Shields based on Turn Undead charges that I still had left, thank goodness.
EDIT: I made the change to disable critical fails on saves in my .ini . Thank you! I think that will make any future fights with gaze-spamming enemies much more fair.
@Cerabelus , great report on Rolgan's trial. You did better than I did - I only got a 3-2 verdict in his favor. I made the mistake of mentioning racism against the Uthgardt to one witness, and I thought I had blown it right there!
Well Finished The Tomb, Snowglobe and Old One's Ruins.
Delvar here advised me on the local attractions.
Invisible Scouting again.
Vaath my target was hiding at the back of this orc camp.
After a quick beating he tried to negotiate and declared himself "great bandit who rob from rich and give to me", lol I'll have to remember that one.
His persuasion needs a little work.
Found a odd looking dagger next to him.
Rolkid was pleased to get Vaath's head and gave me a new target, Obould Many-Arrows...does that mean his good with a bow or he's been hit with Many-Arrows?
Grimnaw upgraded the amulet in exchange for the dagger i found and giving lvl 15 Rei'Leena +30 hp.
Back on track looking for the snowglobe and Tomb, found some cultists and the journal speaks to their...nature.
Found the wizard portal leading to where Nax ran off to with the snowglobe but i'm gonna go to the tomb first.
the tomb has several weak undead hanging around.
Lich Warriors!, all too easy.
I'll summarize this section as it was just kill undead, search for gems Pain, Mysery, Duty and Honor and place them into the corresponding pedestals to get the Star Sapphire.
And there was a very nice lady who was locked down here unjustly, Rei'Leena to the rescue.
She needs her 3 talismans the Gem, Ring and Necklace and off i go.
Found a Stone Golem and it was weak to Acid...oh it's also immune to 3rd lvl magic which includes Acid Breath.
These 2 Elemental's came very close to killing me.
Don't mess with Rei'Leena.
Nothing special in the Wizard's Lairs that Nax ran off to.
Destroyed the braziers summoning fire elemental's, than found instructions on water elemental summoning requiring a Slaadi Tongue in the summoning pool and casting of Melf's Acid Arrow.
Found Nax who was locked up and the only way to open it was conjuring the water elemental and telling it to free Nax.
Found a ring to cast Melf's Acid Arrow in a Lab, used it to complete the conjuring.
Nax lied about having it.
Snowglobe and another +5 ring.
Gave the globe to Lillian.
Rotating the globe shows either dwarf's attacking Dryad's or Dryad's attacking Dwarf's.
Went Invisible and scouted, Arwyl the Dryad speaks being killed thousands of times only to come back again and again.
found a cave and just inside was 2 journals and a broken amulet.
And a White Dragon...better find out whats going on first.
Gave her the journal, turns out she and the dwarf's where allies once and tried to oppose the dragon with this amulet, but until it gets fixed she cant enchant it.
Left the Globe and rotated now the Dryad's are crazy, spoke to Hodd and he fixed the amulet.
Rotate the Globe again and Arwyl enchanted the Amulet of Ages than had a vision of "Cold Death".
The Dragon was less than pleased about the Amulets reforging.
The Dragon used Cold Breath and....17+31 reflex save success???? WHAT where did Rei"Leena get +31?
she has 17 Reflex +8 vs spells from 7th lvl spell Protection from Spells but that was it, i don't get where that came from she wasn't even wearing the Amulet of Ages.
Unless 17+8 than Spellcraft skill? i don't remember what her skill is at but i'm maxing it each lvl.
Anyway this Dragon was less than difficult, 5 Flame Arrow spells, 4 Flame Walls and a couple of flaming slash hits.
Angurvadal...it was somewhat more in BG2 TOB .
Since the Globe's gone silent Lillian's been getting sloshed and the barkeep cut her off...relax girl you need a rest.
In the creator ruins things where pretty ordinary for most of it, killed undead, spoke to a lady who needed someone to go back in time and plant some seeds, and while their have slaves make the Golems weak to Fire, Cold, Blunt or Slash&Pierce, chose Blunt because i wanted to try out a little anit-construct club i found earlier.
hehehe got each one with a failed save vs death
Than the last dead Golem got a payback...
...i ignored the poison effect in my glee and despite Rei'Leena being immune to Ability Drain she fails the next save and instant death , can't say that's ever happen to me before but i usually get rid of poison right away...i felt so stupid.
solved the puzzles and went to take out my sorrow on the guardian.
He rolled a 2 against Finger of Death hehehe, i feel a little better now.
reported to Aaron and he wanted to talk about "Us".
He felt we moved too fast but i told him we will support each other and make it work, not sure if i actually believe that but gotta stay positive...either that or i just didn't want to give back the Amulet he gave me.
Well i'm very disappointed about my foolishness but lessons must be learned...cure that poison, do it now!.
@Cerabelus , another great run report. Condolences on the poison death. My guess is that was a Constitution drain poison, and it drained you to zero or something like that.
@Cerabelus, what's that with Aarin Gend? He never said anything other than strictly business to me. Maybe he knew that paladins don't fall for spymasters, anyway
Poison is mean, condolences. And when it's not strength, you don't always notice it immediately. And then when the "secondary damage" happens, poof!
Level 16 already? Wow! Is the level progression so different for other classes?
Quick update from yesterday evening before I forget everything:
I've started Chapter Two, together with Deekin and Valen. The merchants in town have very good stuff and I have very little money.
We went to the golem island first. Deekin is so cute.
@BelgarathMTH , I don't know if he's tired of the rats or if he wants to travel with your druid and his panther companion again.
Unfortunately, that room was the first death for my two companions. I walked around the trapped area in a way that they could follow, but they bumped into each other, one was wearing Bots of Speed and changed direction before I could see it.
I ran back and tried to heal Deekin, but it was too late already. Sorry, boys. I had to run into a corner to heal myself and wait for it to wear off.
Then our bags got too heavy, we went back, sold everything to the Duergar (better prices than the drow smith) and I went to check what the smith had meant with "improving my weapons".
Oooooooh! I decided to go for "Keen" first. That means (it stacks with my Improved Critical, yay1) my green lightsaber has a critical range of 15-20 now. That's cool. And I bought an Amulet of Natural Armor +6, raising my AC to 47.
We went back, found Merkil's Hammer (which I'm going to use against the golems, of course) and I made level 20. Lousy HP roll, but a point into Charisma gives me a +6 bonus before Eagle's Splendor now, with the Nymph Cloak +5. (I read the thing about strength in the Beholder Lair too late)
I saw the Guardian Golem to the next level a bit late, couldn't keep the boys out of it. He almost got my little Deekin.
I came to an agreement with the Copper Golems. I helped them to free themselves, destroying their Flesh Golem "priest" and giving them the power source, and they agreed to send help when I was going to fight the Valsharess.
On the final level, looking for the "Maker", after destroying the Mithral Golems, I hit level 21.
A better HP roll, and Divine Shield.
The next image is a spoiler about the nature of the "Maker".
It was the middle of the night and suddenly that thing was staring at me. I hate creepy clowns. But trust my little Deekin to lighten the mood:
For that comment alone, he deserves a better weapon! Deekin is getting better in melee now that he's a red dragon disciple, but he can only use tiny or small weapons if he wants to use a shield (and he needs that!), and the tiny ice dagger is not enough.
I decided to buy him a Mace+3 and let the drow smith enhance it with 2d6 electrical bonus damage. There's so much stuff where you need elemental damage to get through.
Deekin has AC 38 and Valen 36 (because he has no shield). I know they both need better rings/amulets asap, but I have to earn more money. I know I also need to upgrade my weapon further. Deekin is still using Bracers of Dexterity +4, so that his armor restriction is at least improved by a higher dex bonus, Valen has the other pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
Both of them use Ring of Resistance +2, I'm wearing the ring of Elemental Resistance instead.
I'm wearing the Uthgardt Ceremonial Belt and the two others are wearing the two Belts of Guiding Light that I had acquired until now (one bought in waterdeep, one from my imported gear).
Is protection from Death Magic still as vital, or should I use other belts?
I know Mind Protection is going to be vital. I'm wearing the Cowl of Whatever, because it gives Freedom, too. Deekin wears my Golden Circlet and Valen that other helmet, the one that protects against critical hits. I can't use the spell option for mind protection when he's wearing it, but I've noticed that I can put it on, cast it on both (or all three?) of us and then give it back to him.
Is there something where my priorities are wrong and I should use something else instead?
Oh, forgot to mention, when we left the golem dungeon on the island, I decided that I'd rather not risk having to slaughter the Duergar. And I *did* kind of take away their source of income, although it wasn't theirs to begin with. I don't need more enemies right now, and certainly not more corpses.
Going to the other island next (good to know that I should keep the mirror that I'm apparently going to find there).
Level: 21
Respawns: 1 (Drow Subcommander in Undermountain)
Reloads: 1 (to get my stolen gear after unexpected force-teleport by Halaster)
Companion Deaths:
Deekin: 1 (Deadly Gas Trap in Golem Dungeon)
Valen: 1 (see Deekin)
@Arvia, another good report. I solved the problem with the Duergar same as you - I gave them 1,000 gold, and they were willing to leave for that.
So, I got Aribeth back today, and I was able to talk her into asking Tyr's forgiveness and return to the good side. She had some strange things to say, but I think she was confused by having died, and then Mephistopholes had tried to confuse her even more. She wasn't thinking straight, but I think I got her to at least start to come to her senses. It was very interesting.
I think she has more to say, and there's a whole character arc that I'd love to read about in someone's report, if they can tolerate Chapter Three.
The first part was one big puzzle. I needed to talk to people (talk, talk, *so* much talking) and find five clues to piece together, plus somehow get a MacGuffin from a guy. I ran out of anyone to talk to, I thought, and went to a walkthrough. I was still missing at least two clues.
You have to solve that puzzle to get to the next part. I looked at the walkthrough, and *that* whole map is another puzzle. Then the one after that. Then the one after that. And again. It looked like there was lots of cheese coming up, such as stolen armor and involuntary polymorphing.
I had forgotten from the only time I ever finished HotU years ago, that it would be like that in Chapter Three. @Sarevok57 mentioned it before.
I'm really sorry if it disappoints anyone, but I just don't have it in me right now to spend the last of my summer vacation solving annoying puzzles in my game.
I'm going to start a run of @Savant1974 's "Saga of Aielund" with a new first level paladin, but the same character and character name. I haven't decided just yet how much documenting to do. I'll consider taking at least a few pictures to showcase the module, because parts of it are really beautiful. There's part of Chapter One where it bogs down in fetch questing and talky-talky, but after that, I think it has a really good balance of roleplay to hack-and-slash. I need plenty of action, and few or no puzzles, or I start to get bored and lose interest.
It also has a custom spell revisions pak and expanded companion control. For example, your cleric, Nelise, can be told "Cast a group of buffing spells", or "Heal me, heal yourself, heal the whole party, heal whoever is most wounded, etc.
Final thoughts on HotU: Chapters One and Two are fun, although not as good as the OC. Chapter Three is just lots of puzzles, with finally a few really hard fights at the end, and some interesting plot twists and turns. But I just can't handle all those puzzles right now, sorry.
@Savant1974's Aielund Saga is a worthy reason to download NWN unto itself. Easily and hands down the best non-PW related experience I had with this game. I look forward to any shares that you might make, @BelgarathMTH. He truly is an artist, and his books are an easy, fun jaunt too.
@Arvia
In Chapter 2 you have to talk to Aaron about his past and he eventually gives you an Amulet.
Since Rei'Leena was Immune to Ability Drain I didn't see the poison as an immediate threat ☹️,
At this point things are mostly go there, defeat enemies, fetch item, repeat.
As for Leveling there isn't any XP difference but hunting down those extra quests does make a difference eventually, last time I played I got to LVL 17.
@BelgarathMTH , I can totally understand that you lost interest. I usually like logic puzzles and such, but *not* in a computer RPG. At least not if it's frequent and time-consuming and overwhelming.
I wish you fun with Aielund Saga. I've downloaded and tried it when I was close to rage-quitting two days ago. Unfortunately it was extremely laggy. I'm not sure if it's my internet connection or if I just have to turn down the graphic settings because my notebook can't handle it, I will look into that when I finish or give up.
I'm going to continue in HotU for the moment, but next week I'll be away and I don't know what I'm going to do after that.
I'm already impressed how long you've stuck to the same run .
If I find the time and patience to go through Chapter 3, I'll share the story. Right now, with only a couple of days until I take a break, I'm not going to write long reports.
One question: Did you support the Matron Mother's daughter? I don't trust the whole issue, but she implied that her mother might betray us...
So far, we've done some fetch and carry, and defeated our first boss fight, a bandit chieftain and his "merry men" who were terrorizing and blocking the North Road from Bracksworth.
**********
It's hard to do justice in screen shots to the beautiful eye candy all over Aielund, in armor and weapon models, interiors, and exteriors. There's a pillow in this inn room that lets you rest in 8 hour increments, so you can control your day/night cycle.
It's raining in Bracksworth. It's been raining for over a month. With the game running instead of just looking at the screen shot, you can actually see the water streams running down the streets moving and flowing. Torches and fireplaces flicker and burn. Environmental effects are fully animated at this advanced state of user-created content, with the Community Expansion Project, and all the different hak paks Savant has used. He's been polishing all the environments for years and years, and it has all been polished into a masterwork of art, music, and eye candy everywhere you look. Sometimes, I just stop and take a moment to rotate the camera, and take in all the amazing detail. It's almost like being on the Enterprise holodeck.
I'm starting to look more like a paladin should, now.
There's lots of party banter throughout the game. This poor sod had been killed by wolves. I really hate to strip him of his armor, but we are desperately poor and in need of equipment at the moment.
Returning the half-orc smith's iron shipment, from the caravan that had been attacked by wolves, got me a reward of an Amulet of Natural Armor +1.
A beautiful sunrise on the South Road. Sunshine is in short supply this far south. We only get daylight from 7:00 to 17:00, and the darkness of night is very dark.
Look at this beautiful snowscape, with realistic looking mountains, hills and caves. Since the rain changes to snow as we travel south, I'm pretty sure this setting is in the southern hemisphere of this planet.
I made level three, and I decided to go ahead and get Blind Fight out of the way. It's really bad to start needing it, and be levels away from your next feat. I really don't like to get caught in Darkness, Blind, Invisible enemies, or rogue heavy scenarios without it, because it greatly increases survivability in such situations.
The forests north of Bracksworth. Notice the beautiful, realistic looking trees. I think that campfire in the distance is probably where the bandit captain awaits.
I decided we'd better go back to the inn and rest before confronting the bandit captain. Notice the detail - wood, chandelier, carpets, clothing on NPC's. There's also a cool custom inn music track in here.
The bandit captain. Nellise got the killing blow. Way to go, Nellise! The most valuable treasure was a Ring of Protection +1. There's a Greatsword +1 that synergizes with Dante's Weapon Focus: Greatsword, but I don't let him use Greatswords - he needs to be a tank, using a shield.
Sunset in Bracksworth.
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 0 (I think there's a respawn mechanic involving a gold dragon watching out for you. I'll not meet it if I can help it, though.)
Level: 3
@Arvia , I wanted nothing to do with drow politics. I told her I wasn't interested, and ignored the whole side quest. That decision did affect events in the final battle, but I won't spoil it. If you did the side quest, you're going to get a different final battle than I did.
@BelgarathMTH , okay, then I'll have to think about it. I didn't open the nested spoiler tag in your report about the fight with the Valsharess. I've decided to read it afterwards. Just this once, I actually resisted clicking on a spoiler tag!
Your screenshot are beautiful. So, it's probably the graphics that my PC couldn't handle. Pity.
1 more respawn against Klauth, the journey to Klauth only had one close call and everything after went really well.
Since the rest of the game was mostly fight I'll skip a lot.
First cave i found lead to Obould and the target for Rolkid.
After many fights found Akulatraxas who's been fighting off attacks from Hill Giants trying to steal her eggs, i volunteered to end it.
After many fights i found the Chieftain, he has no idea.
Finger of Death
Ah! a new weapon.
Nothing i can do.
A scale nearby.
Gorgotha needs someone to go after Klauth...no worries I'll take care of it.
Nice new belt.
...
Found some nice lady's who need help, I'll escort you out and not even question why or how you got here.
WTH?
All you had to do was keep pretending and you where home free?
Hello Skrogg.
bye bye, see ya.
This is the part you ask yourself "why didn't i rest after fighting Skrogg?".
he's casting See Invisibility.
too late.
I thought about killing this dragon to weaken Klauth but it was innocent and i couldn't justify it.
I straight up attacked Klauth as soon as i saw him, than ran out of spells to hit him with (he's immune to 3rd lvl and lower)
Instead of running away i decided to buff up and attack.
Dispelled and 119 fire damage later
Respawned with a vengeance.
Reported to Aaron and lvl 17.
Chapter 4
Nasher tried to talk to me...yeah blah blah blah.
ran around looking for info and a little girl named Leesa is missing and i need to destroy Catapults and Golems.
went to the battle while Invisible and found Leesa, now that shes safe...the battle begins.
Siege Golems vs Magic Missile.
All too easy.
after taking out the Wizards controlling them and destroying the catapults i continued.
That's a nice little ambush you have there.
Horrid Wilting!
A Half-Dragon Baalor? this is the one and only time I've ever seen one in any of the games.
Aribeth...
Good...i didn't want to kill you.
Hello Maugrim, got a present for you.
Hope you enjoyed that Finger of Death.
made sure Leesa got back and reported the golems and catapults destroyed, down to the cells and spoke to Aribeth one last time...Morag dies today.
after several battle found the Chieftain.
Finger of Death.
I wish there was a way to help them, i doubt they got corrupted willingly.
Invisibility Shiv Attack, kill the Cleric.
Morag Dead and lvl 18, i drew out the fighter first than used Horrid Wilting to take out all the protectors at the same time than Dispelled her and good old Finger of Death.
Well i'm sorry my comments weren't exactly good but at this point in the game it's all about defeat the enemies, fetch, return.
My Wizard's are late bloomers but got their in the end.
back to work than I'll start SOU, I'm pretty sure i'm gonna go Monk/Druid.
@Arvia , I had a thought - did you have Real Skies HD installed when you tried to run "Saga of Aielund"? Replacing that with Real Skies Lite might solve your lag problem. When I first installed Aielund on NWN:EE Steam, it was with Real Skies HD, and my game kept crashing. Savant became aware of the problem and uploaded the Real Skies Lite version, which fixed things for me.
We have solved a murder mystery in Culdeny, uncovered a suspicious plot to attack Culdeny, by goblins hired by an "RB", and then went to the Calespar Mountains where we had been asked to help some rangers against poachers. After killing most of the poachers, but letting their leader go, since he surrendered and begged for his life, we then proceeded into a cave network we had been asked to explore, to discover what had moved in there. It was wolves near the entrance, then deeper in, hook horrors, spiders, and umber hulks, and then at the bottom, wyverns. At the other side of the wyvern cave, we found the corpse of an unfortunate dwarven adventurer we had been asked to find, and another passage leading upward into who knows what other cave network. Could there be two ways both down and up?
****************
The blacksmith in Culdeny sells a really good, and also flattering, paladin plate mail and tower shield.
Level 4, one more point of Strength. I'm not changing anything about my paladin builds, because I find my paladin build to be highly successful. I pretty much do the same thing every time.
The Church of Culdeny, outside and inside. The chapel is beautiful. Savant doesn't do the polytheistic pantheon thing that most D&D settings do. Instead, clerics and paladins simply worship and get their powers from "God". While normally I would miss the rich lore and back stories possible with a pantheon, Savant has written an extensive historical backstory for "the Church" in his setting, that somewhat reflects the history of the Catholic Church in real life. You can get pieces of it by talking to Nellise, although, she worships God as a "She", so it's not exactly conservative, orthodox theology going on here. I like it.
The moon over Culdeny.
I tried to solo this umber hulk. It started to not go very well, so I had to call in my companions. They both still have really lousy gear, as I've been prioritizing myself for AC items, and their AC is still awful. I tried putting them both on ranged weapons, and setting them to "follow at a far distance", but they still tend to run up too close and get pulled into melee. I'll be gearing both of them to be as tanky as possible, including shields, as soon as I can possibly get the gear to do it.
This gargoyle ambush is often a multiple reload situation for the inexperienced player. I was still trying to keep Dante and Nellise back on ranged weapons, but several of the gargoyles pulled off and went around an alternate passage to attack the two of them from behind. It's a very crafty setup by Savant. He has lots of these in every Act. After it was done, we got a Cloak of Fortification +1 that I decided to give to Nellise.
Another potentially frustrating multiple-reload fight for the careless or inexperienced player. The wizard is bad enough, but he is supported by a hook horror, and he summons a dire wolf. I thought at one point I was going to die to the dire wolf's Knockdowns, so I re-prioritized the dire wolf as the priority target. @Balkoth has supplemented Aielund with a useful tool that allows you to order your companions to attack the same target as you, which helps a lot with overriding the default AI's terrible tendency to make companions switch targets at random.
I am starting to wonder whether Discipline is a very useful skill. If the wolf could roll high enough to hit me at all on a Knockdown attack, its attack roll was automatically going to far exceed my Discipline.
After it was all over, I had survived, at a cost of 10 (!) healer's kits, and we got a Cloak of Protection +2, a Bracers of Armor +2, and two mage items I couldn't use.
So, at the bottom of the caves, there is an adult wyvern with two young wyverns. We found and killed the first young one separately, but I thought we might be in trouble when the second young one came up behind the adult. However, it seemed to get stuck in its pathfinding and couldn't go around. I was not complaining!
The adult kept spamming Knockdown attacks over and over. It couldn't hit me with that on an 18, because of my careful attention from Level One to always max out my AC as high as possible. No two-handed weapons or dual-wielding for me, please! So, this fight wound up being easier than probably intended, because I had Dante and Nellise back doing ranged support, such that they weren't getting attacked or forcing me to stop fighting and heal them.
Would you believe that when Aielund was first released, Savant had this encounter as a young black dragon? With a Fear aura, (only a paladin wouldn't need to worry about that), a Darkness aura (blinding you), acid breath, and Knockdown attacks? I only ever beat it with lots of reloading and lucky rolls. I think Savant must have listened to the chorus of early complaining about the encounter, and tuned it down to "just" an adult wyvern with two young wyverns.
We got lots and lots of useful treasure at the end of the encounter. My AC is up to 28.
I'm using whatever best enchanted weapon I can find. I'm kind of glad I didn't take Weapon Focus: Longsword early this time.
(Btw, the only thing to do for a dead companion in this game is to use a Raise Dead scroll on their corpse, where they fell. I have three in inventory currently, two of which were in the wyvern treasure horde. I think both companions were expected to be highly likely to die in this encounter. Scrolls of Raise Dead cost just under 2,000 gold each from the Church.)
Mortanious the Necromancer...wait what? wasn't i gonna play a Monk/Druid?, well during character creation i remembered Monk's need to be Lawful and i had to ask myself "is my playstyle Lawful?" and the answer is obvious so i decided to continue with what i know with some new lessons learned.
He's gonna be a pure Mage at least until lvl 20 in HOTU, some spells reach their max at lvl 25 and last time i played i reached lvl 27 so until than focus on magic.
took 2 points from charisma to boost strength but this has hurt persuasion, investing skills into Appraise, Concentration, Lore, Spellcraft, Persuasion than later with more Intelligence Heal than maybe Tumble.
first Feat was Toughness as i'm gonna need all the extra HP i can get.
After the attack (i only got 2 kills ) Ayala gave me my first 2 quests, get components from the herbalist shop in town for the cure and find those damn Kobold's.
Sometimes i just remember things and in BG2 and NWN i have a habit of remembering the answers to riddles from previous plays, maybe their should be a collection of riddles on these games that randomize each time.
i need supplies and i know my fellow students understand.
this chest just begs to be opened, damn that Drogan.
i'm pretty sure this chest doesn't open but it would've been nice if it was another puzzle or something.
Mischa had a practice greatsword in her room, that into the grinder with a quartz makes a blade i can't identify.
gathered the supplies from the containers including a magic helm giving +5 Spot.
this Dog tried to steal my first solo kill.
Barn combat success (lets not talk about the first attempt...the thug crit for 7 damage and Mort has a max HP of 6 ) 10 minutes in and things are already going perfectly.
Farghan had 2 of the 3 components for the cure but the other is in the Tavern kitchen.
Damn Kobold's took a hostage but after failing to persuade them the intimidation worked and i let them go.
returned the cure to Ayala and back to town, lvl 2.
Haniah here has taken over as mayor because during the attack he decided to get sloshed, WTH? why didn't you wait for me?, well Piper outside has been causing trouble.
Ah yes i could use some encouragement like more gold or...
... .
RIGHT EVERYONE we need to get this town in order, right now!.
so Piper here was trying to get people into so new god only he knows about and...wait what? you found a corpse of someone you know and defiled it for personal gain?, your lucky you stopped cause i was feeling some righteous anger and i didn't even know the guy.
anyway Haniah was happy but things aren't back to normal yet.
Katriana and her caravan where attacked and the Kobold's took their seer's deck of cards, their trips between towns is gonna be pretty boring without it so off i go up the hill.
i was looking for Kobold's inside this container and found some Green Spores, hmm now i can grow some mushrooms.
Killed one with a quick arrow shot than slashed the other 2...that went more smoothly than the other fight.
returned the cards and turns out the deck is only for the seer..that's a bit selfish, anyway she gave me a reading about my future and thing are looking great...no worries at all.
Nora's home as been invaded by Kobold's.
...
the murder of Adam now the Baby is being threatened...for a gem!, tried to persuade and failed so i couldn't risk the baby so gave him a gem, the Baby safe and all i had to do was let the Kobold go.
...
50gp is nothing to an adventurer, their world has been shattered and some pocket change is a lot for them.
the green spore and a quartz into the grinder gave another item i can't identify.
decided to start storing gear in these pile of stones behind the blacksmith, no one can find my secret place.
i did this to hoard stuff for later as i want my Appraise skill higher in the hopes of maximizing profit.
out into the world hunting Kobold's and this guy was nice enough to give me info and turns out his wife is sick and needs a treatment from the horns of a Shadow Hart, i didn't commit to the task but i'll keep an eye out.
This Elven Crypt is said to be a good place for dead heroes of a fallen city, found a Kobold being attacked by Rats so i shot him in the back and the Rats didn't like that.
2 more Kobold's and Nilmaldor wants the Kobold's gone and has spider problems.
well hurrah, headed upstairs to an altar and prayed faithfully, the gods love me...they really love me.
oh and lvl 3.
back again and 3 more spiders, these 3 must have been runts or something because i stood at the door and shot each one individually while the others stayed inside out of direct sight and allowed me to pick each on off...have you heard of teamwork?
Nilmaldor was pleased the spiders and the eggs are gone so he told me about a trap for the Kobold's and gave me a key for upstairs.
hmm somehow i feel like i didn't get the best reward but 5 points is better than none.
found a very nice spirit who lost his sword, turns out a thief stole it! what kind of person just steals things from a crypt...that's just terrible...except if it's evil than that's all good.
found the blade and returned it for another item i can't identify.
found the trap room Nil talked about and turned it back on, put on the helmet of protection and time to negotiate with a room full of Kobold's, what could go wrong.
Negotiation 101...always start with a lie.
Oh Shi&@ that was actually not very good negotiating and got several shots in the rear for my trouble.
why didn't i attack the leader first? why did i leave him till last? now that the gas has run out i tell myself "these are life's total mysteries that can never be solved".
With Ghostly Visage that actually went pretty well.
now off to find this Deekin they spoke of, to Blumberg.
i now realize i said "Bloomberg" in a previous post.
tried to help a dying man and 2 Gnoll's shot him, after they died i picked a fight with a Shaman and got 2 Warriors while the Shaman stayed back to heal, damn near died again.
after carefully mopping up the rest of them and shooting a Gnoll who was bashing on a door i entered the house.
Deekin blackmailed me to help him get free of a Dragon, a Dragon! i'm only lvl 3.
Oh Shi&@, found a hostile bear...shoot it for 2 damage.
Magic Missile, Ghostly Visage saves the day again.
and lvl 4.
found a farm and the Duergar owner has a missing Daughter...taken by a Hill Giant, Dragon's and Hill Giant's...i'm feeling under leveled.
found the Shadow Hart, a beautiful creature to be sure...i think of Ferran's wife.
i should've told the Shadow Hart to run.
i actually got 7 good points for that...than why do i feel less inside.
i remind myself what i heard a Hunter say once "your suppose to feel bad about it, it reminds you not to take too much", no comfort at all but i don't deserve it.
the heart and a quartz in the grinder...
That Kobold Hurc in the Hilltop Tavern, if i could play a Kobold that's gonna be my portrait.
work again than Gnoll hunting...finding, i don't like that word now.
lvl 4
Respawns: 1 (Kobold Thug)
Reloads: 0
No Companion.
I have continued to play until reaching level 24. Feats: Divine Shield at 21, Armor Skin at 23 and Divine Might at 24, 1 point into Strength.
I have finished all quests around the drow rebel camp, except for the Beholder Lair, where I arrived yesterday and felt like quitting again.
I negotiated with the Elder Brain without fighting, freed the slave village from the undead cult, Valen died once against Soldaris (the last fight, before the pit). We survived the dracolich (twice), although that fight made me use all our potions of heal. Keeping two companies alive is difficult.
I freed the deva and recruited her for the Seer, I freed the slave woman in the mind flayer compound, and I decided to believe the Matron Mother's daughter, which means I've assassinated the Matron Mother of house Mae'vir. I do realize that's a bit out of character for a paladin, but I've analyzed the situation and trusted my judgment. I think it's likely that the old Matron Mother would have betrayed the Seer, so I considered it the lesser evil. I hope it wasn't a mistake.
I had to reload twice. Once, because I accidentally clicked on the wrong dialogue choice that would have made me side with the Matron Mother, and once because the game crashed when I came back to the rebel camp after the Elder Brain (the cutscene that would have triggered the finale without having been to the beholder lair). So, since I had to reload anyway because of the crash, I decided I'd rather fight the beholders now than during the fight with the Valsharess.
I had a respawn at the entrance already. That stupid Grease! I destroyed one of the pumps, but I slipped all the time and didn't even get up for half a second before falling again, and that repeated several times. They were hitting me with magical damage all the time, and even with over 200 HP I had absolutely no chance, because I couldn't drink a portion of heal or use lay on hands or whatever while lying on the ground.
At least the game could give us a small chance to get up for a moment. How much Discipline do I need to resist? Or do only the Dragon Slippers with their Immunity to Knockdown help? I can't possibly keep every item "just in case", especially with the amount of money needed to survive in this game.
And I know there's more bad stuff to come in this dungeon.
My green lightsaber is +7 now and gives me 20 magic resistance.
I'm sorry that I didn't write a nice report or include screenshots. I'm writing on the phone, during a break at work, the PC is at home. Right now I can't write when I'm at home, for various reasons, first of all because it takes up too much time. I just wanted to share where I have arrived before I stop playing for a while.
I don't know when I'll continue to play, but not before August 13th. Right now, the situation at home won't allow me to play or post at all, and on August 5th we'll go on vacation for a week. At least I hope that we'll still go. Things aren't good.
Level: 24
Reloads: 3 (one because of a game crash)
Respawns: 2
Companion deaths:
Deekin 1
Valen 2
@BelgarathMTH
I'm not sure if I'm gonna play NWN 2 next or maybe BG 1&2, have you done a minimal reload thread on BG?
I could do IWD 1 but not 2, last time I played 2 I came to the conclusion they made the game with AD&D 2.5e in mind and slapped in 3.0e last minute, I enjoyed most of it but would've enjoyed more had it been 2.5.
Why did they move away from the full control party system?
I love using Mage's on BG, Spell Sequencers, Contingencies, Triggers, go Cleric/Mage and put Cleric spells in a Sequencer or Contingency (put a full heal spell in a contingency to trigger when you reach 50%) ?.
Or play an Inquisitor Pally and totally decimate those pesky evil Mage's.
Had a lot of fun with an Avenger Druid, good spells Iron Skin, Call Lightning, even Chromatic Orb and transform into a Sword Spider and poison everyone ?.
? Are you playing on hard or Bhaal mode or something? I only do that on IWD since I can make a stronger team, some of the companions in BG are a bit squishy.
I usually go with Imoen, Viconia, Khalid, Jaheira, than pick up Dorn for side quest and let him go than same for Rasaad, I tend to keep Neera, sometimes bring Minsc and Dynaheir.
Similar for BG2 with Jaheira, Neera, Minsc if needed, Viconia, Imoen, swap out Dorn and Rasaad again than let them go, Hexat for a time, always get Sarevok in TOB.
insane difficulty actually hahaha, although i refuse to play LoB mode since i find it boring as hell
party member wise i like to switch it up a bit, hence the reason why my team had some weird mates in it
plus you can make your own team in BG as well, which i do every once in awhile when i get bored of using squishy under powered joinable PCs ( although ironically enough i dont play OP class/characters anymore, when i do make a custom team i try and make them with flavor or interesting, as apposed to 3 berserkers and the rest being dual class humans for cleric, thief and mage )
and for BG 2 im going to use; mazzy, valygar, jaheira, aerie and nalia, haven't used valygar for a while, so its time to give him some lovin
Valygar i only used a few times in my first few plays and i tried to use him like a fighter not appreciating the Stalker kit having Haste and some other lower Mage buffs, i should try him again one day.
Mazzy is a fighter but she talks like a Pally i remember wondering why she isn't, are Halfling's eligible?
and Aerie...i have a soft spot for her, keeping her around showed me the potential of Cleric/Mage's in higher levels and eventually she finds her strength and her voice set changes from being hesitant in battle to "Evil must not be allowed to fester!", patience...with your help she finds her way eventually.
I never showed much interest in Nalia but i remember if summoned in TOB she sounded a little arrogant but maybe i never gave her the chance, i always go for Imoen as soon as i can.
If i did Insane on BG i'd have to go Dwarven Defender and be Tanky with heal support, in BG2 Imoen would be dedicated to ranged bow and dispelling, maybe go Valygar to give people a sneaky reach around , maybe Anomen for combat healer.
I love to hear Jan Jansen annoy people, talking about a Drow named Biffle Chump, luring Golem's with saucers of milk .
in SoA i dont really like getting imoen all that much because if i do, i will run off to spell hold right away, and the time i come back im so high level that the rest of the quest that i didn't finish ( which is basically all of them ) are just way too easy
starting fresh in ToB on the other hand, imoen is indeed better than nalia, and you are correct, nalia gets a voice upgrade in ToB, supposedly its to support the idea that she isn't as naive anymore, but yet her WIS is still 9, so lulz
Well so much has happened since my last post so I'll have to breeze over it.
on the way to the Gnoll's i found 2 caves, 3 bandit's were talking about getting a key and 1 walked away towards the second cave.
The Chief wasn't pleased i came for a visit and chased me around the snow for awhile, after healing i used my bow to weaken him than fire slash.
The first cave was dangerous, Bugbear's, 3 wolf's, Polar Bear, 4 Skeleton Warrior's and a Mummy.
Good things they were in small groups and i could lure them a couple at a time.
Another cave with Wyrmling's, White ones first which weren't a problems with Flame Weapon but the Red ones i had to draw out 1 at a time and used 1st lvl spell Ice Dagger.
Into the Gnoll caves and after clearing out the hallways i freed some Blumberg captives, found a Beastmaster and drew him out, he had 3 bears locked up.
Used my trusty bow and shot them through the bar .
after opening a locked door using Meran my Pixie.
Epic battle of the Wizard's.
Freed the Kobold prisoners than negotiated with Gishnak, he isn't happy to have J'Nah telling him what to do and wants to work together and take her out.
Underground in the ruins followed each hallway to the Elelmental's but on the way found.
Use the right Arcane Cantrip to dispel Water (Flare) and get a token for the magic pool, you can only do this once and there are 4 different ones Fire, Water, Air, Earth.
Each of the Elemental mini bosses are weak to their opposing element.
The Earth was the most dangerous and i had to go in Hasted and smash with spells than run out close the door use kits than hope for the best.
2 tokens into the pool and press 4 buttons, my new robe for the rest of the game.
i didn't like my chances so told her what she wanted to hear and got the hell outta there.
The Kobold Caves where annoying but that's to be expected from them, they tried real hard to stop me.
One of the Kobold's i rescued vouched for me and the Chief gave me a chance to negotiate and after passing the Persuasion i helped him sort out the problems with the Master Jumper, Umm the Chief just gave his Sister to the Jumper as a wife...ok.
This part gets me everytime, launching into a counter weight .
Damn Freezer and his gang made me retreat several times but after luring out his gang and giving them an Acid Breath i hunted down Freezer and Namek is saved...oh wait that DBZ .
Definitely not ready for a Dragon but Tymofarrar is far more interested in greed and vengeance against J'Nah so i got the powder to weaken her.
Almost forgot to rescue the Dwarf girl from Rumgut, after failing to convince Rummy the Girl wasn't wife material i let him lock me up, after escaping through the tunnel i totally didn't return to get my head caved in.
I didn't expect to do well but my first attempt nearly worked, went in all buffed and Hasted and he almost died, YES! second try!.
I've gained a much greater appreciation for Ghostly Visage in the early game. .
My 3rd death against J'Nah but i almost got her before the Gnoll's came to help so adjusted my plan, the second time i hit her with the powder than while Hasted did as much damage as possible before her guards tuned hostile than ran to the other side to Acid Breath and the Gnoll's turned up and the Guards turned to face them, i ran in to finish J'Nah before she got up Ethereal Visage like last time, after that i was in no condition to take on the Gnoll's and let them go.
Two Weapon Staff and Sword? lol no.
Tymo tried to betray me but i told him "J'Nah told me you couldn't be trusted" and he didn't like the sound of that and i asked for the Helm artifact as a reward...wait what! i was suppose to get Deekin's freedom, i tried to bargain but Tymo wanted 2000gp worth of magic items in exchange so i put in 3 Wands and the Staff of Power.
got the Tower from Deekin and back to a cured Drogon
lvl 7
Respawns: 1
Reloads: 2 (Rummy, J'Nah)
No Companion.
The Interlude.
Now that i have Stoneskin and Icestorm things went more smoothly...for me at least.
Poor Deekin was downed 4 times while i was fighting a Acid Halberd wielding Stinger and his guards, he just wouldn't stay back and use that Crossbow and stupid me kept using kits because i thought i wouldn't survive without him...i did.
Against the Manticore i told Deekin to Hold Position and Stoneskin than Ghostly Visage kept me safe .
Killed the Priest first but all the Ghoul's Came back, destroyed the alter...that's a lot of blood.
Glad i didn't have that problem with the disappearing items, a staff with 3 uses per day of lvl 12 Flame Arrow .
Secret door = sneaky reach around.
I raided the chests and coffins, but the Mummy's inside weren't too happy.
1 usage of lvl 12 flame arrow made Kel run away.
Fireballs...no thank you.
Feel the burn Kel.
I was really nervous about this fight, i retreated to rest and prepare Elemental Shield than buffed, Hasted and unleashed 2 Icestorms, Jammed them at the door and with Stoneskin and Ghostly Visage survived long enough to Breath them.
I've had a lot of trouble with that fight in the past so that went extremely well.
The Skeleton Blackguard was guarding a secret treasure room...nice.
another secret door leading directly to Kel.
This Flame Arrow is so OP against Kel.
Kel instantly dispelled me at the start of the fight and i had to run away and duck out for quick attacks and as a result Ali was the only survivor of the locals ...not my finest hour but at least Deekin stayed away like i told him and no more deaths here.
Littles side quests at the Camp of Ao like Wine, Heal, I'm the Avatar of Ao, the usual stuff.
I hate Slaad, their so annoying.
Haste + Interposing...nice.
Why did i walk into range of their gaze before attacking...i'm stupid.
anyway i actually used my brain on the second try, used the lotion on the Sphinx and he asked me some riddles.
i remembered the answers than the last one made my eyes glazed over with complication.
i failed.
Luckily he wasn't upset and left without killing me...good.
This machine is a little puzzle involving deciphering the pillars and placing the items you want to use into the urns and making a power stone i forgot i had and never used it the entire rest of the game.
I got confused and murdered Deekin...woops, than i died.
Revenge!
Queeny and i made a truce...might have been nice earlier.
Used the orb to make.
1 use per day of lvl 9 Stoneskin, Magic Circle against Evil, Protection against Elements.
Breath the guards, lesser missile storm the leader.
Used a bow, shield and staff to mark locations.
got petrified again and Interlude complete.
Chapter 2
Only place to rest here until we clear the area.
Ashtara is terrible to sell to and i tried to keep everything i could but i need money for kits and spells.
The Golem kept beating up Deeking instead of me...big mistake.
buff and Interposing hand, all too easy.
Stole his masters ring while he was walking across the room, sorry Butler but i'm glade we don't have to fight...you seemed nice enough.
The power of the ring cannot be denied.
Hmm a book that makes people laugh.
In some wishing wells found a nice gem of sight which came in handy and a gem of brightness that i completely forgot i had for the rest of the game.
They murdered Jendra so i showed no mercy, that went well so time to find some nice treasure...
Hmm that wasn't exactly nice.
A very nice cloak for Deekin and amulet for me.
rewrote the story and reentered, much better ending and Jendra saved by her Knight...good work Sir Willy
Damn i hate Greater Sanctuary but when we could finally attack i used Lesser spell breach than 2 IGMS's and Empowered Acid Breaths than Lesser Missile Storms, he finally went down the pain the...
Find Traps is so OP, that Lens of Detection really comes in handy.
If your lower than lvl 11 here this is where you make up that lost XP, these Disturbed will keep respawning and bring in some nice XP but I'm 11 so 19 each isn't worth the bother.
Undeath to Death is Awesome
YES!...Oh Shi&@!
I got him just was the Zombies respawned .
I had to round them up into a group than spam 4 Icestorms and gave the Greater Zombie Empowered and 3 normal Acid Breaths...damn that spell resist.
The Shadovar where very weak to fire so they died easily.
I reloaded against the Shadow Lich because i became Immortal and it felt wrong to continue, this was a first for me but maybe it happened before and i didn't notice.
Fire down his support than Greater Spell Breach, IGMS...no messing around with these bosses.
Empowered Icestorm than she ran up just out of Gaze range and used it...good job there AI.
The rest of the climb was pretty standard, fight annoying Wisp's and don't let Deekin follow you into fire beast attacks.
On the way to the levers...lvl 13 , almost got Finger of death but i went with Shadow Shield and Protecton from Spells.
Told Deekin to stay here and i got ready.
Didn't even talk to her, i just spammed normal Icestorms taking out 3 Mythals at a time.
Pretty.
She didn't even use many buffs before i got her with 2 IGMS's and Empowered Acid Breaths .
after the annoying Wise Wind you were all too easy.
well i didn't exactly keep a Minimal Reload but this was definitely a personal best, Mortanious is getting some real power now.
I never lost any items in my inventory or Deekin's, so glad i didn't come across that and i stripped Deekin before the final fight...Mortanious is a bit overloaded.
@Cerabelus , Congratulations on finishing SoU! Thanks for posting in such detail. Wow, that was a lot of pictures. It must have taken forever to organize them all.
@Cerabelus , very well done! At least you noticed the "immortal" bug early enough, because you knew about it. It took me until the final fight to realize it, and then I didn't want to do that annoying shadow plane maze and everything that followed again
I'll continue in HotU next week, after a vacation that's hopefully all about biking, swimming, bodyboarding, eating unhealthy food and staring at the North Sea while enjoying Belgian beer.
You'll probably have finished HotU until then. In that case, I would like to ask you to mark in a post when you finish chapter two, so that I won't read beyond it before I get there.
@Arvia , I got into a more action rpg mood the past few days, and have been playing Titan Quest. There are two new acts of it that got released over the past couple of years, and I've never played either of them. I'm seeing if I can play long enough to finally see all the new content I haven't seen yet.
I wasn't sure I wanted to keep up with the reporting for the time being, since apparently everyone else is having trouble running Saga of Aielund, and I guess it's kind of a "mission accomplished" as far as trying to teach and give pointers, as you're now as much or more of an expert at playing a paladin in NWN as I am.
I have a lot of games I play continuously in a rotating cycle as my moods change, and it was time to cycle on to the next game I had an urge to revisit. Also, action, loot-based, Diablo style games work better now that my vacation is ending, because I'll only have time for short one or two hour play sessions after teaching before I'll be ready to eat, watch a little TV, and go to bed most days. The nice thing about Diablo style games is that I can mindlessly play hack-and-slash for a couple of hours without needing to make roleplay choices or think about anything. Sometimes I need that, when my work schedule gets busier and work-related stress starts to pile up.
Comments
Thanks for the instructions on how to disable critical fails. I might go into my .ini and see if I can do that.
I'm not sure what you mean by "automatic rest before the battle". There was a cutscene that said "Now we wait the night and rest" or something like that, but my buff spells did not recharge. Another failed script or bug, perhaps? I had to do the final fight with no buff spells available, except for my Divine Shields based on Turn Undead charges that I still had left, thank goodness.
EDIT: I made the change to disable critical fails on saves in my .ini . Thank you! I think that will make any future fights with gaze-spamming enemies much more fair.
Delvar here advised me on the local attractions.
Invisible Scouting again.
Vaath my target was hiding at the back of this orc camp.
After a quick beating he tried to negotiate and declared himself "great bandit who rob from rich and give to me", lol I'll have to remember that one.
His persuasion needs a little work.
Found a odd looking dagger next to him.
Rolkid was pleased to get Vaath's head and gave me a new target, Obould Many-Arrows...does that mean his good with a bow or he's been hit with Many-Arrows?
Grimnaw upgraded the amulet in exchange for the dagger i found and giving lvl 15 Rei'Leena +30 hp.
Back on track looking for the snowglobe and Tomb, found some cultists and the journal speaks to their...nature.
Found the wizard portal leading to where Nax ran off to with the snowglobe but i'm gonna go to the tomb first.
the tomb has several weak undead hanging around.
Lich Warriors!, all too easy.
I'll summarize this section as it was just kill undead, search for gems Pain, Mysery, Duty and Honor and place them into the corresponding pedestals to get the Star Sapphire.
And there was a very nice lady who was locked down here unjustly, Rei'Leena to the rescue.
She needs her 3 talismans the Gem, Ring and Necklace and off i go.
Found a Stone Golem and it was weak to Acid...oh it's also immune to 3rd lvl magic which includes Acid Breath.
These 2 Elemental's came very close to killing me.
Don't mess with Rei'Leena.
Nothing special in the Wizard's Lairs that Nax ran off to.
Destroyed the braziers summoning fire elemental's, than found instructions on water elemental summoning requiring a Slaadi Tongue in the summoning pool and casting of Melf's Acid Arrow.
Found Nax who was locked up and the only way to open it was conjuring the water elemental and telling it to free Nax.
Found a ring to cast Melf's Acid Arrow in a Lab, used it to complete the conjuring.
Nax lied about having it.
Snowglobe and another +5 ring.
Gave the globe to Lillian.
Rotating the globe shows either dwarf's attacking Dryad's or Dryad's attacking Dwarf's.
Went Invisible and scouted, Arwyl the Dryad speaks being killed thousands of times only to come back again and again.
found a cave and just inside was 2 journals and a broken amulet.
And a White Dragon...better find out whats going on first.
Gave her the journal, turns out she and the dwarf's where allies once and tried to oppose the dragon with this amulet, but until it gets fixed she cant enchant it.
Left the Globe and rotated now the Dryad's are crazy, spoke to Hodd and he fixed the amulet.
Rotate the Globe again and Arwyl enchanted the Amulet of Ages than had a vision of "Cold Death".
The Dragon was less than pleased about the Amulets reforging.
The Dragon used Cold Breath and....17+31 reflex save success???? WHAT where did Rei"Leena get +31?
she has 17 Reflex +8 vs spells from 7th lvl spell Protection from Spells but that was it, i don't get where that came from she wasn't even wearing the Amulet of Ages.
Unless 17+8 than Spellcraft skill? i don't remember what her skill is at but i'm maxing it each lvl.
Anyway this Dragon was less than difficult, 5 Flame Arrow spells, 4 Flame Walls and a couple of flaming slash hits.
Angurvadal...it was somewhat more in BG2 TOB
Since the Globe's gone silent Lillian's been getting sloshed and the barkeep cut her off...relax girl you need a rest.
In the creator ruins things where pretty ordinary for most of it, killed undead, spoke to a lady who needed someone to go back in time and plant some seeds, and while their have slaves make the Golems weak to Fire, Cold, Blunt or Slash&Pierce, chose Blunt because i wanted to try out a little anit-construct club i found earlier.
hehehe got each one with a failed save vs death
Than the last dead Golem got a payback...
...i ignored the poison effect in my glee and despite Rei'Leena being immune to Ability Drain she fails the next save and instant death
solved the puzzles and went to take out my sorrow on the guardian.
He rolled a 2 against Finger of Death hehehe, i feel a little better now.
reported to Aaron and he wanted to talk about "Us".
He felt we moved too fast but i told him we will support each other and make it work, not sure if i actually believe that but gotta stay positive...either that or i just didn't want to give back the Amulet he gave me.
Well i'm very disappointed about my foolishness but lessons must be learned...cure that poison, do it now!.
Next is the Moonwood.
'Edit"
Forgot to mention, lvl 16 in the Ruins.
Poison is mean, condolences. And when it's not strength, you don't always notice it immediately. And then when the "secondary damage" happens, poof!
Level 16 already? Wow! Is the level progression so different for other classes?
I've started Chapter Two, together with Deekin and Valen. The merchants in town have very good stuff and I have very little money.
We went to the golem island first. Deekin is so cute.
@BelgarathMTH , I don't know if he's tired of the rats or if he wants to travel with your druid and his panther companion again.
Unfortunately, that room was the first death for my two companions. I walked around the trapped area in a way that they could follow, but they bumped into each other, one was wearing Bots of Speed and changed direction before I could see it.
I ran back and tried to heal Deekin, but it was too late already. Sorry, boys. I had to run into a corner to heal myself and wait for it to wear off.
Then our bags got too heavy, we went back, sold everything to the Duergar (better prices than the drow smith) and I went to check what the smith had meant with "improving my weapons".
Oooooooh! I decided to go for "Keen" first. That means (it stacks with my Improved Critical, yay1) my green lightsaber has a critical range of 15-20 now. That's cool. And I bought an Amulet of Natural Armor +6, raising my AC to 47.
We went back, found Merkil's Hammer (which I'm going to use against the golems, of course) and I made level 20. Lousy HP roll, but a point into Charisma gives me a +6 bonus before Eagle's Splendor now, with the Nymph Cloak +5. (I read the thing about strength in the Beholder Lair too late)
I saw the Guardian Golem to the next level a bit late, couldn't keep the boys out of it. He almost got my little Deekin.
I came to an agreement with the Copper Golems. I helped them to free themselves, destroying their Flesh Golem "priest" and giving them the power source, and they agreed to send help when I was going to fight the Valsharess.
On the final level, looking for the "Maker", after destroying the Mithral Golems, I hit level 21.
A better HP roll, and Divine Shield.
The next image is a spoiler about the nature of the "Maker".
It was the middle of the night and suddenly that thing was staring at me. I hate creepy clowns. But trust my little Deekin to lighten the mood:
For that comment alone, he deserves a better weapon! Deekin is getting better in melee now that he's a red dragon disciple, but he can only use tiny or small weapons if he wants to use a shield (and he needs that!), and the tiny ice dagger is not enough.
I decided to buy him a Mace+3 and let the drow smith enhance it with 2d6 electrical bonus damage. There's so much stuff where you need elemental damage to get through.
Deekin has AC 38 and Valen 36 (because he has no shield). I know they both need better rings/amulets asap, but I have to earn more money. I know I also need to upgrade my weapon further. Deekin is still using Bracers of Dexterity +4, so that his armor restriction is at least improved by a higher dex bonus, Valen has the other pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
Both of them use Ring of Resistance +2, I'm wearing the ring of Elemental Resistance instead.
I'm wearing the Uthgardt Ceremonial Belt and the two others are wearing the two Belts of Guiding Light that I had acquired until now (one bought in waterdeep, one from my imported gear).
Is protection from Death Magic still as vital, or should I use other belts?
I know Mind Protection is going to be vital. I'm wearing the Cowl of Whatever, because it gives Freedom, too. Deekin wears my Golden Circlet and Valen that other helmet, the one that protects against critical hits. I can't use the spell option for mind protection when he's wearing it, but I've noticed that I can put it on, cast it on both (or all three?) of us and then give it back to him.
Is there something where my priorities are wrong and I should use something else instead?
Oh, forgot to mention, when we left the golem dungeon on the island, I decided that I'd rather not risk having to slaughter the Duergar. And I *did* kind of take away their source of income, although it wasn't theirs to begin with. I don't need more enemies right now, and certainly not more corpses.
Going to the other island next (good to know that I should keep the mirror that I'm apparently going to find there).
Level: 21
Respawns: 1 (Drow Subcommander in Undermountain)
Reloads: 1 (to get my stolen gear after unexpected force-teleport by Halaster)
Companion Deaths:
Deekin: 1 (Deadly Gas Trap in Golem Dungeon)
Valen: 1 (see Deekin)
So, I got Aribeth back today, and I was able to talk her into asking Tyr's forgiveness and return to the good side. She had some strange things to say, but I think she was confused by having died, and then Mephistopholes had tried to confuse her even more. She wasn't thinking straight, but I think I got her to at least start to come to her senses. It was very interesting.
I think she has more to say, and there's a whole character arc that I'd love to read about in someone's report, if they can tolerate Chapter Three.
The first part was one big puzzle. I needed to talk to people (talk, talk, *so* much talking) and find five clues to piece together, plus somehow get a MacGuffin from a guy. I ran out of anyone to talk to, I thought, and went to a walkthrough. I was still missing at least two clues.
You have to solve that puzzle to get to the next part. I looked at the walkthrough, and *that* whole map is another puzzle. Then the one after that. Then the one after that. And again. It looked like there was lots of cheese coming up, such as stolen armor and involuntary polymorphing.
I had forgotten from the only time I ever finished HotU years ago, that it would be like that in Chapter Three. @Sarevok57 mentioned it before.
I'm really sorry if it disappoints anyone, but I just don't have it in me right now to spend the last of my summer vacation solving annoying puzzles in my game.
I'm going to start a run of @Savant1974 's "Saga of Aielund" with a new first level paladin, but the same character and character name. I haven't decided just yet how much documenting to do. I'll consider taking at least a few pictures to showcase the module, because parts of it are really beautiful. There's part of Chapter One where it bogs down in fetch questing and talky-talky, but after that, I think it has a really good balance of roleplay to hack-and-slash. I need plenty of action, and few or no puzzles, or I start to get bored and lose interest.
It also has a custom spell revisions pak and expanded companion control. For example, your cleric, Nelise, can be told "Cast a group of buffing spells", or "Heal me, heal yourself, heal the whole party, heal whoever is most wounded, etc.
Final thoughts on HotU: Chapters One and Two are fun, although not as good as the OC. Chapter Three is just lots of puzzles, with finally a few really hard fights at the end, and some interesting plot twists and turns. But I just can't handle all those puzzles right now, sorry.
In Chapter 2 you have to talk to Aaron about his past and he eventually gives you an Amulet.
Since Rei'Leena was Immune to Ability Drain I didn't see the poison as an immediate threat ☹️,
At this point things are mostly go there, defeat enemies, fetch item, repeat.
As for Leveling there isn't any XP difference but hunting down those extra quests does make a difference eventually, last time I played I got to LVL 17.
I wish you fun with Aielund Saga. I've downloaded and tried it when I was close to rage-quitting two days ago. Unfortunately it was extremely laggy. I'm not sure if it's my internet connection or if I just have to turn down the graphic settings because my notebook can't handle it, I will look into that when I finish or give up.
I'm going to continue in HotU for the moment, but next week I'll be away and I don't know what I'm going to do after that.
I'm already impressed how long you've stuck to the same run
If I find the time and patience to go through Chapter 3, I'll share the story. Right now, with only a couple of days until I take a break, I'm not going to write long reports.
One question: Did you support the Matron Mother's daughter? I don't trust the whole issue, but she implied that her mother might betray us...
**********
It's hard to do justice in screen shots to the beautiful eye candy all over Aielund, in armor and weapon models, interiors, and exteriors. There's a pillow in this inn room that lets you rest in 8 hour increments, so you can control your day/night cycle.
It's raining in Bracksworth. It's been raining for over a month. With the game running instead of just looking at the screen shot, you can actually see the water streams running down the streets moving and flowing. Torches and fireplaces flicker and burn. Environmental effects are fully animated at this advanced state of user-created content, with the Community Expansion Project, and all the different hak paks Savant has used. He's been polishing all the environments for years and years, and it has all been polished into a masterwork of art, music, and eye candy everywhere you look. Sometimes, I just stop and take a moment to rotate the camera, and take in all the amazing detail. It's almost like being on the Enterprise holodeck.
I'm starting to look more like a paladin should, now.
There's lots of party banter throughout the game. This poor sod had been killed by wolves. I really hate to strip him of his armor, but we are desperately poor and in need of equipment at the moment.
Returning the half-orc smith's iron shipment, from the caravan that had been attacked by wolves, got me a reward of an Amulet of Natural Armor +1.
A beautiful sunrise on the South Road. Sunshine is in short supply this far south. We only get daylight from 7:00 to 17:00, and the darkness of night is very dark.
Look at this beautiful snowscape, with realistic looking mountains, hills and caves. Since the rain changes to snow as we travel south, I'm pretty sure this setting is in the southern hemisphere of this planet.
I made level three, and I decided to go ahead and get Blind Fight out of the way. It's really bad to start needing it, and be levels away from your next feat. I really don't like to get caught in Darkness, Blind, Invisible enemies, or rogue heavy scenarios without it, because it greatly increases survivability in such situations.
The forests north of Bracksworth. Notice the beautiful, realistic looking trees. I think that campfire in the distance is probably where the bandit captain awaits.
I decided we'd better go back to the inn and rest before confronting the bandit captain. Notice the detail - wood, chandelier, carpets, clothing on NPC's. There's also a cool custom inn music track in here.
The bandit captain. Nellise got the killing blow. Way to go, Nellise! The most valuable treasure was a Ring of Protection +1. There's a Greatsword +1 that synergizes with Dante's Weapon Focus: Greatsword, but I don't let him use Greatswords - he needs to be a tank, using a shield.
Sunset in Bracksworth.
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 0 (I think there's a respawn mechanic involving a gold dragon watching out for you. I'll not meet it if I can help it, though.)
Level: 3
Your screenshot are beautiful. So, it's probably the graphics that my PC couldn't handle. Pity.
1 more respawn against Klauth, the journey to Klauth only had one close call and everything after went really well.
Since the rest of the game was mostly fight I'll skip a lot.
First cave i found lead to Obould and the target for Rolkid.
After many fights found Akulatraxas who's been fighting off attacks from Hill Giants trying to steal her eggs, i volunteered to end it.
After many fights i found the Chieftain, he has no idea.
Finger of Death
Ah! a new weapon.
Nothing i can do.
A scale nearby.
Gorgotha needs someone to go after Klauth...no worries I'll take care of it.
Nice new belt.
...
Found some nice lady's who need help, I'll escort you out and not even question why or how you got here.
WTH?
All you had to do was keep pretending and you where home free?
Hello Skrogg.
bye bye, see ya.
This is the part you ask yourself "why didn't i rest after fighting Skrogg?".
he's casting See Invisibility.
too late.
I thought about killing this dragon to weaken Klauth but it was innocent and i couldn't justify it.
I straight up attacked Klauth as soon as i saw him, than ran out of spells to hit him with (he's immune to 3rd lvl and lower)
Instead of running away i decided to buff up and attack.
Dispelled and 119 fire damage later
Respawned with a vengeance.
Reported to Aaron and lvl 17.
Chapter 4
Nasher tried to talk to me...yeah blah blah blah.
ran around looking for info and a little girl named Leesa is missing and i need to destroy Catapults and Golems.
went to the battle while Invisible and found Leesa, now that shes safe...the battle begins.
Siege Golems vs Magic Missile.
All too easy.
after taking out the Wizards controlling them and destroying the catapults i continued.
That's a nice little ambush you have there.
Horrid Wilting!
A Half-Dragon Baalor? this is the one and only time I've ever seen one in any of the games.
Aribeth...
Good...i didn't want to kill you.
Hello Maugrim, got a present for you.
Hope you enjoyed that Finger of Death.
made sure Leesa got back and reported the golems and catapults destroyed, down to the cells and spoke to Aribeth one last time...Morag dies today.
after several battle found the Chieftain.
Finger of Death.
I wish there was a way to help them, i doubt they got corrupted willingly.
Invisibility Shiv Attack, kill the Cleric.
Morag Dead and lvl 18, i drew out the fighter first than used Horrid Wilting to take out all the protectors at the same time than Dispelled her and good old Finger of Death.
Well i'm sorry my comments weren't exactly good but at this point in the game it's all about defeat the enemies, fetch, return.
My Wizard's are late bloomers but got their in the end.
back to work than I'll start SOU, I'm pretty sure i'm gonna go Monk/Druid.
Thanks for all the pictures! Those make your posts very fun to read. Good luck with your new monk in SoU.
****************
The blacksmith in Culdeny sells a really good, and also flattering, paladin plate mail and tower shield.
Level 4, one more point of Strength. I'm not changing anything about my paladin builds, because I find my paladin build to be highly successful. I pretty much do the same thing every time.
The Church of Culdeny, outside and inside. The chapel is beautiful. Savant doesn't do the polytheistic pantheon thing that most D&D settings do. Instead, clerics and paladins simply worship and get their powers from "God". While normally I would miss the rich lore and back stories possible with a pantheon, Savant has written an extensive historical backstory for "the Church" in his setting, that somewhat reflects the history of the Catholic Church in real life. You can get pieces of it by talking to Nellise, although, she worships God as a "She", so it's not exactly conservative, orthodox theology going on here. I like it.
The moon over Culdeny.
I tried to solo this umber hulk. It started to not go very well, so I had to call in my companions. They both still have really lousy gear, as I've been prioritizing myself for AC items, and their AC is still awful. I tried putting them both on ranged weapons, and setting them to "follow at a far distance", but they still tend to run up too close and get pulled into melee. I'll be gearing both of them to be as tanky as possible, including shields, as soon as I can possibly get the gear to do it.
This gargoyle ambush is often a multiple reload situation for the inexperienced player. I was still trying to keep Dante and Nellise back on ranged weapons, but several of the gargoyles pulled off and went around an alternate passage to attack the two of them from behind. It's a very crafty setup by Savant. He has lots of these in every Act. After it was done, we got a Cloak of Fortification +1 that I decided to give to Nellise.
Another potentially frustrating multiple-reload fight for the careless or inexperienced player. The wizard is bad enough, but he is supported by a hook horror, and he summons a dire wolf. I thought at one point I was going to die to the dire wolf's Knockdowns, so I re-prioritized the dire wolf as the priority target. @Balkoth has supplemented Aielund with a useful tool that allows you to order your companions to attack the same target as you, which helps a lot with overriding the default AI's terrible tendency to make companions switch targets at random.
I am starting to wonder whether Discipline is a very useful skill. If the wolf could roll high enough to hit me at all on a Knockdown attack, its attack roll was automatically going to far exceed my Discipline.
After it was all over, I had survived, at a cost of 10 (!) healer's kits, and we got a Cloak of Protection +2, a Bracers of Armor +2, and two mage items I couldn't use.
So, at the bottom of the caves, there is an adult wyvern with two young wyverns. We found and killed the first young one separately, but I thought we might be in trouble when the second young one came up behind the adult. However, it seemed to get stuck in its pathfinding and couldn't go around. I was not complaining!
The adult kept spamming Knockdown attacks over and over. It couldn't hit me with that on an 18, because of my careful attention from Level One to always max out my AC as high as possible. No two-handed weapons or dual-wielding for me, please! So, this fight wound up being easier than probably intended, because I had Dante and Nellise back doing ranged support, such that they weren't getting attacked or forcing me to stop fighting and heal them.
Would you believe that when Aielund was first released, Savant had this encounter as a young black dragon? With a Fear aura, (only a paladin wouldn't need to worry about that), a Darkness aura (blinding you), acid breath, and Knockdown attacks? I only ever beat it with lots of reloading and lucky rolls. I think Savant must have listened to the chorus of early complaining about the encounter, and tuned it down to "just" an adult wyvern with two young wyverns.
We got lots and lots of useful treasure at the end of the encounter. My AC is up to 28.
I'm using whatever best enchanted weapon I can find. I'm kind of glad I didn't take Weapon Focus: Longsword early this time.
Level: 5
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 0
Companion Deaths: 0
(Btw, the only thing to do for a dead companion in this game is to use a Raise Dead scroll on their corpse, where they fell. I have three in inventory currently, two of which were in the wyvern treasure horde. I think both companions were expected to be highly likely to die in this encounter. Scrolls of Raise Dead cost just under 2,000 gold each from the Church.)
Mortanious the Necromancer...wait what? wasn't i gonna play a Monk/Druid?, well during character creation i remembered Monk's need to be Lawful and i had to ask myself "is my playstyle Lawful?" and the answer is obvious so i decided to continue with what i know with some new lessons learned.
He's gonna be a pure Mage at least until lvl 20 in HOTU, some spells reach their max at lvl 25 and last time i played i reached lvl 27 so until than focus on magic.
took 2 points from charisma to boost strength but this has hurt persuasion, investing skills into Appraise, Concentration, Lore, Spellcraft, Persuasion than later with more Intelligence Heal than maybe Tumble.
first Feat was Toughness as i'm gonna need all the extra HP i can get.
After the attack (i only got 2 kills
Sometimes i just remember things and in BG2 and NWN i have a habit of remembering the answers to riddles from previous plays, maybe their should be a collection of riddles on these games that randomize each time.
i need supplies and i know my fellow students understand.
this chest just begs to be opened, damn that Drogan.
i'm pretty sure this chest doesn't open but it would've been nice if it was another puzzle or something.
Mischa had a practice greatsword in her room, that into the grinder with a quartz makes a blade i can't identify.
gathered the supplies from the containers including a magic helm giving +5 Spot.
this Dog tried to steal my first solo kill.
Barn combat success (lets not talk about the first attempt...the thug crit for 7 damage and Mort has a max HP of 6
Farghan had 2 of the 3 components for the cure but the other is in the Tavern kitchen.
Damn Kobold's took a hostage but after failing to persuade them the intimidation worked and i let them go.
returned the cure to Ayala and back to town, lvl 2.
Haniah here has taken over as mayor because during the attack he decided to get sloshed, WTH? why didn't you wait for me?, well Piper outside has been causing trouble.
Ah yes i could use some encouragement like more gold or...
...
RIGHT EVERYONE we need to get this town in order, right now!.
so Piper here was trying to get people into so new god only he knows about and...wait what? you found a corpse of someone you know and defiled it for personal gain?, your lucky you stopped cause i was feeling some righteous anger and i didn't even know the guy.
anyway Haniah was happy but things aren't back to normal yet.
Katriana and her caravan where attacked and the Kobold's took their seer's deck of cards, their trips between towns is gonna be pretty boring without it so off i go up the hill.
i was looking for Kobold's inside this container and found some Green Spores, hmm now i can grow some mushrooms.
Killed one with a quick arrow shot than slashed the other 2...that went more smoothly than the other fight.
returned the cards and turns out the deck is only for the seer..that's a bit selfish, anyway she gave me a reading about my future and thing are looking great...no worries at all.
Nora's home as been invaded by Kobold's.
...
the murder of Adam now the Baby is being threatened...for a gem!, tried to persuade and failed so i couldn't risk the baby so gave him a gem, the Baby safe and all i had to do was let the Kobold go.
...
50gp is nothing to an adventurer, their world has been shattered and some pocket change is a lot for them.
the green spore and a quartz into the grinder gave another item i can't identify.
decided to start storing gear in these pile of stones behind the blacksmith, no one can find my secret place.
i did this to hoard stuff for later as i want my Appraise skill higher in the hopes of maximizing profit.
out into the world hunting Kobold's and this guy was nice enough to give me info and turns out his wife is sick and needs a treatment from the horns of a Shadow Hart, i didn't commit to the task but i'll keep an eye out.
This Elven Crypt is said to be a good place for dead heroes of a fallen city, found a Kobold being attacked by Rats so i shot him in the back and the Rats didn't like that.
2 more Kobold's and Nilmaldor wants the Kobold's gone and has spider problems.
well hurrah, headed upstairs to an altar and prayed faithfully, the gods love me...they really love me.
oh and lvl 3.
back again and 3 more spiders, these 3 must have been runts or something because i stood at the door and shot each one individually while the others stayed inside out of direct sight and allowed me to pick each on off...have you heard of teamwork?
Nilmaldor was pleased the spiders and the eggs are gone so he told me about a trap for the Kobold's and gave me a key for upstairs.
hmm somehow i feel like i didn't get the best reward but 5 points is better than none.
found a very nice spirit who lost his sword, turns out a thief stole it! what kind of person just steals things from a crypt...that's just terrible...except if it's evil than that's all good.
found the blade and returned it for another item i can't identify.
found the trap room Nil talked about and turned it back on, put on the helmet of protection and time to negotiate with a room full of Kobold's, what could go wrong.
Negotiation 101...always start with a lie.
Oh Shi&@ that was actually not very good negotiating and got several shots in the rear for my trouble.
why didn't i attack the leader first? why did i leave him till last? now that the gas has run out i tell myself "these are life's total mysteries that can never be solved".
With Ghostly Visage that actually went pretty well.
now off to find this Deekin they spoke of, to Blumberg.
i now realize i said "Bloomberg" in a previous post.
tried to help a dying man and 2 Gnoll's shot him, after they died i picked a fight with a Shaman and got 2 Warriors while the Shaman stayed back to heal, damn near died again.
after carefully mopping up the rest of them and shooting a Gnoll who was bashing on a door i entered the house.
Deekin blackmailed me to help him get free of a Dragon, a Dragon! i'm only lvl 3.
Oh Shi&@, found a hostile bear...shoot it for 2 damage.
Magic Missile, Ghostly Visage saves the day again.
and lvl 4.
found a farm and the Duergar owner has a missing Daughter...taken by a Hill Giant, Dragon's and Hill Giant's...i'm feeling under leveled.
found the Shadow Hart, a beautiful creature to be sure...i think of Ferran's wife.
i should've told the Shadow Hart to run.
i actually got 7 good points for that...than why do i feel less inside.
i remind myself what i heard a Hunter say once "your suppose to feel bad about it, it reminds you not to take too much", no comfort at all but i don't deserve it.
the heart and a quartz in the grinder...
That Kobold Hurc in the Hilltop Tavern, if i could play a Kobold that's gonna be my portrait.
work again than Gnoll hunting...finding, i don't like that word now.
lvl 4
Respawns: 1 (Kobold Thug)
Reloads: 0
No Companion.
I have finished all quests around the drow rebel camp, except for the Beholder Lair, where I arrived yesterday and felt like quitting again.
I negotiated with the Elder Brain without fighting, freed the slave village from the undead cult, Valen died once against Soldaris (the last fight, before the pit). We survived the dracolich (twice), although that fight made me use all our potions of heal. Keeping two companies alive is difficult.
I freed the deva and recruited her for the Seer, I freed the slave woman in the mind flayer compound, and I decided to believe the Matron Mother's daughter, which means I've assassinated the Matron Mother of house Mae'vir. I do realize that's a bit out of character for a paladin, but I've analyzed the situation and trusted my judgment. I think it's likely that the old Matron Mother would have betrayed the Seer, so I considered it the lesser evil. I hope it wasn't a mistake.
I had to reload twice. Once, because I accidentally clicked on the wrong dialogue choice that would have made me side with the Matron Mother, and once because the game crashed when I came back to the rebel camp after the Elder Brain (the cutscene that would have triggered the finale without having been to the beholder lair). So, since I had to reload anyway because of the crash, I decided I'd rather fight the beholders now than during the fight with the Valsharess.
I had a respawn at the entrance already. That stupid Grease! I destroyed one of the pumps, but I slipped all the time and didn't even get up for half a second before falling again, and that repeated several times. They were hitting me with magical damage all the time, and even with over 200 HP I had absolutely no chance, because I couldn't drink a portion of heal or use lay on hands or whatever while lying on the ground.
At least the game could give us a small chance to get up for a moment. How much Discipline do I need to resist? Or do only the Dragon Slippers with their Immunity to Knockdown help? I can't possibly keep every item "just in case", especially with the amount of money needed to survive in this game.
And I know there's more bad stuff to come in this dungeon.
My green lightsaber is +7 now and gives me 20 magic resistance.
I'm sorry that I didn't write a nice report or include screenshots. I'm writing on the phone, during a break at work, the PC is at home. Right now I can't write when I'm at home, for various reasons, first of all because it takes up too much time. I just wanted to share where I have arrived before I stop playing for a while.
I don't know when I'll continue to play, but not before August 13th. Right now, the situation at home won't allow me to play or post at all, and on August 5th we'll go on vacation for a week. At least I hope that we'll still go. Things aren't good.
Level: 24
Reloads: 3 (one because of a game crash)
Respawns: 2
Companion deaths:
Deekin 1
Valen 2
Hope things improve
@BelgarathMTH
I'm not sure if I'm gonna play NWN 2 next or maybe BG 1&2, have you done a minimal reload thread on BG?
I could do IWD 1 but not 2, last time I played 2 I came to the conclusion they made the game with AD&D 2.5e in mind and slapped in 3.0e last minute, I enjoyed most of it but would've enjoyed more had it been 2.5.
Why did they move away from the full control party system?
I love using Mage's on BG, Spell Sequencers, Contingencies, Triggers, go Cleric/Mage and put Cleric spells in a Sequencer or Contingency (put a full heal spell in a contingency to trigger when you reach 50%) ?.
Or play an Inquisitor Pally and totally decimate those pesky evil Mage's.
Had a lot of fun with an Avenger Druid, good spells Iron Skin, Call Lightning, even Chromatic Orb and transform into a Sword Spider and poison everyone ?.
man them zombies pack a punch
? Are you playing on hard or Bhaal mode or something? I only do that on IWD since I can make a stronger team, some of the companions in BG are a bit squishy.
I usually go with Imoen, Viconia, Khalid, Jaheira, than pick up Dorn for side quest and let him go than same for Rasaad, I tend to keep Neera, sometimes bring Minsc and Dynaheir.
Similar for BG2 with Jaheira, Neera, Minsc if needed, Viconia, Imoen, swap out Dorn and Rasaad again than let them go, Hexat for a time, always get Sarevok in TOB.
Core Rules for me.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/51150/raising-charname-minimal-reload-thread-bg1-sod-bg2-spoilers/p1
Hope that works. Never tried to post a link to another thread before.
By the way, tagging in an edit works, I think people said it doesn't, has that been changed?
insane difficulty actually hahaha, although i refuse to play LoB mode since i find it boring as hell
party member wise i like to switch it up a bit, hence the reason why my team had some weird mates in it
plus you can make your own team in BG as well, which i do every once in awhile when i get bored of using squishy under powered joinable PCs ( although ironically enough i dont play OP class/characters anymore, when i do make a custom team i try and make them with flavor or interesting, as apposed to 3 berserkers and the rest being dual class humans for cleric, thief and mage )
and for BG 2 im going to use; mazzy, valygar, jaheira, aerie and nalia, haven't used valygar for a while, so its time to give him some lovin
Valygar i only used a few times in my first few plays and i tried to use him like a fighter not appreciating the Stalker kit having Haste and some other lower Mage buffs, i should try him again one day.
Mazzy is a fighter but she talks like a Pally i remember wondering why she isn't, are Halfling's eligible?
and Aerie...i have a soft spot for her, keeping her around showed me the potential of Cleric/Mage's in higher levels and eventually she finds her strength and her voice set changes from being hesitant in battle to "Evil must not be allowed to fester!", patience...with your help she finds her way eventually.
I never showed much interest in Nalia but i remember if summoned in TOB she sounded a little arrogant but maybe i never gave her the chance, i always go for Imoen as soon as i can.
If i did Insane on BG i'd have to go Dwarven Defender and be Tanky with heal support, in BG2 Imoen would be dedicated to ranged bow and dispelling, maybe go Valygar to give people a sneaky reach around
I love to hear Jan Jansen annoy people, talking about a Drow named Biffle Chump, luring Golem's with saucers of milk
starting fresh in ToB on the other hand, imoen is indeed better than nalia, and you are correct, nalia gets a voice upgrade in ToB, supposedly its to support the idea that she isn't as naive anymore, but yet her WIS is still 9, so lulz
Well so much has happened since my last post so I'll have to breeze over it.
on the way to the Gnoll's i found 2 caves, 3 bandit's were talking about getting a key and 1 walked away towards the second cave.
The Chief wasn't pleased i came for a visit and chased me around the snow for awhile, after healing i used my bow to weaken him than fire slash.
The first cave was dangerous, Bugbear's, 3 wolf's, Polar Bear, 4 Skeleton Warrior's and a Mummy.
Good things they were in small groups and i could lure them a couple at a time.
Another cave with Wyrmling's, White ones first which weren't a problems with Flame Weapon but the Red ones i had to draw out 1 at a time and used 1st lvl spell Ice Dagger.
Into the Gnoll caves and after clearing out the hallways i freed some Blumberg captives, found a Beastmaster and drew him out, he had 3 bears locked up.
Used my trusty bow and shot them through the bar
after opening a locked door using Meran my Pixie.
Epic battle of the Wizard's.
Freed the Kobold prisoners than negotiated with Gishnak, he isn't happy to have J'Nah telling him what to do and wants to work together and take her out.
Underground in the ruins followed each hallway to the Elelmental's but on the way found.
Use the right Arcane Cantrip to dispel Water (Flare) and get a token for the magic pool, you can only do this once and there are 4 different ones Fire, Water, Air, Earth.
Each of the Elemental mini bosses are weak to their opposing element.
The Earth was the most dangerous and i had to go in Hasted and smash with spells than run out close the door use kits than hope for the best.
2 tokens into the pool and press 4 buttons, my new robe for the rest of the game.
i didn't like my chances so told her what she wanted to hear and got the hell outta there.
The Kobold Caves where annoying but that's to be expected from them, they tried real hard to stop me.
One of the Kobold's i rescued vouched for me and the Chief gave me a chance to negotiate and after passing the Persuasion i helped him sort out the problems with the Master Jumper, Umm the Chief just gave his Sister to the Jumper as a wife...ok.
This part gets me everytime, launching into a counter weight
Damn Freezer and his gang made me retreat several times but after luring out his gang and giving them an Acid Breath i hunted down Freezer and Namek is saved...oh wait that DBZ
Definitely not ready for a Dragon but Tymofarrar is far more interested in greed and vengeance against J'Nah so i got the powder to weaken her.
Almost forgot to rescue the Dwarf girl from Rumgut, after failing to convince Rummy the Girl wasn't wife material i let him lock me up, after escaping through the tunnel i totally didn't return to get my head caved in.
I didn't expect to do well but my first attempt nearly worked, went in all buffed and Hasted and he almost died, YES! second try!.
I've gained a much greater appreciation for Ghostly Visage in the early game.
My 3rd death against J'Nah but i almost got her before the Gnoll's came to help so adjusted my plan, the second time i hit her with the powder than while Hasted did as much damage as possible before her guards tuned hostile than ran to the other side to Acid Breath and the Gnoll's turned up and the Guards turned to face them, i ran in to finish J'Nah before she got up Ethereal Visage like last time, after that i was in no condition to take on the Gnoll's and let them go.
Two Weapon Staff and Sword? lol no.
Tymo tried to betray me but i told him "J'Nah told me you couldn't be trusted" and he didn't like the sound of that and i asked for the Helm artifact as a reward...wait what! i was suppose to get Deekin's freedom, i tried to bargain but Tymo wanted 2000gp worth of magic items in exchange so i put in 3 Wands and the Staff of Power.
got the Tower from Deekin and back to a cured Drogon
lvl 7
Respawns: 1
Reloads: 2 (Rummy, J'Nah)
No Companion.
The Interlude.
Now that i have Stoneskin and Icestorm things went more smoothly...for me at least.
Poor Deekin was downed 4 times while i was fighting a Acid Halberd wielding Stinger and his guards, he just wouldn't stay back and use that Crossbow and stupid me kept using kits because i thought i wouldn't survive without him...i did.
Against the Manticore i told Deekin to Hold Position and Stoneskin than Ghostly Visage kept me safe
Killed the Priest first but all the Ghoul's Came back, destroyed the alter...that's a lot of blood.
Glad i didn't have that problem with the disappearing items, a staff with 3 uses per day of lvl 12 Flame Arrow
Secret door = sneaky reach around.
I raided the chests and coffins, but the Mummy's inside weren't too happy.
1 usage of lvl 12 flame arrow made Kel run away.
Fireballs...no thank you.
Feel the burn Kel.
I was really nervous about this fight, i retreated to rest and prepare Elemental Shield than buffed, Hasted and unleashed 2 Icestorms, Jammed them at the door and with Stoneskin and Ghostly Visage survived long enough to Breath them.
I've had a lot of trouble with that fight in the past so that went extremely well.
The Skeleton Blackguard was guarding a secret treasure room...nice.
another secret door leading directly to Kel.
This Flame Arrow is so OP against Kel.
Kel instantly dispelled me at the start of the fight and i had to run away and duck out for quick attacks and as a result Ali was the only survivor of the locals
Littles side quests at the Camp of Ao like Wine, Heal, I'm the Avatar of Ao, the usual stuff.
I hate Slaad, their so annoying.
Haste + Interposing...nice.
Why did i walk into range of their gaze before attacking...i'm stupid.
anyway i actually used my brain on the second try, used the lotion on the Sphinx and he asked me some riddles.
i remembered the answers than the last one made my eyes glazed over with complication.
i failed.
Luckily he wasn't upset and left without killing me...good.
This machine is a little puzzle involving deciphering the pillars and placing the items you want to use into the urns and making a power stone i forgot i had and never used it the entire rest of the game.
I got confused and murdered Deekin...woops, than i died.
Revenge!
Queeny and i made a truce...might have been nice earlier.
Used the orb to make.
1 use per day of lvl 9 Stoneskin, Magic Circle against Evil, Protection against Elements.
Breath the guards, lesser missile storm the leader.
Used a bow, shield and staff to mark locations.
got petrified again and Interlude complete.
Chapter 2
Only place to rest here until we clear the area.
Ashtara is terrible to sell to and i tried to keep everything i could but i need money for kits and spells.
The Golem kept beating up Deeking instead of me...big mistake.
buff and Interposing hand, all too easy.
Stole his masters ring while he was walking across the room, sorry Butler but i'm glade we don't have to fight...you seemed nice enough.
The power of the ring cannot be denied.
Hmm a book that makes people laugh.
In some wishing wells found a nice gem of sight which came in handy and a gem of brightness that i completely forgot i had for the rest of the game.
They murdered Jendra so i showed no mercy, that went well so time to find some nice treasure...
Hmm that wasn't exactly nice.
A very nice cloak for Deekin and amulet for me.
rewrote the story and reentered, much better ending and Jendra saved by her Knight...good work Sir Willy
Damn i hate Greater Sanctuary but when we could finally attack i used Lesser spell breach than 2 IGMS's and Empowered Acid Breaths than Lesser Missile Storms, he finally went down the pain the...
Find Traps is so OP, that Lens of Detection really comes in handy.
If your lower than lvl 11 here this is where you make up that lost XP, these Disturbed will keep respawning and bring in some nice XP but I'm 11 so 19 each isn't worth the bother.
Undeath to Death is Awesome
YES!...Oh Shi&@!
I got him just was the Zombies respawned
I had to round them up into a group than spam 4 Icestorms and gave the Greater Zombie Empowered and 3 normal Acid Breaths...damn that spell resist.
The Shadovar where very weak to fire so they died easily.
I reloaded against the Shadow Lich because i became Immortal and it felt wrong to continue, this was a first for me but maybe it happened before and i didn't notice.
Fire down his support than Greater Spell Breach, IGMS...no messing around with these bosses.
Empowered Icestorm than she ran up just out of Gaze range and used it...good job there AI.
The rest of the climb was pretty standard, fight annoying Wisp's and don't let Deekin follow you into fire beast attacks.
On the way to the levers...lvl 13
Told Deekin to stay here and i got ready.
Didn't even talk to her, i just spammed normal Icestorms taking out 3 Mythals at a time.
Pretty.
She didn't even use many buffs before i got her with 2 IGMS's and Empowered Acid Breaths
after the annoying Wise Wind you were all too easy.
well i didn't exactly keep a Minimal Reload but this was definitely a personal best, Mortanious is getting some real power now.
I never lost any items in my inventory or Deekin's, so glad i didn't come across that and i stripped Deekin before the final fight...Mortanious is a bit overloaded.
Tomorrow HOTU Begins.
Respawns: 1
Reloads: 5 (Rummy, J'Nah, Basalisk's, Formian Myrmarch, Bug)
Deekin: 7
I'll continue in HotU next week, after a vacation that's hopefully all about biking, swimming, bodyboarding, eating unhealthy food and staring at the North Sea while enjoying Belgian beer.
You'll probably have finished HotU until then. In that case, I would like to ask you to mark in a post when you finish chapter two, so that I won't read beyond it before I get there.
Good luck, and have fun!
@BelgarathMTH , no more postcards from Aielund?
I wasn't sure I wanted to keep up with the reporting for the time being, since apparently everyone else is having trouble running Saga of Aielund, and I guess it's kind of a "mission accomplished" as far as trying to teach and give pointers, as you're now as much or more of an expert at playing a paladin in NWN as I am.
I have a lot of games I play continuously in a rotating cycle as my moods change, and it was time to cycle on to the next game I had an urge to revisit. Also, action, loot-based, Diablo style games work better now that my vacation is ending, because I'll only have time for short one or two hour play sessions after teaching before I'll be ready to eat, watch a little TV, and go to bed most days. The nice thing about Diablo style games is that I can mindlessly play hack-and-slash for a couple of hours without needing to make roleplay choices or think about anything. Sometimes I need that, when my work schedule gets busier and work-related stress starts to pile up.