@BelgarathMTH , thank you. For your appreciation, and also for reminding me that Nyatar sells Potions of Barkskin. I had forgotten.
I had to finish the second report in a hurry without proofreading, because the kids had suddenly come home and wanted to go swimming. I've realized now that the screenshots were messed up, some of them double while leaving out others that I had meant to use. I have fixed that. Sorry.
I wonder why you had so much more money to buy those bracers and the cloak (where did you get that, anyway?) and everything. Did you get something for that old tomb where I haven't gone yet, or were you just more lucky with your loot, like that enchanted armor?
I probably had to spend more on healing kits and the Stone of Recall than you.
And I really should have protected myself from Flame Strike, you had mentioned in your report that she sometimes used it. But I didn't have a scroll like you, and having only one level 1 spell I still thought that Protection from Evil might help me to deal more damage on top of the mind shield.
I like it that you can pause, zoom in on a fight and find a camera angle for a cool screenshot. It breaks immersion, but it's fun for the reports. I like to write roleplaying, but I think it only works if I'm playing a person not too different from how I would be in such a world. (I don't think I could convincingly roleplay a beautiful and pampered noble lady who became a mage ). I already thought it was difficult enough to play a follower of Tyr, but fortunately I found the information about the Knights of the Merciful Swords, who sound more similar to the paladins of Torm. And Judge Oleff confirmed that attitude in the game when he said "The law is unyielding, but true justice is also merciful when circumstances dictate. That can be hard to remember in times of crisis."
In some online information for PnP D&D I found that the Knights of the Merciful Sword were supposed to have a feat that allows them to sense where they are needed.
That brought up some memories and inspired me to my background story. Pater Alexander was the monk who used to be my teacher in religious education, and my trumpet teacher at school. He was a very kind and wise person. I talked to him once, saying that I didn't know what to do with my life in the future. In religious class we had just talked about patron saints. Catholics are supposed to care about the saints that they got their names from, and he had told us to study their lives and take them as an example. I said, I'm named after Mary, how on Earth am I supposed to take her as an example how to live my life?
And he just looked at me and said: "Mary was always there when she was needed. She was never missing. So, just do that. Be where you are needed." And some time later in a different context he said that to me again. "Be where you are needed". I will never forget those words.
Okay, I just wanted to say something about roleplaying, and suddenly I'm full of very emotional and fond memories
Although Pater Alexander would most likely disapprove of my changing attitude towards religion.
@Arvia , I can't say how our expenses differ, because there are too many variables. The Cloak of Protection +1 I'm using is sold at the Mizzenmast Mercantile in the Penninsula District. That merchant is favorable to paladins with +1 intelligence bonus if you're willing to walk to sell off your items. Aribeth is unfavorable (strangely), so I consider it "tithing" to sell anything to her or to buy anything from her. Nyatar outside is neutral, and the half-orc merchant at Shining Arms and Armor (with the dog outside and the dwarf craftsman in the basement) is also neutral, for slightly better prices than Aribeth.
Watch for those floaty texts that open when you access a merchant screen that say, "The merchant's reaction is..." That is based on a score comparison that accounts for your class, your intelligence bonus, and your Appraise skill vs. the merchant's DC. (difficulty class). It can make a big difference over time to buy and sell from merchants who are not "unfavorable", and I'm always watching that, especially at the beginning of the game.
******************
So far today we have cleared the streets of the docks of smugglers, and have begun investigating the location of the plague reagent there, the cocktrice. I don't know if they've killed it to get its feather, but the cocktrice, like brain devourers, yuan-ti, and ... well, not dryads... is an extraordinarily evil monster, an unnatural abomination created by twisted arcane magics, that turns its victims to stone with its gaze. I almost hope they already have killed it for us.
The villain of this piece seems to be a Lieutenant Calik of the Bloodsailors' smuggling ring, who has rebelled against his former master, Vengaul, who is actually an old "friend" of Lord Nasher. If Calik succeeds in taking over the Bloodsailors, they will be turned from the top down from a merely "shady" thieves' guild at the Docks, tolerated by Lord Nasher, into a guild of bloodthirsty assassins and killers. We must not allow this.
The owner of the Golden Apple Inn as well as a peasant or thief we caught casing us on the streets, told us about Calik, and that he had a house on the northeast side of the Docks. The house was locked tight, but in this case, I felt we had probable cause for me to order Tomi to unlock the doors. There was a main floor with a separate cellar or basement, so we went to the basement first.
The basement was overrun with vermin, mostly beetles, but when we opened the last door down there, we saw this:
We could *probably* defeat it, but it would be a huge drain on our meager healing resources, and there was a trap just inside the door that I don't think Tomi could have disarmed while we were being attacked by that thing, so I slammed the door shut and did not proceed into the room.
I will make a note to come back here later. Those things are far too dangerous to be left anywhere in the city, and their preferred prey is people, pets, and children.
I still wasn't 100 percent sure we had the right house, so I did not take anything down there. I don't take things from the streets of the Docks or around the Docks either.
As soon as we found the door to the main floor and went in, we were attacked by Bloodsailors, so then I knew I had the right house, and since they were trying to kill us, I would be within rights to confiscate any valuables here. Tomi couldn't disarm the trap on the door of Calik's office, so I took a deep breath and turned the handle, hoping my armor and shield could stop whatever nastiness popped out. It was a negative energy trap that left me with about 3 hit points, and level drained me. Yikes. So, we had to teleport to the temple to get healed, and then pay the 50 gold to get back.
If you see a reinforced chest with scorch marks in front of it, and Tomi says he can't disarm it, believe me, you do *not* want to try to open that chest. They usually have junk inside anyway. They are bait. I call them "dupe treasure chests".
The doorwoman to the place where the auction was being held would not let us in unless we were wearing Bloodsailor's uniforms. I had a thought and offered her five of the strange red coins we had been collecting off the bodies of the rogues who were outside terrorizing the guards and the streets. She was all too happy to accept the tokens and open the door for us.
Inside, we found the auctioneer. He said Vengaul had not shown up with the main attraction, the cocktrice feather, and that he was getting worried. I looked at his other "special items" for sale, and gave him the rest of my red Bloodsailor tokens for a magic belt and a suit of leather armor. The reason I wanted the magic leather armor was that it fit the description of a needed item that the dwarven craftsman Marrok in the basement of the Shining Arms and Armor had shown us in the book he gave us, that could be turned into a suit of magic heavy armor called a "Whitebone armor", when combined with a gargoyle's skull. We had found one of those in the cult house in the Beggar's Nest.
We used the Stone of Recall to go back, and sure enough, Marrok was able to create the armor for us with the leather we had obtained. I didn't get any more AC from it, but, since it had an AC enchantment as part of its magic, I was able to sell my Bracers of Armor +1 to free up my wrists for better items that I might find, such as Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
Since I had spent all my Bloodsailor tokens on the leather armor and the belt, I wasn't sure we could get back into the auction house again, so I paid the 50 gold to have the temple teleport us back in there.
We found a half-orc guarding a locked door, and he demanded a password, but he didn't seem very strong-minded about it. We had obtained a key from Callik's house that I suspected would open the door, so I used the Will of Torm mind trick ability to get the half-orc to "agree" that he "didn't need a password", and that we could "move along."
Down below, we found a Bloodsailor woman being tortured. After we killed her tormentors, she told us everything we needed to know after we promised we wouldn't kill Vengaul unless he attacked us. She gave us an amulet Vengaul had given her to get into the Trading Company building, where there would be secret passages to the underground river cave network where Vengaul had likely fled.
On the way out, we encountered heavy Bloodsailor resistance, including a mage lieutenant with a pre-summoned dire boar, and the mage also seemed to have monk levels. I was expecting an easy fight since most of the mages had been going down so easily. I was very wrong. Tomi had no chance against that dire boar, and once the mage/monk attacked him with some kind of open-hand attack that stunned him for several rounds. I used at least six healing kits keeping Tomi alive, getting in as many hits as I could against the mage/monk while healing Tomi. At one point, I drank a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds for myself. We prevailed, but it was a very hard-won and costly fight.
The mage's treasure chest had a tower shield +1. (This game has random spawn chests and drops that will try to give you class-appropriate items. I think that's a pretty cool feature.) I forgot to mention I had also bought a Large Shield +1 with my Bloodsailor tokens, that gives the same AC as a non-magical tower shield, with a weight of 15 lbs. instead of 45 lbs. Okay, so much for using a lighter shield. Now that I have a magical tower shield, I actually get +1 to my total AC instead of just a weight reduction.
We proceeded into the Silver Sails Trading Company using the amulet Vengaul's consort had provided us, and it was overrun with vermin. If you ever find yourself fighting a stag beetle, be very careful! They hit as bosses. I used at least half our healing supplies on this fight.
Beating the stag beetle gave us level 6. I was torn between Spring Attack and Toughness for my new feat. Spring Attack ends attacks of opportunity while moving, and opens Whirlwind Attack for the next feat. Whirlwind Attack stops all attacks of opportunity of any kind during combat, which is huge. But, at level six, Toughness would give me six extra hit points. That could save my life against magical attack. After much agonizing, I took the Toughness. My new hit point roll that went with it was an 8.
Level: 6
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 0
Tomi Respawns: 2
@BelgarathMTH , congratulations, those fights looked really dangerous!
So, using Jedi mind tricks on door guards, are we?
Thank you for including helpful information again. I'm not going to touch any trapped chest after my last experience...
Is the gargoyle head random loot in the snake cultists' house or did I overlook something? I will have to go back... Also good to hear that those creatures (except for the dryad) are inherently evil and unnatural, because I was getting worried.
I only had to snort at your "meagre healing supplies" while looking at your quickbar slots in the screenshot. I'll tell you about meagre healing supplies... had to spend all my money again on healing kits and used most of them on Tomi...
************************************
Short update without stories before I go to sleep and forget everything:
We defeated the mummy without trouble and gave the book to Judge Oleff. With the gold, we could afford a few healing kits and went to the Blacklake District, or rather the slums before the Blacklake District.
The young man behind the gate, in the No-Man's-Land area, told us about the diseased thugs and Loxar, and of course I agreed to confront him and restore order to this lawless place.
The diseased thugs were no problem, and then we got attacked by four hired fighters again, finding a note from "the eye" again. Walked back, talked to Fenthick, was bothered by Desther again, received money, wanted to save it for some item to raise AC.
Went back to the slum area on the way to Blacklake and, to make a long story short, both of us got killed by Loxar.
I didn't expect him to be waiting right there for us and entered without buffing first. Stupid, stupid, careless.
I successfully healed Tomi (who had been running ahead before I could even see Loxar and was therefore the one to get hit) twice, before that brute landed a critical hit on him with that dreadful scythe.
That should have been my clue to get out of there, especially when comparing his vs my damage.
Healing, healing again, then no more healing kits left. I tried to activate the Stone of Recall and it didn't work. I thought it's instant effect, but it seems to follow the same rules as attacks and spellcasting and would only work in my next round? I wasn't sure what was wrong and had no healing kits and no Lay on Hands left. I didn't dare to drink a potion with him close to me. I tried to run outside, provoking an Attack of Opportunity, and then outside I tried, unsuccessfully again, to use the Stone of Recsll now, and then he landed a critical hit on me, too.
Bad luck, but also very badly done on my part. After respawning, I went to Nyatar to get two Potions of Barkskin. Then I memorized Protection from Evil instead of Endure Elements (I always seem to have the wrong one), rested, and went back with Tomi, buffing with Protection from Evil, a Potion of Bless, Potion of Barkskin and a scroll of Bull's Strength that I had found (being swarmed with diseased thugs, I did take useful supplies from the barrels in that slum area). I should have done that before entering the first time. I don't now why I still try to save my resources for later, if later might never happen.
I used two healing kits and Lay on Hands on Tomi to keep him alive through that.
Those respawns are taking a heavy toll on my XP, and keeping him alive costs me tons of supplies, so I think my decision to donate for his respawns was stupid (I didn't know then that healing would cost so much money all the time) and I'm going to stop doing that.
I also considered reload instead of respawn, because it would leave my resources intact to use again, but that feels like cheating. Also, the advantage of respawning is that the enemy keeps his damage while I'm fully healed.
So. Ping, ping!
Level: 5
Reloads: 0
Personal respawns: 5
Tomi respawns: 4
@Arvia, congratulations on beating an incredibly difficult fight. And condolences on those two critical hits he rolled! Ouch! I was rooting for you, and I cheered "Yay!" out loud when I saw the picture of your final victory with this horrible monster lying dead at your feet! I only wish your victory hadn't been at such terrible cost!
****************************
We have found and defeated the evil Calik, and have obtained the third of four cure reagents.
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Oh, dear, more spiders. This time it's a sword spider. I had Tomi on "Stand Your Ground" outside its room, because I knew we didn't want to fight this thing either at a door chokepoint, or inside a small space. I drew it out. Tomi got several good sneak attacks in after I called him into the fight, but he did get poisoned. Since the thing was dead, we fixed Tomi's poison this time by resting. A successful rest undoes both the primary and secondary effects of poison, without spending precious healing supplies.
A few rooms down the hallway, we ran into our most dreaded enemy - yet another bloated dire spider. I pulled it out into the hallway rather than fight it inside its Webs, which I was sure would cause our defeat.
We prevailed after much expense of healing kits and potions, but we were both poisoned at the end. I used healing kits to remove the primary poisons, and lesser restoration potions and scrolls to remove the secondary effects of the poison. I really, really *hate* spiders. Especially bloated dire spiders.
Down in the river caves below, we found one of the locked crypts containing the artifacts of Halueth Never. After solving the riddle and placing the correct item into the puzzle chest, we went in. Upon taking the artifact, Halueth's necklace, we were attacked by a mob of skeletons and ghouls. I immediately succeeded in destroying the skeletons, and causing all but one of the ghouls to run, with two Turn Undeads. Tomi had been both diseased and paralyzed by the one ghoul I had failed to Turn. I killed any monster not destroyed by my Turn Undead, and then used some healing supplies and my paladin Cure Disease ability on Tomi.
The dialogues we could hear between Calik and Vengaul while running towards the conflict, and the fight with Calik. He is a *very* strong physical boss. It took almost every last healing supply in my inventory to get through this fight while also keeping Tomi alive. Vengaul gave up his cure reagent quite willingly, and there was no need to fight him, allowing us to keep our promise to his consort.
Level: 6
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 0
Tomi Respawns: 2
@BelgarathMTH , congratulations!
We seem to have a similar attitude towards spiders... ugh.
I think it's totally inadequate and unfair compared to its strength and danger that you only get 50 XP for killing that Bloated Dire Spider. One respawn because of that monster (which is likely for me, unless I have learned my lesson and earn enough money to buy the supplies) would cost me 250 XP at level 5. Respawn is 50 XP *per character level* ! So, beating Loxar gave me 144 XP but cost me 250 XP for respawning once... that's not helpful for my level progression. But at least it gives me more time to think what kind of feat I'm going to choose at level 6. I've always been lucky enough to roll 10 HP until now, so Toughness is not quite as vital. I thought about maybe getting those Divine whatever. On the other hand, 6 HP more would maybe have meant survival in some situations.
I'm keeping my Ring of Protection +1 even if I get more money. If Arvia of Tyr is going to wear a cloak, I want it to be bright blue with a white or silver Gauntlet of Tyr on the back! And/or the symbol on my tower shield... I wonder if someone thought about adding something like that in a mod.
Your posts in the WoW thread (I've never played that game, but have read all the posts because you tagged me, and then I realized that I've probably had the wrong impression about the possibilities in that game) and sharing those NWN run reports with you, make me think how cool it would be to be able to play a game together and communicate. But I doubt I would have time for that during the next 5 years, even without considering the time difference.
We have rescued the dryad from the estate of the evil sorcerer Meldanen. This twisted man had filled his estate with demons, and was planning to kill the dryad and conduct experiments to try to extract a plague cure on his own, that he would then sell to the rich nobles in Blacklake for more gold. In self-defense, the dryad cast a love spell on him so he wouldn't hurt her.
Despite this man being so clearly evil, he saw we were more powerful than his foul magics, and begged us to spare his life. I couldn't kill him after he surrendered. He gave us the key to the dryad's cage and told us it would also open his food warehouse, and that we could tell Formosa to go ahead and take it.
I really struggle with whether to take anything from this estate. It feels like stealing to me to do so, despite the fact that it was almost certainly all ill-gotten. One of Meldanen's alchemists tried to kill us while we were searching for the dryad, so we did take the potions on his tables. I couldn't bring myself to take anything else in the estate, though. Other paladins might make a different decision. I wouldn't judge them if they did.
The dryad thanked us for freeing her and said the cure reagent was in her hair. She gladly cut off a small piece of it and let us have it before she left the magical cage that had been holding her and teleported away.
**********************************
After defeating Calik in the Docks and obtaining the cockatrice feather, we were able to just barely scrape together the 6,100 gold needed to purchase the Boots of Hardiness +1. That left us totally broke. I was torn between making this purchase or buying a Bag of Holding from the Twenty in a Quiver in the Docks. I decided I wanted the +1 AC and +1 to Constitution. My AC before Barkskin is now 27, and my hit points went up to 65.
I forgot to mention that when we made level six, I got a second spell slot to use. I will have Resist Elements on both Tomi and me for the sorcerer fight. I can choose also to have Protection from Evil on each of us, or Protection from Evil and Resist Elements on myself. (Or on Tomi, but if I go down, he'll go down, so I think I need to take care of myself first.)
I went back for the bloated dire spider in the basement of Calik's house. I had Tomi stand back, and I pulled the spider out the door away from its traps. It could only hit my AC 29 (with Barkskin) on a 19 or 20, so it almost didn't get a single hit on me. When it finally did, applying its deadly poison so I couldn't move or fight effectively, I had it to near death, so I called in Tomi and let him take the killing blow.
Inside the estate, we found Meldanen's journal in a desk in his room, where he had written down the clues about what had happened here. It was basically a confession to a crime, so I took the journal as evidence to hand into Lady Aribeth (Just roleplay - the game doesn't actually let you do anything with it. It's only there to tell you what's happening.)
We rescued the guard Samuel from Meldanen's prison. What kind of man keeps a prison block inside his mansion?
Meldanen's first apprentice. He is in many ways more powerful than Meldanen himself, and he's got a squad of imps helping him, as well as a pre-summoned dire boar. This is a very dangerous fight. We got lucky when he centered his first Ice Storm out the door at us while we were already running in. Its radius missed us completely.
I focused on the sorcerer while Tomi fought the boar and imps. Occasionally Tomi still got to do attacks of opportunity on the caster, because he was trying to cast in melee. He failed some concentration checks on some of his spells despite being very hard to hit because of a Ghostly Visage spell (concealment, immunity to first and second level spells.)
At one point he landed a Drain Energy spell on Tomi that drained him all the way down to level one! Level drain in NWN doesn't take your hit points, but it does take attack bonus and saving throws down to the drained level. Tomi wasn't going to be hitting much after that. Then, he landed a Slow spell on me, greatly reducing my attack speed. It wasn't enough to help him. I know he had at least two more Ice Storm spells, but they either got interrupted or he didn't cast them.
The fight with Meldanen. The fight with him can be either very hard or very easy, depending on how fast you can damage him, and how his Concentration check rolls go. It comes down to how many of his spells he can cast. If he keeps fighting long enough, he can eventually cast a very devastating Cone of Cold spell, but we luckily didn't see that this time. I drank a Potion of Bless for this, because I know the key to this fight is hitting him enough times before he gets to his worst spells. Good thing he doesn't open with those.
The dryad:
I knew there was a second apprentice down here if we had taken the other hallway than the one we wound up taking. He will still try to kill us even after his master's surrender. I decided not to risk the fight, and teleported out to the temple to return the plague reagent. Meldanen's second apprentice gets to live.
Now we're ready to start the final phase of Act One. It's very long and very hard, and the final fight is something I dread every time. It will take every consumable resource I can possibly collect to get through it.
@Arvia , I'm thinking maybe I should stop the reports until you catch up, because if I keep posting in detail, it will seriously spoil the story of the rest of Act One. I could maybe make vague statements about where I am and post a new counter after I get respawns or reloads. I'm highly likely to need one or even more than one reload if things go badly in the final fight. You can't respawn from there.
Level: 6
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 0
Tomi Respawns: 2
@BelgarathMTH , I'm not too worried about spoilers, I have a gut feeling about what's going to happen, but do what you consider right, It will take me a bit of time to catch up. I won't be able to play again before Wednesday or Thursday, I think.
I'm going to keep it short today again, without stories and many screenshots, I have long day of work ahead of me and need some sleep. Also, I forgot to activate the Snapper tool during one episode and don't have more screenshots.
First, I went to the half-orc with the armor shop again and noticed the dialogue option that made me find the basement and get the book with ingredients from Cromwell/Cespenar/whateverhisnamewas. Then we got the gargoyle head (the door was still locked and there were two cultists inside, it hadn't opened when we were fighting the imp and the other cultists and I hadn't even noticed the door)
Then we went to the Neverwinter Zoo and freed the animals. Running as quickly as possible, we still had to kill 9 guards and the master of the pens, but we didn't harm anybody else and didn't steal anything, either.
I talked to a door guard who told us about a strange and beautiful creature that Meldanen had just taken captive (that must be the dryad) and talked to Milly, who allowed us to use the secret passage to enter the estate.
I felt that we were not up to the fight yet, with our low budget and little healing supplies. We went to the Docks District first (thanks to your "teaching run" again, @BelgarathMTH ) to kill some of those street muggers and thugs, collecting all the strange coins and finally earning some good money with the poison bolts that the thugs dropped. The half-orc gave us about 150gp more for them than Aribeth had offered, it was more than 700 gp, so I got some healing kits and two Potions of Barkskin.
Unfortunately, flanked by a large group of those ruffians in the street, Tomi's AI made him change targets again in mid-combat, so that he triggered Attack of Opportunity from 5 or 6 people at once and died.
I picked him up again and tried to be more careful. Our strategy is now to fight those guys in the streets, hit the Stone of Recall when injured, let Aribeth heal us and then walk back to the Docks District to continue. Otherwise we would be broke again.
We talked to everyone and went into what we assumed to be Calik's house. I didn't even see the basement, so we went into the main floor first, where several Blacksailors, one of them a mage, attacked us. I went straight for the mage and killed him before he could do too much harm, and then we killed the others. Afterwards, we opened a trapped door (Tomi disarmed it) and were surprised by a mage and a summoned Dire Boar and a trap on the floor. Tomi disarmed the trap and we went straight for the mage again, ignoring the boar. It dealt quite a bit of damage on Tomi, making me use Lay on Hands and a healing kit or two on him, but we killed the mage before he could do too much harm. He was using monk stunning attacks, too, but unsuccessfully. (@BelgarathMTH, I wonder if there are two of those or if you met him in a different place? I met him in Calik's house right before his trapped office door). I think I had to heal myself too, at least once.
When it comes to healing or drinking potions, Tomi's AI is really annoying. Sometimes he will be clubbed to death without anything happening, and sometimes we will drink healing potions that I never gave him, in the middle of a battle. And sometimes at the same moment that I was using a healing kit on him or giving him a potion, and then my supplies are wasted and gone because he had been faster and was already healed when I finished!
Anyway, there was a trapped door that Tomi couldn't disarm, and since I knew what was going to happen, I went to the basement first. Fire beetles, and then the dreaded Bloated Dire Spider, waiting for us in its webs. We crept back after seeing it, I drank Potions of Bless and Barkskin and cast Protection from Evil (I still don't know if it even helps against that monster), told Tomi to stay put and went to draw it out of its lair. It followed me into the door and I fought it alone, until it hit me with its draining poison. My healing kits always fail to heal the spider's poison and just heal the HP, and I couldn't move any more, so I drank a Potion of Lesser Restoration (bought for that purpose when respawning during the last fight with its cousin) to get my strength back and called in Tomi. When we were both strength drained and badly wounded, I hit the Stone of Recall to get us out. We rested at the temple and paid to get back, me protected again with Barkskin and Protection from Evil (no more Potion of Bless left). We attacked together this time. Tomi got hit by a few Knockdowns and the draining poison, but I could keep him healed this time, and I didn't get poisoned myself, so we could finish it.
We found three Potions of Lesser Restoration in there. Those would have been useful *before* the fight!
We went back to the trapped door upstairs. Knowing what was going to happen (thank you again), I rested to have max HP before trying to bash the door. I was quite lucky and the energy drain took only 23 of my 50 HP. After triggering the trap, Tomi could open the door.
We found Calik's key, a note about V. (I just can't remember names, I should really take notes while playing) and: Bracers of Armor +1! I have AC 25 now and didn't even need to buy them!
Next stop will be the auction house, but that won't be tonight, I'm going to sleep before midnight for a change
@Arvia, wonderful report, as always! Congratulations on beating that bloated dire spider at only level five! I did *not* have the courage to try that. Sleep well, and I hope your long shift tomorrow goes smoothly.
**********************
In the next really big dungeon of this chapter, we started facing very strong undead. This one is a zombie warrior. I have started, at this level, to hold Tomi back until I need him to check for and disarm traps, or to open a lock. I am getting somewhat powerful, and Tomi is always going to be very vulnerable. It's much less a drain on our resources if I fight alone now most of the time. I still need him, and he saves my life often, but I keep him out of danger absolutely as much as possible, sometimes having him stand behind me, sometimes leaving him back in another room.
I battle one of the most powerful undead here, a curst warrior. This is a very deadly undead foe, and Tomi would have been more of a liability than an asset during this fight.
The priest enemies here are neutral. Attempting a Smite Evil on one gave me a warning about that. Worryingly, this means that Protection from Evil will *not* protect me from any Hold Person spells cast by these priests. Maybe I should have invested in some Silence scrolls before. Too late, now. I think I have *one* Potion of Clarity, but they only last three rounds. Timing will be critical if I try to use that. I may just have to pray to Torm that I make all my will saves here.
You can cleanse this Temple of Helm and meet an actual Avatar of Helm. Word to the Wise: When Helm offers you a reward, *Take the Magic Item*! Paladins with +1 Intelligence and maxed out Lore skill will still not be able to identify the item without either a Ring of Insight, or a Potion of Lore.
Luckily, I had taken a Potion of Lore from Meldanen's alchemist's workshop. It doesn't hurt to have a few Potions of Lore for emergency situations like this, because the most powerful magic items will still be beyond our paladin ability to Identify and use them in the field, even with attention paid to intelligence and Lore skill.
In case anyone missed it, there is a child in the basement of this place who wants to buy and sell items here, because it calms him and makes him not think about the death of his merchant father. You can buy more healing supplies and potions from him.
After purifying the temple, we made level seven. No exciting new feats or spell slots are to be had at this level, but we rolled 8 for hit points and got our BAB a little higher, which will be *extremely* helpful in the final battle of the chapter.
Level: 7
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 0
Tomi Respawns: 2
We have defeated the final boss of Chapter One, and we can now move on to Chapter Two of the OC.
After collecting the treasure of the "neutral" evil people here, we could afford a Bag of Holding finally from the child merchant in the basement. Thank Torm, because we desperately needed one. We still had some money left over to buy more healing kits.
There's a trick to this final fight scenario. Kill all the enemies in the two small rooms in the hall outside the main chamber. Order Tomi to stand his ground someplace safe. He will be of very little use in this fight. Open the door to the big fight in the large south chamber. It is filled with strong undead as well as the boss. You don't need to worry about his protective warding creatures if you're not a caster.
Pull the undead out into the hallway. Do NOT engage the boss on his own terms.
Once the boss summons a skeleton chieftain, that becomes your priority target. You *must* get rid of that skeleton chieftain, because it will destroy you. "Concentrate all fire on that super star-destroyer!"
Okay, this next photo is a huge, big, fat story spoiler if you don't want to see it. I hoped I could take the picture to show my combat transcript without showing the boss, but it didn't work. What happened was that I rolled a one on a will save against Hold Person. Grrrr. The last time that happened to me, I wanted to rage quit, especially since I thought at the time that I was protected against mind spells by Protection from Evil.
I got Held. That was a death sentence. Now, this is very interesting. The original game didn't allow you to respawn if you die here, but I was able to. @JuliusBorisov , was this a change made by Beamdog for the NWN:EE? If so, I heartily approve. I was able to use respawn and go back without having to take a reload. Yay! It cost me 350 xp, but I gladly paid that cost, and would have paid more xp!
After returning to the fight from my first respawn, I ran into the main chamber and killed off all the ward creatures just in case they could do something to prevent me from winning. I'm not sure they do anything at all if you pull the boss outside of the circle, but I killed them anyway just to be sure. This guy is one heck of a boss!
He cursed me and brought my strength down to 12. Good grief. I tried a Dispel Magic scroll, and it didn't work.
We still prevailed, largely because of my enormous AC that prevented him from landing many hits on me. I used a *lot* of healing kits I had bought from the child merchant down in the basement on both Tomi and on myself. I had also drank Potions of Barkskin, Endurance, Bless, Aid, and perhaps most importantly, Speed.
We roleplayed out the rest of the chapter and collected some more treasure from in there, then ended the chapter and enjoyed the final cinematic showing us the denoument of our efforts in Chapter One.
We are now beginning Chapter Two of our epic story. There are many fascinating and fulfilling roleplay opportunities with Lady Aribeth coming, especially for a paladin with high Persuade skill.
Level: 7
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1
Tomi Respawns: 3
@BelgarathMTH, wow, those were exciting fights! Congratulations on making it through the whole chapter with only one respawn during the final fight. Hold Person is a mean spell... I felt like that when Gulnan paralyzed me.
I'm going to buy some Silence scrolls for that.
I already dread those fights, With my respawn penalties, I doubt I will make level 7 before facing the final fight (don't read if you haven't played it before)
with Desther. Yes, at first I didn't look, but then I couldn't resist. It only confirmed what I had thought since his reaction to the first note I gave to Fenthick.
and I won't be able to afford the same equipment as you. I will prioritize AC, but I don't know if I will be able to afford those boots. I will judge the situation at Meldanen's Estate once I get there, to see if I can justify taking anything. Btw I'm glad that he gives up the key to his hoarded food. I just couldn't agree to try to steal it for that girl in the square. Although I agree that he shouldn't hoard food in a time of crisis, what she proposed was not the right way.
It's really great that you explain what kinds of buffing you used, and what was or would have been useless or better. That's very helpful for me now and for other potential future readers. I usually don't like to use metaknowledge, but I can roleplay that I met a fellow, more experienced, paladin named Todangelus somewhere in the city, and he told me a bit of his past adventures and how to protect myself from certain spells, and recommended what kind of gear and consumable resources to keep in my inventory "just in case"
We have followed Lady Aribeth's retinue to Port Llast on the orders of Lord Nasher to investigate the mysterious cult that attacked Neverwinter with the plague. Lady Aribeth is deeply troubled and wounded by the recent events in Neverwinter, and I am concerned for her. She is beginning to question her faith in her god, Tyr, and she seems increasingly depressed and sullen. I am doing my best to offer her comfort and guidance.
Lord Nasher's spymaster, Aarin Gend, has instructed me to look into possible cult activities in the area around Port Llast. First, we are to go to a network of caves to the north that has been overrun with goblins, orcs, and bugbears under the leadership of an ogre mage named Dergiab, who may have ties to the Cult of the Eye. A farmer just north of Port Llast asked for help to rescue his wife, who had been abducted by Dergiab's forces and taken to the caves.
Talking to the locals, we also found out that Port Llast is being attacked by a werewolf, and that several young men they sent out to find it have disappeared, and may have been turned into werewolves themselves.
A former elven thief-assassin wants to construct a jeweled scepter that is an artifact of his people, so that he can redeem himself and take his daughter back to the elven homeland, from which he has been exiled. I will be happy to give him any of the gems he needs if I find them, but he says that they are all currently owned and that I will have to find a way to get their owners to part with them. He gave me a key into a wizard's house that I am almost certain that he stole. I won't go into that house, and I won't commit robbery to help him. I am unlikely to be able to complete this quest.
The town mage wants a collection of lost arcane lore books. I will be happy to return to her any that I find, but again, she implied that I should illegally break into other people's homes and steal the books from them if necessary. I will not be doing any of that.
The ranger in the druid grove in the town wants me to investigate the disappearance of druids in the Neverwinter Wood, and find out why the animals are suddenly attacking people for no apparent reason. Aarin Gend also suspects the trouble in the Neverwinter Woods may be cult-related. I will definitely be going there eventually.
Outside a cave entrance, we found a book that seems to indicate that the orcs and their kind are not native to our world. If the book can be believed, they came through a magical portal opened by rebel Mulhorandi mages. The pantheons of both worlds came into conflict, and many gods died. The orcs wound up as permanent invaders on our world. (Ahem, cough, cough, World of Warcraft, cough, cough, Stargate, cough, Goa'uld.)
I will turn in the book at the temple in Port Llast. It is not a temple of Oghma, but perhaps they can send the text to one. Good temples all over the world are the keepers and guardians of the world's knowledge.
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Okay, this fight looks difficult. Notice the 2 minotaurs. I am mostly keeping Tomi out of the fights here so my healing resources will last longer.
The fight with the orc chieftain. Each faction of monsters here has a boss leader. I had already killed the goblin king, and it was tough but nothing exciting. The orc chieftain, however, had a squad of elites with him, and I quickly realized I was in over my head. I drank potions of Barkskin, Bless, and Aid, and used almost every last healing pack. Mid-battle, I saw I wasn't going to be able to win by myself, so I called in Tomi.
Interestingly, the chieftain started knocking Tomi down. If he had tried that on me before I called in Tomi, my Discipline skill must have saved me from that devastating ability. Some of the healing packs had to go to Tomi after I called him in, but we won, just barely.
Level: 7
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1
TomiRespawns: 3
I drank potions of Barkskin, Bless, and Aid again. I called Tomi in at the last minute, getting worried that I couldn't beat him by myself, but I got a killing blow just as Tomi ran up to help. I bought an Amulet of Natural Armor +2 from the temple, using most of the money from the caves, so a Potion of Barkskin is now only giving me an extra +1 to AC. It's still worth it in hard battles. Every +1 to AC is a five percent less chance to get hit. Or, put another way, you will get hit 5 percent less of the time. When you're in a mob of strong enemies, that is a significant damage decrease.
To get an idea how tough these fights really are, watch the number of healing supplies I have left on the action bar.
After we defeated the bugbear chieftain, (cue prelude from R. Strauss "Also Sprach Zarathustra"), we got this:
Omg, omg, omg! :jumping up and down in excitement: That is such a *perfect* item for a paladin! My charisma bonus goes from +2 to +4, which means an increase of +2 to all saves from Divine Grace, and now my Lay on Hands at level 7 will heal 28 hit points instead of only 14. My Turn Undead will also get stronger.
And, it's a beautiful blue. Hey, @Arvia, there's your blue cloak you were hoping for.
I had to give up my Cloak of Protection +1 to wear it, but that loss of deflection AC bonus can temporarily be made up for by Protection from Evil, as long as we're fighting evil creatures, and I'll eventually be able to afford a ring with deflection AC bonus.
Level: 7 (Good grief, it's taking a long time to make level 8)
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1 (boss of Chapter One)
Tomi Respawns: 3
@BelgarathMTH , cooooool, I can't wait to get that blue cloak! And the orcs were definitely sent by the Goa'uld, they didn't even bother to change their Egyptian names...
I just got another cloak, not a color that I would wear myself, but it looks good on a girl paladin in shining armor.
After killing the bloated dire spider and restoring our strength and health at the temple, we went to the auction. We had to pay 5 smugglers' coins to get in and refused to join some orc or half-orc in a drinking game. I talked to the auctioneer and looked at his special items that could only be bought with the red coins (I didn't have more than 200gp normal money on me anyway).
I decided to buy the armor and the belt and remained undecided about the rest. I teleported to the City Core to make the armor. I had to sell my full plate mail and bracers of armor to afford the forging, but I wouldn't need them any longer. I got that armor and am now wearing the gloves of discipline again that had been dropped by a goblin at the academy. I'm glad I kept them, +3 to discipline is not to be sneezed at, as long as I don't have anything more powerful to wear on my wrists.
I had to pay to identify the belt and was happy to see it gave 12 magic resistance. I hope that's much.
Fortunately I knew that I would find a Tower Shield +1 soon, so that I didn't buy the large shield +1 with my smugglers' coins. Instead, I decided to get the Nymph Cloak +1. Now my Charisma is 15, that means the next point put there will give me the +3 bonus already. I had 5 coins left and wouldn't need them any more, so I bought the only item for 5 coins, which was a magical flail or morning star, and sold it to buy more healing supplies.
Here's my new cloak and armor.
Then we talked to a drunk person who told us about "downstairs", and we went to have a look. We took the wrong direction, opened a few doors and killed a few Bloodsailors, took the stuff from their rooms.
There were also a few empty bedrooms, but this is a tavern after all, so they might belong to paying guests, not the bloodsailers, so we didn't open the chests in those rooms.
We met a chatty dwarf who was sitting in a sauna (wearing underpants, thank Tyr), who felt like talking, and during the conversation he told us how to get past the door guard to the basement.
Very good. We didn't even need the Jedi mind trick to get in.
I did *not* expect a trap here. I should really tread more carefully wherever we go.
Some more fights with bloodsailors followed, some of them were spellcasters, but not tough ones. They also dropped some interesting stuff.
I wonder if I'm going to need invisibility. I'm going to keep the potion, just in case.
I don't remember if the diamond was dropped or in a chest, but I remembered one of the recipes needed it.
I upgraded my longsword +1. Paying 500 gp again hurt, and I avoided checking how much the diamond was worth, but an extra 1d4 sonic damage is good. Less money to buy healing supplies, but more damage means needing less healing kits, too. Or at least I hope so.
We saved Dara'nei from her torturers and got her amulet. Then, bad things happened.
I should really order Tomi to stand back *before* I open a door. He just ran ahead. I stopped him and tried to get in front of him, but he had already drawn their attention. I tried to keep him healed, but his AC and HP (why is he one level lower than me?) are not enough, especially when we are surrounded. I healed him, but at the same time another bloodsailor and that boar attacked him again, and the boar dealt a lot of damage.
The fight was not pleasant for me, either. I used at least two healing kits on myself while attacking and trying to dodge that mage/monk's attacks at the same time. Endure Elements might have protected me here. @BelgarathMTH , I see you keep it almost permanently cast on yourself. Maybe I should do that, too, and only memorize Protection from Evil when I think I might need it.
There I am picking up Tomi again, with my new Tower Shield +1, giving me AC 26. I hope I will be able to afford those Boots of Hardiness one day...
Poor Tomi, I should have left him there.
We decided to go to the Silver Sails Trading Company to search for Vengaul and were overrun by some very nasty beetles. Again, I made the mistake of opening a door without positioning Tomi in a safe place first.
I healed him twice, but the second healing happened exactly when the stag beetle hit him again. Damage dealt, healing triggered, poor Tomi was pulled back to the temple and the healing kit was wasted.
I wonder why the other one is called bombardier beetle.
Woah. Now I know why.
Look at my health bar, it happened faster than I could use the healing kit. I was very, very nervous and hoped I wouldn't get hit while healing myself, the way it had happened to Tomi.
That had not been easy. @BelgarathMTH , I believe that's where you hit level 6. I still need 781 XP to reach that. That's not too bad considering that I've had 5 respawns. I hope I can avoid more of those.
I decided to transport back to the temple, pick up Tomi and ask Aribeth to heal me. I wanted to save some money for better gear, but I needed to stock up on potions and kits and am left with a little less than 700 gp again. I don't believe I will ever get my hands on those Boots of Hardiness...
That was not much progress last night, but I had to continue working after that, and got some sleep, too.
Level: 5
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 5
Tomi Respawns: 7 (*Must* remember to park him somewhere *before* opening any doors!)
@Arvia, great report! You look fantastic in your new cloak and armor.
I did *not* find that diamond down there! I had to leave Chapter One without being able to upgrade my longsword. I also never found the dwarf in the sauna, and didn't know about that solution to get through the guarded door. I guess I should have explored the inn more thoroughly.
I think you made a lot of good progress in that play session. Congratulations on your gear upgrades, and on getting through that beetle fight without a respawn.
@Arvia, great report! You look fantastic in your new cloak and armor.
I did *not* find that diamond down there! I had to leave Chapter One without being able to upgrade my longsword. I also never found the dwarf in the sauna, and didn't know about that solution to get through the guarded door. I guess I should have explored the inn more thoroughly.
I think you made a lot of good progress in that play session. Congratulations on your gear upgrades, and on getting through that beetle fight without a respawn.
i believe ophi.... whats her name from the moonstone mask inn ( man i bad with names ) if you ask her for more of a reward after collecting all 3 paintings she will give you a diamond as well, i almost want to say i found 3 diamonds.... in chapter 1
and i also want to say, holy jumpins, only level 7 in port last?
i just got there last night ( early this morning ) and im only like 3.5k XP away from level 10..... but i guess solo genocide runs level you up a bit better
and plus helm's hold was hell when i had to fight multiple SHADOW FIENDS, man did that suck ass hahaha, at least there was no bodaks there this time
@sarevok57 , I saw no reason to go into the Moonstone Mask until now. Also, I wouldn't ask for a higher reward as a paladin. But how many more people could you have killed to level up so much faster?
@Arvia , @sarevok57 , Those extra quests from Ophala in the Moonstone Mask are to *steal* those paintings from three different nobles because she wants revenge on them for crossing her. As a paladin, I won't go anywhere near a lowlife like that, and I'm certainly not performing her robberies for her. I don't do the arena pit fighting in the Blacklake tavern either. Killing to entertain tavern-goers and gamblers for experience and money is just not something I'm willing to do.
I've watched videos of people doing the estate robberies, such as MyNameIsNotLilly. Once you break in, there are hostile guards, all of whom have to be killed. She even had her panther familiar kill one of the noblemen who was begging her not to kill him and handing over the painting. She killed him anyway, and got lots of experience. Evil! I guess it was okay for her, since the guy was playing her as an evil character.
I even watched a paladin player doing those quests once, and I got so mad at him by the third video I had to stop watching.
Level seven is fine for beating the final boss of Act One and the beginning of Act Two, at least as a paladin. Keep in mind also that @Arvia and I are not using reloads, and each respawn carries a pretty steep xp penalty.
I didn't enter the Moonstone Mask because I had no reason to, and people had implied that it was a brothel, so a paladin has no business there.
Ah, that was what the Bartender meant. Pit fights? I have just been there before going to find Meldanen, and that guy said something vague about other stuff going on here, and to get a pass from the mercenaries if I was interested. It sounded like something shifty, so I just thought "whatever" and walked away.
I sometimes do the pit fights in BG2 against monsters in Ust Natha, as part of the attempt to blend in and stop the drow from seeing us as weak and threatening us all the time. I see it as protecting my companions by showing that they have a strong leader. Other than that, I don't agree with that sort of thing as a paladin or any good-aligned character.
@sarevok57 , I saw no reason to go into the Moonstone Mask until now. Also, I wouldn't ask for a higher reward as a paladin. But how many more people could you have killed to level up so much faster?
EVERYBODY, pretty much, especially at lower levels you get more XP from priests and town guards, although some NPCs are invincible so don't make them hostile or else they will run after you forever, which is also bad because if the game "thinks" you are in combat, you can't initiate dialogue ( one feature in which i despise in NWN )
@Arvia , @sarevok57 , Those extra quests from Ophala in the Moonstone Mask are to *steal* those paintings from three different nobles because she wants revenge on them for crossing her. As a paladin, I won't go anywhere near a lowlife like that, and I'm certainly not performing her robberies for her. I don't do the arena pit fighting in the Blacklake tavern either. Killing to entertain tavern-goers and gamblers for experience and money is just not something I'm willing to do.
I've watched videos of people doing the estate robberies, such as MyNameIsNotLilly. Once you break in, there are hostile guards, all of whom have to be killed. She even had her panther familiar kill one of the noblemen who was begging her not to kill him and handing over the painting. She killed him anyway, and got lots of experience. Evil! I guess it was okay for her, since the guy was playing her as an evil character.
I even watched a paladin player doing those quests once, and I got so mad at him by the third video I had to stop watching.
Level seven is fine for beating the final boss of Act One and the beginning of Act Two, at least as a paladin. Keep in mind also that @Arvia and I are not using reloads, and each respawn carries a pretty steep xp penalty.
actually, i learned the hard way that if you do kill the nobles ( only did it with one by mistake ) you will get less of a reward from ophala, so sometimes the evil was is not the best way
oh, i also forgot to mention, that inn in blacklake where you do the pit fighting, you actually aren't killing them, its more of a "friendly battle to the death aka -knock out" more realistically
plus the last guy who owns the inn, is a cheater and not really that much of a good guy, so i dont think it would really go against a paladin's ethos
plus in the moonstone mask, if you go upstairs, to the top floor, one of the girls you can chat with, is actually having problems with a frequent customer of hers, and if you ask her about it, she asks if you can make him go away but she doesnt want you to kill him, just make him beat, another quest i dont think paladins would be too much against
We have defeated the evil ogre mage Dergiab, who was organizing the goblin, orc, and bugbear army in the caves. He seems to have had a puppet master of his own giving him orders, a dark monk named Ganon. We found a journal the monk was keeping that Aribeth is going to want to see. We can also inform the farmer and his wife, whom we rescued, that the ogre mage and most of his army are dead, and that they can live without fear now.
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This boss fight is tough. Not only do you have to worry about the ogre mage and the monk, but there is a squad of champion warriors in there. I put Tomi on "Stand Your Ground" far outside the door, went into the final cave just far enough to pull some of the bodyguards, and ran back to the door, attempting to set up a choke point that would force them to fight me one or two at a time. You're in for a bad time if you run into the middle of this fight and get surrounded.
The first one to come after me was the monk. He has a bunch of attacks per round, but not very good BAB, and low AC, so he was pretty easy to kill by himself without his bodyguards being able to get to him.
While I was running back for the doorway, the ogre mage threw a Fireball at me. I managed to snap a picture of it in midair, flying toward me. Because I always keep Endure Elements active, I only took 9 damage on a failed save.
First up at the door, after I defeated the monk, were an orc warrior and a goblin fighter.
Next up, a bugbear warrior and a bugbear hero.
That's all the bodyguards. Now to run in and fight Dergiab, who was hanging around in the back of the cave near his hut, the coward. His first move was to cast Enervation, and I failed the save with a roll of one! I was level drained all the way to level 4! This is a lot less devastating for a fighter than a caster, though, because it doesn't take your hit points. Lesser Restoration and resting do not fix level drain. You have to have full Restoration, which I didn't have, or go back to the temple to restore the lost levels. I would have to finish the fight with level 4 BAB and damage.
After striking some blows with his deadly double-bladed axe, he cast Ray of Enfeeblement. I saved with a roll of ten. That could have been serious - it causes strength drain, which is deadly to a fighter.
Ganon's Journal, the quest MacGuffin needed from here for Aribeth's quest. Don't forget to open all the chests in the area to find it!
We made level eight while still fighting in the doorway. I decided to wait until finishing the fight and getting back to the temple to heal my level drain before activating it.
I raised my strength to 16. That gives me +3 to attack and damage, and some more weight allowance. After this, all future attribute increases for this character will go to charisma. I rolled a 7 for hit points. I got a new second level spell slot, and will take Bull's Strength, which lasts an hour per level, and will be kept active most of the time from now on.
Dergiab dropped a Large Shield +3 and a Thayvian Circlet. The shield is one additional AC better than my Tower Shield +1, and 30 pounds lighter, so I will be using it. The Thayvian Circlet has an intelligence bonus, which does nothing for me except slightly better Lore skill, but it has +1 to all saving throws, which could be life-saving. I'm trying to decide if it's worth covering my face as I play. I don't like to cover my beautiful hair and face (kidding), but realistically, I'd be wearing head protection with my armor in these fights.
Level: 8
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1 (final boss in Chapter One)
Tomi Respawns: 3
I just realized something reviewing the picture of that Fireball strike. The combat scroll says "damage resistance absorbs 15 damage" and doesn't say "x damage remaining". That resistance is in my Ring of Helm, not my Endure Elements spell.
I am wasting a first level spell slot! What the game is doing there is looking at two sources of resistance, and taking the best of the two. Endure Elements can only absorb 10 damage at a time, while my ring is giving me damage resistance 15. D'oh!
I could either start keeping Endure Elements or Protection from Evil on Tomi, memorize two Protection from Evil for myself to get longer time between rests, or use another spell entirely, maybe even Cure Light Wounds or something. I'll have to take another look at the first level spell list.
I was going to ask what kind of ring you have there. Question answered.
Resist Elements is a 2nd level spell. The weaker 1st level version is Endure Elements.
That was an interesting report, and full of useful information again. You survived some ugly attacks (I hate level drain) and got cool items! And I know you wanted to be a Jedi Paladin, but the blue cloak looks much better with the armor than that old brown curtain ?.
I'm going to finish Meldanen and will report tomorrow. I'm seriously tempted to loot that place, but I'm not finding a good justification. Sigh. No Boots of Hardiness for poor Arvia, I'm afraid.
Edit: Forgot to say, I'm having trouble to use doorways as choke points. The open doors are so stupid, sometimes you can't reach your target although it's right in front of you.
@BelgarathMTH , I forgot to ask: Are you sure that you can cast Endure Elements on Tomi? Protection from Evil, yes, but when I select Endure Elements, it immediately starts, casting on myself, without having to select the target as with PfE or healing.
@Arvia , the trick to that is to go a little further out the door, forcing them to find a path around if they want to keep attacking you. Meanwhile, others might come out into the doorway without the door itself being in the way. If they're all completely stuck behind the open door, you might have no choice but to go on in at that point.
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We have rescued one of the boys who went on the werewolf hunt, Urth. Neurik the priest had told us when he gave us magic healing charms that if these boys were indeed turned to werewolves, we could only find them at night, and that Urth's parents lived on the south side of town.
When we knocked on the door, we were invited in, but as soon as the boy's parents saw my armor and weapon, they told us to get out and started behaving suspiciously. I apologized, but said I really was going to need to go up to Urth's room and wait for him to come home. The boy was there, and was indeed a werewolf. We managed to subdue him and convince him to put on the healing charm. As promised by Neurik, he was healed of lycanthropy.
****************
This can be a tricky side quest. The first time I played this part, I felt I had no choice but to turn around and leave when asked to leave. @Arvia , did I have enough probable cause to insist on staying and checking the boy's room? We could maybe consider Neurik's assignment to be a search warrant of sorts.
You have to get the "innocent" werewolves to Near Death before you can talk to them and try to convince them to take the cure. This can go very wrong if you get an "unlucky" critical hit at the worst possible moment, or if you're using your companion and can't call them off in time. I managed to do okay this time.
Level: 8
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1 (Final Boss of Chapter One)
Tomi Respawns: 3
@Arvia, yes, I just went back in and cast Endure Elements on him. When I left click the spell on my ctrl-action bar, it gives me a casting icon that I can put over Tomi. You're not trying to cast it from your own radial menu, are you? I think that does auto-cast on self.
Btw, did you know that you have three other action bars, one on shift, one on ctrl, and one on alt?
Also, I meant to say before, don't forget to talk to Tomi, and in Chapter Two, to Aribeth, every time you gain a level. They will have things to say. To talk to Tomi, left click on him and select "I just want to talk."
Aribeth in Chapter Two will have more dialogue options where you can ask her personal questions as the plot progresses.
@BelgarathMTH , hm, difficult question about the boy's family. Without knowing what I know now after reading your report, I probably would have left because of their reaction. But I don't know how much information you had before that. If you had good reason to suspect that he was infected with lycanthropy, then he was a danger to himself and others, and you were investigating, maybe you even had a kind of search warrant, theoretically. Besides, you wanted to cure him, not kill him.
See, that's one of the situations again where I'm glad to know what's going to happen, to avoid making the wrong choice.
Yes, I did cast the spell from my own radial menu. Good to know, thank you. Right now, I only have one spell slot anyway. Or did I get a second one at level 6? I never even looked! Going to look into my spellbook tomorrow.
I knew there were more quickbars, but I didn't know how to access them. Thank you!
I used the less frequent things from the radial menu or the inventory.
Arvia of Tyr is stepping into the portal to follow You-Know-Who, but I'm going to sleep and let her tell her story tomorrow ?.
May Tyr guide you in your steps, Todangelus. :waves and hits the Stone of Recall:
@Arvia , Well, the priest who gives you the quest specifically tells you to look into the boy's family's house at night, so, is that enough?
Congratulations on entering the finale of Act One! You still have quite a long road ahead to finish Act One, but getting there is a huge accomplishment! You have the cure! Or no, I guess *HE* has the cure... Alas, poor Fenthick and Aribeth!
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A beautiful sunrise over Port Llast, overlooking the docks.
We spent pretty much all of our recently obtained money on a Ring of Protection +2. Now we're broke again, but that's how money in this game works - make a certain amount of money, buy a gear upgrade.
Our AC before spells or potions is now 30. We could have gotten that same +2 deflection bonus using Protection from Evil, at least against evil creatures (a lot of dangerous enemies are not "evil", such as spiders or "You-Know-Who"), but the spell still gives immunity to mind-affecting spells vs. evil enemies, and +2 to saves against evil enemies. That still makes it worth it for me to keep it cast on myself, in my opinion, even with the new ring.
We found a book that details what really happened during the Time of Troubles. This book describes the entire backstory of Baldur's Gate. Anyone who doesn't take the time to read the lore books in NWN is missing out on a lot of what makes all Forgotten Realms stories work, so I highly recommend carefully reading all the lore books, for a more deeply immersive roleplaying experience in the Forgotten Realms games, which will include the both anticipated and dreaded BG3 from Larian.
While traveling along the East Road to our next lead in the Neverwinter Woods, we found the entire road overrun with trolls, and we found an archaeologist's camp wanting help to find artifacts about (plot spoiler) in the ancient cave network nearby.
Unlike in BG and NWN2, in NWN1, trolls do not require fire to kill. But they do regenerate hit points, and they are tough and do very high damage.
Troll chieftains like this one are especially to be dreaded. This one was hitting my AC 30 effortlessly, (on a 16), so I started drinking potions I had been saving. Barkskin to get that AC up to 31, Bless, and Aid. They also cast spells on you before they start using their devastating melee attacks. I made a will save against who knows what nasty spell. (BTW - if you want to actually see what spells enemies are casting in your combat scroll, that's a Spellcraft check. Spellcraft also gives you +1 to saves against all spells for every 5 skill levels. I always keep that skill at maximum for my clerics and druids.)
Level: 8
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1 (final boss of Chapter One)
Tomi Respawns: 3
Comments
I had to finish the second report in a hurry without proofreading, because the kids had suddenly come home and wanted to go swimming. I've realized now that the screenshots were messed up, some of them double while leaving out others that I had meant to use. I have fixed that. Sorry.
I wonder why you had so much more money to buy those bracers and the cloak (where did you get that, anyway?) and everything. Did you get something for that old tomb where I haven't gone yet, or were you just more lucky with your loot, like that enchanted armor?
I probably had to spend more on healing kits and the Stone of Recall than you.
And I really should have protected myself from Flame Strike, you had mentioned in your report that she sometimes used it. But I didn't have a scroll like you, and having only one level 1 spell I still thought that Protection from Evil might help me to deal more damage on top of the mind shield.
I like it that you can pause, zoom in on a fight and find a camera angle for a cool screenshot. It breaks immersion, but it's fun for the reports. I like to write roleplaying, but I think it only works if I'm playing a person not too different from how I would be in such a world. (I don't think I could convincingly roleplay a beautiful and pampered noble lady who became a mage
In some online information for PnP D&D I found that the Knights of the Merciful Sword were supposed to have a feat that allows them to sense where they are needed.
That brought up some memories and inspired me to my background story. Pater Alexander was the monk who used to be my teacher in religious education, and my trumpet teacher at school. He was a very kind and wise person. I talked to him once, saying that I didn't know what to do with my life in the future. In religious class we had just talked about patron saints. Catholics are supposed to care about the saints that they got their names from, and he had told us to study their lives and take them as an example. I said, I'm named after Mary, how on Earth am I supposed to take her as an example how to live my life?
And he just looked at me and said: "Mary was always there when she was needed. She was never missing. So, just do that. Be where you are needed." And some time later in a different context he said that to me again. "Be where you are needed". I will never forget those words.
Okay, I just wanted to say something about roleplaying, and suddenly I'm full of very emotional and fond memories
Although Pater Alexander would most likely disapprove of my changing attitude towards religion.
Watch for those floaty texts that open when you access a merchant screen that say, "The merchant's reaction is..." That is based on a score comparison that accounts for your class, your intelligence bonus, and your Appraise skill vs. the merchant's DC. (difficulty class). It can make a big difference over time to buy and sell from merchants who are not "unfavorable", and I'm always watching that, especially at the beginning of the game.
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So far today we have cleared the streets of the docks of smugglers, and have begun investigating the location of the plague reagent there, the cocktrice. I don't know if they've killed it to get its feather, but the cocktrice, like brain devourers, yuan-ti, and ... well, not dryads... is an extraordinarily evil monster, an unnatural abomination created by twisted arcane magics, that turns its victims to stone with its gaze. I almost hope they already have killed it for us.
The villain of this piece seems to be a Lieutenant Calik of the Bloodsailors' smuggling ring, who has rebelled against his former master, Vengaul, who is actually an old "friend" of Lord Nasher. If Calik succeeds in taking over the Bloodsailors, they will be turned from the top down from a merely "shady" thieves' guild at the Docks, tolerated by Lord Nasher, into a guild of bloodthirsty assassins and killers. We must not allow this.
The owner of the Golden Apple Inn as well as a peasant or thief we caught casing us on the streets, told us about Calik, and that he had a house on the northeast side of the Docks. The house was locked tight, but in this case, I felt we had probable cause for me to order Tomi to unlock the doors. There was a main floor with a separate cellar or basement, so we went to the basement first.
The basement was overrun with vermin, mostly beetles, but when we opened the last door down there, we saw this:
We could *probably* defeat it, but it would be a huge drain on our meager healing resources, and there was a trap just inside the door that I don't think Tomi could have disarmed while we were being attacked by that thing, so I slammed the door shut and did not proceed into the room.
I will make a note to come back here later. Those things are far too dangerous to be left anywhere in the city, and their preferred prey is people, pets, and children.
I still wasn't 100 percent sure we had the right house, so I did not take anything down there. I don't take things from the streets of the Docks or around the Docks either.
As soon as we found the door to the main floor and went in, we were attacked by Bloodsailors, so then I knew I had the right house, and since they were trying to kill us, I would be within rights to confiscate any valuables here. Tomi couldn't disarm the trap on the door of Calik's office, so I took a deep breath and turned the handle, hoping my armor and shield could stop whatever nastiness popped out. It was a negative energy trap that left me with about 3 hit points, and level drained me. Yikes. So, we had to teleport to the temple to get healed, and then pay the 50 gold to get back.
If you see a reinforced chest with scorch marks in front of it, and Tomi says he can't disarm it, believe me, you do *not* want to try to open that chest. They usually have junk inside anyway. They are bait. I call them "dupe treasure chests".
The doorwoman to the place where the auction was being held would not let us in unless we were wearing Bloodsailor's uniforms. I had a thought and offered her five of the strange red coins we had been collecting off the bodies of the rogues who were outside terrorizing the guards and the streets. She was all too happy to accept the tokens and open the door for us.
Inside, we found the auctioneer. He said Vengaul had not shown up with the main attraction, the cocktrice feather, and that he was getting worried. I looked at his other "special items" for sale, and gave him the rest of my red Bloodsailor tokens for a magic belt and a suit of leather armor. The reason I wanted the magic leather armor was that it fit the description of a needed item that the dwarven craftsman Marrok in the basement of the Shining Arms and Armor had shown us in the book he gave us, that could be turned into a suit of magic heavy armor called a "Whitebone armor", when combined with a gargoyle's skull. We had found one of those in the cult house in the Beggar's Nest.
We used the Stone of Recall to go back, and sure enough, Marrok was able to create the armor for us with the leather we had obtained. I didn't get any more AC from it, but, since it had an AC enchantment as part of its magic, I was able to sell my Bracers of Armor +1 to free up my wrists for better items that I might find, such as Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
Since I had spent all my Bloodsailor tokens on the leather armor and the belt, I wasn't sure we could get back into the auction house again, so I paid the 50 gold to have the temple teleport us back in there.
We found a half-orc guarding a locked door, and he demanded a password, but he didn't seem very strong-minded about it. We had obtained a key from Callik's house that I suspected would open the door, so I used the Will of Torm mind trick ability to get the half-orc to "agree" that he "didn't need a password", and that we could "move along."
Down below, we found a Bloodsailor woman being tortured. After we killed her tormentors, she told us everything we needed to know after we promised we wouldn't kill Vengaul unless he attacked us. She gave us an amulet Vengaul had given her to get into the Trading Company building, where there would be secret passages to the underground river cave network where Vengaul had likely fled.
On the way out, we encountered heavy Bloodsailor resistance, including a mage lieutenant with a pre-summoned dire boar, and the mage also seemed to have monk levels. I was expecting an easy fight since most of the mages had been going down so easily. I was very wrong. Tomi had no chance against that dire boar, and once the mage/monk attacked him with some kind of open-hand attack that stunned him for several rounds. I used at least six healing kits keeping Tomi alive, getting in as many hits as I could against the mage/monk while healing Tomi. At one point, I drank a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds for myself. We prevailed, but it was a very hard-won and costly fight.
The mage's treasure chest had a tower shield +1. (This game has random spawn chests and drops that will try to give you class-appropriate items. I think that's a pretty cool feature.) I forgot to mention I had also bought a Large Shield +1 with my Bloodsailor tokens, that gives the same AC as a non-magical tower shield, with a weight of 15 lbs. instead of 45 lbs. Okay, so much for using a lighter shield. Now that I have a magical tower shield, I actually get +1 to my total AC instead of just a weight reduction.
We proceeded into the Silver Sails Trading Company using the amulet Vengaul's consort had provided us, and it was overrun with vermin. If you ever find yourself fighting a stag beetle, be very careful! They hit as bosses. I used at least half our healing supplies on this fight.
Beating the stag beetle gave us level 6. I was torn between Spring Attack and Toughness for my new feat. Spring Attack ends attacks of opportunity while moving, and opens Whirlwind Attack for the next feat. Whirlwind Attack stops all attacks of opportunity of any kind during combat, which is huge. But, at level six, Toughness would give me six extra hit points. That could save my life against magical attack. After much agonizing, I took the Toughness. My new hit point roll that went with it was an 8.
Level: 6
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 0
Tomi Respawns: 2
So, using Jedi mind tricks on door guards, are we?
Thank you for including helpful information again. I'm not going to touch any trapped chest after my last experience...
Is the gargoyle head random loot in the snake cultists' house or did I overlook something? I will have to go back... Also good to hear that those creatures (except for the dryad) are inherently evil and unnatural, because I was getting worried.
I only had to snort at your "meagre healing supplies" while looking at your quickbar slots in the screenshot. I'll tell you about meagre healing supplies... had to spend all my money again on healing kits and used most of them on Tomi...
************************************
Short update without stories before I go to sleep and forget everything:
We defeated the mummy without trouble and gave the book to Judge Oleff. With the gold, we could afford a few healing kits and went to the Blacklake District, or rather the slums before the Blacklake District.
The young man behind the gate, in the No-Man's-Land area, told us about the diseased thugs and Loxar, and of course I agreed to confront him and restore order to this lawless place.
The diseased thugs were no problem, and then we got attacked by four hired fighters again, finding a note from "the eye" again. Walked back, talked to Fenthick, was bothered by Desther again, received money, wanted to save it for some item to raise AC.
Went back to the slum area on the way to Blacklake and, to make a long story short, both of us got killed by Loxar.
I didn't expect him to be waiting right there for us and entered without buffing first. Stupid, stupid, careless.
I successfully healed Tomi (who had been running ahead before I could even see Loxar and was therefore the one to get hit) twice, before that brute landed a critical hit on him with that dreadful scythe.
That should have been my clue to get out of there, especially when comparing his vs my damage.
Healing, healing again, then no more healing kits left. I tried to activate the Stone of Recall and it didn't work. I thought it's instant effect, but it seems to follow the same rules as attacks and spellcasting and would only work in my next round? I wasn't sure what was wrong and had no healing kits and no Lay on Hands left. I didn't dare to drink a potion with him close to me. I tried to run outside, provoking an Attack of Opportunity, and then outside I tried, unsuccessfully again, to use the Stone of Recsll now, and then he landed a critical hit on me, too.
Bad luck, but also very badly done on my part. After respawning, I went to Nyatar to get two Potions of Barkskin. Then I memorized Protection from Evil instead of Endure Elements (I always seem to have the wrong one), rested, and went back with Tomi, buffing with Protection from Evil, a Potion of Bless, Potion of Barkskin and a scroll of Bull's Strength that I had found (being swarmed with diseased thugs, I did take useful supplies from the barrels in that slum area). I should have done that before entering the first time. I don't now why I still try to save my resources for later, if later might never happen.
I used two healing kits and Lay on Hands on Tomi to keep him alive through that.
Those respawns are taking a heavy toll on my XP, and keeping him alive costs me tons of supplies, so I think my decision to donate for his respawns was stupid (I didn't know then that healing would cost so much money all the time) and I'm going to stop doing that.
I also considered reload instead of respawn, because it would leave my resources intact to use again, but that feels like cheating. Also, the advantage of respawning is that the enemy keeps his damage while I'm fully healed.
So. Ping, ping!
Level: 5
Reloads: 0
Personal respawns: 5
Tomi respawns: 4
****************************
We have found and defeated the evil Calik, and have obtained the third of four cure reagents.
****************************
Oh, dear, more spiders. This time it's a sword spider. I had Tomi on "Stand Your Ground" outside its room, because I knew we didn't want to fight this thing either at a door chokepoint, or inside a small space. I drew it out. Tomi got several good sneak attacks in after I called him into the fight, but he did get poisoned. Since the thing was dead, we fixed Tomi's poison this time by resting. A successful rest undoes both the primary and secondary effects of poison, without spending precious healing supplies.
A few rooms down the hallway, we ran into our most dreaded enemy - yet another bloated dire spider. I pulled it out into the hallway rather than fight it inside its Webs, which I was sure would cause our defeat.
We prevailed after much expense of healing kits and potions, but we were both poisoned at the end. I used healing kits to remove the primary poisons, and lesser restoration potions and scrolls to remove the secondary effects of the poison. I really, really *hate* spiders. Especially bloated dire spiders.
Down in the river caves below, we found one of the locked crypts containing the artifacts of Halueth Never. After solving the riddle and placing the correct item into the puzzle chest, we went in. Upon taking the artifact, Halueth's necklace, we were attacked by a mob of skeletons and ghouls. I immediately succeeded in destroying the skeletons, and causing all but one of the ghouls to run, with two Turn Undeads. Tomi had been both diseased and paralyzed by the one ghoul I had failed to Turn. I killed any monster not destroyed by my Turn Undead, and then used some healing supplies and my paladin Cure Disease ability on Tomi.
The dialogues we could hear between Calik and Vengaul while running towards the conflict, and the fight with Calik. He is a *very* strong physical boss. It took almost every last healing supply in my inventory to get through this fight while also keeping Tomi alive. Vengaul gave up his cure reagent quite willingly, and there was no need to fight him, allowing us to keep our promise to his consort.
Level: 6
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 0
Tomi Respawns: 2
We seem to have a similar attitude towards spiders... ugh.
I think it's totally inadequate and unfair compared to its strength and danger that you only get 50 XP for killing that Bloated Dire Spider. One respawn because of that monster (which is likely for me, unless I have learned my lesson and earn enough money to buy the supplies) would cost me 250 XP at level 5. Respawn is 50 XP *per character level* ! So, beating Loxar gave me 144 XP but cost me 250 XP for respawning once... that's not helpful for my level progression. But at least it gives me more time to think what kind of feat I'm going to choose at level 6. I've always been lucky enough to roll 10 HP until now, so Toughness is not quite as vital. I thought about maybe getting those Divine whatever. On the other hand, 6 HP more would maybe have meant survival in some situations.
I'm keeping my Ring of Protection +1 even if I get more money. If Arvia of Tyr is going to wear a cloak, I want it to be bright blue with a white or silver Gauntlet of Tyr on the back! And/or the symbol on my tower shield... I wonder if someone thought about adding something like that in a mod.
Your posts in the WoW thread (I've never played that game, but have read all the posts because you tagged me, and then I realized that I've probably had the wrong impression about the possibilities in that game) and sharing those NWN run reports with you, make me think how cool it would be to be able to play a game together and communicate. But I doubt I would have time for that during the next 5 years, even without considering the time difference.
Despite this man being so clearly evil, he saw we were more powerful than his foul magics, and begged us to spare his life. I couldn't kill him after he surrendered. He gave us the key to the dryad's cage and told us it would also open his food warehouse, and that we could tell Formosa to go ahead and take it.
I really struggle with whether to take anything from this estate. It feels like stealing to me to do so, despite the fact that it was almost certainly all ill-gotten. One of Meldanen's alchemists tried to kill us while we were searching for the dryad, so we did take the potions on his tables. I couldn't bring myself to take anything else in the estate, though. Other paladins might make a different decision. I wouldn't judge them if they did.
The dryad thanked us for freeing her and said the cure reagent was in her hair. She gladly cut off a small piece of it and let us have it before she left the magical cage that had been holding her and teleported away.
**********************************
After defeating Calik in the Docks and obtaining the cockatrice feather, we were able to just barely scrape together the 6,100 gold needed to purchase the Boots of Hardiness +1. That left us totally broke. I was torn between making this purchase or buying a Bag of Holding from the Twenty in a Quiver in the Docks. I decided I wanted the +1 AC and +1 to Constitution. My AC before Barkskin is now 27, and my hit points went up to 65.
I forgot to mention that when we made level six, I got a second spell slot to use. I will have Resist Elements on both Tomi and me for the sorcerer fight. I can choose also to have Protection from Evil on each of us, or Protection from Evil and Resist Elements on myself. (Or on Tomi, but if I go down, he'll go down, so I think I need to take care of myself first.)
I went back for the bloated dire spider in the basement of Calik's house. I had Tomi stand back, and I pulled the spider out the door away from its traps. It could only hit my AC 29 (with Barkskin) on a 19 or 20, so it almost didn't get a single hit on me. When it finally did, applying its deadly poison so I couldn't move or fight effectively, I had it to near death, so I called in Tomi and let him take the killing blow.
Inside the estate, we found Meldanen's journal in a desk in his room, where he had written down the clues about what had happened here. It was basically a confession to a crime, so I took the journal as evidence to hand into Lady Aribeth (Just roleplay - the game doesn't actually let you do anything with it. It's only there to tell you what's happening.)
We rescued the guard Samuel from Meldanen's prison. What kind of man keeps a prison block inside his mansion?
Meldanen's first apprentice. He is in many ways more powerful than Meldanen himself, and he's got a squad of imps helping him, as well as a pre-summoned dire boar. This is a very dangerous fight. We got lucky when he centered his first Ice Storm out the door at us while we were already running in. Its radius missed us completely.
I focused on the sorcerer while Tomi fought the boar and imps. Occasionally Tomi still got to do attacks of opportunity on the caster, because he was trying to cast in melee. He failed some concentration checks on some of his spells despite being very hard to hit because of a Ghostly Visage spell (concealment, immunity to first and second level spells.)
At one point he landed a Drain Energy spell on Tomi that drained him all the way down to level one! Level drain in NWN doesn't take your hit points, but it does take attack bonus and saving throws down to the drained level. Tomi wasn't going to be hitting much after that. Then, he landed a Slow spell on me, greatly reducing my attack speed. It wasn't enough to help him. I know he had at least two more Ice Storm spells, but they either got interrupted or he didn't cast them.
The fight with Meldanen. The fight with him can be either very hard or very easy, depending on how fast you can damage him, and how his Concentration check rolls go. It comes down to how many of his spells he can cast. If he keeps fighting long enough, he can eventually cast a very devastating Cone of Cold spell, but we luckily didn't see that this time. I drank a Potion of Bless for this, because I know the key to this fight is hitting him enough times before he gets to his worst spells. Good thing he doesn't open with those.
The dryad:
I knew there was a second apprentice down here if we had taken the other hallway than the one we wound up taking. He will still try to kill us even after his master's surrender. I decided not to risk the fight, and teleported out to the temple to return the plague reagent. Meldanen's second apprentice gets to live.
Now we're ready to start the final phase of Act One. It's very long and very hard, and the final fight is something I dread every time. It will take every consumable resource I can possibly collect to get through it.
@Arvia , I'm thinking maybe I should stop the reports until you catch up, because if I keep posting in detail, it will seriously spoil the story of the rest of Act One. I could maybe make vague statements about where I am and post a new counter after I get respawns or reloads. I'm highly likely to need one or even more than one reload if things go badly in the final fight. You can't respawn from there.
Level: 6
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 0
Tomi Respawns: 2
I'm going to keep it short today again, without stories and many screenshots, I have long day of work ahead of me and need some sleep. Also, I forgot to activate the Snapper tool during one episode and don't have more screenshots.
First, I went to the half-orc with the armor shop again and noticed the dialogue option that made me find the basement and get the book with ingredients from Cromwell/Cespenar/whateverhisnamewas. Then we got the gargoyle head (the door was still locked and there were two cultists inside, it hadn't opened when we were fighting the imp and the other cultists and I hadn't even noticed the door)
Then we went to the Neverwinter Zoo and freed the animals. Running as quickly as possible, we still had to kill 9 guards and the master of the pens, but we didn't harm anybody else and didn't steal anything, either.
I talked to a door guard who told us about a strange and beautiful creature that Meldanen had just taken captive (that must be the dryad) and talked to Milly, who allowed us to use the secret passage to enter the estate.
I felt that we were not up to the fight yet, with our low budget and little healing supplies. We went to the Docks District first (thanks to your "teaching run" again, @BelgarathMTH ) to kill some of those street muggers and thugs, collecting all the strange coins and finally earning some good money with the poison bolts that the thugs dropped. The half-orc gave us about 150gp more for them than Aribeth had offered, it was more than 700 gp, so I got some healing kits and two Potions of Barkskin.
Unfortunately, flanked by a large group of those ruffians in the street, Tomi's AI made him change targets again in mid-combat, so that he triggered Attack of Opportunity from 5 or 6 people at once and died.
I picked him up again and tried to be more careful. Our strategy is now to fight those guys in the streets, hit the Stone of Recall when injured, let Aribeth heal us and then walk back to the Docks District to continue. Otherwise we would be broke again.
We talked to everyone and went into what we assumed to be Calik's house. I didn't even see the basement, so we went into the main floor first, where several Blacksailors, one of them a mage, attacked us. I went straight for the mage and killed him before he could do too much harm, and then we killed the others. Afterwards, we opened a trapped door (Tomi disarmed it) and were surprised by a mage and a summoned Dire Boar and a trap on the floor. Tomi disarmed the trap and we went straight for the mage again, ignoring the boar. It dealt quite a bit of damage on Tomi, making me use Lay on Hands and a healing kit or two on him, but we killed the mage before he could do too much harm. He was using monk stunning attacks, too, but unsuccessfully. (@BelgarathMTH, I wonder if there are two of those or if you met him in a different place? I met him in Calik's house right before his trapped office door). I think I had to heal myself too, at least once.
When it comes to healing or drinking potions, Tomi's AI is really annoying. Sometimes he will be clubbed to death without anything happening, and sometimes we will drink healing potions that I never gave him, in the middle of a battle. And sometimes at the same moment that I was using a healing kit on him or giving him a potion, and then my supplies are wasted and gone because he had been faster and was already healed when I finished!
Anyway, there was a trapped door that Tomi couldn't disarm, and since I knew what was going to happen, I went to the basement first. Fire beetles, and then the dreaded Bloated Dire Spider, waiting for us in its webs. We crept back after seeing it, I drank Potions of Bless and Barkskin and cast Protection from Evil (I still don't know if it even helps against that monster), told Tomi to stay put and went to draw it out of its lair. It followed me into the door and I fought it alone, until it hit me with its draining poison. My healing kits always fail to heal the spider's poison and just heal the HP, and I couldn't move any more, so I drank a Potion of Lesser Restoration (bought for that purpose when respawning during the last fight with its cousin) to get my strength back and called in Tomi. When we were both strength drained and badly wounded, I hit the Stone of Recall to get us out. We rested at the temple and paid to get back, me protected again with Barkskin and Protection from Evil (no more Potion of Bless left). We attacked together this time. Tomi got hit by a few Knockdowns and the draining poison, but I could keep him healed this time, and I didn't get poisoned myself, so we could finish it.
We found three Potions of Lesser Restoration in there. Those would have been useful *before* the fight!
We went back to the trapped door upstairs. Knowing what was going to happen (thank you again), I rested to have max HP before trying to bash the door. I was quite lucky and the energy drain took only 23 of my 50 HP. After triggering the trap, Tomi could open the door.
We found Calik's key, a note about V. (I just can't remember names, I should really take notes while playing) and: Bracers of Armor +1! I have AC 25 now and didn't even need to buy them!
Next stop will be the auction house, but that won't be tonight, I'm going to sleep before midnight for a change
Level: 5
Reloads: 0
Personal respawns: 5
Tomi respawns: 5
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In the next really big dungeon of this chapter, we started facing very strong undead. This one is a zombie warrior. I have started, at this level, to hold Tomi back until I need him to check for and disarm traps, or to open a lock. I am getting somewhat powerful, and Tomi is always going to be very vulnerable. It's much less a drain on our resources if I fight alone now most of the time. I still need him, and he saves my life often, but I keep him out of danger absolutely as much as possible, sometimes having him stand behind me, sometimes leaving him back in another room.
I battle one of the most powerful undead here, a curst warrior. This is a very deadly undead foe, and Tomi would have been more of a liability than an asset during this fight.
The priest enemies here are neutral. Attempting a Smite Evil on one gave me a warning about that. Worryingly, this means that Protection from Evil will *not* protect me from any Hold Person spells cast by these priests. Maybe I should have invested in some Silence scrolls before. Too late, now. I think I have *one* Potion of Clarity, but they only last three rounds. Timing will be critical if I try to use that. I may just have to pray to Torm that I make all my will saves here.
You can cleanse this Temple of Helm and meet an actual Avatar of Helm. Word to the Wise: When Helm offers you a reward, *Take the Magic Item*! Paladins with +1 Intelligence and maxed out Lore skill will still not be able to identify the item without either a Ring of Insight, or a Potion of Lore.
Luckily, I had taken a Potion of Lore from Meldanen's alchemist's workshop. It doesn't hurt to have a few Potions of Lore for emergency situations like this, because the most powerful magic items will still be beyond our paladin ability to Identify and use them in the field, even with attention paid to intelligence and Lore skill.
In case anyone missed it, there is a child in the basement of this place who wants to buy and sell items here, because it calms him and makes him not think about the death of his merchant father. You can buy more healing supplies and potions from him.
After purifying the temple, we made level seven. No exciting new feats or spell slots are to be had at this level, but we rolled 8 for hit points and got our BAB a little higher, which will be *extremely* helpful in the final battle of the chapter.
Level: 7
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 0
Tomi Respawns: 2
After collecting the treasure of the "neutral" evil people here, we could afford a Bag of Holding finally from the child merchant in the basement. Thank Torm, because we desperately needed one. We still had some money left over to buy more healing kits.
There's a trick to this final fight scenario. Kill all the enemies in the two small rooms in the hall outside the main chamber. Order Tomi to stand his ground someplace safe. He will be of very little use in this fight. Open the door to the big fight in the large south chamber. It is filled with strong undead as well as the boss. You don't need to worry about his protective warding creatures if you're not a caster.
Pull the undead out into the hallway. Do NOT engage the boss on his own terms.
Once the boss summons a skeleton chieftain, that becomes your priority target. You *must* get rid of that skeleton chieftain, because it will destroy you. "Concentrate all fire on that super star-destroyer!"
Okay, this next photo is a huge, big, fat story spoiler if you don't want to see it. I hoped I could take the picture to show my combat transcript without showing the boss, but it didn't work. What happened was that I rolled a one on a will save against Hold Person. Grrrr. The last time that happened to me, I wanted to rage quit, especially since I thought at the time that I was protected against mind spells by Protection from Evil.
I got Held. That was a death sentence. Now, this is very interesting. The original game didn't allow you to respawn if you die here, but I was able to. @JuliusBorisov , was this a change made by Beamdog for the NWN:EE? If so, I heartily approve. I was able to use respawn and go back without having to take a reload. Yay! It cost me 350 xp, but I gladly paid that cost, and would have paid more xp!
After returning to the fight from my first respawn, I ran into the main chamber and killed off all the ward creatures just in case they could do something to prevent me from winning. I'm not sure they do anything at all if you pull the boss outside of the circle, but I killed them anyway just to be sure. This guy is one heck of a boss!
He cursed me and brought my strength down to 12. Good grief. I tried a Dispel Magic scroll, and it didn't work.
We still prevailed, largely because of my enormous AC that prevented him from landing many hits on me. I used a *lot* of healing kits I had bought from the child merchant down in the basement on both Tomi and on myself. I had also drank Potions of Barkskin, Endurance, Bless, Aid, and perhaps most importantly, Speed.
We roleplayed out the rest of the chapter and collected some more treasure from in there, then ended the chapter and enjoyed the final cinematic showing us the denoument of our efforts in Chapter One.
We are now beginning Chapter Two of our epic story. There are many fascinating and fulfilling roleplay opportunities with Lady Aribeth coming, especially for a paladin with high Persuade skill.
Level: 7
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1
Tomi Respawns: 3
I'm going to buy some Silence scrolls for that.
I already dread those fights, With my respawn penalties, I doubt I will make level 7 before facing the final fight (don't read if you haven't played it before)
It's really great that you explain what kinds of buffing you used, and what was or would have been useless or better. That's very helpful for me now and for other potential future readers. I usually don't like to use metaknowledge, but I can roleplay that I met a fellow, more experienced, paladin named Todangelus somewhere in the city, and he told me a bit of his past adventures and how to protect myself from certain spells, and recommended what kind of gear and consumable resources to keep in my inventory "just in case"
Okay, thanks anyway. I guess I could be misremembering.
Lord Nasher's spymaster, Aarin Gend, has instructed me to look into possible cult activities in the area around Port Llast. First, we are to go to a network of caves to the north that has been overrun with goblins, orcs, and bugbears under the leadership of an ogre mage named Dergiab, who may have ties to the Cult of the Eye. A farmer just north of Port Llast asked for help to rescue his wife, who had been abducted by Dergiab's forces and taken to the caves.
Talking to the locals, we also found out that Port Llast is being attacked by a werewolf, and that several young men they sent out to find it have disappeared, and may have been turned into werewolves themselves.
A former elven thief-assassin wants to construct a jeweled scepter that is an artifact of his people, so that he can redeem himself and take his daughter back to the elven homeland, from which he has been exiled. I will be happy to give him any of the gems he needs if I find them, but he says that they are all currently owned and that I will have to find a way to get their owners to part with them. He gave me a key into a wizard's house that I am almost certain that he stole. I won't go into that house, and I won't commit robbery to help him. I am unlikely to be able to complete this quest.
The town mage wants a collection of lost arcane lore books. I will be happy to return to her any that I find, but again, she implied that I should illegally break into other people's homes and steal the books from them if necessary. I will not be doing any of that.
The ranger in the druid grove in the town wants me to investigate the disappearance of druids in the Neverwinter Wood, and find out why the animals are suddenly attacking people for no apparent reason. Aarin Gend also suspects the trouble in the Neverwinter Woods may be cult-related. I will definitely be going there eventually.
Outside a cave entrance, we found a book that seems to indicate that the orcs and their kind are not native to our world. If the book can be believed, they came through a magical portal opened by rebel Mulhorandi mages. The pantheons of both worlds came into conflict, and many gods died. The orcs wound up as permanent invaders on our world. (Ahem, cough, cough, World of Warcraft, cough, cough, Stargate, cough, Goa'uld.)
I will turn in the book at the temple in Port Llast. It is not a temple of Oghma, but perhaps they can send the text to one. Good temples all over the world are the keepers and guardians of the world's knowledge.
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Okay, this fight looks difficult. Notice the 2 minotaurs. I am mostly keeping Tomi out of the fights here so my healing resources will last longer.
The fight with the orc chieftain. Each faction of monsters here has a boss leader. I had already killed the goblin king, and it was tough but nothing exciting. The orc chieftain, however, had a squad of elites with him, and I quickly realized I was in over my head. I drank potions of Barkskin, Bless, and Aid, and used almost every last healing pack. Mid-battle, I saw I wasn't going to be able to win by myself, so I called in Tomi.
Interestingly, the chieftain started knocking Tomi down. If he had tried that on me before I called in Tomi, my Discipline skill must have saved me from that devastating ability. Some of the healing packs had to go to Tomi after I called him in, but we won, just barely.
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1
TomiRespawns: 3
I drank potions of Barkskin, Bless, and Aid again. I called Tomi in at the last minute, getting worried that I couldn't beat him by myself, but I got a killing blow just as Tomi ran up to help. I bought an Amulet of Natural Armor +2 from the temple, using most of the money from the caves, so a Potion of Barkskin is now only giving me an extra +1 to AC. It's still worth it in hard battles. Every +1 to AC is a five percent less chance to get hit. Or, put another way, you will get hit 5 percent less of the time. When you're in a mob of strong enemies, that is a significant damage decrease.
To get an idea how tough these fights really are, watch the number of healing supplies I have left on the action bar.
After we defeated the bugbear chieftain, (cue prelude from R. Strauss "Also Sprach Zarathustra"), we got this:
Omg, omg, omg! :jumping up and down in excitement: That is such a *perfect* item for a paladin! My charisma bonus goes from +2 to +4, which means an increase of +2 to all saves from Divine Grace, and now my Lay on Hands at level 7 will heal 28 hit points instead of only 14. My Turn Undead will also get stronger.
And, it's a beautiful blue. Hey, @Arvia, there's your blue cloak you were hoping for.
I had to give up my Cloak of Protection +1 to wear it, but that loss of deflection AC bonus can temporarily be made up for by Protection from Evil, as long as we're fighting evil creatures, and I'll eventually be able to afford a ring with deflection AC bonus.
Level: 7 (Good grief, it's taking a long time to make level 8)
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1 (boss of Chapter One)
Tomi Respawns: 3
I just got another cloak, not a color that I would wear myself, but it looks good on a girl paladin in shining armor.
After killing the bloated dire spider and restoring our strength and health at the temple, we went to the auction. We had to pay 5 smugglers' coins to get in and refused to join some orc or half-orc in a drinking game. I talked to the auctioneer and looked at his special items that could only be bought with the red coins (I didn't have more than 200gp normal money on me anyway).
I decided to buy the armor and the belt and remained undecided about the rest. I teleported to the City Core to make the armor. I had to sell my full plate mail and bracers of armor to afford the forging, but I wouldn't need them any longer. I got that armor and am now wearing the gloves of discipline again that had been dropped by a goblin at the academy. I'm glad I kept them, +3 to discipline is not to be sneezed at, as long as I don't have anything more powerful to wear on my wrists.
I had to pay to identify the belt and was happy to see it gave 12 magic resistance. I hope that's much.
Fortunately I knew that I would find a Tower Shield +1 soon, so that I didn't buy the large shield +1 with my smugglers' coins. Instead, I decided to get the Nymph Cloak +1. Now my Charisma is 15, that means the next point put there will give me the +3 bonus already. I had 5 coins left and wouldn't need them any more, so I bought the only item for 5 coins, which was a magical flail or morning star, and sold it to buy more healing supplies.
Here's my new cloak and armor.
Then we talked to a drunk person who told us about "downstairs", and we went to have a look. We took the wrong direction, opened a few doors and killed a few Bloodsailors, took the stuff from their rooms.
There were also a few empty bedrooms, but this is a tavern after all, so they might belong to paying guests, not the bloodsailers, so we didn't open the chests in those rooms.
We met a chatty dwarf who was sitting in a sauna (wearing underpants, thank Tyr), who felt like talking, and during the conversation he told us how to get past the door guard to the basement.
Very good. We didn't even need the Jedi mind trick to get in.
I did *not* expect a trap here. I should really tread more carefully wherever we go.
Some more fights with bloodsailors followed, some of them were spellcasters, but not tough ones. They also dropped some interesting stuff.
I wonder if I'm going to need invisibility. I'm going to keep the potion, just in case.
I don't remember if the diamond was dropped or in a chest, but I remembered one of the recipes needed it.
I upgraded my longsword +1. Paying 500 gp again hurt, and I avoided checking how much the diamond was worth, but an extra 1d4 sonic damage is good. Less money to buy healing supplies, but more damage means needing less healing kits, too. Or at least I hope so.
We saved Dara'nei from her torturers and got her amulet. Then, bad things happened.
I should really order Tomi to stand back *before* I open a door. He just ran ahead. I stopped him and tried to get in front of him, but he had already drawn their attention. I tried to keep him healed, but his AC and HP (why is he one level lower than me?) are not enough, especially when we are surrounded. I healed him, but at the same time another bloodsailor and that boar attacked him again, and the boar dealt a lot of damage.
The fight was not pleasant for me, either. I used at least two healing kits on myself while attacking and trying to dodge that mage/monk's attacks at the same time. Endure Elements might have protected me here. @BelgarathMTH , I see you keep it almost permanently cast on yourself. Maybe I should do that, too, and only memorize Protection from Evil when I think I might need it.
There I am picking up Tomi again, with my new Tower Shield +1, giving me AC 26. I hope I will be able to afford those Boots of Hardiness one day...
Poor Tomi, I should have left him there.
We decided to go to the Silver Sails Trading Company to search for Vengaul and were overrun by some very nasty beetles. Again, I made the mistake of opening a door without positioning Tomi in a safe place first.
I healed him twice, but the second healing happened exactly when the stag beetle hit him again. Damage dealt, healing triggered, poor Tomi was pulled back to the temple and the healing kit was wasted.
I wonder why the other one is called bombardier beetle.
Woah. Now I know why.
Look at my health bar, it happened faster than I could use the healing kit. I was very, very nervous and hoped I wouldn't get hit while healing myself, the way it had happened to Tomi.
That had not been easy.
@BelgarathMTH , I believe that's where you hit level 6. I still need 781 XP to reach that. That's not too bad considering that I've had 5 respawns. I hope I can avoid more of those.
I decided to transport back to the temple, pick up Tomi and ask Aribeth to heal me. I wanted to save some money for better gear, but I needed to stock up on potions and kits and am left with a little less than 700 gp again. I don't believe I will ever get my hands on those Boots of Hardiness...
That was not much progress last night, but I had to continue working after that, and got some sleep, too.
Level: 5
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 5
Tomi Respawns: 7 (*Must* remember to park him somewhere *before* opening any doors!)
I did *not* find that diamond down there! I had to leave Chapter One without being able to upgrade my longsword. I also never found the dwarf in the sauna, and didn't know about that solution to get through the guarded door. I guess I should have explored the inn more thoroughly.
I think you made a lot of good progress in that play session. Congratulations on your gear upgrades, and on getting through that beetle fight without a respawn.
i believe ophi.... whats her name from the moonstone mask inn ( man i bad with names ) if you ask her for more of a reward after collecting all 3 paintings she will give you a diamond as well, i almost want to say i found 3 diamonds.... in chapter 1
and i also want to say, holy jumpins, only level 7 in port last?
i just got there last night ( early this morning ) and im only like 3.5k XP away from level 10..... but i guess solo genocide runs level you up a bit better
and plus helm's hold was hell when i had to fight multiple SHADOW FIENDS, man did that suck ass hahaha, at least there was no bodaks there this time
I've watched videos of people doing the estate robberies, such as MyNameIsNotLilly. Once you break in, there are hostile guards, all of whom have to be killed. She even had her panther familiar kill one of the noblemen who was begging her not to kill him and handing over the painting. She killed him anyway, and got lots of experience. Evil! I guess it was okay for her, since the guy was playing her as an evil character.
I even watched a paladin player doing those quests once, and I got so mad at him by the third video I had to stop watching.
Level seven is fine for beating the final boss of Act One and the beginning of Act Two, at least as a paladin. Keep in mind also that @Arvia and I are not using reloads, and each respawn carries a pretty steep xp penalty.
Ah, that was what the Bartender meant. Pit fights? I have just been there before going to find Meldanen, and that guy said something vague about other stuff going on here, and to get a pass from the mercenaries if I was interested. It sounded like something shifty, so I just thought "whatever" and walked away.
I sometimes do the pit fights in BG2 against monsters in Ust Natha, as part of the attempt to blend in and stop the drow from seeing us as weak and threatening us all the time. I see it as protecting my companions by showing that they have a strong leader. Other than that, I don't agree with that sort of thing as a paladin or any good-aligned character.
EVERYBODY, pretty much, especially at lower levels you get more XP from priests and town guards, although some NPCs are invincible so don't make them hostile or else they will run after you forever, which is also bad because if the game "thinks" you are in combat, you can't initiate dialogue ( one feature in which i despise in NWN )
actually, i learned the hard way that if you do kill the nobles ( only did it with one by mistake ) you will get less of a reward from ophala, so sometimes the evil was is not the best way
plus the last guy who owns the inn, is a cheater and not really that much of a good guy, so i dont think it would really go against a paladin's ethos
plus in the moonstone mask, if you go upstairs, to the top floor, one of the girls you can chat with, is actually having problems with a frequent customer of hers, and if you ask her about it, she asks if you can make him go away but she doesnt want you to kill him, just make him beat, another quest i dont think paladins would be too much against
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This boss fight is tough. Not only do you have to worry about the ogre mage and the monk, but there is a squad of champion warriors in there. I put Tomi on "Stand Your Ground" far outside the door, went into the final cave just far enough to pull some of the bodyguards, and ran back to the door, attempting to set up a choke point that would force them to fight me one or two at a time. You're in for a bad time if you run into the middle of this fight and get surrounded.
The first one to come after me was the monk. He has a bunch of attacks per round, but not very good BAB, and low AC, so he was pretty easy to kill by himself without his bodyguards being able to get to him.
While I was running back for the doorway, the ogre mage threw a Fireball at me. I managed to snap a picture of it in midair, flying toward me. Because I always keep Endure Elements active, I only took 9 damage on a failed save.
First up at the door, after I defeated the monk, were an orc warrior and a goblin fighter.
Next up, a bugbear warrior and a bugbear hero.
That's all the bodyguards. Now to run in and fight Dergiab, who was hanging around in the back of the cave near his hut, the coward. His first move was to cast Enervation, and I failed the save with a roll of one! I was level drained all the way to level 4! This is a lot less devastating for a fighter than a caster, though, because it doesn't take your hit points. Lesser Restoration and resting do not fix level drain. You have to have full Restoration, which I didn't have, or go back to the temple to restore the lost levels. I would have to finish the fight with level 4 BAB and damage.
After striking some blows with his deadly double-bladed axe, he cast Ray of Enfeeblement. I saved with a roll of ten. That could have been serious - it causes strength drain, which is deadly to a fighter.
Ganon's Journal, the quest MacGuffin needed from here for Aribeth's quest. Don't forget to open all the chests in the area to find it!
We made level eight while still fighting in the doorway. I decided to wait until finishing the fight and getting back to the temple to heal my level drain before activating it.
I raised my strength to 16. That gives me +3 to attack and damage, and some more weight allowance. After this, all future attribute increases for this character will go to charisma. I rolled a 7 for hit points. I got a new second level spell slot, and will take Bull's Strength, which lasts an hour per level, and will be kept active most of the time from now on.
Dergiab dropped a Large Shield +3 and a Thayvian Circlet. The shield is one additional AC better than my Tower Shield +1, and 30 pounds lighter, so I will be using it. The Thayvian Circlet has an intelligence bonus, which does nothing for me except slightly better Lore skill, but it has +1 to all saving throws, which could be life-saving. I'm trying to decide if it's worth covering my face as I play. I don't like to cover my beautiful hair and face (kidding), but realistically, I'd be wearing head protection with my armor in these fights.
Level: 8
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1 (final boss in Chapter One)
Tomi Respawns: 3
I am wasting a first level spell slot! What the game is doing there is looking at two sources of resistance, and taking the best of the two. Endure Elements can only absorb 10 damage at a time, while my ring is giving me damage resistance 15. D'oh!
I could either start keeping Endure Elements or Protection from Evil on Tomi, memorize two Protection from Evil for myself to get longer time between rests, or use another spell entirely, maybe even Cure Light Wounds or something. I'll have to take another look at the first level spell list.
Resist Elements is a 2nd level spell. The weaker 1st level version is Endure Elements.
That was an interesting report, and full of useful information again. You survived some ugly attacks (I hate level drain) and got cool items! And I know you wanted to be a Jedi Paladin, but the blue cloak looks much better with the armor than that old brown curtain ?.
I'm going to finish Meldanen and will report tomorrow. I'm seriously tempted to loot that place, but I'm not finding a good justification. Sigh. No Boots of Hardiness for poor Arvia, I'm afraid.
Edit: Forgot to say, I'm having trouble to use doorways as choke points. The open doors are so stupid, sometimes you can't reach your target although it's right in front of you.
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We have rescued one of the boys who went on the werewolf hunt, Urth. Neurik the priest had told us when he gave us magic healing charms that if these boys were indeed turned to werewolves, we could only find them at night, and that Urth's parents lived on the south side of town.
When we knocked on the door, we were invited in, but as soon as the boy's parents saw my armor and weapon, they told us to get out and started behaving suspiciously. I apologized, but said I really was going to need to go up to Urth's room and wait for him to come home. The boy was there, and was indeed a werewolf. We managed to subdue him and convince him to put on the healing charm. As promised by Neurik, he was healed of lycanthropy.
****************
This can be a tricky side quest. The first time I played this part, I felt I had no choice but to turn around and leave when asked to leave. @Arvia , did I have enough probable cause to insist on staying and checking the boy's room? We could maybe consider Neurik's assignment to be a search warrant of sorts.
You have to get the "innocent" werewolves to Near Death before you can talk to them and try to convince them to take the cure. This can go very wrong if you get an "unlucky" critical hit at the worst possible moment, or if you're using your companion and can't call them off in time. I managed to do okay this time.
Level: 8
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1 (Final Boss of Chapter One)
Tomi Respawns: 3
Btw, did you know that you have three other action bars, one on shift, one on ctrl, and one on alt?
Also, I meant to say before, don't forget to talk to Tomi, and in Chapter Two, to Aribeth, every time you gain a level. They will have things to say. To talk to Tomi, left click on him and select "I just want to talk."
Aribeth in Chapter Two will have more dialogue options where you can ask her personal questions as the plot progresses.
See, that's one of the situations again where I'm glad to know what's going to happen, to avoid making the wrong choice.
Yes, I did cast the spell from my own radial menu. Good to know, thank you. Right now, I only have one spell slot anyway. Or did I get a second one at level 6? I never even looked! Going to look into my spellbook tomorrow.
I knew there were more quickbars, but I didn't know how to access them. Thank you!
I used the less frequent things from the radial menu or the inventory.
Arvia of Tyr is stepping into the portal to follow You-Know-Who, but I'm going to sleep and let her tell her story tomorrow ?.
May Tyr guide you in your steps, Todangelus. :waves and hits the Stone of Recall:
Congratulations on entering the finale of Act One! You still have quite a long road ahead to finish Act One, but getting there is a huge accomplishment! You have the cure! Or no, I guess *HE* has the cure... Alas, poor Fenthick and Aribeth!
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A beautiful sunrise over Port Llast, overlooking the docks.
We spent pretty much all of our recently obtained money on a Ring of Protection +2. Now we're broke again, but that's how money in this game works - make a certain amount of money, buy a gear upgrade.
Our AC before spells or potions is now 30. We could have gotten that same +2 deflection bonus using Protection from Evil, at least against evil creatures (a lot of dangerous enemies are not "evil", such as spiders or "You-Know-Who"), but the spell still gives immunity to mind-affecting spells vs. evil enemies, and +2 to saves against evil enemies. That still makes it worth it for me to keep it cast on myself, in my opinion, even with the new ring.
We found a book that details what really happened during the Time of Troubles. This book describes the entire backstory of Baldur's Gate. Anyone who doesn't take the time to read the lore books in NWN is missing out on a lot of what makes all Forgotten Realms stories work, so I highly recommend carefully reading all the lore books, for a more deeply immersive roleplaying experience in the Forgotten Realms games, which will include the both anticipated and dreaded BG3 from Larian.
While traveling along the East Road to our next lead in the Neverwinter Woods, we found the entire road overrun with trolls, and we found an archaeologist's camp wanting help to find artifacts about (plot spoiler) in the ancient cave network nearby.
Unlike in BG and NWN2, in NWN1, trolls do not require fire to kill. But they do regenerate hit points, and they are tough and do very high damage.
Troll chieftains like this one are especially to be dreaded. This one was hitting my AC 30 effortlessly, (on a 16), so I started drinking potions I had been saving. Barkskin to get that AC up to 31, Bless, and Aid. They also cast spells on you before they start using their devastating melee attacks. I made a will save against who knows what nasty spell. (BTW - if you want to actually see what spells enemies are casting in your combat scroll, that's a Spellcraft check. Spellcraft also gives you +1 to saves against all spells for every 5 skill levels. I always keep that skill at maximum for my clerics and druids.)
Level: 8
Reloads: 0
Personal Respawns: 1 (final boss of Chapter One)
Tomi Respawns: 3