so, up until 4:30am today, woops, ah scripting good and bad times hahaha
have some more things done like the barracks:
a lot of quests are going to be done here when this is finished
and then added some more to the city and even a druid who remembers who you are
and then one of two temples that will be in this city and this guy knows if you've been naughty or nice, plus if you have no money he can spare ya a couple of coins
@BelgarathMTH , AC 37 is worth sacrificing the "knight in shining armor" look! Shine through your actions, not your appearance
I love the "Batman watching the sunset" picture. And the green lightsaber, of course.
Congratulations on finishing chapter two, and thanks for avoiding spoilers.
I also absolutely agree with you on leaving the golem there. It's not like a henchman or an animal companion, it's created by magic and doesn't have a mind. You wouldn't feel bad about leaving a vacuum cleaner behind, either (although we have one of those that run around on their own, and I always pet it and tell it what a good boy it is when it's done. Unfortunately I can't train it to pick up trading cards and Legos).
************************************
I'm just going to summarize my progress with a few postcards. I want to play some more, and the part in the Neverwinter Woods is not very satisfying for a roleplayer, with lots of choosing between several unpleasant things, so I really don't feel like writing much about it.
Here's our journey through the Creator Ruins:
I was really scared of the minogons' howl at first, and my heart skipped a beat every time I saved against the howl. And there was one of them behind every door and corner.
After failing once, I got stunned and panicked, but the duration was very short and it didn't land a hit during that time. I thought "and what's supposed to be so dangerous about them?" until I ran into this nasty little robot:
Okay, it took almost half of my HP with a single hit! Definitely not a situation where I would have wanted a minogon around to stun me. I guess I was lucky that I could almost always get them on their own.
Ouch, that was one really nasty trap that I didn't spot. But the content was worth it.
The hammer does good damage and has a cool name, fitting for a paladin of Tyr. I thought about keeping it in case I needed blunt damage, but look at its price, I desperately need money for some life-saving items.
Here's another proof for @BelgarathMTH that even I can learn to control my impulsivity
After passing through the seals on the first two Creator Ruin levels, the next Seal Golem attacked us on sight.
I guess it was a good thing that I still had to find the key. I wouldn't want to stumble into those guys unprepared.
There were some more Minogons and Grey Renders on this level, also appearing in groups, but thanks to several doorways I could fight them almost one by one without much trouble, always keeping Tomi out of sight.
I had spotted another Battle Horror in the distance, and there were those creator sorcerers waiting for me, so I transported back to the temple to heal and rest to have my spells back. Until now, I had always walked back to save money, but since this was the final part of the dungeon, I got tired of crossing all those troll caves and creator ruin levels again. Just this once, I paid the 150 GP for the portal.
The battle horror was guarding the key, of course.
Healing, healing, healing, of course. I used Lay on Hands, too, to get me back to an acceptable health before facing the creator sorcerers. Protection from Evil and Bull's Strength were still active, and I added potions for Bless, Endurance and Clarity, because I had no idea what they might throw at me. Maybe Clarity was wasted, but I didn't know if they were officially of evil alignment. I don't know if I forgot Barkskin or if I didn't have one with me.
Oh no, I had only seen two, but there were three of them, each with a summoned dire boar. Sigh.
Their dire boars and magic missiles kept me a bit occupied with healing, but thank Tyr (or rather Helm, in this case) they were not very flexible with their spells, concentrating mostly on cold and fire damage, so my ring kept me safe.
What do lizardmen drop after millennia of stasis?
Seriously? They didn't want to wake up in an unknown future without alcohol? LOL
Then there was the boss lizard wizard to face. I was nervous, but they all seem to rely heavily on elemental damage spells, thank the gods.
Of course I accepted its surrender. For the moment.
To quote Professor Snape: "I may vomit." Lizard, human or whatever, anyone claiming to be a master race destined to dominate the world has that effect on me. That is certainly influenced by the darkest episode in my home country's history, but even strictly in-game those lizards are obviously mad, evil and merciless. I can't bargain with one of those.
Overconfidence. Still, I hope I'm not going to meet their Borg Queen, and I hope she doesn't have a hibernating army somewhere.
I went back to Jax to give him the books that he had wanted. After all those endless tough fights, I was sorely tempted to choose the "Persuade" dialogue option:
Of course I didn't do that, I chose option 3, but still, for a moment the dialogue line sounded reasonable in this context.
We continued into the Neverwinter Wood and agreed to help the druids.
Then there was a play session where I forgot to activate the snapper tool, and I only noticed later that I didn't take any screenshots. I will have to set it to make a camera sound so that I notice when it's not running.
Anyway, most of those woods meant killing lots of animals, which did not give me any pleasure.
I don't have screenshots from the horribly disgusting spider caves that gave me the creeps and made me play with the volume turned very low and the camera zoomed out as far as possible. Yikes.
I survived it, leaving Tomi behind at the entrance. The Spider Queen landed a Strength Drain on me, but I had been buffed with Bull's Strength and could continue fighting. Strangely, she didn't have Stoneskins when I fought her. Maybe she casts it when someone enters the cave, and it had worn off? I had left the cave once to rest before entering the last two chambers. Anyway, I was glad to have survived.
They Nymph's home disgusted me, too, having to kill all those innocent charmed or dominated people. I freed the druid and spared the nymph, because she apologized and said that she had been influenced by the hurt Spirit, but she still considers it normal to keep her slaves and only regretted being responsible for their deaths, not keeping them in the first place. I decided to take her possessions as compensation, same as I have mentioned in a post above about Setara. They did evil things and deserve punishment, and she will make amends for her deeds by helping me with supplies and equipment. It's her forest, too.
I made a different decision from @BelgarathMTH considering the other cave. My Arvia of Tyr was raised in the city, and although she doesn't enjoy killing animals, she saw the cave littered with corpses and judged the ancient dire bear to be a man-eating threat like the crazed animals outside. It didn't give me pleasure to do this (and it was a fight that almost killed me, too), but I killed the bear. All those dire bears in the area had attacked on sight and charged from a long distance. I'm not that familiar with bears, but I don't think that's natural behavior. Still, it was not pleasant. It's sad that some wild animals in the game are hostile by default and not only when you get too close. Like the dire boars. I know that boars can be dangerous ( I spent most of my childhood in the forests, and they were full of boars), but they don't attack without reason, only if they're hurt or have little ones.
Anyway, after the clues from Setara, I was ready to enter the Spirit Realm.
I met the mad Relmar, who, with much patience and persuasion, gave me some information about the cult and what they did to the Spirit.
The spirit realm was incredibly annoying, with the Will-o'-Wisps' invisibility and the grigs and pixies entangling and confusing me all the time. Confusion seems to stop commands that I had given, because Tomi always came running in from where I had left him, and very narrowly avoided getting killed by me.
Then, the Spirit.
Oh no. I had Turned the first summoned shadow fiend, and I think making it walk around had drawn Tomi from his hiding place into the fight.
When the Spirit's Stoneskins were down, it summoned another shadow fiend:
I was very worried about Tomi when he got affected by Fear. But it was actually a good thing. He ran around in panic with the shadow fiend after him, keeping it occupied, but never receiving a serious hit. I could focus on the Spirit of the Woods, and I had to heal myself several times to stay alive. I don't think I would have handled healing Tomi and me while trying to win this fight.
I was so relieved when it was over. For myself, Tomi, the Spirit, all those animals and this whole unpleasant part of chapter two.
I knew that Wyvern must be somewhere in these woods, too, so I searched thoroughly (knowing the consequences I would have to face) before going to speak to the archdruid.
I found him behind a corner not far from the druid encampment. I got attacked, but in the end he surrendered.
After hearing the dreadful things that had happened to his parents, I couldn't bring myself to kill him. His revenge had been terrible, but can I honestly say that I would never react like that when facing a similar situation? Where are the limits of justice?
And besides, see the dialogue options. How could I ever choose answer 2?
So I chose the lesser of two evils. But then a strange thing happened. Facing the dialogue options, rather than just telling him to give me his ear, I chose the option that I only accept to let him go under one condition: That he gives me information about the others.
The game seems to consider that the less evil choice, because it only cost me 5 points towards evil, not 10 like @BelgarathMTH .
Then I thought if giving the ear to Kendrack was telling a lie that a paladin can live with. But it only makes sense to spare him if the others think he's dead and stop hunting for him. So, I gave Kendrack the ear, but refused the gold.
Then I went to the archdruid to tell him that the Spirit of the Woods was cured. I refused his reward, too. Not because I knew it would shift my alignment back to 100 Good, but because of all the unsatisfying decisions that I had to make along the way, considering the animals and the issues with the nymph and Setara. But of course, knowing that it would restore my alignment points was the reason that I searched for Wyvern *before* talking to the archdruid. I knew his story before and knew that I wouldn't choose to kill him, but I also didn't want to avoid the encounter just because the game would punish me for sparing his life.
After talking to Aribeth about our latest results and giving her Relmar's journal, she told us that we needed more clues to follow that lead, and recommended looking into the Charwood.
So we took the South Road, and had to kill many, many innocent wolves and other wild animals again. Sigh. I wonder if anyone writing those games has ever seen a real wolf.
We entered a cave with several mephits and other creatures, and I reached level 10.
Now I have 108 HP and another 2nd level spell slot. I filled it with Aid. So, now I have Bless, Protection from Evil, Bull's Strength and Aid. And Tomi looks cool in blue now, and with his Shortbow +2 I've put him on ranged attacks and will use him in some fights again.
"Black Lich and his minions" doesn't sound good. We found a well at the end of this dungeon. Trying to dive through it, it told me I don't have enough air to reach the other side.
Something tells me that we will have a reason to come back to this place in the future.
Somewhere along the way we had collected enough loot that I went to the temple and found we needed just a little bit more gold, so I sold a few potions (I have spells for some of them now) and whatever I had kept in the inventory "just in case" and bought the Belt of Guiding Light. Some voice had whispered to me that I shouldn't go into the Charwood without it .
The next cave was full of poor wolves again, but I still had to rescue another boy, and where else to look for him?
Then I continued into the farmlands to the south, and met Pete. I talked to all people on the map and didn't find the solution that you found, @BelgarathMTH. I talked to Pete, his wife, his daugther, and the old man at the other farm. Didn't find the young man. But I don't feel like going into the cave and killing lots of wolves again. I mean, the cave is right next to their farm. Who builds a farm next to a cave without looking if it's inhabited? I doubt that the pack moved in there after them.
I had to kill a wolf when I walked there and it was attacking a cow, but I didn't want to look into the cave, afraid of having no choice except to kill them all.
I decided to go south into the next map and leave the decision for another day.
But I felt that I needed to do this at least:
Oh and I just realized that it was not exactly the "short" summary that I intended to write. It was still the short and simplified version, without roleplayed story and everything. Imagine what my poor high school teachers had to suffer.
Edited: Forgot to mention, I found and killed Stirge the baby killer without any hesitation or conscience issues, and collected the bounty.
Level: 10
Reloads: 0
Personal respawns: 8
Tomi respawns: 9
@sarevok57 , Those are beautiful interior and exterior designs. Nice work, man.
@Arvia , Wow, what a wonderful and thrilling report! Congratulations on Level 10. I love how you use a lot of pictures to really let us see the fights. I keep watching your health bar going up and down. It's almost like being there.
I had forgotten about that well, and I completely missed it this time. Getting through the water is a Constitution check. Since ours is relatively low (darn those paladin stat requirements), we'd need a Potion of Endurance to be able to swim through. I think Constitution 16 passes the check. There's a tomb down there with some kind of undead monster. I forget the circumstances about whether it's right or wrong to take the stuff from the tomb, but I think it's okay.
I think you did a great job with your ethical decisions. The Neverwinter Wood is a very difficult scenario for anybody who likes to roleplay having principles.
I had to reload. Because I am stupid stupid, stupid, stupid!
(and no, it was not related to chests with scorch marks , and besides, that would have been a respawn.)
**********************************
By the way, @sarevok57 , that looks good and like a lot of work. And I love those round blue floor mosaics.
**********************************
We left the farmland and entered the Haunted Forest, which was, well, big surprise, haunted by undead.
Look, even without the Charisma bonus of the amazing blue cloak, Turn Undead is still useful to keep at least some of them away for a while.
I cleared the forest of all those abominations, discovered a portal pillar and a scroll to activate it, but decided to explore the whole map before proceeding. That was a very good decision.
@BelgarathMTH , you must have had bad luck and missed that pile of skulls. I had wondered why the developers would throw an opponent at you that can only be harmed by a +2 weapon at a point in the game where you have no chance to acquire one. Good that you still had Tomi with you when you entered the portal pillar. Now I had the courage to go there.
I love Turn Undead. I'm going to play a cleric next time and make them all explode.
Oh no. One second of distraction and Tomi is getting suicidal again. Good thing that I had switched him to melee weapons again in the Haunted Forest, because of the skeleton warriors spawning between us and too close to him.
"Turn Undead!"
Back off, you abominations! To destroy undead is so much more fun than the fights in the Neverwinter Wood... even if they have Stoneskins:
Or if they look like creepy aliens:
Then I went back with Tomi to hide him behind the entrance stairs and reminded him several times to stay there.
I *really* didn't want him here when I approached that sarcophagus.
Thank Tyr for guiding me to find that Longsword +2. The Mummy Lord was already down to Near Death when he finished casting something useful.
Maybe I would harvest more XP by killing the summons, but I always save energy by killing the summoner. I don't want to take risks, and besides, it looks so cool when the summoner dies and the summoned critter disappears in a beam of light.
The whole forest and the crypt had obviously been infested by those undead for some time, so I considered it acceptable to take the item from the sarcophagus. It was one of those sorcerers' helmets for extra spell slots, but it was valuable.
Selling my loot and my Astral Blade +1 (I wanted to keep it at first, but I wasn't going to use it anyway if I had a +2 sword) gave me enough money to get another important item. I thought about the Amulet of Health, but I decided that I would rather not be down to AC 27 to protect me from level drain and stat drain. I bought the Boots of Hardiness +2. Now I have AC 30. Less chance to get hit means less chance to get drained, too, and I can still use Potions of Lesser Restoration against stat drain. Level drain might be another matter, but I have successfully fought with drained levels before. I'm going to take the risk.
We went to the Charwood village and I felt like having entered a horror story. There was great evil at work here and I considered it my duty to investigate the matter. Besides, I was supposed to find clues about the cult here, too, so we looked into the castle.
Bad, very bad. The only accessible part was full of fire elementals, mephits and Red Slaads, some very annoying creatures. It took me a moment to notice that they summoned copies of themselves and that I'd better focus on the "real" ones. The summoned red slaads still did an awful lot of damage, especially in groups.
And then a fearsome Huge Fire Elemental.
I should have bought more healing kits when I went to get the Boots of Hardiness +2.
I was asked to judge two brothers for an ancient crime. It is an honor to serve Lathander, who is my god's ally, but a heavy responsibility, too. I will have to carefully collect evidence. The guardian gave me the key to open the towers and speak to the brothers. But the way was not clear, far from it.
I started going left and found the same fire related creatures as downstairs, but *lots* of them, coming at me from all sides.
Gods and Nine Hells, that fight drained my last resources! I had to use lots of potions. I was that close to dying several times! But notice how they never hit me with their Attacks of Opportunity when I used a potion. I guess that means that I don't lose my Dodge AC bonus. So, maybe there are circumstances when it's not quite as dangerous to use potions during combat as I had thought.
Then I called in Tomi to help me open a locked door. There were more of those monsters inside. I blocked the doorway to fight them, but I got stunned or confused (That's weird. Sometimes Protection from Evil made me immune, and sometimes I needed a saving throw. Does that mean there are neutral and evil Red Slaads?) and Tomi joined the fight, because I hadn't put him completely out of sight. Others appeared behind us (I have no idea where they came from) and went for him, and I had almost no healing supplies left, so I desperately waited for the Confusion to wear off and had to use the Stone of Recall to get us out.
We asked for healing, rested, bought healing kits and walked back. I left Tomi at the entrance of that level and went to fight those nasty creatures alone. I almost died because I didn't notice that one of the fire guys that had sneaked up behind me was another Huge Fire Elemental, while I was busy killing Red Slaads. Another fight that drained my resources.
Then I found the information how Karlat had summoned Belial. I was not sure when was the right moment to try this and went to talk to Karlat (who had tried to become a lich) first. He told me his side of the terrible story and gave me the written oath for the Guardian.
Then I went to summon and question Belial. But I had misunderstood the instructions. I had the fire beetle belly with me in my inventory and used the Wand of Fire on the brazier. That was wrong, there was a blaze from the brazier to the floor that went right through me and created a kind of volcano right where the demon was supposed to appear. I didn't get scorched, I got charred.
That was my stupid death because of misunderstood instructions. I tried to respawn at first, because I thought that I had died too fast to see the demon appear. But the little permanent volcano was still there and I couldn't deactivate it or fix it. So, I had to reload, and my last hard save was at the temple when I had teleported out to keep Tomi from getting killed when I was confused.
I went back, did the fight with the Huge Fire Elemental again, talked to Karlat again and summoned Belial (after reading in a walkthrough how to do it properly: placing the beetle in the brazier and *then* using the wand to ignite it).
He looked impressive, but the information he gave me turned my stomach.
I found another cloak here, but it didn't look like something I would like to use.
Selling it and minor stuff that I had found (with so much evil here and everyone being long dead and trapped as ghosts, I considered it okay to take things) gave me the chance to buy another item that made me able to fight better. I had bought everything available and affordable for AC already, it was time to boost my offensive abilities.
Writing this report has calmed me and minimized my frustration about the stupid reload. I'm going to sleep peacefully now and will continue my investigation another day.
Level: 10
Reloads: 1 (fried paladin for Belial)
Personal respawns: 8
Tomi Respawns: 9
@Arvia , another great run report! I loved reading it, and your fight with the slaads and fire elementals was so thrilling! Condolences on the reload. It's always frustrating when that happens because of a misunderstood mechanical instruction.
It's possible to interview both brothers and render your judgement without talking to Belial, but you would have been missing some critical information, since both brothers have gone mad and do not *really* tell you what happened. I can't remember ever not doing the summoning ritual correctly, so I had no idea that the consequences for not doing it right were so severe.
I know from years of experience playing NWN to always try to click on any altar or brazier that's been hinted at as being important to see if items can be placed on them. Sometimes the solution is to just bash/destroy them. Other times, like this time, you need to place certain items and cast a spell on it. The solution to this kind of NWN puzzle is never to cast a spell on an empty altar or brazier. But I guess you just learned that the hard way.
******************************
Moving deeper into Chapter Three, we have recovered one of three MacGuffins, and negotiated a peace settlement between barbarians and the Lords' Alliance.
******************************
I was able to take a picture of my Full Plate +3 in better lighting, and it appears to be decorated to resemble a stained glass window. I'm not a fan of the look, but I will keep using it. I think it might look better with a red or green cloak. My blue cloak doesn't match its highlights very well. And yes, I know, "Look behind you!"
Wow, I can instantly destroy four Curst Rangers with my Turn Undead. I was not expecting that. I keep casting it in undead fights even when I don't need to, just to test what it can do at my level and with the blue cloak.
I made level 13 killing this bone golem.
Nothing exciting, no new spells or feats. Just an increase to BAB and hit points.
Hey, I can turn a greater mummy now!
Here there be dragons.
The paladin's innate Fear protection is extremely helpful in NWN dragon fights. There is no equivalent immunity like "Remove Fear" in BG. There's a version of that spell, but it only increases saves against Fear, and does not provide immunity. If I were not playing a paladin, I'd need the Lesser Belt of Guiding Light, or the Greater Belt of Guiding Light, to be safe in battles with dragons, or any undead with a Fear aura.
You're not so tough! Not against the might of Torm and Bahamut! Bahamut forgive your twisted draconic soul!
This guy almost got me. He landed a devastating critical hit, and if he got lucky and did it again, I'd be dead. I went for a Heal potion instead of a healer's kit this time. I don't know if it was the Boots of Speed, but my avatar attacked and landed a killing blow after I ordered the action to drink the Potion of Heal. I tried to cancel the order, but I drank it, kind of wasting a 2,000 gp potion. But I was glad to be alive.
At this level of the game, a well-built and well-geared character becomes nearly invulnerable, emphasis on the "nearly". It's fun to run around helping people, solving quests, saving lives, stopping wars, and even stopping the End of the World, feeling like Supergirl. But overconfidence is our biggest enemy going into high level play. There's always Kryptonite just around the next corner for the careless.
I made enough gold to buy Neurik's Shield of the Holy! My AC is increased to 38, and I have Extra Turning as a bonus feat granted by the shield. Notice my Turn Undead number per rest cycle is up to 14!
In appearance, it looks exactly like a normal wooden shield. I suppose that's fitting, as a holy man or woman is supposed to show humility. If it were an option in game, and wouldn't interfere with its enchantments, I'd probably have an artist paint it with Torm's holy symbol, or maybe an artist's rendering of Torm riding Bahamat.
Level: 13
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 3 ("D", Setara's flesh golem, Baram)
These are the images I was thinking of for my Shield of the Holy. One of the things I love about shields is that you can use them as holy symbols. Imagine thrusting the shield forward, and shouting "Turn Undead!", upon which an angel choir singing "Ahhhhhh" can be heard in the distance, while a flash of brilliant golden light expands from the shield, causing all undead in the vicinity to burst into flames!
@BelgarathMTH, I'll gladly take your cloak if you think it doesn't go with your armor
I think it looks more like a camouflage pattern (which doesn't make it better). But it keeps you from getting killed. Paladins should pay attention to their equipment to look like inspiring examples, but I don't think they would risk getting killed by wearing armor of lesser quality just because it's prettier
Those look like dangerous opponents. And I had to laugh about Todangelus frowning at his image in the mirror and suddenly seeing a charging huge fire elemental over his shoulder.
Hic sunt dracones.
Yep, when you think you're invincible, there's suddenly a Ravager in your Pocket Plane...
Oh, and congratulations on level 13!
I'll second the idea of shields with Holy Symbols on them, I believe I've said that somewhere, too. Although Tyr's symbol with the scales doesn't look as cool as Torm and Bahamut...
I can absolutely imagine the "shout Turn Undead" scene that you are describing!
I'm still trying to convince an artist (to whom I conveniently happen to be married) to draw me at least a character portrait for a paladin with a Gauntlet of Torm on her armor for future use.
And I apologize for the many typos in my last report. I didn't proofread. I've fixed them now.
have some more areas to up load starting with the city, its getting a little bigger everyday...
and then we have a picture of inside the tavern
and then we have an outside look of one of the most impressive buildings in the city; Calin City Hall where this so called mysterious "Baron" operates and or lives
I've discovered that the second (MacGuffin) is being held by an ancient red dragon named Klauth! He is stealing dragon eggs from the female dragons in the area, for some unknown nefarious purpose. (Red dragons always seem to be named something like "Smaug", "Klauth", "Firkraag". I guess Tolkein started that tradition.)
*********************
These drow sorcerers are very powerful, and they love to cast Evard's Black Tentacles. My tactic in response to that spell is always to run out of it, and start attacking the mage who cast it with my bow. Fighting drow has reminded me how often they love to use Improved Invisibility, Ghostly Visage, Darkness, and other such spells.
If I take this paladin on into Hordes of the Underdark, drow are going to be one of the main things I'll be fighting. I had really better take Blind Fight for my next feat. I've already encountered quite a few fights where I found myself thinking, "Shoot, this would be going so much better if I had Blind Fight!"
Oops. This ogre king wanted to surrender and talk. He shouted his equivalent of "I yield" right when my sword was in mid-swing with the killing blow. If writers for NWN really want you to talk to an enemy who surrenders only after being beaten down to a certain health state, then they really need to raise their idea about where to put that line. Maybe "Injured" would be enough. "Badly Wounded", and definitely "Near Death", are way too late to stop the killing blow most of the time, especially if a companion is being used, but even when a companion is not being used. I hope this guy didn't have any information I really needed.
I made level 14. Other than the usual progression in skills, BAB, and hit points, I got a new first level spell slot. No feats, sadly. Feats are getting more and more precious.
I thought about filling my two first level slots other than Bless with Cure Light Wounds, to help reduce my healer's kit costs for "top-offs". But I found that even two of them together wouldn't heal the damage from one strong enemy hit, or one trap, so I decided to fill the slots with two Divine Favor instead. As long as I remember to cast it right when being engaged by a boss, it will give me some significant bonuses for a single fight.
Wow, fire giants are tough! These made me drink two Potions of Heal during the fight, and twice got me to one of those situations where if either of them got a critical hit while I was drinking, I would have been dead. High AC is wonderful, and I always prioritize for it, but NWN offers no defense against critical hits.
Besides being incredibly dangerous, they look really cool. I could almost imagine them taunting, "Ha, ha, little man, my lightsaber is bigger than your lightsaber!" Umm, you guys wouldn't be compensating for anything, would you?
Aren't gold dragons magnificent? "The humble servant of Torm greets you, O great daughter of mighty Bahamut." :bows deeply:
So, I made enough money to buy this Dragonslayer shield to use against Klauth, where it will be more helpful than my Holy Shield. Of course, I will hang onto my Holy Shield to use most of the time, but will use Dragonslayer against dragons.
I'm not sure if the +5 AC bonus against dragons stacks with the base +3 AC bonus, or replaces it. But even if I only get +2 against Klauth, making the difference between, say, his hitting on a 15 or hitting on a 17, that will be a huge help. Klauth uses Knockdown a lot. I wonder how my Discipline skill will match up against that? I fear the fight with Klauth. It is one of the hardest fights in the game.
The first time I played, I had a build that almost never got past him. (This was after following the quest to "weaken" him. If that was weakened, I'd hate to see him at full strength.) I think I must have reloaded more than a dozen times back then.
@BelgarathMTH, that's an impressive dragon, the one that you had to kill earlier was ugly. And it's true, the Fire Giants look cool, but you can always stab them in the knees to bring them down
I only finished Charwood today (spent the rest of the evening taking care of a very sick rabbit, but he started eating grass again, so our hope that he'll make it is growing), judging the brothers and taking the cultist's book to Aribeth. She told us to meet her in Luskan, but a strange thing happened. I met Darktongue Breakbone and his two guards at the map entrance to that Griffin Inn, and something about "nothing personal... blabla" popped up over their heads, I prepared for a tough fight, but they remained neutral and I got a dialogue where he asked about my progress. It told him that I had found out more about the cult and was heading for Luskan. He answered something and that was it. No attack. I don't remember meeting an assassin on the way to Charwood, either.
@Arvia , I don't know. He attacked me on sight. I can't imagine what would have been different.
My only idea is that the assassin fights usually get triggered by conversations with people in Port Llast who come to warn you, and it's possible to miss those conversations if you're in a hurry running around town, and never realize that there are NPC's trying to talk to you. So, if you missed the triggering conversations, it could have caused a scripting error where the assassin before Darktongue never found you, and I guess, Darktongue doesn't attack unless you've killed the other one.
Sigh. I guess that means even less XP and equipment for me. I should probably buy that Circlet from the mage before entering Luskan, if I ever get enough money.
Anyway, with my luck, the assassin and Darktongue would probably have dropped Gauntlets of Pickpocketing or something equally useful
By the way, seeing the strength of your Lay on Hands in the combat log, I have recently read that it can be cast on undead to damage them. With your Charisma bonus, that might be worth trying in some fights.
I've discovered that the second (MacGuffin) is being held by an ancient red dragon named Klauth! He is stealing dragon eggs from the female dragons in the area, for some unknown nefarious purpose. (Red dragons always seem to be named something like "Smaug", "Klauth", "Firkraag". I guess Tolkein started that tradition.)
*********************
These drow sorcerers are very powerful, and they love to cast Evard's Black Tentacles. My tactic in response to that spell is always to run out of it, and start attacking the mage who cast it with my bow. Fighting drow has reminded me how often they love to use Improved Invisibility, Ghostly Visage, Darkness, and other such spells.
If I take this paladin on into Hordes of the Underdark, drow are going to be one of the main things I'll be fighting. I had really better take Blind Fight for my next feat. I've already encountered quite a few fights where I found myself thinking, "Shoot, this would be going so much better if I had Blind Fight!"
Oops. This ogre king wanted to surrender and talk. He shouted his equivalent of "I yield" right when my sword was in mid-swing with the killing blow. If writers for NWN really want you to talk to an enemy who surrenders only after being beaten down to a certain health state, then they really need to raise their idea about where to put that line. Maybe "Injured" would be enough. "Badly Wounded", and definitely "Near Death", are way too late to stop the killing blow most of the time, especially if a companion is being used, but even when a companion is not being used. I hope this guy didn't have any information I really needed.
I made level 14. Other than the usual progression in skills, BAB, and hit points, I got a new first level spell slot. No feats, sadly. Feats are getting more and more precious.
I thought about filling my two first level slots other than Bless with Cure Light Wounds, to help reduce my healer's kit costs for "top-offs". But I found that even two of them together wouldn't heal the damage from one strong enemy hit, or one trap, so I decided to fill the slots with two Divine Favor instead. As long as I remember to cast it right when being engaged by a boss, it will give me some significant bonuses for a single fight.
Wow, fire giants are tough! These made me drink two Potions of Heal during the fight, and twice got me to one of those situations where if either of them got a critical hit while I was drinking, I would have been dead. High AC is wonderful, and I always prioritize for it, but NWN offers no defense against critical hits.
Besides being incredibly dangerous, they look really cool. I could almost imagine them taunting, "Ha, ha, little man, my lightsaber is bigger than your lightsaber!" Umm, you guys wouldn't be compensating for anything, would you?
Aren't gold dragons magnificent? "The humble servant of Torm greets you, O great daughter of mighty Bahamut." :bows deeply:
So, I made enough money to buy this Dragonslayer shield to use against Klauth, where it will be more helpful than my Holy Shield. Of course, I will hang onto my Holy Shield to use most of the time, but will use Dragonslayer against dragons.
I'm not sure if the +5 AC bonus against dragons stacks with the base +3 AC bonus, or replaces it. But even if I only get +2 against Klauth, making the difference between, say, his hitting on a 15 or hitting on a 17, that will be a huge help. Klauth uses Knockdown a lot. I wonder how my Discipline skill will match up against that? I fear the fight with Klauth. It is one of the hardest fights in the game.
The first time I played, I had a build that almost never got past him. (This was after following the quest to "weaken" him. If that was weakened, I'd hate to see him at full strength.) I think I must have reloaded more than a dozen times back then.
i remember the first time i met that red dragon, and as you said, that was one tough battle, even when he was weakened
but now adays, with going power game extraordinaire not so much
with my half-orc fighter/barb/rogue i was able to defeat him at level 16/17 without even prepping up what so ever and i dont even think i used a healing potion in the fight ( although to be fair, i did weaken him with that er, something er rather...... )
although the green dragon, just for a goof, i thought to myself; hmm im at half health, can i take this dragon out right now with no spell/potion prep and not have to use any potions while in battle? yup, although i had like 1 or 2 HP left so it was cutting it close, but not too bad for only starting the battle at half health, hoi hoi hoi hoi
although when i took out the gold dragon i believe i had to use 1 healing potion on her
and like a complete dope and i always do this by mistake; i always but the tower shield +3 before i see that there is another tower shield +3 that gives you the extra AC vs dragons ( woops a doops )
@BelgarathMTH and yes, it is only an extra 2 AC bonus, but as you said, against dragons, that extra 2 AC really helps
Sigh. I guess that means even less XP and equipment for me. I should probably buy that Circlet from the mage before entering Luskan, if I ever get enough money.
Anyway, with my luck, the assassin and Darktongue would probably have dropped Gauntlets of Pickpocketing or something equally useful
By the way, seeing the strength of your Lay on Hands in the combat log, I have recently read that it can be cast on undead to damage them. With your Charisma bonus, that might be worth trying in some fights.
i think when you want to use healing spells on undead, you still need to make a melee touch attack roll to see if you still hit them, just so ya know, although at this level your melee touch is going to probably be 15+ so unless you hit 1s you should be able to hit them i think
@Arvia , like, agree, and insightful. I thought it, but I decided not to say it. Shame on you, @sarevok57 . (We're teasing you. We know you're a nice guy in real life.)
I have defeated the mighty ancient red dragon Klauth, although I feel somewhat guilty that I had to kill a baby blue dragon and trick Klauth into eating its essence via a deception. However, the alternative evil of avoiding fighting Klauth by getting him more dragon eggs and aiding him in his quest for immortality, in order to "trade" for the (MacGuffin), was the far greater evil. Torm and Bahamut forgive me for slaughtering two of Tiamat's children, and for the deception I had to perpetrate to do it. I pray that the end of saving the world for humans, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, and elves justified the horrible means necessary to do it.
*****************************
I didn't realize this fire giant was a king until I saw his name plate. If that hadn't clued me in, the fact that he almost killed me in two blows would have done the trick.
So, he had this in a treasure chest for me. I don't much like the copper/brass look of the metal, but it has blue highlights, which match my cloak. Also, Freedom is nice. Entangles and Webs won't have any effect as long as I'm wearing this, and I cannot be Paralyzed, although my Golden Circlet is also protecting me from that.
The blue across the chest and shoulders resembles a large bat, if you look at it just right. I guess the game has officially decided I'm playing "Batman" now.
So, I didn't activate Turn Undead, but this Slaad started running as though Turned anyway. I'm not sure what's going on here. Do paladins have some kind of Fear-against-Undead-and-Outsiders aura or something? I guess I might have accidentally clicked "Turn Undead", but I don't remember hearing the incantation for that or seeing a cast animation. Also, is that particular Slaad color undead? I don't have the cleric domain to Turn outsiders, since I'm playing a paladin.
Sigh. I really hated to do this. Although it appears as an adult blue dragon, a child of Tiamat, and quite evil in nature, it was actually a baby. But killing it is the only way to weaken Klauth. If any player can kill Klauth at full strength without killing this baby, I'd love to see that. However, if you try it, expect many, many deaths, resulting in either so many respawns you get busted down to 0 xp for the level you're at, or reload after reload.
The "adult" blue dragon's lightning breath did *way* more damage than I was expecting. I had to use a Heal potion here. When matters become desperate, and you can be killed in another blow or spell, you should always go for a Heal potion at high level, and not a healer's kit.
Oh, God.
Well, he wasn't *that* hard (weakened) for this paladin build, although his fire breath is devastating, even through my Ring of Helm. I had to use one, maybe two Potions of Heal during this fight. Interestingly, his fire breath does part of its damage as divine damage, making me think the game may implement red dragon breath as a maxed-out clerical Flame Strike. I guess it's from Tiamat.
So he was holding several of the most powerful magic items in the game in his hoard, presumably from killing past defeated champions. One was a red dragon armor. This would give me +1 AC over what I'm using, +5 fire resistance over my ring, and a slight weight reduction. But, oh, God, it's hideous red! @Arvia , I think this might be a case where I'm going to let appearance trump utility. At least my Armor of Freedom with one less AC gives me the Freedom spell permanently cast.
Ah, Klauth had a blue lightsaber in his horde, no doubt taken from one of my Jedi brothers or sisters who had sadly failed to kill him.
The blue lightsaber does a d6 of cold damage, while my green lightsaber does a d6 of acid damage. It does take my enhancement bonus down from +2 to +1, but I never fight without Greater Magic Weapon cast.
This is largely an aesthetic choice, which color lightsaber to use, although, in the game "Knights of the Old Republic", which uses a similar engine to NWN, and which I highly recommend, the choice of lightsaber color is given some philosophical meaning - it is supposed to represent whether the Jedi has chosen to focus on being a Guardian (blue), a Sentinel (yellow), or a Force-power focused Consular (green).
I tend to gravitate towards the green, because my favorite characters in the saga are Luke Skywalker and Yoda, although, my style of fighting in games matches the Guardian (blue) class better.
For this game, I will use the blue for now, mostly because it matches my blue cloak and blue armor highlights better aesthetically. We've got to look absolutely fabulous while fighting that evil, now, don't we, darlings?
The gold dragon Golgatha gave me a sweet belt in return for my saving the children of Bahamut. It gives me +5 to Fortitude saves, bringing that save bonus up to 20, in addition to Death Ward. It also protects from Disease, although I don't need that affix as a paladin.
Wow, Steam says I have 201 hours put into NWN since I bought NWN:EE on Steam. You have to realize, I played NWN from discs from when it was first released in, what was it, 2001? If you add these 201 hours to all the years before on discs, and then GoG, good grief. I must have 1000 hours at least into NWN, if not more. That means I've probably played it at least as much as I've played Baldur's Gate, Sacred 2, and Titan Quest. Maybe Might and Magic 6-8 are up there, too. I spend *way* too much of my life gaming, don't I? :looks skyward and whistles innocently: Would you believe, I *don't* consider that a wasted life?
Level: 14
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 3 ("D", Setara's flesh golem, Baram)
@BelgarathMTH , awesome gear upgrades, and some very intimidating fights to get there! I know you love dragons, but that blue dragon wouldn't have hesitated to tear you to shreds, baby or not. Although I sympathize, the alternative would have been much worse. (oh gods, I hope I will resist the urge to try to kill him without weakening him first. I know it would be suicidal. My brain just reacts that way when somebody implies that something might be impossible or very hard. Like Durlag's Tower and Aec'Letec in a first attempt minimal reload. I just can't resist a challenge. But I know it would be *very* foolish in this case)
I had to laugh at the gold dragon's name. "Golgatha"? Seriously?
Just this once, I agree with your choice of style over AC. Red armor, blue cloak and green "lightsaber"? My poor eyes! Besides, the armor contains a warning that it will draw the anger of every dragon you encounter, and Freedom is worth the difference of 1 AC point.
That was interesting about the lightsaber colors. I haven't played Knight of the Old Republic, but it is on my list for the future.
I'm glad to have made some progress last afternoon and night (a mercifully quiet on-call duty, after two weeks of way too much work), so I'll summarize.
As I have mentioned before, heading north into the direction of Luskan, I met Darktongue Breakbone, he threatened me and I dressed to kill.
Huh? I was surprised that they remained blue and let me cast all my buffs, and then that? I guess the dialogue should have happened in Port Llast, but I forgot that I was supposed to talk to him again there, so it got triggered now. Whatever.
I went into the inn, had no interest to participate in their childish competition, and checked the locked doors (I usually don't do that in inns, but Wyvern had told me that one of the other convicts might be hiding here)
It was Zor.
He told me his story, and I let him got. Until now, I've killed only Stirge. There's one left, I think.
We wanted to search the rest of the map and went outside again, unprepared, not expecting that Darktongue Breakbone would have changed his mind already.
Poor Tomi. He shot first, and they ran for him. I tried to cut them off, but I wasn't fast enough. One or two very fast hits by Breakbone, and he was gone, while I was still trying to cast Lay on Hands on him. And I had only two healing kits! There had been four others, but they were worthless. I had picked them up in the Charwood castle, but they were just reagents to be used in an alchemist's lab, and I noticed that when I tried to use them. I teleported out, got healed, rested and went back for him, leaving Tomi at the temple. I won't pick him up again, he deserves a holiday.
I left Port Llast casting Aid and Bless on me, too (I always have Bull's Strength and Protection from Evil cast on me), because I knew that he might have followed me.
There he is. "Injured" only, and I've seen how he hits. I decided it was worth sacrificing one of my two or three Potions of Speed.
He dropped a lousy non-enchanted warhammer. I wonder how he fought with that thing. I went to kill the last of his guards, who hadn't followed him. What next? I had to tie up some loose ends before going to Luskan.
I went back to the south into the cave with the well, but even with a Potion of Endurance I failed the check to dive through.
I talked to Pete's whole family again (I still couldn't find Eric to get the solution with the ring), and his wife mentioned something about him hearing the wolf's voice. A talking wolf? I decided that I'd need to investigate. The werewolf issue was still unsolved, and there might be something evil at work here.
I went in, unfortunately had to kill a few dire wolves to get to Silverback. She (or was it a male? I don't remember) could obviously talk, but at first she fought me. She's a predator, she doesn't go for diplomacy, I had to show her that I deserve respect, first.
I understand her anger, but this farmer hasn't killed her mother, and I had promised to look into it. The pack doesn't need the cattle to survive, obviously. I went to tell Pete, and he could live with this solution. I didn't accept the gold he offered, because they need it more.
Now I went back to the Griffon Inn map, found the cave with Sir Karathis, fought and saved him, convinced him to tell me who the original werewolf was, went back to Neurik with the information. He was shocked, but asked me to go and finish it.
(werewolf quest spoiler in the following screenshot)
That was level 11 for me. Nothing spectacular, and not a very lucky roll, either, but any progress is good.
I found a graveyard swarming with undead on the Griffon Inn map. I killed the undead that were running around and talked to the gravekeeper. He told me of the mausoleum of a mage who was supposed to be not-quite-dead, and the crypt full of undead that occasionally came to the surface. He was not afraid of them, but I asked him to give me the key so that I could cleanse this place.
Against big swarms, Turn Undead is good to kill the very week ones or distract some of the others for a while, but I desperately need a better Charisma bonus!
Two examples where I thought "Amulet of Health would have been great" in the tomb:
I *always* walk into Negative Energy traps. But the dexterity drain only steals all my Dodge AC, bringing me from AC 30 to 27. With the Amulet of Health, it would be 28 all the time. Not very much difference. And strength drain is not quite as crippling with Bull's Strength. I have several Potions of Lesser Restoration, and some Antidotes, but I keep them for situations where I'm seriously crippled by the drain.
Most of the undead here were plenty, but not too strong, with a few exceptions. But the game allowed me to rest in this dungeon, and I used the chance, treating it like "I'm going to breathe for a while, kneel down and pray to Tyr to strengthen me against this evil".
I don't like to raid tombs, but this one was swarming with undead, so I took what I found. I only left locked sarcophagi alone, assuming that the remains of the owner were still resting peacefully and not undead, because the undead had only risen from corpses or bones lying on the ground. And without Tomi I would have to bash them, and that feels very, very wrong to me. (not accusing anyone who does that. Just my personal feeling)
Then, my meeting with Brother Toras. One of his first moves was to dispel all my buffs, except for Protection from Evil, thank Tyr. I couldn't afford the Golden Circlet yet, and PfE gives me immunity to mind affecting spells at least against evil opponents. I'm always afraid it might wear off during a fight.
Gah! Another one of those and I'm gone! I didn't dare to risk healing, or to waste my only Potion of Heal. I teleported out before he could hit me again.
(@BelgarathMTH, I didn't remember correctly yesterday. He hadn't even used Everard's Black Tentacles at this point. He was going to kill me before I could even get close enough).
Heal at the temple, rest, walk back to the graveyard, buff, attack.
Not wanting him to fry me from the distance again, I ran around the skeleton warriors to tackle Brother Toras in melee. Idiot. I shouldn't have sold the Longbow+2 that I got for judging the two brothers in the Charwood. I was so focused on hitting him that I didn't pay attention to the first black blotches on the floor, and I had no idea *how* fast the damage comes. I frantically grabbed for a healing kit in panic (that was a mistake, I know that now), and it was over.
Good grief, look at that respawn penalty. Ilmater have pity on me.
I was desperate. I didn't know how many spells he had. Walking back would give him too much time to cast nasty things before I could reach him in the room. Teleporting now would mean to go right back into those tentacles, and I had no more protective spells. I decided to rest and then ask the priest to take me back to where I had died. That was maybe a bit cheesy, to avoid getting teleported right back into the tentacles, but I wouldn't commit suicide by going back without buffs, either.
Glad that he's evil and not neutral. I *really* need a Golden Circlet. And I just gained 50 poor XP for killing him, because my respawn penalty was 550XP. Sigh.
I found a tome for Eltoora here. With the reward for it and my loot (sold to a "favorable" merchant, of course) I still couldn't afford the Golden Circlet, even selling the Thayvian Circlet that I was wearing. I would have to sell Helm's Ring of Elemental Resistance. But there's lots of elemental damage in this game, especially in traps. I decided it wasn't worth it, and that a paladin wouldn't sell a gift from a god. I follow the Triad, in this game Tyr, but I've come to respect Helm. And I desperately needed better AC, 30 was just not enough.
I sold only the Thayvian Circlet and made enough money for the only shield with 1 more AC compared to my Tower Shield+1. And it gave 12 magic resistance (I know that's not much, but still) and was much lighter.
This game has a wicked sense of humor against me. I get useless drops all the time, and what is the first thing that I find in a room that was infested by wererats (or was it undead?), less than 10 real life minutes after spending 24000gp on one with equal AC ?
Unbelievable.
Okay, I'm in Luskan. Got my orders from Aarin, killed lots of vermin in the streets, went to an inn, promised a man to try to rescue his sister from Kurth and a mother to try to rescue her 9 children from Baram. My heart was aching for the mother, but Baram appears to be a necromancer, I don't know if I'm ready to face him. I judged Kurth to be less dangerous and went to him first. Before that, I visited all the shops in the area to get an idea what was available and for what I should save money. I bought a Bag of Holding (and healing kits!), at long last, and agreed to try to repair some machine in the sewers later.
A discovery along the way:
Later. When I have a bow.
Here's Kurth's lair.
I should have other priorities, but I love books. Burning books is killing knowledge. I ran and grabbed all the books from the piles that I could save from the goblins with the torches. I'm going to read them and put them in a safe place later.
There were annoying priestesses and mephits and other critters here, and a prisoner told me about a summoning portal spawning demons, and a book with information how to close or destroy it. Looking for the two reagents, I opened the wrong door.
Oh, hello, High Captain Kurth. Please don't mind me, your priestess has hit me with Negative Energy already (only one level drained, I can live with that), I'm just going to run out and try to take care of that portal. Wait for me here, I'll be back.
I'm glad they didn't follow me. I was running around searching for the two items, and suddenly everything was swarmed with imps and mephits and succubi. I was so afraid that my Protection from Evil might wear off! At last I found the two reagents, fighting the swarms of monsters along the way, but using the portal counts as dialogue, and that doesn't work during a fight. I had to clear the whole room of imps and succubi, and then I could destroy the portal. Gods, I hope I won't lose my protection right when I run back to Kurth and his priestess, I bet she has nasty mind control spells. I added some potions, I think it was Barkskin and Aid or Bless or both, and went in, heading for the priestess.
I killed her quickly (I think she landed another level drain on me first) and faced Kurth.
I freed the girl, took all my loot (nothing to use for me, just to sell) and went back. I talked to the girl's brother, who was grateful, but it didn't seem right to accept money for saving her.
I forgot to mention that I found that hideous armor in a chest in the street before going to Kurth's quarter. I was in doubt if I should touch containers in the streets. I decided that I would open them in the destroyed, burning areas of the city, or places that were obviously in the hands of the fighting factions, but not around shops, inns or homes. My Whitebone Armor looked much better and more how I imagine a paladin, but AC 33 instead of 31 can't be argued with.
After selling my loot, I had a moderate amount of money. I'm going to save most of it, because I really want that Golden Circlet, but I decided to spend some of it on a Nymph Cloak +2, because I really need a better Charisma Bonus for my Lay on Hands and Turn Undead. Now it's 16 with the cloak, which gives me at least the +3 bonus instead of +2.
Incidentally, the cloak is green. The armor is still ugly, but at least the colors match, although I look more like a ranger now. Well, I always wanted to be Aragorn as a kid (until I noticed that I'm *really* a girl), and I'm glad I've found the armor. Beggars can't be choosers. And we can't all be batman
I'm going to the sewers, maybe I can make level 12 before facing Baram or the Illusk ruins.
Level:11
Reloads: 1
Personal respawns: 9
Tomi respawns: 10 (going to stop this counter. I'm not putting Tomi into more danger, I'm going solo)
@Arvia , great run report. Sorry for your bad luck on drops, but I love your wry sense of humor about it. I had to laugh when you got a good shield right after you had bought one. I've had that happen to me, too. It really makes want to say "D'oh!" like Homer Simpson, every time.
I think that armor with a green cloak actually looks pretty good on a female character. Maybe you can be a Green Lantern to my Batman. A Green Lantern is way more powerful than Batman, anyway.
Congratulations on killing Toram and Kurth. Those are really hard fights. Condolences on the respawn from Toram, though.
@BelgarathMTH, about the issue with Londa and her 9 children: (spoiler)
apart from being horrible (I had tears in my eyes when the nanny gave me the stuffed bear), how did you handle the situation? I would have refused the vault key, I would have helped her without anything, and I couldn't even save them. But she gave it to me and ran outside, I followed her and saw how she got killed by black knifes. I don't feel like I should take anything, but *all* of them are dead now. I'm not sure if it's better to leave everything locked up there, or to put the things to good use and honor their memory before some criminals get their hands on everything. But, Nine Hells, if they were wererats, it might have been me who killed them...
And on a lighter subject: Now that you mention it, Green Lantern doesn't sound so bad
@Arvia, I agree, I thought that ending to the story was very sad, and a little frustrating. I guess the writer was trying to show that not every story in a violent setting like the Forgotten Realms can have a happy ending. I did take the stuff. I couldn't fix the machine for the gnome, though, because I never found one of the levers for it.
I made level 15 tonight, and moved into Chapter Four. I don't want to spoil story for any new players, so I'm not writing any roleplay for a while.
I took Blind Fight for my new feat. I really want Divine Might and Divine Shield. But I just really think that Blind Fight is what I need at this level. I got a fourth level spell slot, and filled it with Holy Sword. That basically turns whatever weapon the paladin is wielding into Carsomyr for NWN, for one fight.
It's a problem, like all paladin abilities and short-duration spells, to decide which fight is the fight where you need it. But, NWN has designed the paladin class around the "God help me for this fight against this overwhelming enemy" abilities.
Okay, I have always in the past played clerics up this high, who don't have this problem, but I'm into the challenge of building paladins now, who do have the "lots of god-mode, but don't use them at the wrong time" sorts of abilities. The paladin philosophy just really resonates with me so much, I am willing to give up my enormous "Clericzilla" powers just to play the humble paladin and beat the game with all the limitations of honor that that title implies.
So, Level 15:
I met this Balor Lord and thought I was in for a big fight. "You shall not pass!"
Umm. Okay, I guess a "Balor Lord" isn't that big of a deal for a level 15 paladin. :shrug:
I may slow down on posting for a few days, for several reasons.
1) I don't want to spoil the story for @Arvia , and I'd like to let her catch up with me a bit, understanding that she has a high responsibility job with demanding hours, and a family, all of which greatly restrict her time that she can work on her run.
2) I've just enjoyed a week's summer vacation, and I have to go back to work tomorrow. I get another vacation at the end of July, this time for two weeks, although I will have to be constantly in contact with students over those two weeks trying to get my Fall Term schedule arranged. Still, it will be very nice to have my schedule clear for nothing but gaming during that time, other than exchanging email and phone calls with present students and prospective new students about the Fall schedule.
3) I've very recently rediscovered an old teenage joy - chess. There are so many opportunities to play chess nowadays, both with real people at various websites, and with the computer with many delightful programs. I bought Chess Ultra, and Battle Chess from Steam.
Chess Ultra gives you some wonderful, relaxing environments, piece sets, boards, and music tracks, to play chess by, with some occasionally (but not always) multiplayer matching available, a tracking of your Elo in that particular software, and a really good computer program to play with and try to improve your skill at "the sport of kings" if you don't feel like having a live match.
Battle Chess from Steam gives you a chess environment where you can connect your love of D&D with your love of chess - the "piece takes piece" moves have animations, where the two pieces fight it out D&D style, with the captured piece losing. It's great fun for a few matches, but sadly, the game is highly unstable, with many bugs, so, your mileage may vary.
For me, I was able to get some fun matches against the computer by playing the red and blue pieces (the white and black pieces are bugged), and just accepting that the game doesn't work as advertised, but I still got to enjoy the D&D feel, and the wonderful music and the three environments provided.
As far as I know, although there is a live match feature, nobody is ever there to get a match with.
I found an online free chess home with chess24.com . I've found I can go there around the clock and get an almost instant pairing with an opponent for either a 15 minute or a 30 minute match, and it tracks your Elo for that site.
Anyhow, sorry for derailing my own thread with talk about chess. I guess we can get back to just posting and talking about NWN runs. Anyone who shares my interest in chess, though, let me know. Maybe we could start an off-topic thread to talk about chess.
@BelgarathMTH, congratulations on your amazing progress and thank you for giving me time to catch up.
Reviewing some of our reports, I've noticed that my bad luck in finding equipment seems to be over.
For example, you found that dark/green/marbled suit of armor in chapter 3. I found it in a barrel or crate in the street in Luskan. I had decided to take things from outside containers in the parts of the city that were destroyed or clearly in the hands of the two warring High Captains. Not containers that obviously belonged to an inn, store or other inhabited building, of course.
So, having been declared a temporary Green Lantern by Batman, this introduction to my report seems fitting:
"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight!"
************************************************
The next two posts, especially the end of the second one, contain plot spoilers for Chapter Two. I strongly suggest that first-time players don't read it, especially not pictures inside the spoiler tags.
************************************************
After defeating Kurth, I took a little detour through the city's sewers to see if I could find another entrance to Baram's quarters. I did not, but I freed the area of a ghoul infestation and found the machine that the gnome had told me about. I couldn't find more than two levers, though, so it's not working.
These sewers didn't have any connection to the others, so I went back, talked to Baram's projection and demanded to know about Londa's children, presenting Kurth's head and threatening to do the same to him. He laughed at me and told me of the children's fate, which I refuse to believe until I find proof. I started to bash the gate to his quarters, making the projection disappear, and fought my way through his disgusting undead minions.
I found something very useful there.
I'm going to keep this wonderful bow and won't sell found arrows any more. This is an amazing weapon if I have to keep my distance from a mage (black tentacles?), or to bash those reinforced chests with the scorch marks...
I continued through the darkness of the sewers, fighting a few unimportant minions and then a Yuan-Ti Necromancer. He (or she, I can't tell with those creatures) didn't seem to be very clever:
Summons a Dire Boar and then casts a Fear spell (that doesn' harm me as a paladin anyway) without protecting his summoned boar first? Thank you for making this easier.
I killed him and found a note on his body. How convenient that my enemies always carry instructions how to destroy them, or give me a speech confessing their sins before trying to kill me.
Upstairs I found a summoning altar spawning an endless supply of undead, powered by two Yuan-Ti Conjurers and two altars that provided spirits or skeletons as fuel. I headed for the first altar to disrupt the chanting skeletons, shouting "Turn Undead!"
Hah! I destroyed the remanining ones, but a Greater Mummy appeared on the altar! It was heavily protected and knew too many powerful spells.
I ignored the summoned dire spider, trusting my AC, and focused on the real threat. A very, very real threat!
It all happened so fast that I had no time to use a healing kit. I desperately grabbed my only Potion of Heal, strapped to my shield arm for exactly this kind of emergency situation.
Thank you, Tyr, for protecting your servant. I took a deep breath and ran to the Yuan-Ti Conjurer, whose concentration on the summoning portal must have been disrupted by now.
He and the one in the sewers must both have slept during the class that taught "Protect your own summons from Fear spells before casting one". Look at his poor Summoned Dire Boar running away. But that doesn't mean he should be underestimated. I don't know if he or one of the undead drained my strength, but it didn't stop me.
I had no time to take a breath, I ran for the second altar and destroyed the energy panels. I don't even remember what I had to fight there, but when it was done, I felt my last strength leaving me. I was completely exhausted, and I still had to face that other Yuan-Ti Conjurer. I knelt down and prayed to Tyr to restore my strength and grant me his blessing to destroy the great evil that had infested this place.
I knelt there for a few heartbeats and felt my power returning as if I had rested for a day. Casting my protections, I ran to face the second Yuan-Ti Conjurer. He was the more dangerous and more powerful of the two.
I tried to run away as soon as I saw the first black spots on the floor, knowing that the dreaded Black Tentacles would kill me within seconds, but I was Paralyzed! I stood there, frozen in shock, my heart pounding, all muscles clenched to sprint out of the Area of Effect, unable to move! I thought I was drawing my last breath, but Tyr had truly granted me his blessing. The Paralyzation wore off and I ran as fast as I could.
((Gods and Nine Hells, was that close! Look at my health bar! I think my heart actually stopped for a few seconds here))
I quickly took a potion from my cloak pocket (the emergency Heal Potion was spent already) while I kept running. I was lucky to have lurching zombies after me, not agile ghouls. As soon as I was out of the mage's visual range, I healed myself and turned around.
((I don't know if the 10% concealment make much of a difference, but I had found that rod, and it's not very valuable, so I've decided to try to use it occasionally))
Oh all you gods, that was very close. I picked up what I found in the containers around here and teleported back to the temple to rest in safety ( and to level up) before going for Baram. My strength is already 16, 18 with my Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and I always cast Bull's Strength. So, the point went into Charisma, which is 15 now, 17 with my cloak (I know, only even numbers give a bonus). And I chose Power Attack.
Time to go back and face Baram.
((Big thanks here to @BelgarathMTH. Without the knowledge from your report, I wouldn't have survived this fight without a respawn))
His double sneak attacks were very, very powerful. I frantically tried to keep myself healed while I destroyed the two gargoyles before facing him. I ignored the priestess, except for the Potion of Clarity, because I don't fully trust Protection from Evil. A Priestess of Mask should be evil, but who knows. Two seconds of Paralyzation would already kill me here. My last 4 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds, Lay on Hands and two Healing Kits +10 kept me moderately alive through this battle. I wonder how I even found time to hit back.
I couldn't enjoy my victory, because I had found sad proof that Baram had told the truth about Londa's children. With a heavy heart, I went back to tell her. I was tempted to lie and say they were safe, somewhere far away, but she deserved the truth. She was desperate, of course. Before I could say more, she thrust the key to her husband's vault (that I didn't deserve, and had never asked for in the first place) into my hands and ran out of the inn. I tried to follow her.
I'm not sure if this was cruel fate, or if she had deliberately provoked them. And maybe this was better than the heavy burden of being the only survivor. Ilmater have mercy on their souls.
I went to the Temple of Tyr to talk to the priest. First, I had to leave an evil object there. I had sold Baram's valuables, making enough money to buy the Golden Circlet, at last. But there had been a disgusting armor with vampiric properties among his possessions, sucking the very blood and life energy from opponents, feeding it to its wearer, exuding such an aura of evil that I didn't dare to expose anyone to it. The priest told me to leave it at the temple to be destroyed later.
I also told him about Londa and her children, and asked him what he thought I should do with the vault key. He advised me to go and use whatever I found there to honor their memory and help me fight the evil that had caused all this chaos, and maybe donate a percentage.
One of the chests had the dreaded scorch marks that I had learned to avoid (Neurik had to resurrect me once because of one), but my new bow and some acid arrows did the trick.
Incredible! What a wonderful shield! My unbuffed AC is 36 now!
@BelgarathMTH , did you have different random content, or did you avoid the scorched chest because you didn't have a bow?
There were other valuable items in the vault, a rapier +2 and some other things that I wouldn't use. The game gives no option to donate money, so I sold the items to the "neutral" Priest of Tyr instead of the "favourable" merchant, considering the loss of money a donation to the temple to pray for the souls of Londa's family.
I wanted to report the rest of chapter two, but I'm going to stop here and continue tonight, this is getting too long.
@Arvia , great report! You had some really close calls! Congratulations on getting through all those fights without a respawn. That was a major accomplishment! Kudos on your skill with the game. You're getting really good at it.
I did break open that chest with a bow, and I don't remember what I got from it. I think it was a nice suit of armor that I might have used for a while. It certainly wasn't that shield - I've never seen that item before. Congratulations! I'm totally jealous.
I'm happy for you though that you finally got an amazing random item spawn that's good for a paladin. Maybe that will help compensate for the game never having given you a blue Nymph Cloak +5. (Although there could still be one of those for you in a random drop somewhere.)
I think the random treasure spawning gives NWN some of its replayability. You can't just "go get the Awesome Item of Awesomeness from the chest in Treasureville" where that item is always located, like in Baldur's Gate. In NWN, you never know exactly what gear setup you're going to wind up with, which makes it really thrilling to find an item like my blue cloak or your shiny new Paladin Shield of Amazement .
I decided to progress my run a bit after work tonight, before playing some chess, then eating supper and going to bed.
So, there are two wizards controlling invulnerable golems attacking the city. Each wizard has to be found and killed to stop the golems, and each is defended by a balor lord. I've died in these fights before by not taking them seriously enough ("Your overconfidence is your weakness..."). As soon as I walked into these hideouts, I remembered dying there years ago, and the alarm bells rang in my head.
The first one had his balor lord blocking access to him, so he got to unload his spellbook on me while I painstakingly slowly defeated his guard. I used at least two or three Potions of Heal. I was not taking any chances.
The second one got really insistent about wanting me to fight him while standing inside Evard's Black Tentacles. No, dude, not happening, get over it.
Notice the *two* AoE's of Black Tentacles I had to run out of. I had to slowly make a frozen pincushion out of him from a distance to win this fight. Quite a few Potions of Heal were used.
So, now I thought it would be cleanup with the balor lord and his pet succubus. Hmm, not so much. He cast some spell, I have no idea what, that looked like a black hole was forming on top of me and collapsing toward its center. I decided it was probably not a good idea to keep standing in the middle of that until the rings finished collapsing. I ran out of it. After his summoned singularity finished its wave function collapse, (I choose to believe the cat lived! /Schroedinger joke), the rest wasn't that hard.
@Arvia , great report! You had some really close calls! Congratulations on getting through all those fights without a respawn. That was a major accomplishment! Kudos on your skill with the game. You're getting really good at it.
I did break open that chest with a bow, and I don't remember what I got from it. I think it was a nice suit of armor that I might have used for a while. It certainly wasn't that shield - I've never seen that item before. Congratulations! I'm totally jealous.
I'm happy for you though that you finally got an amazing random item spawn that's good for a paladin. Maybe that will help compensate for the game never having given you a blue Nymph Cloak +5. (Although there could still be one of those for you in a random drop somewhere.)
I think the random treasure spawning gives NWN some of its replayability. You can't just "go get the Awesome Item of Awesomeness from the chest in Treasureville" where that item is always located, like in Baldur's Gate. In NWN, you never know exactly what gear setup you're going to wind up with, which makes it really thrilling to find an item like my blue cloak or your shiny new Paladin Shield of Amazement .
based on that last paragraph that is pretty much right, although there are some exceptions;
certain containers in the game, hold a "weapon" that is designed for your "build" aka just need weapon focus feat ( or perhaps even improved critical ) and there will be a version of that weapon type there
some places that i can think of that hold such a container are:
- the chest where you start in the prelude
- when fighting gunlan and the devourer there is one chest in each of those dungeons
- after fighting the big D in helm's hold in one of the chests there is one in one of the side rooms
- in charwood.... the area where something er rather shall rule one of the containers will contain one
- in chapter 4
the chest or container where you pick up the word of power will contain a weapon one,
and if warhammer is the style you chose, i would save the game before picking up that treasure, because if you are high enough level there is a chance to get a hammer of thunderbolts, and this is pretty much the only way you are going to get it
and then in the klauth dungeon if you defeat him, he will always drop that red dragon plate +5
but yeah, other than that, everything else is either based on; treasure; low, medium or high
so sometimes you can find wonky things in wonky areas, like for me, one time i found a random +3 warhammer in a barrel in luskan ( which was great since warhammers was the weapon i was using and this was just a RANDOM drop, not even a weapon drop, so that was nice )
plus i also had it where one of the convict people that you hunt down for bounties dropped a pair of boots of speed, that was a, vary nice-a
Comments
have some more things done like the barracks:
and then added some more to the city and even a druid who remembers who you are
and then one of two temples that will be in this city and this guy knows if you've been naughty or nice, plus if you have no money he can spare ya a couple of coins
I love the "Batman watching the sunset" picture. And the green lightsaber, of course.
Congratulations on finishing chapter two, and thanks for avoiding spoilers.
I also absolutely agree with you on leaving the golem there. It's not like a henchman or an animal companion, it's created by magic and doesn't have a mind. You wouldn't feel bad about leaving a vacuum cleaner behind, either (although we have one of those that run around on their own, and I always pet it and tell it what a good boy it is when it's done. Unfortunately I can't train it to pick up trading cards and Legos).
************************************
I'm just going to summarize my progress with a few postcards. I want to play some more, and the part in the Neverwinter Woods is not very satisfying for a roleplayer, with lots of choosing between several unpleasant things, so I really don't feel like writing much about it.
Here's our journey through the Creator Ruins:
After failing once, I got stunned and panicked, but the duration was very short and it didn't land a hit during that time. I thought "and what's supposed to be so dangerous about them?" until I ran into this nasty little robot:
Okay, it took almost half of my HP with a single hit! Definitely not a situation where I would have wanted a minogon around to stun me. I guess I was lucky that I could almost always get them on their own.
Ouch, that was one really nasty trap that I didn't spot. But the content was worth it.
The hammer does good damage and has a cool name, fitting for a paladin of Tyr. I thought about keeping it in case I needed blunt damage, but look at its price, I desperately need money for some life-saving items.
Here's another proof for @BelgarathMTH that even I can learn to control my impulsivity
After passing through the seals on the first two Creator Ruin levels, the next Seal Golem attacked us on sight.
I guess it was a good thing that I still had to find the key. I wouldn't want to stumble into those guys unprepared.
There were some more Minogons and Grey Renders on this level, also appearing in groups, but thanks to several doorways I could fight them almost one by one without much trouble, always keeping Tomi out of sight.
I had spotted another Battle Horror in the distance, and there were those creator sorcerers waiting for me, so I transported back to the temple to heal and rest to have my spells back. Until now, I had always walked back to save money, but since this was the final part of the dungeon, I got tired of crossing all those troll caves and creator ruin levels again. Just this once, I paid the 150 GP for the portal.
The battle horror was guarding the key, of course.
Healing, healing, healing, of course. I used Lay on Hands, too, to get me back to an acceptable health before facing the creator sorcerers. Protection from Evil and Bull's Strength were still active, and I added potions for Bless, Endurance and Clarity, because I had no idea what they might throw at me. Maybe Clarity was wasted, but I didn't know if they were officially of evil alignment. I don't know if I forgot Barkskin or if I didn't have one with me.
Oh no, I had only seen two, but there were three of them, each with a summoned dire boar. Sigh.
Their dire boars and magic missiles kept me a bit occupied with healing, but thank Tyr (or rather Helm, in this case) they were not very flexible with their spells, concentrating mostly on cold and fire damage, so my ring kept me safe.
What do lizardmen drop after millennia of stasis?
Seriously? They didn't want to wake up in an unknown future without alcohol? LOL
Then there was the boss lizard wizard to face. I was nervous, but they all seem to rely heavily on elemental damage spells, thank the gods.
Of course I accepted its surrender. For the moment.
To quote Professor Snape: "I may vomit." Lizard, human or whatever, anyone claiming to be a master race destined to dominate the world has that effect on me. That is certainly influenced by the darkest episode in my home country's history, but even strictly in-game those lizards are obviously mad, evil and merciless. I can't bargain with one of those.
Overconfidence. Still, I hope I'm not going to meet their Borg Queen, and I hope she doesn't have a hibernating army somewhere.
I went back to Jax to give him the books that he had wanted. After all those endless tough fights, I was sorely tempted to choose the "Persuade" dialogue option:
Of course I didn't do that, I chose option 3, but still, for a moment the dialogue line sounded reasonable in this context.
We continued into the Neverwinter Wood and agreed to help the druids.
Then there was a play session where I forgot to activate the snapper tool, and I only noticed later that I didn't take any screenshots. I will have to set it to make a camera sound so that I notice when it's not running.
Anyway, most of those woods meant killing lots of animals, which did not give me any pleasure.
I don't have screenshots from the horribly disgusting spider caves that gave me the creeps and made me play with the volume turned very low and the camera zoomed out as far as possible. Yikes.
I survived it, leaving Tomi behind at the entrance. The Spider Queen landed a Strength Drain on me, but I had been buffed with Bull's Strength and could continue fighting. Strangely, she didn't have Stoneskins when I fought her. Maybe she casts it when someone enters the cave, and it had worn off? I had left the cave once to rest before entering the last two chambers. Anyway, I was glad to have survived.
They Nymph's home disgusted me, too, having to kill all those innocent charmed or dominated people. I freed the druid and spared the nymph, because she apologized and said that she had been influenced by the hurt Spirit, but she still considers it normal to keep her slaves and only regretted being responsible for their deaths, not keeping them in the first place. I decided to take her possessions as compensation, same as I have mentioned in a post above about Setara. They did evil things and deserve punishment, and she will make amends for her deeds by helping me with supplies and equipment. It's her forest, too.
I made a different decision from @BelgarathMTH considering the other cave. My Arvia of Tyr was raised in the city, and although she doesn't enjoy killing animals, she saw the cave littered with corpses and judged the ancient dire bear to be a man-eating threat like the crazed animals outside. It didn't give me pleasure to do this (and it was a fight that almost killed me, too), but I killed the bear. All those dire bears in the area had attacked on sight and charged from a long distance. I'm not that familiar with bears, but I don't think that's natural behavior. Still, it was not pleasant. It's sad that some wild animals in the game are hostile by default and not only when you get too close. Like the dire boars. I know that boars can be dangerous ( I spent most of my childhood in the forests, and they were full of boars), but they don't attack without reason, only if they're hurt or have little ones.
Anyway, after the clues from Setara, I was ready to enter the Spirit Realm.
I met the mad Relmar, who, with much patience and persuasion, gave me some information about the cult and what they did to the Spirit.
The spirit realm was incredibly annoying, with the Will-o'-Wisps' invisibility and the grigs and pixies entangling and confusing me all the time. Confusion seems to stop commands that I had given, because Tomi always came running in from where I had left him, and very narrowly avoided getting killed by me.
Then, the Spirit.
Oh no. I had Turned the first summoned shadow fiend, and I think making it walk around had drawn Tomi from his hiding place into the fight.
When the Spirit's Stoneskins were down, it summoned another shadow fiend:
I was very worried about Tomi when he got affected by Fear. But it was actually a good thing. He ran around in panic with the shadow fiend after him, keeping it occupied, but never receiving a serious hit. I could focus on the Spirit of the Woods, and I had to heal myself several times to stay alive. I don't think I would have handled healing Tomi and me while trying to win this fight.
I was so relieved when it was over. For myself, Tomi, the Spirit, all those animals and this whole unpleasant part of chapter two.
I knew that Wyvern must be somewhere in these woods, too, so I searched thoroughly (knowing the consequences I would have to face) before going to speak to the archdruid.
I found him behind a corner not far from the druid encampment. I got attacked, but in the end he surrendered.
After hearing the dreadful things that had happened to his parents, I couldn't bring myself to kill him. His revenge had been terrible, but can I honestly say that I would never react like that when facing a similar situation? Where are the limits of justice?
And besides, see the dialogue options. How could I ever choose answer 2?
So I chose the lesser of two evils. But then a strange thing happened. Facing the dialogue options, rather than just telling him to give me his ear, I chose the option that I only accept to let him go under one condition: That he gives me information about the others.
The game seems to consider that the less evil choice, because it only cost me 5 points towards evil, not 10 like @BelgarathMTH .
Then I thought if giving the ear to Kendrack was telling a lie that a paladin can live with. But it only makes sense to spare him if the others think he's dead and stop hunting for him. So, I gave Kendrack the ear, but refused the gold.
Then I went to the archdruid to tell him that the Spirit of the Woods was cured. I refused his reward, too. Not because I knew it would shift my alignment back to 100 Good, but because of all the unsatisfying decisions that I had to make along the way, considering the animals and the issues with the nymph and Setara. But of course, knowing that it would restore my alignment points was the reason that I searched for Wyvern *before* talking to the archdruid. I knew his story before and knew that I wouldn't choose to kill him, but I also didn't want to avoid the encounter just because the game would punish me for sparing his life.
After talking to Aribeth about our latest results and giving her Relmar's journal, she told us that we needed more clues to follow that lead, and recommended looking into the Charwood.
So we took the South Road, and had to kill many, many innocent wolves and other wild animals again. Sigh. I wonder if anyone writing those games has ever seen a real wolf.
We entered a cave with several mephits and other creatures, and I reached level 10.
Now I have 108 HP and another 2nd level spell slot. I filled it with Aid. So, now I have Bless, Protection from Evil, Bull's Strength and Aid. And Tomi looks cool in blue now, and with his Shortbow +2 I've put him on ranged attacks and will use him in some fights again.
"Black Lich and his minions" doesn't sound good. We found a well at the end of this dungeon. Trying to dive through it, it told me I don't have enough air to reach the other side.
Something tells me that we will have a reason to come back to this place in the future.
Somewhere along the way we had collected enough loot that I went to the temple and found we needed just a little bit more gold, so I sold a few potions (I have spells for some of them now) and whatever I had kept in the inventory "just in case" and bought the Belt of Guiding Light. Some voice had whispered to me that I shouldn't go into the Charwood without it .
The next cave was full of poor wolves again, but I still had to rescue another boy, and where else to look for him?
Then I continued into the farmlands to the south, and met Pete. I talked to all people on the map and didn't find the solution that you found, @BelgarathMTH. I talked to Pete, his wife, his daugther, and the old man at the other farm. Didn't find the young man. But I don't feel like going into the cave and killing lots of wolves again. I mean, the cave is right next to their farm. Who builds a farm next to a cave without looking if it's inhabited? I doubt that the pack moved in there after them.
I had to kill a wolf when I walked there and it was attacking a cow, but I didn't want to look into the cave, afraid of having no choice except to kill them all.
I decided to go south into the next map and leave the decision for another day.
But I felt that I needed to do this at least:
Oh and I just realized that it was not exactly the "short" summary that I intended to write. It was still the short and simplified version, without roleplayed story and everything. Imagine what my poor high school teachers had to suffer.
Edited: Forgot to mention, I found and killed Stirge the baby killer without any hesitation or conscience issues, and collected the bounty.
Level: 10
Reloads: 0
Personal respawns: 8
Tomi respawns: 9
@Arvia , Wow, what a wonderful and thrilling report! Congratulations on Level 10. I love how you use a lot of pictures to really let us see the fights. I keep watching your health bar going up and down. It's almost like being there.
I had forgotten about that well, and I completely missed it this time. Getting through the water is a Constitution check. Since ours is relatively low (darn those paladin stat requirements), we'd need a Potion of Endurance to be able to swim through. I think Constitution 16 passes the check. There's a tomb down there with some kind of undead monster. I forget the circumstances about whether it's right or wrong to take the stuff from the tomb, but I think it's okay.
I think you did a great job with your ethical decisions. The Neverwinter Wood is a very difficult scenario for anybody who likes to roleplay having principles.
I had to reload. Because I am stupid stupid, stupid, stupid!
(and no, it was not related to chests with scorch marks , and besides, that would have been a respawn.)
**********************************
By the way, @sarevok57 , that looks good and like a lot of work. And I love those round blue floor mosaics.
**********************************
We left the farmland and entered the Haunted Forest, which was, well, big surprise, haunted by undead.
Look, even without the Charisma bonus of the amazing blue cloak, Turn Undead is still useful to keep at least some of them away for a while.
I cleared the forest of all those abominations, discovered a portal pillar and a scroll to activate it, but decided to explore the whole map before proceeding. That was a very good decision.
@BelgarathMTH , you must have had bad luck and missed that pile of skulls. I had wondered why the developers would throw an opponent at you that can only be harmed by a +2 weapon at a point in the game where you have no chance to acquire one. Good that you still had Tomi with you when you entered the portal pillar. Now I had the courage to go there.
I love Turn Undead. I'm going to play a cleric next time and make them all explode.
Oh no. One second of distraction and Tomi is getting suicidal again. Good thing that I had switched him to melee weapons again in the Haunted Forest, because of the skeleton warriors spawning between us and too close to him.
"Turn Undead!"
Back off, you abominations! To destroy undead is so much more fun than the fights in the Neverwinter Wood... even if they have Stoneskins:
Or if they look like creepy aliens:
Then I went back with Tomi to hide him behind the entrance stairs and reminded him several times to stay there.
I *really* didn't want him here when I approached that sarcophagus.
Thank Tyr for guiding me to find that Longsword +2. The Mummy Lord was already down to Near Death when he finished casting something useful.
Maybe I would harvest more XP by killing the summons, but I always save energy by killing the summoner. I don't want to take risks, and besides, it looks so cool when the summoner dies and the summoned critter disappears in a beam of light.
The whole forest and the crypt had obviously been infested by those undead for some time, so I considered it acceptable to take the item from the sarcophagus. It was one of those sorcerers' helmets for extra spell slots, but it was valuable.
Selling my loot and my Astral Blade +1 (I wanted to keep it at first, but I wasn't going to use it anyway if I had a +2 sword) gave me enough money to get another important item. I thought about the Amulet of Health, but I decided that I would rather not be down to AC 27 to protect me from level drain and stat drain. I bought the Boots of Hardiness +2. Now I have AC 30. Less chance to get hit means less chance to get drained, too, and I can still use Potions of Lesser Restoration against stat drain. Level drain might be another matter, but I have successfully fought with drained levels before. I'm going to take the risk.
We went to the Charwood village and I felt like having entered a horror story. There was great evil at work here and I considered it my duty to investigate the matter. Besides, I was supposed to find clues about the cult here, too, so we looked into the castle.
And then a fearsome Huge Fire Elemental.
I should have bought more healing kits when I went to get the Boots of Hardiness +2.
I was asked to judge two brothers for an ancient crime. It is an honor to serve Lathander, who is my god's ally, but a heavy responsibility, too. I will have to carefully collect evidence. The guardian gave me the key to open the towers and speak to the brothers. But the way was not clear, far from it.
I started going left and found the same fire related creatures as downstairs, but *lots* of them, coming at me from all sides.
Gods and Nine Hells, that fight drained my last resources! I had to use lots of potions. I was that close to dying several times! But notice how they never hit me with their Attacks of Opportunity when I used a potion. I guess that means that I don't lose my Dodge AC bonus. So, maybe there are circumstances when it's not quite as dangerous to use potions during combat as I had thought.
Then I called in Tomi to help me open a locked door. There were more of those monsters inside. I blocked the doorway to fight them, but I got stunned or confused (That's weird. Sometimes Protection from Evil made me immune, and sometimes I needed a saving throw. Does that mean there are neutral and evil Red Slaads?) and Tomi joined the fight, because I hadn't put him completely out of sight. Others appeared behind us (I have no idea where they came from) and went for him, and I had almost no healing supplies left, so I desperately waited for the Confusion to wear off and had to use the Stone of Recall to get us out.
We asked for healing, rested, bought healing kits and walked back. I left Tomi at the entrance of that level and went to fight those nasty creatures alone. I almost died because I didn't notice that one of the fire guys that had sneaked up behind me was another Huge Fire Elemental, while I was busy killing Red Slaads. Another fight that drained my resources.
Then I found the information how Karlat had summoned Belial. I was not sure when was the right moment to try this and went to talk to Karlat (who had tried to become a lich) first. He told me his side of the terrible story and gave me the written oath for the Guardian.
Then I went to summon and question Belial. But I had misunderstood the instructions. I had the fire beetle belly with me in my inventory and used the Wand of Fire on the brazier. That was wrong, there was a blaze from the brazier to the floor that went right through me and created a kind of volcano right where the demon was supposed to appear. I didn't get scorched, I got charred.
That was my stupid death because of misunderstood instructions. I tried to respawn at first, because I thought that I had died too fast to see the demon appear. But the little permanent volcano was still there and I couldn't deactivate it or fix it. So, I had to reload, and my last hard save was at the temple when I had teleported out to keep Tomi from getting killed when I was confused.
I went back, did the fight with the Huge Fire Elemental again, talked to Karlat again and summoned Belial (after reading in a walkthrough how to do it properly: placing the beetle in the brazier and *then* using the wand to ignite it).
He looked impressive, but the information he gave me turned my stomach.
I found another cloak here, but it didn't look like something I would like to use.
Selling it and minor stuff that I had found (with so much evil here and everyone being long dead and trapped as ghosts, I considered it okay to take things) gave me the chance to buy another item that made me able to fight better. I had bought everything available and affordable for AC already, it was time to boost my offensive abilities.
Writing this report has calmed me and minimized my frustration about the stupid reload. I'm going to sleep peacefully now and will continue my investigation another day.
Level: 10
Reloads: 1 (fried paladin for Belial)
Personal respawns: 8
Tomi Respawns: 9
It's possible to interview both brothers and render your judgement without talking to Belial, but you would have been missing some critical information, since both brothers have gone mad and do not *really* tell you what happened. I can't remember ever not doing the summoning ritual correctly, so I had no idea that the consequences for not doing it right were so severe.
I know from years of experience playing NWN to always try to click on any altar or brazier that's been hinted at as being important to see if items can be placed on them. Sometimes the solution is to just bash/destroy them. Other times, like this time, you need to place certain items and cast a spell on it. The solution to this kind of NWN puzzle is never to cast a spell on an empty altar or brazier. But I guess you just learned that the hard way.
******************************
Moving deeper into Chapter Three, we have recovered one of three MacGuffins, and negotiated a peace settlement between barbarians and the Lords' Alliance.
******************************
I was able to take a picture of my Full Plate +3 in better lighting, and it appears to be decorated to resemble a stained glass window. I'm not a fan of the look, but I will keep using it. I think it might look better with a red or green cloak. My blue cloak doesn't match its highlights very well. And yes, I know, "Look behind you!"
Wow, I can instantly destroy four Curst Rangers with my Turn Undead. I was not expecting that. I keep casting it in undead fights even when I don't need to, just to test what it can do at my level and with the blue cloak.
I made level 13 killing this bone golem.
Nothing exciting, no new spells or feats. Just an increase to BAB and hit points.
Hey, I can turn a greater mummy now!
Here there be dragons.
The paladin's innate Fear protection is extremely helpful in NWN dragon fights. There is no equivalent immunity like "Remove Fear" in BG. There's a version of that spell, but it only increases saves against Fear, and does not provide immunity. If I were not playing a paladin, I'd need the Lesser Belt of Guiding Light, or the Greater Belt of Guiding Light, to be safe in battles with dragons, or any undead with a Fear aura.
You're not so tough! Not against the might of Torm and Bahamut! Bahamut forgive your twisted draconic soul!
This guy almost got me. He landed a devastating critical hit, and if he got lucky and did it again, I'd be dead. I went for a Heal potion instead of a healer's kit this time. I don't know if it was the Boots of Speed, but my avatar attacked and landed a killing blow after I ordered the action to drink the Potion of Heal. I tried to cancel the order, but I drank it, kind of wasting a 2,000 gp potion. But I was glad to be alive.
At this level of the game, a well-built and well-geared character becomes nearly invulnerable, emphasis on the "nearly". It's fun to run around helping people, solving quests, saving lives, stopping wars, and even stopping the End of the World, feeling like Supergirl. But overconfidence is our biggest enemy going into high level play. There's always Kryptonite just around the next corner for the careless.
I made enough gold to buy Neurik's Shield of the Holy! My AC is increased to 38, and I have Extra Turning as a bonus feat granted by the shield. Notice my Turn Undead number per rest cycle is up to 14!
In appearance, it looks exactly like a normal wooden shield. I suppose that's fitting, as a holy man or woman is supposed to show humility. If it were an option in game, and wouldn't interfere with its enchantments, I'd probably have an artist paint it with Torm's holy symbol, or maybe an artist's rendering of Torm riding Bahamat.
Level: 13
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 3 ("D", Setara's flesh golem, Baram)
I think it looks more like a camouflage pattern (which doesn't make it better). But it keeps you from getting killed. Paladins should pay attention to their equipment to look like inspiring examples, but I don't think they would risk getting killed by wearing armor of lesser quality just because it's prettier
Those look like dangerous opponents. And I had to laugh about Todangelus frowning at his image in the mirror and suddenly seeing a charging huge fire elemental over his shoulder.
Hic sunt dracones.
Yep, when you think you're invincible, there's suddenly a Ravager in your Pocket Plane...
Oh, and congratulations on level 13!
I'll second the idea of shields with Holy Symbols on them, I believe I've said that somewhere, too. Although Tyr's symbol with the scales doesn't look as cool as Torm and Bahamut...
I can absolutely imagine the "shout Turn Undead" scene that you are describing!
I'm still trying to convince an artist (to whom I conveniently happen to be married) to draw me at least a character portrait for a paladin with a Gauntlet of Torm on her armor for future use.
And I apologize for the many typos in my last report. I didn't proofread. I've fixed them now.
and then we have a picture of inside the tavern
and then we have an outside look of one of the most impressive buildings in the city; Calin City Hall where this so called mysterious "Baron" operates and or lives
*********************
These drow sorcerers are very powerful, and they love to cast Evard's Black Tentacles. My tactic in response to that spell is always to run out of it, and start attacking the mage who cast it with my bow. Fighting drow has reminded me how often they love to use Improved Invisibility, Ghostly Visage, Darkness, and other such spells.
If I take this paladin on into Hordes of the Underdark, drow are going to be one of the main things I'll be fighting. I had really better take Blind Fight for my next feat. I've already encountered quite a few fights where I found myself thinking, "Shoot, this would be going so much better if I had Blind Fight!"
Oops. This ogre king wanted to surrender and talk. He shouted his equivalent of "I yield" right when my sword was in mid-swing with the killing blow. If writers for NWN really want you to talk to an enemy who surrenders only after being beaten down to a certain health state, then they really need to raise their idea about where to put that line. Maybe "Injured" would be enough. "Badly Wounded", and definitely "Near Death", are way too late to stop the killing blow most of the time, especially if a companion is being used, but even when a companion is not being used. I hope this guy didn't have any information I really needed.
I made level 14. Other than the usual progression in skills, BAB, and hit points, I got a new first level spell slot. No feats, sadly. Feats are getting more and more precious.
I thought about filling my two first level slots other than Bless with Cure Light Wounds, to help reduce my healer's kit costs for "top-offs". But I found that even two of them together wouldn't heal the damage from one strong enemy hit, or one trap, so I decided to fill the slots with two Divine Favor instead. As long as I remember to cast it right when being engaged by a boss, it will give me some significant bonuses for a single fight.
Wow, fire giants are tough! These made me drink two Potions of Heal during the fight, and twice got me to one of those situations where if either of them got a critical hit while I was drinking, I would have been dead. High AC is wonderful, and I always prioritize for it, but NWN offers no defense against critical hits.
Besides being incredibly dangerous, they look really cool. I could almost imagine them taunting, "Ha, ha, little man, my lightsaber is bigger than your lightsaber!" Umm, you guys wouldn't be compensating for anything, would you?
Aren't gold dragons magnificent? "The humble servant of Torm greets you, O great daughter of mighty Bahamut." :bows deeply:
So, I made enough money to buy this Dragonslayer shield to use against Klauth, where it will be more helpful than my Holy Shield. Of course, I will hang onto my Holy Shield to use most of the time, but will use Dragonslayer against dragons.
I'm not sure if the +5 AC bonus against dragons stacks with the base +3 AC bonus, or replaces it. But even if I only get +2 against Klauth, making the difference between, say, his hitting on a 15 or hitting on a 17, that will be a huge help. Klauth uses Knockdown a lot. I wonder how my Discipline skill will match up against that? I fear the fight with Klauth. It is one of the hardest fights in the game.
The first time I played, I had a build that almost never got past him. (This was after following the quest to "weaken" him. If that was weakened, I'd hate to see him at full strength.) I think I must have reloaded more than a dozen times back then.
Here's the shield:
Level: 14
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 3 ("D", Setara's flesh golem, Baram)
I only finished Charwood today (spent the rest of the evening taking care of a very sick rabbit, but he started eating grass again, so our hope that he'll make it is growing), judging the brothers and taking the cultist's book to Aribeth. She told us to meet her in Luskan, but a strange thing happened. I met Darktongue Breakbone and his two guards at the map entrance to that Griffin Inn, and something about "nothing personal... blabla" popped up over their heads, I prepared for a tough fight, but they remained neutral and I got a dialogue where he asked about my progress. It told him that I had found out more about the cult and was heading for Luskan. He answered something and that was it. No attack. I don't remember meeting an assassin on the way to Charwood, either.
I wonder if something is wrong here?
My only idea is that the assassin fights usually get triggered by conversations with people in Port Llast who come to warn you, and it's possible to miss those conversations if you're in a hurry running around town, and never realize that there are NPC's trying to talk to you. So, if you missed the triggering conversations, it could have caused a scripting error where the assassin before Darktongue never found you, and I guess, Darktongue doesn't attack unless you've killed the other one.
Anyway, with my luck, the assassin and Darktongue would probably have dropped Gauntlets of Pickpocketing or something equally useful
By the way, seeing the strength of your Lay on Hands in the combat log, I have recently read that it can be cast on undead to damage them. With your Charisma bonus, that might be worth trying in some fights.
i remember the first time i met that red dragon, and as you said, that was one tough battle, even when he was weakened
but now adays, with going power game extraordinaire not so much
with my half-orc fighter/barb/rogue i was able to defeat him at level 16/17 without even prepping up what so ever and i dont even think i used a healing potion in the fight ( although to be fair, i did weaken him with that er, something er rather...... )
although the green dragon, just for a goof, i thought to myself; hmm im at half health, can i take this dragon out right now with no spell/potion prep and not have to use any potions while in battle? yup, although i had like 1 or 2 HP left so it was cutting it close, but not too bad for only starting the battle at half health, hoi hoi hoi hoi
although when i took out the gold dragon i believe i had to use 1 healing potion on her
and like a complete dope and i always do this by mistake; i always but the tower shield +3 before i see that there is another tower shield +3 that gives you the extra AC vs dragons ( woops a doops )
@BelgarathMTH and yes, it is only an extra 2 AC bonus, but as you said, against dragons, that extra 2 AC really helps
i think when you want to use healing spells on undead, you still need to make a melee touch attack roll to see if you still hit them, just so ya know, although at this level your melee touch is going to probably be 15+ so unless you hit 1s you should be able to hit them i think
"SMITE EVIL!"
*****************************
I didn't realize this fire giant was a king until I saw his name plate. If that hadn't clued me in, the fact that he almost killed me in two blows would have done the trick.
So, he had this in a treasure chest for me. I don't much like the copper/brass look of the metal, but it has blue highlights, which match my cloak. Also, Freedom is nice. Entangles and Webs won't have any effect as long as I'm wearing this, and I cannot be Paralyzed, although my Golden Circlet is also protecting me from that.
So, I didn't activate Turn Undead, but this Slaad started running as though Turned anyway. I'm not sure what's going on here. Do paladins have some kind of Fear-against-Undead-and-Outsiders aura or something? I guess I might have accidentally clicked "Turn Undead", but I don't remember hearing the incantation for that or seeing a cast animation. Also, is that particular Slaad color undead? I don't have the cleric domain to Turn outsiders, since I'm playing a paladin.
Sigh. I really hated to do this. Although it appears as an adult blue dragon, a child of Tiamat, and quite evil in nature, it was actually a baby. But killing it is the only way to weaken Klauth. If any player can kill Klauth at full strength without killing this baby, I'd love to see that. However, if you try it, expect many, many deaths, resulting in either so many respawns you get busted down to 0 xp for the level you're at, or reload after reload.
The "adult" blue dragon's lightning breath did *way* more damage than I was expecting. I had to use a Heal potion here. When matters become desperate, and you can be killed in another blow or spell, you should always go for a Heal potion at high level, and not a healer's kit.
Oh, God.
Well, he wasn't *that* hard (weakened) for this paladin build, although his fire breath is devastating, even through my Ring of Helm. I had to use one, maybe two Potions of Heal during this fight. Interestingly, his fire breath does part of its damage as divine damage, making me think the game may implement red dragon breath as a maxed-out clerical Flame Strike. I guess it's from Tiamat.
So he was holding several of the most powerful magic items in the game in his hoard, presumably from killing past defeated champions. One was a red dragon armor. This would give me +1 AC over what I'm using, +5 fire resistance over my ring, and a slight weight reduction. But, oh, God, it's hideous red! @Arvia , I think this might be a case where I'm going to let appearance trump utility. At least my Armor of Freedom with one less AC gives me the Freedom spell permanently cast.
Ah, Klauth had a blue lightsaber in his horde, no doubt taken from one of my Jedi brothers or sisters who had sadly failed to kill him.
The blue lightsaber does a d6 of cold damage, while my green lightsaber does a d6 of acid damage. It does take my enhancement bonus down from +2 to +1, but I never fight without Greater Magic Weapon cast.
This is largely an aesthetic choice, which color lightsaber to use, although, in the game "Knights of the Old Republic", which uses a similar engine to NWN, and which I highly recommend, the choice of lightsaber color is given some philosophical meaning - it is supposed to represent whether the Jedi has chosen to focus on being a Guardian (blue), a Sentinel (yellow), or a Force-power focused Consular (green).
I tend to gravitate towards the green, because my favorite characters in the saga are Luke Skywalker and Yoda, although, my style of fighting in games matches the Guardian (blue) class better.
For this game, I will use the blue for now, mostly because it matches my blue cloak and blue armor highlights better aesthetically. We've got to look absolutely fabulous while fighting that evil, now, don't we, darlings?
The gold dragon Golgatha gave me a sweet belt in return for my saving the children of Bahamut. It gives me +5 to Fortitude saves, bringing that save bonus up to 20, in addition to Death Ward. It also protects from Disease, although I don't need that affix as a paladin.
Wow, Steam says I have 201 hours put into NWN since I bought NWN:EE on Steam. You have to realize, I played NWN from discs from when it was first released in, what was it, 2001? If you add these 201 hours to all the years before on discs, and then GoG, good grief. I must have 1000 hours at least into NWN, if not more. That means I've probably played it at least as much as I've played Baldur's Gate, Sacred 2, and Titan Quest. Maybe Might and Magic 6-8 are up there, too. I spend *way* too much of my life gaming, don't I? :looks skyward and whistles innocently: Would you believe, I *don't* consider that a wasted life?
Level: 14
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 3 ("D", Setara's flesh golem, Baram)
ah good bud, there is no such thing as "wasting time playing video games", playing video games is a great way to use your time
you need to get those numbers up my friend
I had to laugh at the gold dragon's name. "Golgatha"? Seriously?
Just this once, I agree with your choice of style over AC. Red armor, blue cloak and green "lightsaber"? My poor eyes! Besides, the armor contains a warning that it will draw the anger of every dragon you encounter, and Freedom is worth the difference of 1 AC point.
That was interesting about the lightsaber colors. I haven't played Knight of the Old Republic, but it is on my list for the future.
********************************************************
I'm glad to have made some progress last afternoon and night (a mercifully quiet on-call duty, after two weeks of way too much work), so I'll summarize.
As I have mentioned before, heading north into the direction of Luskan, I met Darktongue Breakbone, he threatened me and I dressed to kill.
Huh? I was surprised that they remained blue and let me cast all my buffs, and then that? I guess the dialogue should have happened in Port Llast, but I forgot that I was supposed to talk to him again there, so it got triggered now. Whatever.
I went into the inn, had no interest to participate in their childish competition, and checked the locked doors (I usually don't do that in inns, but Wyvern had told me that one of the other convicts might be hiding here)
It was Zor.
He told me his story, and I let him got. Until now, I've killed only Stirge. There's one left, I think.
We wanted to search the rest of the map and went outside again, unprepared, not expecting that Darktongue Breakbone would have changed his mind already.
Poor Tomi. He shot first, and they ran for him. I tried to cut them off, but I wasn't fast enough. One or two very fast hits by Breakbone, and he was gone, while I was still trying to cast Lay on Hands on him. And I had only two healing kits! There had been four others, but they were worthless. I had picked them up in the Charwood castle, but they were just reagents to be used in an alchemist's lab, and I noticed that when I tried to use them. I teleported out, got healed, rested and went back for him, leaving Tomi at the temple. I won't pick him up again, he deserves a holiday.
I left Port Llast casting Aid and Bless on me, too (I always have Bull's Strength and Protection from Evil cast on me), because I knew that he might have followed me.
There he is. "Injured" only, and I've seen how he hits. I decided it was worth sacrificing one of my two or three Potions of Speed.
He dropped a lousy non-enchanted warhammer. I wonder how he fought with that thing. I went to kill the last of his guards, who hadn't followed him. What next? I had to tie up some loose ends before going to Luskan.
I went back to the south into the cave with the well, but even with a Potion of Endurance I failed the check to dive through.
I talked to Pete's whole family again (I still couldn't find Eric to get the solution with the ring), and his wife mentioned something about him hearing the wolf's voice. A talking wolf? I decided that I'd need to investigate. The werewolf issue was still unsolved, and there might be something evil at work here.
I went in, unfortunately had to kill a few dire wolves to get to Silverback. She (or was it a male? I don't remember) could obviously talk, but at first she fought me. She's a predator, she doesn't go for diplomacy, I had to show her that I deserve respect, first.
I understand her anger, but this farmer hasn't killed her mother, and I had promised to look into it. The pack doesn't need the cattle to survive, obviously. I went to tell Pete, and he could live with this solution. I didn't accept the gold he offered, because they need it more.
Now I went back to the Griffon Inn map, found the cave with Sir Karathis, fought and saved him, convinced him to tell me who the original werewolf was, went back to Neurik with the information. He was shocked, but asked me to go and finish it.
(werewolf quest spoiler in the following screenshot)
That was level 11 for me. Nothing spectacular, and not a very lucky roll, either, but any progress is good.
I found a graveyard swarming with undead on the Griffon Inn map. I killed the undead that were running around and talked to the gravekeeper. He told me of the mausoleum of a mage who was supposed to be not-quite-dead, and the crypt full of undead that occasionally came to the surface. He was not afraid of them, but I asked him to give me the key so that I could cleanse this place.
Against big swarms, Turn Undead is good to kill the very week ones or distract some of the others for a while, but I desperately need a better Charisma bonus!
Two examples where I thought "Amulet of Health would have been great" in the tomb:
I *always* walk into Negative Energy traps. But the dexterity drain only steals all my Dodge AC, bringing me from AC 30 to 27. With the Amulet of Health, it would be 28 all the time. Not very much difference. And strength drain is not quite as crippling with Bull's Strength. I have several Potions of Lesser Restoration, and some Antidotes, but I keep them for situations where I'm seriously crippled by the drain.
Most of the undead here were plenty, but not too strong, with a few exceptions. But the game allowed me to rest in this dungeon, and I used the chance, treating it like "I'm going to breathe for a while, kneel down and pray to Tyr to strengthen me against this evil".
I don't like to raid tombs, but this one was swarming with undead, so I took what I found. I only left locked sarcophagi alone, assuming that the remains of the owner were still resting peacefully and not undead, because the undead had only risen from corpses or bones lying on the ground. And without Tomi I would have to bash them, and that feels very, very wrong to me. (not accusing anyone who does that. Just my personal feeling)
Then, my meeting with Brother Toras. One of his first moves was to dispel all my buffs, except for Protection from Evil, thank Tyr. I couldn't afford the Golden Circlet yet, and PfE gives me immunity to mind affecting spells at least against evil opponents. I'm always afraid it might wear off during a fight.
Gah! Another one of those and I'm gone! I didn't dare to risk healing, or to waste my only Potion of Heal. I teleported out before he could hit me again.
(@BelgarathMTH, I didn't remember correctly yesterday. He hadn't even used Everard's Black Tentacles at this point. He was going to kill me before I could even get close enough).
Heal at the temple, rest, walk back to the graveyard, buff, attack.
Not wanting him to fry me from the distance again, I ran around the skeleton warriors to tackle Brother Toras in melee. Idiot. I shouldn't have sold the Longbow+2 that I got for judging the two brothers in the Charwood. I was so focused on hitting him that I didn't pay attention to the first black blotches on the floor, and I had no idea *how* fast the damage comes. I frantically grabbed for a healing kit in panic (that was a mistake, I know that now), and it was over.
Good grief, look at that respawn penalty. Ilmater have pity on me.
I was desperate. I didn't know how many spells he had. Walking back would give him too much time to cast nasty things before I could reach him in the room. Teleporting now would mean to go right back into those tentacles, and I had no more protective spells. I decided to rest and then ask the priest to take me back to where I had died. That was maybe a bit cheesy, to avoid getting teleported right back into the tentacles, but I wouldn't commit suicide by going back without buffs, either.
Glad that he's evil and not neutral. I *really* need a Golden Circlet. And I just gained 50 poor XP for killing him, because my respawn penalty was 550XP. Sigh.
I found a tome for Eltoora here. With the reward for it and my loot (sold to a "favorable" merchant, of course) I still couldn't afford the Golden Circlet, even selling the Thayvian Circlet that I was wearing. I would have to sell Helm's Ring of Elemental Resistance. But there's lots of elemental damage in this game, especially in traps. I decided it wasn't worth it, and that a paladin wouldn't sell a gift from a god. I follow the Triad, in this game Tyr, but I've come to respect Helm. And I desperately needed better AC, 30 was just not enough.
I sold only the Thayvian Circlet and made enough money for the only shield with 1 more AC compared to my Tower Shield+1. And it gave 12 magic resistance (I know that's not much, but still) and was much lighter.
This game has a wicked sense of humor against me. I get useless drops all the time, and what is the first thing that I find in a room that was infested by wererats (or was it undead?), less than 10 real life minutes after spending 24000gp on one with equal AC ?
Unbelievable.
Okay, I'm in Luskan. Got my orders from Aarin, killed lots of vermin in the streets, went to an inn, promised a man to try to rescue his sister from Kurth and a mother to try to rescue her 9 children from Baram. My heart was aching for the mother, but Baram appears to be a necromancer, I don't know if I'm ready to face him. I judged Kurth to be less dangerous and went to him first. Before that, I visited all the shops in the area to get an idea what was available and for what I should save money. I bought a Bag of Holding (and healing kits!), at long last, and agreed to try to repair some machine in the sewers later.
A discovery along the way:
Later. When I have a bow.
Here's Kurth's lair.
I should have other priorities, but I love books. Burning books is killing knowledge. I ran and grabbed all the books from the piles that I could save from the goblins with the torches. I'm going to read them and put them in a safe place later.
There were annoying priestesses and mephits and other critters here, and a prisoner told me about a summoning portal spawning demons, and a book with information how to close or destroy it. Looking for the two reagents, I opened the wrong door.
Oh, hello, High Captain Kurth. Please don't mind me, your priestess has hit me with Negative Energy already (only one level drained, I can live with that), I'm just going to run out and try to take care of that portal. Wait for me here, I'll be back.
I'm glad they didn't follow me. I was running around searching for the two items, and suddenly everything was swarmed with imps and mephits and succubi. I was so afraid that my Protection from Evil might wear off! At last I found the two reagents, fighting the swarms of monsters along the way, but using the portal counts as dialogue, and that doesn't work during a fight. I had to clear the whole room of imps and succubi, and then I could destroy the portal. Gods, I hope I won't lose my protection right when I run back to Kurth and his priestess, I bet she has nasty mind control spells. I added some potions, I think it was Barkskin and Aid or Bless or both, and went in, heading for the priestess.
I killed her quickly (I think she landed another level drain on me first) and faced Kurth.
I freed the girl, took all my loot (nothing to use for me, just to sell) and went back. I talked to the girl's brother, who was grateful, but it didn't seem right to accept money for saving her.
I forgot to mention that I found that hideous armor in a chest in the street before going to Kurth's quarter. I was in doubt if I should touch containers in the streets. I decided that I would open them in the destroyed, burning areas of the city, or places that were obviously in the hands of the fighting factions, but not around shops, inns or homes. My Whitebone Armor looked much better and more how I imagine a paladin, but AC 33 instead of 31 can't be argued with.
After selling my loot, I had a moderate amount of money. I'm going to save most of it, because I really want that Golden Circlet, but I decided to spend some of it on a Nymph Cloak +2, because I really need a better Charisma Bonus for my Lay on Hands and Turn Undead. Now it's 16 with the cloak, which gives me at least the +3 bonus instead of +2.
Incidentally, the cloak is green. The armor is still ugly, but at least the colors match, although I look more like a ranger now. Well, I always wanted to be Aragorn as a kid (until I noticed that I'm *really* a girl), and I'm glad I've found the armor. Beggars can't be choosers. And we can't all be batman
I'm going to the sewers, maybe I can make level 12 before facing Baram or the Illusk ruins.
Level:11
Reloads: 1
Personal respawns: 9
Tomi respawns: 10 (going to stop this counter. I'm not putting Tomi into more danger, I'm going solo)
I think that armor with a green cloak actually looks pretty good on a female character. Maybe you can be a Green Lantern to my Batman. A Green Lantern is way more powerful than Batman, anyway.
Congratulations on killing Toram and Kurth. Those are really hard fights. Condolences on the respawn from Toram, though.
And on a lighter subject: Now that you mention it, Green Lantern doesn't sound so bad
I can't find the last lever, either. It's probably behind a locked door or in a locked container somewhere.
I took Blind Fight for my new feat. I really want Divine Might and Divine Shield. But I just really think that Blind Fight is what I need at this level. I got a fourth level spell slot, and filled it with Holy Sword. That basically turns whatever weapon the paladin is wielding into Carsomyr for NWN, for one fight.
It's a problem, like all paladin abilities and short-duration spells, to decide which fight is the fight where you need it. But, NWN has designed the paladin class around the "God help me for this fight against this overwhelming enemy" abilities.
Okay, I have always in the past played clerics up this high, who don't have this problem, but I'm into the challenge of building paladins now, who do have the "lots of god-mode, but don't use them at the wrong time" sorts of abilities. The paladin philosophy just really resonates with me so much, I am willing to give up my enormous "Clericzilla" powers just to play the humble paladin and beat the game with all the limitations of honor that that title implies.
So, Level 15:
I met this Balor Lord and thought I was in for a big fight. "You shall not pass!"
Umm. Okay, I guess a "Balor Lord" isn't that big of a deal for a level 15 paladin. :shrug:
I may slow down on posting for a few days, for several reasons.
1) I don't want to spoil the story for @Arvia , and I'd like to let her catch up with me a bit, understanding that she has a high responsibility job with demanding hours, and a family, all of which greatly restrict her time that she can work on her run.
2) I've just enjoyed a week's summer vacation, and I have to go back to work tomorrow. I get another vacation at the end of July, this time for two weeks, although I will have to be constantly in contact with students over those two weeks trying to get my Fall Term schedule arranged. Still, it will be very nice to have my schedule clear for nothing but gaming during that time, other than exchanging email and phone calls with present students and prospective new students about the Fall schedule.
3) I've very recently rediscovered an old teenage joy - chess. There are so many opportunities to play chess nowadays, both with real people at various websites, and with the computer with many delightful programs. I bought Chess Ultra, and Battle Chess from Steam.
Chess Ultra gives you some wonderful, relaxing environments, piece sets, boards, and music tracks, to play chess by, with some occasionally (but not always) multiplayer matching available, a tracking of your Elo in that particular software, and a really good computer program to play with and try to improve your skill at "the sport of kings" if you don't feel like having a live match.
Battle Chess from Steam gives you a chess environment where you can connect your love of D&D with your love of chess - the "piece takes piece" moves have animations, where the two pieces fight it out D&D style, with the captured piece losing. It's great fun for a few matches, but sadly, the game is highly unstable, with many bugs, so, your mileage may vary.
For me, I was able to get some fun matches against the computer by playing the red and blue pieces (the white and black pieces are bugged), and just accepting that the game doesn't work as advertised, but I still got to enjoy the D&D feel, and the wonderful music and the three environments provided.
As far as I know, although there is a live match feature, nobody is ever there to get a match with.
I found an online free chess home with chess24.com . I've found I can go there around the clock and get an almost instant pairing with an opponent for either a 15 minute or a 30 minute match, and it tracks your Elo for that site.
Anyhow, sorry for derailing my own thread with talk about chess. I guess we can get back to just posting and talking about NWN runs. Anyone who shares my interest in chess, though, let me know. Maybe we could start an off-topic thread to talk about chess.
Level: 15
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 3 ("D", Setara's flesh golem, Baram)
Reviewing some of our reports, I've noticed that my bad luck in finding equipment seems to be over.
For example, you found that dark/green/marbled suit of armor in chapter 3. I found it in a barrel or crate in the street in Luskan. I had decided to take things from outside containers in the parts of the city that were destroyed or clearly in the hands of the two warring High Captains. Not containers that obviously belonged to an inn, store or other inhabited building, of course.
So, having been declared a temporary Green Lantern by Batman, this introduction to my report seems fitting:
"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight!"
************************************************
The next two posts, especially the end of the second one, contain plot spoilers for Chapter Two. I strongly suggest that first-time players don't read it, especially not pictures inside the spoiler tags.
************************************************
After defeating Kurth, I took a little detour through the city's sewers to see if I could find another entrance to Baram's quarters. I did not, but I freed the area of a ghoul infestation and found the machine that the gnome had told me about. I couldn't find more than two levers, though, so it's not working.
These sewers didn't have any connection to the others, so I went back, talked to Baram's projection and demanded to know about Londa's children, presenting Kurth's head and threatening to do the same to him. He laughed at me and told me of the children's fate, which I refuse to believe until I find proof. I started to bash the gate to his quarters, making the projection disappear, and fought my way through his disgusting undead minions.
I found something very useful there.
I'm going to keep this wonderful bow and won't sell found arrows any more. This is an amazing weapon if I have to keep my distance from a mage (black tentacles?), or to bash those reinforced chests with the scorch marks...
I continued through the darkness of the sewers, fighting a few unimportant minions and then a Yuan-Ti Necromancer. He (or she, I can't tell with those creatures) didn't seem to be very clever:
Summons a Dire Boar and then casts a Fear spell (that doesn' harm me as a paladin anyway) without protecting his summoned boar first? Thank you for making this easier.
I killed him and found a note on his body. How convenient that my enemies always carry instructions how to destroy them, or give me a speech confessing their sins before trying to kill me.
Upstairs I found a summoning altar spawning an endless supply of undead, powered by two Yuan-Ti Conjurers and two altars that provided spirits or skeletons as fuel. I headed for the first altar to disrupt the chanting skeletons, shouting "Turn Undead!"
Hah! I destroyed the remanining ones, but a Greater Mummy appeared on the altar! It was heavily protected and knew too many powerful spells.
I ignored the summoned dire spider, trusting my AC, and focused on the real threat. A very, very real threat!
It all happened so fast that I had no time to use a healing kit. I desperately grabbed my only Potion of Heal, strapped to my shield arm for exactly this kind of emergency situation.
Thank you, Tyr, for protecting your servant. I took a deep breath and ran to the Yuan-Ti Conjurer, whose concentration on the summoning portal must have been disrupted by now.
He and the one in the sewers must both have slept during the class that taught "Protect your own summons from Fear spells before casting one". Look at his poor Summoned Dire Boar running away. But that doesn't mean he should be underestimated. I don't know if he or one of the undead drained my strength, but it didn't stop me.
I had no time to take a breath, I ran for the second altar and destroyed the energy panels. I don't even remember what I had to fight there, but when it was done, I felt my last strength leaving me. I was completely exhausted, and I still had to face that other Yuan-Ti Conjurer. I knelt down and prayed to Tyr to restore my strength and grant me his blessing to destroy the great evil that had infested this place.
I knelt there for a few heartbeats and felt my power returning as if I had rested for a day. Casting my protections, I ran to face the second Yuan-Ti Conjurer. He was the more dangerous and more powerful of the two.
I tried to run away as soon as I saw the first black spots on the floor, knowing that the dreaded Black Tentacles would kill me within seconds, but I was Paralyzed! I stood there, frozen in shock, my heart pounding, all muscles clenched to sprint out of the Area of Effect, unable to move! I thought I was drawing my last breath, but Tyr had truly granted me his blessing. The Paralyzation wore off and I ran as fast as I could.
((Gods and Nine Hells, was that close! Look at my health bar! I think my heart actually stopped for a few seconds here))
I quickly took a potion from my cloak pocket (the emergency Heal Potion was spent already) while I kept running. I was lucky to have lurching zombies after me, not agile ghouls. As soon as I was out of the mage's visual range, I healed myself and turned around.
((I don't know if the 10% concealment make much of a difference, but I had found that rod, and it's not very valuable, so I've decided to try to use it occasionally))
Oh all you gods, that was very close. I picked up what I found in the containers around here and teleported back to the temple to rest in safety ( and to level up) before going for Baram. My strength is already 16, 18 with my Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and I always cast Bull's Strength. So, the point went into Charisma, which is 15 now, 17 with my cloak (I know, only even numbers give a bonus). And I chose Power Attack.
Time to go back and face Baram.
((Big thanks here to @BelgarathMTH. Without the knowledge from your report, I wouldn't have survived this fight without a respawn))
His double sneak attacks were very, very powerful. I frantically tried to keep myself healed while I destroyed the two gargoyles before facing him. I ignored the priestess, except for the Potion of Clarity, because I don't fully trust Protection from Evil. A Priestess of Mask should be evil, but who knows. Two seconds of Paralyzation would already kill me here. My last 4 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds, Lay on Hands and two Healing Kits +10 kept me moderately alive through this battle. I wonder how I even found time to hit back.
I couldn't enjoy my victory, because I had found sad proof that Baram had told the truth about Londa's children. With a heavy heart, I went back to tell her. I was tempted to lie and say they were safe, somewhere far away, but she deserved the truth. She was desperate, of course. Before I could say more, she thrust the key to her husband's vault (that I didn't deserve, and had never asked for in the first place) into my hands and ran out of the inn. I tried to follow her.
I'm not sure if this was cruel fate, or if she had deliberately provoked them. And maybe this was better than the heavy burden of being the only survivor. Ilmater have mercy on their souls.
I went to the Temple of Tyr to talk to the priest. First, I had to leave an evil object there. I had sold Baram's valuables, making enough money to buy the Golden Circlet, at last. But there had been a disgusting armor with vampiric properties among his possessions, sucking the very blood and life energy from opponents, feeding it to its wearer, exuding such an aura of evil that I didn't dare to expose anyone to it. The priest told me to leave it at the temple to be destroyed later.
I also told him about Londa and her children, and asked him what he thought I should do with the vault key. He advised me to go and use whatever I found there to honor their memory and help me fight the evil that had caused all this chaos, and maybe donate a percentage.
One of the chests had the dreaded scorch marks that I had learned to avoid (Neurik had to resurrect me once because of one), but my new bow and some acid arrows did the trick.
Incredible! What a wonderful shield! My unbuffed AC is 36 now!
@BelgarathMTH , did you have different random content, or did you avoid the scorched chest because you didn't have a bow?
There were other valuable items in the vault, a rapier +2 and some other things that I wouldn't use. The game gives no option to donate money, so I sold the items to the "neutral" Priest of Tyr instead of the "favourable" merchant, considering the loss of money a donation to the temple to pray for the souls of Londa's family.
I wanted to report the rest of chapter two, but I'm going to stop here and continue tonight, this is getting too long.
Level: 12
Reloads: 1
Respawns: 9
I did break open that chest with a bow, and I don't remember what I got from it. I think it was a nice suit of armor that I might have used for a while. It certainly wasn't that shield - I've never seen that item before. Congratulations! I'm totally jealous.
I'm happy for you though that you finally got an amazing random item spawn that's good for a paladin. Maybe that will help compensate for the game never having given you a blue Nymph Cloak +5. (Although there could still be one of those for you in a random drop somewhere.)
I think the random treasure spawning gives NWN some of its replayability. You can't just "go get the Awesome Item of Awesomeness from the chest in Treasureville" where that item is always located, like in Baldur's Gate. In NWN, you never know exactly what gear setup you're going to wind up with, which makes it really thrilling to find an item like my blue cloak or your shiny new Paladin Shield of Amazement .
So, there are two wizards controlling invulnerable golems attacking the city. Each wizard has to be found and killed to stop the golems, and each is defended by a balor lord. I've died in these fights before by not taking them seriously enough ("Your overconfidence is your weakness..."). As soon as I walked into these hideouts, I remembered dying there years ago, and the alarm bells rang in my head.
The first one had his balor lord blocking access to him, so he got to unload his spellbook on me while I painstakingly slowly defeated his guard. I used at least two or three Potions of Heal. I was not taking any chances.
The second one got really insistent about wanting me to fight him while standing inside Evard's Black Tentacles. No, dude, not happening, get over it.
Notice the *two* AoE's of Black Tentacles I had to run out of. I had to slowly make a frozen pincushion out of him from a distance to win this fight. Quite a few Potions of Heal were used.
So, now I thought it would be cleanup with the balor lord and his pet succubus. Hmm, not so much. He cast some spell, I have no idea what, that looked like a black hole was forming on top of me and collapsing toward its center. I decided it was probably not a good idea to keep standing in the middle of that until the rings finished collapsing. I ran out of it. After his summoned singularity finished its wave function collapse, (I choose to believe the cat lived! /Schroedinger joke), the rest wasn't that hard.
Level: 15
Reloads: 0
Respawns: 3 ("D", Setara's flesh golem, Baram)
based on that last paragraph that is pretty much right, although there are some exceptions;
certain containers in the game, hold a "weapon" that is designed for your "build" aka just need weapon focus feat ( or perhaps even improved critical ) and there will be a version of that weapon type there
some places that i can think of that hold such a container are:
- the chest where you start in the prelude
- when fighting gunlan and the devourer there is one chest in each of those dungeons
- after fighting the big D in helm's hold in one of the chests there is one in one of the side rooms
- in charwood.... the area where something er rather shall rule one of the containers will contain one
- in chapter 4
and if warhammer is the style you chose, i would save the game before picking up that treasure, because if you are high enough level there is a chance to get a hammer of thunderbolts, and this is pretty much the only way you are going to get it
and then in the klauth dungeon if you defeat him, he will always drop that red dragon plate +5
but yeah, other than that, everything else is either based on; treasure; low, medium or high
so sometimes you can find wonky things in wonky areas, like for me, one time i found a random +3 warhammer in a barrel in luskan ( which was great since warhammers was the weapon i was using and this was just a RANDOM drop, not even a weapon drop, so that was nice )
plus i also had it where one of the convict people that you hunt down for bounties dropped a pair of boots of speed, that was a, vary nice-a