No-Reload Run: Looking for Late Game Advice

ZaramMaldovar

So 4th times the charm and I've made it to Chapter 7 of Baldur's Gate in my no-reload run.

I'm currently planning on taking care of Durlag's Tower followed by Shandalar's Cloak and the Isle of Balduran before going to take on the actual events of Chapter 7 as well as Siege of Dragonspear.

Any advice for someone new at this on what order I should do things and tips for how to move forward.

It would take too much time than I have right now to chronicle all of my stuff but suffice to say my party is:

1. Sovrek Level 7 Half-Elf Beastmaster
2. Jaheria Lv. 6 Fighter/7 Druid
3. Khalid 7 Fighter
4. Ajantis 7 Paladin
5. Neera 7 Wild Mage (Xan died and Dynaheir was sent off)
6. Imoen 8 Thief

We have currently cleared about half of Durlag's Tower Level 1 but I'm paranoid that things won't continue to go as smoothly. I would appreciate any advice on how to move forward.

Grond0

I suppose it depends on how well you know the content. If you're not familiar with Durlag's Tower it would be safest in a no-reload context to skip that entirely - though you may of course not allow that on the basis you want to complete all content.

One general piece of advice would be to use an invisible Imoen to explore areas and disarm all traps before the rest of the party advances. If they are also invisible before combats that can make many of those trivial - for instance most of Ice Island. For harder combats, everyone throwing in fireballs from range or using stacked webs from out of sight works against virtually everything.

For the order, I would suggest doing Ice Island, then Balduran's Isle, before coming back to Durlag's Tower.

Enuhal

I fully agree with @Grond0 regarding the order theses places should be visited in. Also, Ice Island can easily be completed by using a protection from magic scroll on one of your fighters and letting him solo the entire thing. Balduran's Island is made much easier by using a single character to lure down werewolves/vampire wolves downstairs/outside in the shipwreck, so you don't start out surrounded by dangerous melee enemies. For Durlag's - if you have decent experience with it, you don't need to skip it (I always do it now in my full party no-reload runs). Just make 100% sure you don't walk into traps, some of them are absolutely deadly. Prepare webs/fireballs for the chessboard (and 100% lighting resistance via potions of absorption is helpful as well). If you do the Ulgoth's Beard cult quest, use invisibility potions on your weak characters upon entering the area (and don't enter the building with them, instead lure the opponents outside), otherwise cult assassins might oneshot them.

Also, I recommend using this thread for future no-reload advice : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/66243/the-adventurers-lounge-guidance-and-support-for-no-reload-challengers-newbie-or-veteran

ZaramMaldovar

"Grond0 wrote: »

"For the order, I would suggest doing Ice Island, then Balduran's Isle, before coming back to Durlag's Tower.

Doesn't fighting the leader of the Werewolfs in the ship require +3 weapons most of which can be found in Durlag's Tower?

I already have the +3 Quarterstaff from the Ulgoth's Beard Inn equipped to my Beastmaster

Grond0

Most magical weapons won't hurt Karoug - weapons need to have the 'silver' attribute (you can find a list of those here - 2 of those weapons can be found on the ship). Generally it's easier to kill him using spells, traps or item damage than weapons - you just need to do damage quickly in order to overwhelm his regeneration.

Enuhal

Karoug and the Loup Garou are also quite vulnerable to the wand of paralyzation, so if you can get that one to stick, killing him/them with the weapons mentioned by @Grond0 will be very easy.

ZaramMaldovar

@Enuhal
I once got Aec'Lectec with the Wand of Paralyzation but considering I'm doing a no reload run I might wanna avoid him altogether.

Enuhal

You can avoid him, but if you have a potion of magic shielding and mirrored eyes for every party member and go for the right strategy (for example, buffing up your party with all kinds of heroism/strength/speed potions, thac0 improving spells etc. and taking out all the cultists with a quick melee assault while kiting the demon), it is a relatively save fight. Depends how much experience you have when it comes to dealing with this battle.

JuliusBorisov

Buffing by potions might not be effective if you play with SCS as the wizard there will dispel everything.

ZaramMaldovar

JuliusBorisov wrote: »

Buffing by potions might not be effective if you play with SCS as the wizard there will dispel everything.

SCS? No, just Core Rules for me thanks.

Enuhal

@JuliusBorisov Granted, I've only done this battle with SCS four times, but every time, I was able to kill that wizard before they got to use any spells at all.

Edit: Checked reports from a previous run, and my statement isn't quite true. Dispel magic happened at least once (though not in my most recent run), but I was able to run away with the targeted character, so it hit only one person, and didn't even end up dispelling any of his buffs for some reason, not even the potions.

ZaramMaldovar

I breezed through Level 1 of Durlag's Tower but Level 2 was a bit more difficult because of those Super Dopplegangers.

Hopefully Level 3 and 4 will go okay because I don't feel like turning back now.

ZaramMaldovar

And I died in Level 3 mostly because of stupid mistakes shown in my No-Reload thread.

I still appreciate any late-game advice though.