First step was gathering gold, rep and gear (I figured, a corrupt neutral evil won’t be against having a good reputation when it means lowering shopping prices):
- killed Mencar’s and Tarnor’s and the Guarded Coumpound’s groups, relying on DR and high saves to absorb the enemies attacks. Had to gulp a LOT of potions though to keep fighting.
- cleared the Circus, Slavers and Trademeet’s quests (i erroneously thought the Dex gauntlets were inside the Troll’s mound in the druid grove, but those were the archer’s bracers)
- bought some useful gear along the way: Stonefire Axe +3, Belt of Inertial Barrier (for 50% magic DR and 25% missile DR), and finally the Defender of Easthaven.
- paid 15k GP to the shadow thieves to get the +2 ring (for the saving throws bonus more than the AC boost)
I am now mostly geared (next stop is the Unseeing Eye to get Kangaxx’s bones and the Dex bracers mostly), defensive stats are already impressive:
- negative saves
- AC is mediocre right now (-4), but will soon be lowered to -10, not impressive but should do the job until ToB
- 80% melee damage reduction / 85% missile DR under stance
- 50% magic damage reduction (belt)
- 20% elemental damage resistance (Helm of Defense) / poison immunity (from Ihtafeer’s amulet, soon to be replaced by Gaxx’s ring)
- 183 HP (with DuHM) and natural regen (would be even better with Helmet of Dumathoin. Sad little dwarf is sad)
Offensive power starts to look good too, especially since I just hit lvl13:
-3 thac0 mainhand (Stonefire Axe, disrupts spellcasters too) / +3 offhand (DoE), 18-25 dmg, 3,5 APR
Yup, it’s looking good. I just have to be vigilant about Mazes and Power Words (must make sure my HP stays high until spellcasters are out of the fight), but not much else can threaten me now (Beholders maybe? Not even sure).
Anyway, sorry about the bragging and numbers, but "I just love numbers, yes I do".
Ah, I didn't think about that aspect - Protection from Magic keeps you immune to Dispel but it lets you still use potions. Bravo!
About the save/character file import - yes, you don't get items and stuff when you use the character file, because it's just a small file with char stats. The save, as you know, includes several files, they're bigger and have all the info about your playthrough.
Ah, I didn't think about that aspect - Protection from Magic keeps you immune to Dispel but it lets you still use potions. Bravo!
About the save/character file import - yes, you don't get items and stuff when you use the character file, because it's just a small file with char stats. The save, as you know, includes several files, they're bigger and have all the info about your playthrough.
Thanks for the explanation, I was not aware of that, but it makes sense.
Yeah, PfM dispels any buffs you had when you cast it, but doesn't prevent you from gulping potions afterwards.
The other options would have been:
- summon mephits near Belhifet and run away to let them absorb the spell ;
- come in unbuffed, start with Defensive Stance, and start gulping potions each round : starting with Potion of Invulnerability to max out AC & ST, then in that order: Oil of Speed, Potion of Storm Giant Strength, and then Potion of Power, that would be enough to start kicking Big B's devilish butt, afterwards probably a potion of Fire res or something, and I'd still have 25 rounds of buttkicking under Defensive Stance. At some point if I see that my HP is falling too fast, maybe a Potion of Clarity to start using Durlag's Goblet.
Actually, I think I'll try it unbuffed this evening, just to see if I can make it work. I'm doubtful because my previous battle previously buffed already took quite a while and I had to use my 3 casts of Defensive Stance.
Dammit. I think I must rethink how I stop my play sessions.
Last night got me through a lot of quests in Athkatla, and I stopped right before going to Bodhi’s den.
As a DD and no access to Protection from Negative plane, I first bought a few restoration scrolls.
I killed a few vampires, got a few levels drained but nothing serious (or so I thought), but forgot that my levels being drained also meant that my saving throws had been lowered, and I failed a save vs charm (although, even drained, my save vs spell was still 3 so bad luck there)
I noticed that most of my no-reload playthrough end in the first 10 minutes of a session, so I definitely should not keep dangerous areas for the beginning of a session.
Octavia easily cleared BG1, with the help of her sturdy crossbow and many wands/spells.
SoD was turning to be a walk in the park too, but strangely Octavia lost on the Boareskyr Bridge (it exploded):
- cast a few webs (in sequencer also) to immobilize the enemies
- crossbow+ bolt of biting took care rapidly of the mage
- alternating between bolts and two Skull Traps took care of most of the rest
- as I was killing the last enemy with my bolts, the bridge suddenly exploded, for no reason.
I don’t get what I missed. Was it my electricity bolts? the skull traps?
Attempt #9 was rolled yesterday, and ended up with a human Invoker. Funnily enough, last mage run was an enchanter with no access to evocation spells.
Here’s Nonante:
I was extra careful this time, although wizards are very powerful later on, the first levels are really hard.
Although I didn’t have Sleep, the wand of sleep helped (lesser version of the spell saving-throw-wise, but still good). Very soon, Stinking Cloud and other AoE spells became my best tool.
I cleared many non-violent quests, cleared Mutamin’s garden with Korax and my Familiar (often used in the first few levels to gather aggro while my mage kited the enemy with spells and darts).
I was soon over-leveled for my spellbook, having no lvl4 spells and only Skull Trap and Hold Undead as lvl3 spells.
Lvl2 spells were mainly Invisibility and Stinking Cloud.
After grabing the CHA and CON tome, killing sirenes on the way and grabing Relair’s Mistake (for speed and strength enhancement) plus the DEX gauntlets, I focused on the main quest.
I avoided many encounters, cheesed my way with AoE spells cast from outside the fog of war.
Killing Mulahey this way earned me my first Web scroll, the mages in cloakwood mines provided slow and haste. I only scribed scrolls after the end of a dungeon, once I was in an inn (and after gulping 2 potions of genius), for more realism.
Once I attained BG city, my evoker became quite the nuker (plus I hit lvl9 and access to lvl5 spells after killing Marek).
I decided it was time to make a trip north to meet Shandalar and grab a Stoneskin scroll (I did not want to do Neera’s quest for this scroll).
The main strategy was using Farsight, Webs, Cloudkill then Invisibility to avoid aggroing enemies (who then stay in the area of effect), and I made my way to Dezkiel this way.
Repeated the same nuking strategy in the Iron Throne building and in Candlekeep Catacombs.
Back in BG city (after a quick trip to Durlag’s Tower to grab the WIS tome with the help of the greenstone amulet), I killed Slythe and Kristin, then Cythiandra with Webs+hasted Spiders & Skeletons (although they regularly failed their saves against my Invoker’s web).
The Coronation was almost the end of my run, I missed the targeting of my Webs and both Liia and Belt got caught in it, but my summons and debuffs barely managed to kill the doppelgangers in time (Liia died early, Belt was almost dead).
I will now face Sarevok, but I’ll need to think about my strategy first since I have no access to Greater Malison to lower his saves and debuff him.
EDIT: Sarevok’s down (Tazok and Angelo too, couldn’t bother about Semaj).
I decided that, since I’m an Invoker, I should play like one.
I first started with Dispel Magic to rid Sarevok of his haste (also dispeled Tazok’s invisibility).
Next was Cloudkill just out of view of Sarevok. Took him a few seconds to react and come my way to trigger the conversation, just enough for me to start casting Invisibility.
I waited for my first Cloudkill to expire, while Sarevok, Tazok and Angelo stayed inside the cloud (Semaj teleported as per his script).
I then cast my second Cloudkill, managed to keep Sarevok & the others inside the cloud long enough for me to go invisible again. Angelo died during this second cloudkill, Sarevok and Tazok survived.
I then cast my Web-filled minor sequencer, added another web on top, and then two Ice Storms before gulping a potion of Invisibility.
Tazok died soon after, but Sarevok was out of range of the Ice storms (but still within the webs), so I waited for him to fail one of his saves against my Webs (he saves at -4) before casting Skull Trap.
It aggroed Sarevok’s attention, I let him chase me a bit while casting Magic Missiles, he fell immediately.
In the end, and except for the starting Dispel Magic, one Skull Trap and 2 minor invisibility spells (could have used potions), i only used evocation spells.
I could have avoided using Skull trap, but the Dispel Magic and invisibility were very important.
My solo mage has made good and easy progress in SoD, it really starts to become quite a killing machine already.
I am right before Avernus, and was preparing myself to face Big B.
Problem is: I can’t remember how to kill Belhifet as a solo wizard. He uses Improved Invisibility pretty fast and repeatedly IIRC, so at most I guess I can target him twice with Lower Resistance to reduce his MR to around 40% (still quite a lot).
My summons (sword spiders or skellies) can’t hit him.
I was hoping to spam webs and hope he fails his saves once or twice, but that doesn’t seem reliable between his MR (even lowered) and high saves (especially under Improved Invisibility).
Without a reliable way to immobilize him, using MMM’s doesn’t seem a good idea either.
That leaves me with AoE spells, but I think he is immune to poison (and hence Cloudkill), on top of fire res, so that leaves me with Skull Traps and Ice Storm. But his high MR is again a problem.
What is the most efficient and reliable way to face Belhifet (no-LoB nor SCS) as a solo mage ?
Despite managing to land 3 Lower Resistance and having a pretty good start in the fight against Belhifet, a few mistakes and the long duration of the battle proved too much for my Invoker.
Nonante’s soul will be tortured in Avernus for eternity, unless #10 manages to free her ?
Hard luck - this is one of those fights where the longer it goes on the worse your chances get . After resistance was lowered you could have tried to hit the bullseye by using the polymorph wand, but in your situation a safer bet might have been to use the Ring of Energy. That does decent damage over time to top up what you do with your fire shield and weapon.
Incidentally, you mentioned your THAC0 was 10, which sounds rather higher than I might have expected. That may be the result of using the Flind form, rather than staying in your own shape and using a +3 staff. With strength 25 and a potion of power I think you should be able to get THAC0 down to at least 3. You also then have more freedom to cast spells rather than relying on sequencers. If you can't get THAC0 down reasonably low, then you could use enchanted weapon to dual-wield - giving you 3 chances a round (assuming you're hasted) to get a critical.
Yeah, shouldn't have transformed, I think my normal thac0 was 2
The difference might also be because of buffs expiring, I was not really focused on that during the fight
Yeah, I should have made a choice: either go for full spellcasting, hoping to land my LR's, or go Flind form but not a mix of the two. I gimped myself.
I know that a polymorphed arcanist is awesome, I made one (sorcerer) some time ago, most fun I've had in a long time, but that is also why I wanted to try something else
Attempt #10 was rolled yesterday: human dark moon monk.
Interesting roll, also ended up with very good stats (did tweak it a bit and exchanged DEX & CON to end up with 18 STR/17DEX/15CON, good min-max stats especially after the tomes).
Stealth & special abilities of the DMM will be very useful, monks can also use priest scrolls which will probably make Belhifet's fight pretty straightforward.
Pips went into dagger (random roll) & 1 weapon style, added a point in shortsword at lvl4 (random roll between scimitar & shortsword for availability of +3 weapons)
I did not play a lot, just a few quests & mutamin's garden to get a few levels under my belt, also tried my luck against Bassilus who failed his save against Blindness, which made the fight ridiculously easy.
I think DMM is safer and easier for nR runs, its special abilities gives him better survivability. Stunning Blow is good but has a very short duration anyway, and Lay on Hands is easily replaced by Bhaalspawn abilities and potions.
I'm looking forward to it, even though the monk is underwhelming at best at lower levels, BG1 should be okay with some cheese and lots of metaknowledge.
SoD has, luckily, a few very nice monk-only stuff, so it should go okay as well.
Low level monks are really fragile, even with potions, special abilities etc.
Luckily, stealth and movement speed allows to retreat from battles, and with lots of metaknowledge, necklace of projectiles and hit and run tactics, I managed to clear most of BG1, and am now facing the coronation ambush.
I had a few lucky fights, for example:
- Marek managing to land a confusion on me, but then killing himself (and "only" gravely wounding me) with a Lightning Bolt;
- Cythiandra did the same, confusing me (I tend to forget to regularly use the greenstone amulet) just as a hit landed on her and triggered her fleeing conversation. Really close call since her Ogres were doing much damage.
Obviously, in retrospect, the danger came from me being ill-prepared, and even if I manage to kill the doppelgangers rapidly, I don’t think I will go far seeing how I tend to rush in battle sometimes.
Coronation went pretty well, I buffed up a lot and 2 doppelgangers failed their save against Horror in the first round. The 2 dukes survived.
The fight against Sarevok was harder, had to retreat twice (with invisibility potion) to fully heal and come back to kill him, out of sight of his companions.
Sarevok was almost down when Angelo spotted me and joined the fight, luckily it was already too late:
Wow.
I did not remember those Aerial Servants being so hard hitting.
I advanced quickly in SoD, avoiding useless fights and made my way through Bhaal’s lost Temple.
I easily killed the dragon (a dagger into its heart), its sister, the Neothelid, and lured the 2 aerial servants outside the priestess’ room.
I figured, since I was still buffed from the previous fight and barely wounded, I could use the XP and decided to kill the Aerial Servants.
1 round later, I was dead (both their attacks landed, for 35 or more HP each)...
Rolled a new character: a multi-class for a change !
Elven FMT, to boot!
Although I am sticking to the random class/race/alignment rolls, I’m more and more min-maxing attributes and weapons.
Ended up with very minmaxed stats, and chose Scimitar (since I rolled a good character, and my elven PC is strongly’prejudiced towards drows ) and 2WF as proficiencies. Will add proficiencies in Dagger at lvl3 and 6 (for ranged option+dual wield returning daggers+Belm in bg2).
Right now, even without proficiencies, Bows hit reliably well, and I plan to use them for situational strategies (arrows of detonation & dispelling for the win!)
Hahaha! Drizzt got chunked by a lightning bolt during a storm !!
Elfte chanced upon a drow being assailed by a group of Gnolls. She waited a few hours in the shadows, looking at idiotic gnolls trying to slash at the drow, failing repeatedly even though the dark elf stood there motionless (the sun probably muddled his brain). Apparently, the gods themselves got bored and sent down a lightning bolt to end the drow’s misery ! (toldya my PC was prejudiced)
Although the XP cap in BG1 means no access to lvl4 spells, the FMT is really an easy solo.
Fun fact: I've spent so much time trying to solo with no thieves abilities that I sometimes forget to disarm traps and absorb them instead...
My FMT has good thac0 (not awesome, but good enough), multiple access to invisibility (stealth, spells, potions, gear) which is very important to my playstyle, good backstabs for good battlefield control (chunk the mage first, then everything is so much easier), basic but still useful traps, and access to wands which can by itself clear BG1 anyway (I try not to use them often).
I've almost finished BG1, just need to save the dukes at the coronation and kill my brother (that's family for you).
I love the fact that this class keeps getting stronger and stronger each level up till 8 million XP. Normal single or even two-class characters tend to get boring at higher levels, just selecting HLA's but getting no new spells/progression otherwise.
- Finished BG1 (dispelling Sarevok with arrows, then backstabing him to death):
- Almost died against boring beetles at the beginning of SoD, luckily two nearby Flaming Fist mercenaries killed the beetles while I was stunned:
Afterwards, I made sure to be more careful against save or else effects.
- Killed a dragon with a throwing dagger:
- Being a one-elf swiss-army-knife, easily and swiftly cleared the rest of SoD, gulped a ton of potions and with the right gear and spells, killed Belhifet:
- As I was making my way through Irenicus Dungeon, I first had to gather my (non-existent) party before venturing forth:
FMT is so powerful and versatile, it is quite refreshing to be able to do so many things and clearing quests and dungeons without over abusing meta-knowledge and cheese.
Just the fact that I can disarm traps and unlock chests makes it smoother than any non-thief run.
I had a great time with this character, getting stronger and stronger, dual-wielding returning dagger (2 base ApR even in melee) + speed weapon for 5 ApR, meaning 10 ApR once I hit lvl12 wizard, which was fast as a solo.
Once I hit level 14 (could have done it sooner, but this trick is cheesy enough without abusing it), I also carefully timed a limited wish spell + wisdom potion + one-time wish -> shapechange and a timer next to me to get permanent access to Iron Golem form.
I did the same with the Polymorph self spell for Mustard Jelly form early in BG2.
Those forms are supposed to allow me to absorb almost any nasty spell sent my way (except for spells who bypass MR, meaning Maze/Imprisonment mostly). I discovered that this is in fact not reliable, since I became Charmed while in Iron Golem form in the Underdark (trying to rescue Phaere). I should have used the greenstone amulet I just grabbed two minutes ago
I was making sooo much progress, becoming overpowered with HLA’s and stuff. So sad
Roll #12 was a Dwarven Bounty Hunter.
Launching the special trap was fun (I maxed traps early), but even 7 traps were not enough to save the dukes at the Coronation
Since the no-reload run was out anyway, I decided to continue this character, but skipping SoD alttogether.
Sarevok was easily taken care of with arrow of dispelling (no haste), a failed save on his part against my special traps (slowed) and then backstabs.
Apparently, the attraction of no-reload runs has started to make its way into my gameplay. Despite failing to save the dukes, I reloaded and continued the run with my Bounty Hunter, but soon got bored as it did not have the same flavour anymore.
So I rolled #13 instead. I rolled between the 3 classes I haven't played yet in this challenge: paladins, druids, sorcerers, ended up with a chaotic evil blackguard.
I've decided to play this one a bit more RP, no cheesy-XP-farming, no 20 REP on a chaotic evil character for cheeper stuff in stores.
I'll still manage reputation to stay around 10 to get the "good" bhaalspawn abilities (for DuHM at least).
I decided to go for Bastard Sword & Shield, plus Darts as a ranged option (as an easy-to-access last resort ranged weapon on an otherwise heavily armored warrior).
Bastard swords are slow, so my enemies often strike before me, hence the need for good AC to mitigate damage.
I haven't got far yet, FAI, Beregost and Nashkell + a few side quests, enough to get me to lvl3 already, and the very useful Aura of Despair, nice debuff especially early on were even a -1 thac0 to enemies is relevant in defense, and the -2 AC added to a lucky strength roll (18/00) makes it a very good damage dealer already.
Poison weapon ability is just icing on the cake, although at low level and especially with a slow weapon like the bastard sword, it is not very reliable yet. Darts should help against mages on that particular area (it took care of Tarnesh).
I haven't roleplayed a truly evil PC in a long time, I look forward to this.
My way of roleplaying him is a bit weird. He does many reputation quests (he needs the favour of the locals to investigate the conspiracy), but do not hesitate to kill an innocent once in a while if there is incentive (I killed Bentan, the worshipper of Ilmater in Firewine Bridge because he discovered my dark allegiance.... and had a nice scroll). But any temple is barred from him (for donations, healing or any other reason) because gods would never allow a blackguard to defile their home, meaning no reward for killing Bassilus and no saving Samuel or Brage.
So far I barely managed to keep my rep at 10 (I want the 2 heals abilities), later my rep will drop again a little (horror abilities) and then raise again (DuHM).
I love when my RP "just so happens" to align with my metagame
EDIT: Obviously, temples of evil gods are no problem though (meaning Umberlee in BG1 and Talos in BG2)
This run so far has been really fun. As I said, I’ve tried to RP it a bit more, and tune down the cheese/metagame.
As a personality and background, I decided that my human female blackguard was a worshipper of Talona, the chaotic evil (in 2e) god of poison and disease (hence the blackguard’s poison ability). She is a bit hot-blooded and easily rushes into combat, but is a good strategist and, as a follower of Talona, relies heavily on concoctions (yay, potions) to turn the tides of a fight.
I discovered only after choosing Talona as the patron for my blackguard that she served Bhaal before the Time of Troubles. Thus, the stage is perfectly set for a nice RP.
My blackguard’s allegiance also gave me a RP excuse for killing Bentan, the follower of Illmater (his god’s cures are antagonistic with Talona’s poison portfolio).
I thus imposed a few rules:
- no access to non-evil temples (in fact, even entering a temple would attract the wrath of the deity and the priests in said temple)
- reputation management can only be done via quests, even a chaotic evil blackguard must control her inner evil and compose with the local population if she doesn’t want to be attacked by legions of law enforcers in every town
- although the plan is still to finish the game(s), my blackguard will try to face as much content as possible, not relying on invisibility (ring or potions) to skip most of the dungeons.
The above rules and background were determined along the way, after I did some quests near FAI and Beregost (around level 3).
I refrained from killing the basilisks in Mutamin’s garden (I figured snake-like monsters were favoured beasts of the goddess of poisons), and instead did a lot of roaming around the sword coast, doing quests and clearing maps, to hit level 6 before attempting the main quest.
At first, I relied on Bastard Sword+1 (bought in Beregost) and Fire Darts (from High Hedge).
At lvl3 and 6, I added pips into Longswords (so many evil longswords in the games).
I hesitated a bit on which Longsword to use before Chapter 6, but noticed that Harrower was a paladin’s sword (from description), so I sold it immediately, whereas Varscona is described as a weapon made by followers of the evil drow goddess Shar, so I switched to Varscona for some time.
I cleared the Nashkell mines easily, Mulahey died from Fire Darts + poison before even managing to reach me and trigger his dialogue (this guy is obviously an enemy, I don’t see why my hot-headed blackguard would let him come near her).
Outside the mines, I killed the amazons with aura of despair, poisoned darts + Necklace of Missiles (while I was myself protected from fire).
Neither Nimbul nor Tranzig survived a few Fire darts+ poison.
After a quick trip to Durlag’s Tower to buy a stack of Darts of Stunning and Darts of Wounding, I was recruited by Teven in Larswood and infiltrated the bandit camp.
A few potions, Poison + Darts of Wounding disabled the mage, and I easily dispatched the other 3 bandit chiefs in the main tent (I was really surprised by the great tanking ability of my Blackguard, and her high damage output at the same time).
I then made my way through Cloakwood, and upon arriving before the Cloakwood Mines, gulped a few potions (Invulnerability, Heroism, Oil of Speed mainly), and ran through Drasus’ Party (they fell easily against 4,5 ApR of poisoned Darts of Stunning), hacked my way through the mines, relying on those buffs, freed the slaves (my reputation was quite low then), dispatched the 2 Battle Horrors with Varscona (they barely scratched me), and then threw poisoned Darts at Davaeorn to interrupt his spells and run through his Mirror Images, and finished him in melee.
Since BG city was now reachable, I went back to FAI to recruit Dorn and did his quest. From this, I obtained a great necklace (+2 save vs. spell), a golden girdle (+3 AC vs slashing, since I skipped Mutamin’s Garden altogether), and a nice bastard sword as new main weapon (Albruin+1, enhanced damage, immunity to poison, great synergy with my RP, although I’d still rely on Varscona from time to time).
In BG City, did a few quests (to get my Rep back to 10 mostly), triggered Marek and Lothander’s encounter and started the quest... until I remembered that I am supposed to get the wisdom tome from the Temple of Tymora... I had no choice but to go there, and kill the priest for the tome (since I forbid myself from peacefully entering temples).
I then had to do a few more quests to get my reputation back to 10, going as far as traveling back to Nashkell Carnival to buy the Stone to Flesh scroll from Zeke (only way to get it outside temples IIRC), carefully making my way to Tamah (I refused to drink a potion of mirroring eyes for no reason other than just making things difficult for me), casting Horror on the nearby Basilisk (it worked on the first cast), hastily unpetrifying Tamah for a hard earned +1 REP and directly leaving the map.
Then back to BG city, cleared the Seven Suns and freed Jhasso for another boost to reputation, then decided to investigate the Iron Throne building.
Once again, 2 or 3 potions, darts of stunning and Poison Weapon made this fight easier than I’ve ever remembered in a solo run.
Back to Candlekeep, I decided to spare the Iron Throne leaders, as a last show of respect for Gorion and my childhood memories of the place.
I was nevertheless framed for their murder, although I can’t really blame the Watchers, the nature and reputation of my blackguard is not in her favour.
The real highlight of the trip was discovering her parentage, explaining why Talona has whispered in her ears since her tender years.
For once, my PC decided that stealth was in order, as she escaped from Candlekeep and made her way back into BG city, given that she was to be killed on sight by the Flaming Fist.
I did make a detour through Durlag’s Tower lower dungeons first, buffing up with potions, lasting long enough to clear the whole 1st underground level (again, darts of stunning are stunning! Pride and co barely hurt me. Love was stunned in the first round, I meleed her 3 brothers easily and finished her before the stun expired), and still had enough time to spare on my buffs to go grab Durlag’s Goblet in level 2.
I did not push my luck and stopped here in Durlag’s Tower.
Back in BG city, easily lured and killed Slythe, managed to gravely wound Cythiandra with Fire Darts+poison and trigger her surrender just as she finished casting her first Hold spell (which was absorbed by the Greenstone Amulet anyway).
I am now facing off the assassination attempt on the dukes during Sarevok’s coronation, but decided to stop there for the night (as usual in fact, this fight is too important and often means the end of no-reloads if not carefully executed).
I didn’t take many screenshots, here are a few after some supposedly hard battles (notice that the first one almost meant the end of the run, luckily Laryssa died right while her Hold spell was flying my way):
BG1 is finished:
- Coronation was fast and efficient, Aura of Despair was enough of a debuff to ensure survival of both dukes
- Scroll of protection from magic + plenty of potions made the fight against Sarevok a cakewalk. I also made sure to kill his goons too.
- Number of kills: 354
SoD, also, is finished:
- it was a bit more difficult to RP because.... well, the story is pretty linear. There was not much difference with other runs (except more killing... way more killing)
- this character is very efficient against both melee attackers (they only hit on crits, although when surrounded, that still takes away a lot of HP) and magic users (darts+poison, oh. oh. oh.), so I did not avoid any fights until the Underground river (just ran through it, did not have the patience to clear it)
- Although the blackguard is immune to the frear effect of Durlag’s Goblet, I decided to only use the goblet outside of battles, relying on "normal" potions mid-fight (which almost caused me to die a few times until I got the hang of managing my character’s HP), except for the final fight though.
- For some reason, during the duel against Ashatiel, she considered that I cheated somehow, and teleported out. It was the first time it happened, and I did not know where to find here so.... I ended up clearing the whole battlefield instead
- I decided to raise the difficulty from Core to Insane against Belhifet. It did not change much, since I focused my attacks on Big B, I just took a few more (and harder) hits so that I had to drink twice from Durlag’s goblet during the fight. But Big B fell relatively fast anyway, and then I just had to finish Caelar.
- It felt weird to fight devils & demons as a blackguard...
- In the end, I finished SoD with... 655 kills ! What I lacked in RP, I took up in carnage (for comparison, my Invoker faced Belhifet with about 130 kills)
After ending Belhifet’s threat (I RPed it as Belhifet being an enemy of my Blackguard’s patron, although I’m not familiar with the lore behind evil gods and their relationships with devils/demons), Treize the Blackguard was captured by Irenicus, a strange yet very powerful mage, who tortured her for weeks.
Treize swore to take revenge at any costs against Irenicus, killing him slowly and painfully, but only after he spills the details behind the "untapped powers" he talked about.
Treize managed to free herself from her jail, using a disturbance created from unknown attackers and Imoen’s lockpicking skills (how she got here was a mystery though, and Treize did not trust her enough to keep her around).
Escaping Irenicus’ dungeon was easy, no enemy nor traps could threaten our blackguard’s power.
Upon exiting the dungeon, and after seeing Irenicus and Imoen being captured by Athkatla’s Cowled Wizard, Treize first headed to the nearest inn to gather some intel and get some rest.
Some mercenaries were squatting the best room of the inn, so Treize had to first do some housework and chase the vermins. One of them put quite a dent in Treize’s armor, and she had to rest a few days to heal her wounds.
Treize figured she needed to get in the local authoritie’s good books if she wanted to get intel about Irenicus and his imprisonment, so when she spotted a Amnian Soldier requesting help to solve disappearances inside a circus tent, she lent her help and saved the innocents captured into an illusion.
Also, a local fence somehow managed to get his hands on Treize’s returning dart (Biter from SoD), and accepted to give it back to its ‘almost’ rightful owner for a relatively cheap price.
As she left Waukeen’s Promenade, Treize was hailed by a suspicious man, who seemed well informed about her identity but also how to get to Irenicus. The man obviously worked for the Shadow Thieves, the same faction that planned the assault on Irenicus’ lair.
Working with them might prove faster and easier, although more expensive, than sucking up to the authorities, so Treize chose to play along for a time.
Treize first spent a few days exploring the city, gathering gold and intel (investigated MaeVar’s guild, cleared the sewers and Mekrath’s lair, inadvertently chased Haer’Dalis which prevents me from doing the Planar Prison).
After some time, she had to leave town for a few weeks since Treize "accidently" killed all the priests and guards in Lathander’s Temple while trying to steal a statuette of theirs.
Treize freed De’Arnise Keep from an army of trolls (Biter’s extra acid damage helped), and was offered to rule the Keep in place of its dead lord.
So Treize spent the next 2 months rebuilding the former glory of the De’Arnise lands, showing mercy to the local folks but not hesitating to kill any outsider threatening or trying to abuse her.
Once things settled down in De’Arnise Keep, Treize returned to Athkatla, armed with a powerful flail that Nalia’s father had kept hidden and dismembered in the keep, afraid of its evil aura and power. What a coward.
Once in Athkatla, Treize noticed that the fight had intensified between the Shadow Thieves and a mysterious opposing guild using undead servants, the contestant having the clear upper hand.
Hence, when she was approached by a representative of the opposing guild offering a similar yet cheaper deal than the useless thieves, Treize did not hesitate much and took up the offer.
A few days later, the shadow thieve’s leader laid dead at Treize’s feet, and at last it was time to chase after Irenicus on a mysterious island.
Not-so-RP stuff:
- main weapon focus since lvl12 (I hit this level while clearing De’Arnise Keep) is flails, planning to use the FoA for probably most of the game (Defender of Easthaven is too "good” oriented from the description, so I’ll probably pass it).
- After the Underdark, I’ll make a tour in Watcher’s Keep to grab the Crimson Dart and Foebane, and try to make it as far as I can in the dungeon.
- I’m still using 1 armed weapon + shield, which makes killing enemies slower and the extra AC is not that helpful anymore. GWW will probably offset this disadvantage to some degree.
- At lvl15, I decided to put a first pip in 2WF, to start using Belm offhand by lvl18. Not sure yet if I’ll ever go 2WF or keep using shields, but at least the option will be there.
The other gear so far is classic:
- regular full plate armor & ring of protection +2 (for better saves)
- no ring of Gaxx for this run, because I can’t start the Unseeing Eye quest without entering Helm’s Temple first, which contradicts my rule set since BG1 of only being allowed neutrality inside evil temples. Instead, I’m using the Ring of Earth Control (+1 AC) for the moment.
- Helmet of Balduran, obviously (more for the +1 saving throws than the rest)
- Cloak of the Sewers for quick regen outside combat, and magic immunity (jelly form) against spellcasters/beholders
- I’m using the Reflection Shield for now, but I’ll probably replace it by the shield+4 from Ust Natha’s store
- no boots nor gauntlets for now.
I often use potions, they make fights so much easier. If I ever run out, then I guess that’s what HLA’s are for.
Comments
First step was gathering gold, rep and gear (I figured, a corrupt neutral evil won’t be against having a good reputation when it means lowering shopping prices):
- killed Mencar’s and Tarnor’s and the Guarded Coumpound’s groups, relying on DR and high saves to absorb the enemies attacks. Had to gulp a LOT of potions though to keep fighting.
- cleared the Circus, Slavers and Trademeet’s quests (i erroneously thought the Dex gauntlets were inside the Troll’s mound in the druid grove, but those were the archer’s bracers)
- bought some useful gear along the way: Stonefire Axe +3, Belt of Inertial Barrier (for 50% magic DR and 25% missile DR), and finally the Defender of Easthaven.
- paid 15k GP to the shadow thieves to get the +2 ring (for the saving throws bonus more than the AC boost)
I am now mostly geared (next stop is the Unseeing Eye to get Kangaxx’s bones and the Dex bracers mostly), defensive stats are already impressive:
- negative saves
- AC is mediocre right now (-4), but will soon be lowered to -10, not impressive but should do the job until ToB
- 80% melee damage reduction / 85% missile DR under stance
- 50% magic damage reduction (belt)
- 20% elemental damage resistance (Helm of Defense) / poison immunity (from Ihtafeer’s amulet, soon to be replaced by Gaxx’s ring)
- 183 HP (with DuHM) and natural regen (would be even better with Helmet of Dumathoin. Sad little dwarf is sad)
Offensive power starts to look good too, especially since I just hit lvl13:
-3 thac0 mainhand (Stonefire Axe, disrupts spellcasters too) / +3 offhand (DoE), 18-25 dmg, 3,5 APR
Yup, it’s looking good. I just have to be vigilant about Mazes and Power Words (must make sure my HP stays high until spellcasters are out of the fight), but not much else can threaten me now (Beholders maybe? Not even sure).
Anyway, sorry about the bragging and numbers, but "I just love numbers, yes I do".
About the save/character file import - yes, you don't get items and stuff when you use the character file, because it's just a small file with char stats. The save, as you know, includes several files, they're bigger and have all the info about your playthrough.
Thanks for the explanation, I was not aware of that, but it makes sense.
Yeah, PfM dispels any buffs you had when you cast it, but doesn't prevent you from gulping potions afterwards.
The other options would have been:
- summon mephits near Belhifet and run away to let them absorb the spell ;
- come in unbuffed, start with Defensive Stance, and start gulping potions each round : starting with Potion of Invulnerability to max out AC & ST, then in that order: Oil of Speed, Potion of Storm Giant Strength, and then Potion of Power, that would be enough to start kicking Big B's devilish butt, afterwards probably a potion of Fire res or something, and I'd still have 25 rounds of buttkicking under Defensive Stance. At some point if I see that my HP is falling too fast, maybe a Potion of Clarity to start using Durlag's Goblet.
Actually, I think I'll try it unbuffed this evening, just to see if I can make it work. I'm doubtful because my previous battle previously buffed already took quite a while and I had to use my 3 casts of Defensive Stance.
Last night got me through a lot of quests in Athkatla, and I stopped right before going to Bodhi’s den.
As a DD and no access to Protection from Negative plane, I first bought a few restoration scrolls.
I killed a few vampires, got a few levels drained but nothing serious (or so I thought), but forgot that my levels being drained also meant that my saving throws had been lowered, and I failed a save vs charm (although, even drained, my save vs spell was still 3 so bad luck there)
I noticed that most of my no-reload playthrough end in the first 10 minutes of a session, so I definitely should not keep dangerous areas for the beginning of a session.
Meh, time to re-roll I guess.
So meet Octavia, the half elven blade (proficiencies: scimitar & crossbow)
I’m still too sad about my DD, so I’ll keep Octavia in Candlekeep tonight, and advance her another day.
SoD was turning to be a walk in the park too, but strangely Octavia lost on the Boareskyr Bridge (it exploded):
- cast a few webs (in sequencer also) to immobilize the enemies
- crossbow+ bolt of biting took care rapidly of the mage
- alternating between bolts and two Skull Traps took care of most of the rest
- as I was killing the last enemy with my bolts, the bridge suddenly exploded, for no reason.
I don’t get what I missed. Was it my electricity bolts? the skull traps?
Here’s Nonante:
I was extra careful this time, although wizards are very powerful later on, the first levels are really hard.
Although I didn’t have Sleep, the wand of sleep helped (lesser version of the spell saving-throw-wise, but still good). Very soon, Stinking Cloud and other AoE spells became my best tool.
I cleared many non-violent quests, cleared Mutamin’s garden with Korax and my Familiar (often used in the first few levels to gather aggro while my mage kited the enemy with spells and darts).
I was soon over-leveled for my spellbook, having no lvl4 spells and only Skull Trap and Hold Undead as lvl3 spells.
Lvl2 spells were mainly Invisibility and Stinking Cloud.
After grabing the CHA and CON tome, killing sirenes on the way and grabing Relair’s Mistake (for speed and strength enhancement) plus the DEX gauntlets, I focused on the main quest.
I avoided many encounters, cheesed my way with AoE spells cast from outside the fog of war.
Killing Mulahey this way earned me my first Web scroll, the mages in cloakwood mines provided slow and haste. I only scribed scrolls after the end of a dungeon, once I was in an inn (and after gulping 2 potions of genius), for more realism.
Once I attained BG city, my evoker became quite the nuker (plus I hit lvl9 and access to lvl5 spells after killing Marek).
I decided it was time to make a trip north to meet Shandalar and grab a Stoneskin scroll (I did not want to do Neera’s quest for this scroll).
The main strategy was using Farsight, Webs, Cloudkill then Invisibility to avoid aggroing enemies (who then stay in the area of effect), and I made my way to Dezkiel this way.
Repeated the same nuking strategy in the Iron Throne building and in Candlekeep Catacombs.
Back in BG city (after a quick trip to Durlag’s Tower to grab the WIS tome with the help of the greenstone amulet), I killed Slythe and Kristin, then Cythiandra with Webs+hasted Spiders & Skeletons (although they regularly failed their saves against my Invoker’s web).
The Coronation was almost the end of my run, I missed the targeting of my Webs and both Liia and Belt got caught in it, but my summons and debuffs barely managed to kill the doppelgangers in time (Liia died early, Belt was almost dead).
I will now face Sarevok, but I’ll need to think about my strategy first since I have no access to Greater Malison to lower his saves and debuff him.
EDIT: Sarevok’s down (Tazok and Angelo too, couldn’t bother about Semaj).
I decided that, since I’m an Invoker, I should play like one.
I first started with Dispel Magic to rid Sarevok of his haste (also dispeled Tazok’s invisibility).
Next was Cloudkill just out of view of Sarevok. Took him a few seconds to react and come my way to trigger the conversation, just enough for me to start casting Invisibility.
I waited for my first Cloudkill to expire, while Sarevok, Tazok and Angelo stayed inside the cloud (Semaj teleported as per his script).
I then cast my second Cloudkill, managed to keep Sarevok & the others inside the cloud long enough for me to go invisible again. Angelo died during this second cloudkill, Sarevok and Tazok survived.
I then cast my Web-filled minor sequencer, added another web on top, and then two Ice Storms before gulping a potion of Invisibility.
Tazok died soon after, but Sarevok was out of range of the Ice storms (but still within the webs), so I waited for him to fail one of his saves against my Webs (he saves at -4) before casting Skull Trap.
It aggroed Sarevok’s attention, I let him chase me a bit while casting Magic Missiles, he fell immediately.
In the end, and except for the starting Dispel Magic, one Skull Trap and 2 minor invisibility spells (could have used potions), i only used evocation spells.
I could have avoided using Skull trap, but the Dispel Magic and invisibility were very important.
I am right before Avernus, and was preparing myself to face Big B.
Problem is: I can’t remember how to kill Belhifet as a solo wizard. He uses Improved Invisibility pretty fast and repeatedly IIRC, so at most I guess I can target him twice with Lower Resistance to reduce his MR to around 40% (still quite a lot).
My summons (sword spiders or skellies) can’t hit him.
I was hoping to spam webs and hope he fails his saves once or twice, but that doesn’t seem reliable between his MR (even lowered) and high saves (especially under Improved Invisibility).
Without a reliable way to immobilize him, using MMM’s doesn’t seem a good idea either.
That leaves me with AoE spells, but I think he is immune to poison (and hence Cloudkill), on top of fire res, so that leaves me with Skull Traps and Ice Storm. But his high MR is again a problem.
What is the most efficient and reliable way to face Belhifet (no-LoB nor SCS) as a solo mage ?
Nonante’s soul will be tortured in Avernus for eternity, unless #10 manages to free her ?
Incidentally, you mentioned your THAC0 was 10, which sounds rather higher than I might have expected. That may be the result of using the Flind form, rather than staying in your own shape and using a +3 staff. With strength 25 and a potion of power I think you should be able to get THAC0 down to at least 3. You also then have more freedom to cast spells rather than relying on sequencers. If you can't get THAC0 down reasonably low, then you could use enchanted weapon to dual-wield - giving you 3 chances a round (assuming you're hasted) to get a critical.
The difference might also be because of buffs expiring, I was not really focused on that during the fight
As for Polymorph Self, you're supposed to use it first and drink the STR, DEX, CON etc potions after that:
I know that a polymorphed arcanist is awesome, I made one (sorcerer) some time ago, most fun I've had in a long time, but that is also why I wanted to try something else
Interesting roll, also ended up with very good stats (did tweak it a bit and exchanged DEX & CON to end up with 18 STR/17DEX/15CON, good min-max stats especially after the tomes).
Stealth & special abilities of the DMM will be very useful, monks can also use priest scrolls which will probably make Belhifet's fight pretty straightforward.
Pips went into dagger (random roll) & 1 weapon style, added a point in shortsword at lvl4 (random roll between scimitar & shortsword for availability of +3 weapons)
I did not play a lot, just a few quests & mutamin's garden to get a few levels under my belt, also tried my luck against Bassilus who failed his save against Blindness, which made the fight ridiculously easy.
I think DMM is safer and easier for nR runs, its special abilities gives him better survivability. Stunning Blow is good but has a very short duration anyway, and Lay on Hands is easily replaced by Bhaalspawn abilities and potions.
I'm looking forward to it, even though the monk is underwhelming at best at lower levels, BG1 should be okay with some cheese and lots of metaknowledge.
SoD has, luckily, a few very nice monk-only stuff, so it should go okay as well.
Luckily, stealth and movement speed allows to retreat from battles, and with lots of metaknowledge, necklace of projectiles and hit and run tactics, I managed to clear most of BG1, and am now facing the coronation ambush.
I had a few lucky fights, for example:
- Marek managing to land a confusion on me, but then killing himself (and "only" gravely wounding me) with a Lightning Bolt;
- Cythiandra did the same, confusing me (I tend to forget to regularly use the greenstone amulet) just as a hit landed on her and triggered her fleeing conversation. Really close call since her Ogres were doing much damage.
Obviously, in retrospect, the danger came from me being ill-prepared, and even if I manage to kill the doppelgangers rapidly, I don’t think I will go far seeing how I tend to rush in battle sometimes.
The fight against Sarevok was harder, had to retreat twice (with invisibility potion) to fully heal and come back to kill him, out of sight of his companions.
Sarevok was almost down when Angelo spotted me and joined the fight, luckily it was already too late:
I did not remember those Aerial Servants being so hard hitting.
I advanced quickly in SoD, avoiding useless fights and made my way through Bhaal’s lost Temple.
I easily killed the dragon (a dagger into its heart), its sister, the Neothelid, and lured the 2 aerial servants outside the priestess’ room.
I figured, since I was still buffed from the previous fight and barely wounded, I could use the XP and decided to kill the Aerial Servants.
1 round later, I was dead (both their attacks landed, for 35 or more HP each)...
Elven FMT, to boot!
Although I am sticking to the random class/race/alignment rolls, I’m more and more min-maxing attributes and weapons.
Ended up with very minmaxed stats, and chose Scimitar (since I rolled a good character, and my elven PC is strongly’prejudiced towards drows
Right now, even without proficiencies, Bows hit reliably well, and I plan to use them for situational strategies (arrows of detonation & dispelling for the win!)
Here’s the character sheet:
Elfte chanced upon a drow being assailed by a group of Gnolls. She waited a few hours in the shadows, looking at idiotic gnolls trying to slash at the drow, failing repeatedly even though the dark elf stood there motionless (the sun probably muddled his brain). Apparently, the gods themselves got bored and sent down a lightning bolt to end the drow’s misery ! (toldya my PC was prejudiced)
Fun fact: I've spent so much time trying to solo with no thieves abilities that I sometimes forget to disarm traps and absorb them instead...
My FMT has good thac0 (not awesome, but good enough), multiple access to invisibility (stealth, spells, potions, gear) which is very important to my playstyle, good backstabs for good battlefield control (chunk the mage first, then everything is so much easier), basic but still useful traps, and access to wands which can by itself clear BG1 anyway (I try not to use them often).
I've almost finished BG1, just need to save the dukes at the coronation and kill my brother (that's family for you).
I love the fact that this class keeps getting stronger and stronger each level up till 8 million XP. Normal single or even two-class characters tend to get boring at higher levels, just selecting HLA's but getting no new spells/progression otherwise.
- Finished BG1 (dispelling Sarevok with arrows, then backstabing him to death):
- Almost died against boring beetles at the beginning of SoD, luckily two nearby Flaming Fist mercenaries killed the beetles while I was stunned:
- Killed a dragon with a throwing dagger:
- Being a one-elf swiss-army-knife, easily and swiftly cleared the rest of SoD, gulped a ton of potions and with the right gear and spells, killed Belhifet:
- As I was making my way through Irenicus Dungeon, I first had to gather my (non-existent) party before venturing forth:
FMT is so powerful and versatile, it is quite refreshing to be able to do so many things and clearing quests and dungeons without over abusing meta-knowledge and cheese.
Just the fact that I can disarm traps and unlock chests makes it smoother than any non-thief run.
My FMT died unexpectedly.
I had a great time with this character, getting stronger and stronger, dual-wielding returning dagger (2 base ApR even in melee) + speed weapon for 5 ApR, meaning 10 ApR once I hit lvl12 wizard, which was fast as a solo.
Once I hit level 14 (could have done it sooner, but this trick is cheesy enough without abusing it), I also carefully timed a limited wish spell + wisdom potion + one-time wish -> shapechange and a timer next to me to get permanent access to Iron Golem form.
I did the same with the Polymorph self spell for Mustard Jelly form early in BG2.
Those forms are supposed to allow me to absorb almost any nasty spell sent my way (except for spells who bypass MR, meaning Maze/Imprisonment mostly). I discovered that this is in fact not reliable, since I became Charmed while in Iron Golem form in the Underdark (trying to rescue Phaere). I should have used the greenstone amulet I just grabbed two minutes ago
I was making sooo much progress, becoming overpowered with HLA’s and stuff. So sad
Launching the special trap was fun (I maxed traps early), but even 7 traps were not enough to save the dukes at the Coronation
Since the no-reload run was out anyway, I decided to continue this character, but skipping SoD alttogether.
Sarevok was easily taken care of with arrow of dispelling (no haste), a failed save on his part against my special traps (slowed) and then backstabs.
So I rolled #13 instead. I rolled between the 3 classes I haven't played yet in this challenge: paladins, druids, sorcerers, ended up with a chaotic evil blackguard.
I've decided to play this one a bit more RP, no cheesy-XP-farming, no 20 REP on a chaotic evil character for cheeper stuff in stores.
I'll still manage reputation to stay around 10 to get the "good" bhaalspawn abilities (for DuHM at least).
I decided to go for Bastard Sword & Shield, plus Darts as a ranged option (as an easy-to-access last resort ranged weapon on an otherwise heavily armored warrior).
Bastard swords are slow, so my enemies often strike before me, hence the need for good AC to mitigate damage.
I haven't got far yet, FAI, Beregost and Nashkell + a few side quests, enough to get me to lvl3 already, and the very useful Aura of Despair, nice debuff especially early on were even a -1 thac0 to enemies is relevant in defense, and the -2 AC added to a lucky strength roll (18/00) makes it a very good damage dealer already.
Poison weapon ability is just icing on the cake, although at low level and especially with a slow weapon like the bastard sword, it is not very reliable yet. Darts should help against mages on that particular area (it took care of Tarnesh).
I haven't roleplayed a truly evil PC in a long time, I look forward to this.
So far I barely managed to keep my rep at 10 (I want the 2 heals abilities), later my rep will drop again a little (horror abilities) and then raise again (DuHM).
I love when my RP "just so happens" to align with my metagame
EDIT: Obviously, temples of evil gods are no problem though (meaning Umberlee in BG1 and Talos in BG2)
As a personality and background, I decided that my human female blackguard was a worshipper of Talona, the chaotic evil (in 2e) god of poison and disease (hence the blackguard’s poison ability). She is a bit hot-blooded and easily rushes into combat, but is a good strategist and, as a follower of Talona, relies heavily on concoctions (yay, potions) to turn the tides of a fight.
I discovered only after choosing Talona as the patron for my blackguard that she served Bhaal before the Time of Troubles. Thus, the stage is perfectly set for a nice RP.
My blackguard’s allegiance also gave me a RP excuse for killing Bentan, the follower of Illmater (his god’s cures are antagonistic with Talona’s poison portfolio).
I thus imposed a few rules:
- no access to non-evil temples (in fact, even entering a temple would attract the wrath of the deity and the priests in said temple)
- reputation management can only be done via quests, even a chaotic evil blackguard must control her inner evil and compose with the local population if she doesn’t want to be attacked by legions of law enforcers in every town
- although the plan is still to finish the game(s), my blackguard will try to face as much content as possible, not relying on invisibility (ring or potions) to skip most of the dungeons.
The above rules and background were determined along the way, after I did some quests near FAI and Beregost (around level 3).
I refrained from killing the basilisks in Mutamin’s garden (I figured snake-like monsters were favoured beasts of the goddess of poisons), and instead did a lot of roaming around the sword coast, doing quests and clearing maps, to hit level 6 before attempting the main quest.
At first, I relied on Bastard Sword+1 (bought in Beregost) and Fire Darts (from High Hedge).
At lvl3 and 6, I added pips into Longswords (so many evil longswords in the games).
I hesitated a bit on which Longsword to use before Chapter 6, but noticed that Harrower was a paladin’s sword (from description), so I sold it immediately, whereas Varscona is described as a weapon made by followers of the evil drow goddess Shar, so I switched to Varscona for some time.
I cleared the Nashkell mines easily, Mulahey died from Fire Darts + poison before even managing to reach me and trigger his dialogue (this guy is obviously an enemy, I don’t see why my hot-headed blackguard would let him come near her).
Outside the mines, I killed the amazons with aura of despair, poisoned darts + Necklace of Missiles (while I was myself protected from fire).
Neither Nimbul nor Tranzig survived a few Fire darts+ poison.
After a quick trip to Durlag’s Tower to buy a stack of Darts of Stunning and Darts of Wounding, I was recruited by Teven in Larswood and infiltrated the bandit camp.
A few potions, Poison + Darts of Wounding disabled the mage, and I easily dispatched the other 3 bandit chiefs in the main tent (I was really surprised by the great tanking ability of my Blackguard, and her high damage output at the same time).
I then made my way through Cloakwood, and upon arriving before the Cloakwood Mines, gulped a few potions (Invulnerability, Heroism, Oil of Speed mainly), and ran through Drasus’ Party (they fell easily against 4,5 ApR of poisoned Darts of Stunning), hacked my way through the mines, relying on those buffs, freed the slaves (my reputation was quite low then), dispatched the 2 Battle Horrors with Varscona (they barely scratched me), and then threw poisoned Darts at Davaeorn to interrupt his spells and run through his Mirror Images, and finished him in melee.
Since BG city was now reachable, I went back to FAI to recruit Dorn and did his quest. From this, I obtained a great necklace (+2 save vs. spell), a golden girdle (+3 AC vs slashing, since I skipped Mutamin’s Garden altogether), and a nice bastard sword as new main weapon (Albruin+1, enhanced damage, immunity to poison, great synergy with my RP, although I’d still rely on Varscona from time to time).
In BG City, did a few quests (to get my Rep back to 10 mostly), triggered Marek and Lothander’s encounter and started the quest... until I remembered that I am supposed to get the wisdom tome from the Temple of Tymora... I had no choice but to go there, and kill the priest for the tome (since I forbid myself from peacefully entering temples).
I then had to do a few more quests to get my reputation back to 10, going as far as traveling back to Nashkell Carnival to buy the Stone to Flesh scroll from Zeke (only way to get it outside temples IIRC), carefully making my way to Tamah (I refused to drink a potion of mirroring eyes for no reason other than just making things difficult for me), casting Horror on the nearby Basilisk (it worked on the first cast), hastily unpetrifying Tamah for a hard earned +1 REP and directly leaving the map.
Then back to BG city, cleared the Seven Suns and freed Jhasso for another boost to reputation, then decided to investigate the Iron Throne building.
Once again, 2 or 3 potions, darts of stunning and Poison Weapon made this fight easier than I’ve ever remembered in a solo run.
Back to Candlekeep, I decided to spare the Iron Throne leaders, as a last show of respect for Gorion and my childhood memories of the place.
I was nevertheless framed for their murder, although I can’t really blame the Watchers, the nature and reputation of my blackguard is not in her favour.
The real highlight of the trip was discovering her parentage, explaining why Talona has whispered in her ears since her tender years.
For once, my PC decided that stealth was in order, as she escaped from Candlekeep and made her way back into BG city, given that she was to be killed on sight by the Flaming Fist.
I did make a detour through Durlag’s Tower lower dungeons first, buffing up with potions, lasting long enough to clear the whole 1st underground level (again, darts of stunning are stunning! Pride and co barely hurt me. Love was stunned in the first round, I meleed her 3 brothers easily and finished her before the stun expired), and still had enough time to spare on my buffs to go grab Durlag’s Goblet in level 2.
I did not push my luck and stopped here in Durlag’s Tower.
Back in BG city, easily lured and killed Slythe, managed to gravely wound Cythiandra with Fire Darts+poison and trigger her surrender just as she finished casting her first Hold spell (which was absorbed by the Greenstone Amulet anyway).
I am now facing off the assassination attempt on the dukes during Sarevok’s coronation, but decided to stop there for the night (as usual in fact, this fight is too important and often means the end of no-reloads if not carefully executed).
I didn’t take many screenshots, here are a few after some supposedly hard battles (notice that the first one almost meant the end of the run, luckily Laryssa died right while her Hold spell was flying my way):
BG1 is finished:
- Coronation was fast and efficient, Aura of Despair was enough of a debuff to ensure survival of both dukes
- Scroll of protection from magic + plenty of potions made the fight against Sarevok a cakewalk. I also made sure to kill his goons too.
- Number of kills: 354
SoD, also, is finished:
- it was a bit more difficult to RP because.... well, the story is pretty linear. There was not much difference with other runs (except more killing... way more killing)
- this character is very efficient against both melee attackers (they only hit on crits, although when surrounded, that still takes away a lot of HP) and magic users (darts+poison, oh. oh. oh.), so I did not avoid any fights until the Underground river (just ran through it, did not have the patience to clear it)
- Although the blackguard is immune to the frear effect of Durlag’s Goblet, I decided to only use the goblet outside of battles, relying on "normal" potions mid-fight (which almost caused me to die a few times until I got the hang of managing my character’s HP), except for the final fight though.
- For some reason, during the duel against Ashatiel, she considered that I cheated somehow, and teleported out. It was the first time it happened, and I did not know where to find here so.... I ended up clearing the whole battlefield instead
- I decided to raise the difficulty from Core to Insane against Belhifet. It did not change much, since I focused my attacks on Big B, I just took a few more (and harder) hits so that I had to drink twice from Durlag’s goblet during the fight. But Big B fell relatively fast anyway, and then I just had to finish Caelar.
- It felt weird to fight devils & demons as a blackguard...
- In the end, I finished SoD with... 655 kills ! What I lacked in RP, I took up in carnage (for comparison, my Invoker faced Belhifet with about 130 kills)
Screenshots:
Character sheet after the fight against Belhifet:
Treize swore to take revenge at any costs against Irenicus, killing him slowly and painfully, but only after he spills the details behind the "untapped powers" he talked about.
Treize managed to free herself from her jail, using a disturbance created from unknown attackers and Imoen’s lockpicking skills (how she got here was a mystery though, and Treize did not trust her enough to keep her around).
Escaping Irenicus’ dungeon was easy, no enemy nor traps could threaten our blackguard’s power.
Upon exiting the dungeon, and after seeing Irenicus and Imoen being captured by Athkatla’s Cowled Wizard, Treize first headed to the nearest inn to gather some intel and get some rest.
Some mercenaries were squatting the best room of the inn, so Treize had to first do some housework and chase the vermins. One of them put quite a dent in Treize’s armor, and she had to rest a few days to heal her wounds.
Treize figured she needed to get in the local authoritie’s good books if she wanted to get intel about Irenicus and his imprisonment, so when she spotted a Amnian Soldier requesting help to solve disappearances inside a circus tent, she lent her help and saved the innocents captured into an illusion.
Also, a local fence somehow managed to get his hands on Treize’s returning dart (Biter from SoD), and accepted to give it back to its ‘almost’ rightful owner for a relatively cheap price.
As she left Waukeen’s Promenade, Treize was hailed by a suspicious man, who seemed well informed about her identity but also how to get to Irenicus. The man obviously worked for the Shadow Thieves, the same faction that planned the assault on Irenicus’ lair.
Working with them might prove faster and easier, although more expensive, than sucking up to the authorities, so Treize chose to play along for a time.
Treize first spent a few days exploring the city, gathering gold and intel (investigated MaeVar’s guild, cleared the sewers and Mekrath’s lair, inadvertently chased Haer’Dalis which prevents me from doing the Planar Prison).
After some time, she had to leave town for a few weeks since Treize "accidently" killed all the priests and guards in Lathander’s Temple while trying to steal a statuette of theirs.
Treize freed De’Arnise Keep from an army of trolls (Biter’s extra acid damage helped), and was offered to rule the Keep in place of its dead lord.
So Treize spent the next 2 months rebuilding the former glory of the De’Arnise lands, showing mercy to the local folks but not hesitating to kill any outsider threatening or trying to abuse her.
Once things settled down in De’Arnise Keep, Treize returned to Athkatla, armed with a powerful flail that Nalia’s father had kept hidden and dismembered in the keep, afraid of its evil aura and power. What a coward.
Once in Athkatla, Treize noticed that the fight had intensified between the Shadow Thieves and a mysterious opposing guild using undead servants, the contestant having the clear upper hand.
Hence, when she was approached by a representative of the opposing guild offering a similar yet cheaper deal than the useless thieves, Treize did not hesitate much and took up the offer.
A few days later, the shadow thieve’s leader laid dead at Treize’s feet, and at last it was time to chase after Irenicus on a mysterious island.
- main weapon focus since lvl12 (I hit this level while clearing De’Arnise Keep) is flails, planning to use the FoA for probably most of the game (Defender of Easthaven is too "good” oriented from the description, so I’ll probably pass it).
- After the Underdark, I’ll make a tour in Watcher’s Keep to grab the Crimson Dart and Foebane, and try to make it as far as I can in the dungeon.
- I’m still using 1 armed weapon + shield, which makes killing enemies slower and the extra AC is not that helpful anymore. GWW will probably offset this disadvantage to some degree.
- At lvl15, I decided to put a first pip in 2WF, to start using Belm offhand by lvl18. Not sure yet if I’ll ever go 2WF or keep using shields, but at least the option will be there.
The other gear so far is classic:
- regular full plate armor & ring of protection +2 (for better saves)
- no ring of Gaxx for this run, because I can’t start the Unseeing Eye quest without entering Helm’s Temple first, which contradicts my rule set since BG1 of only being allowed neutrality inside evil temples. Instead, I’m using the Ring of Earth Control (+1 AC) for the moment.
- Helmet of Balduran, obviously (more for the +1 saving throws than the rest)
- Cloak of the Sewers for quick regen outside combat, and magic immunity (jelly form) against spellcasters/beholders
- I’m using the Reflection Shield for now, but I’ll probably replace it by the shield+4 from Ust Natha’s store
- no boots nor gauntlets for now.
I often use potions, they make fights so much easier. If I ever run out, then I guess that’s what HLA’s are for.