Treize has survived the Underdark !!! A first in this challenge !
- As Aran Linvail was dead and the Shadow Thieves destroyed, Treize reported to Bodhi who informed her that Irenicus was held in a remote island called Brynnlaw.
- While Bodhi freighted a ship, Treize decided to put the time to good use, and made a trip to a merchant town in the region to resupply. She first had to solve the local problems, before the merchants were resupplied (Tradmeet’s quests & vendors provided necessary gear before facing the underdark’s foes, mainly the Shield of Harmony, to protect against Charms, Confusions and the like. Also grabbed Belm and the belt of Inertial Barrier).
- At last, Treize arrived in Brynnlaw, interrogated and killed a local cowled wizard and gained access to the Asylum, Irenicus is within grasp!
- ... Or not. Apparently Irenicus managed to take possession of Spellhold’s asylum, and used the facilities to capture Treize and rid her of her divine essence!
- Treize managed to escape the asylum, discovering that a powerful but double-edged monster form dwelved in the depths of her soul. She also gained much understanding of her power as a Blackguard (HLA’s unlocked, started with Fallen Deva and Whirlwinds)
- Irenicus managed to escape to the Underdark, and Treize chased after him using a portal in Spellhold.
- In the Underdark, aided by her fallen deva and skeletons, Treize killed a Demon that would not submit to her blackguard’s patron, helping a svirfneblin’s community in the process.
- While investigating the west caverns, Treize stumbled upon a tribe of Kuo-Toans, and killed them and their leader. She also found a shrine dedicated to a Demon Prince, but the summon used as a sacrifice did not satisfy the Demon Lord and instead of granting powers to her, he sent a few of his soldiers to punish her.
- Transformed in Jelly form, and aided by her summons, Treize killed a few Beholders and found a very useful Greenstone Amulet.
- Armed with said amulet, Treize also cleared an Illithid’s lair. Still no sign of Irenicus though.
- Up north, Treize finally found traces of Irenicus, working with drows, and a Silver Dragon used her magic to allow Treize gain access to the drow city. The dragon apparently wants her eggs back, although Treize couldn’t care less about those.
- In Ust Natha, the drow city, Treize rapidly climbed the ranks as a soldier for the Matrons, and used cunning and deception to fool the drows, replacing and keeping the Dragon’s eggs.
- Matron Mother Ardulace summoned a Demon Lord, but Treize was disappointed to notice that it was only a lesser Demon Lord. She still agreed to exchange the Eggs for a powerful weapon.
- Adalon the silver dragon did not seem happy with this trade, and turned hostile. It took Treize two trips out of Adalon’s lair, using all her abilities, summons and transformations (Jelly first to absorb spells, then Slayer to bring Adalon to gravely wounded, but the Dragon started to use her powerful claws to attack, and Treize had to revert to her human form, the Slayer form being too fragile). At long last, Adalon was killed, and Treize retrieved some of her blood along a scroll to open the access to the surface.
- Treize finally reached the surface, and met with an elven army who informed her that Irenicus was more powerful than ever and managed to assiege the elven city of Suldanessalar.
- the elves tasked Treize with retrieving an artifact from Bodhi, to grant access to the elven city. Bodhi should not prove difficult to deal with, but Treize knows that she needs even more power before facing Irenicus. The lesser Demon Lord met in Ust Natha advised Treize to go visit a grand tower in the South, where one could find great power and wealth.
So. Out of the Underdark at last! It really was difficult, I relied heavily on Shield of Harmony + ring of Free action in Spellhold, and once I hit 3 million XP, the Fallen Deva was quite a relief to take care of the Underdark.
Bodhi’s lair was cleared in seconds (Protection from Undead scroll... ahem, cheesy i know)
Next was Watcher’s Keep:
- First level: no real risk here, brute force and great saves are key.
- Elemental level: freeing a Demon to mess with the Helmites appealed to my blackguard, so she resolved to find the 4 scepters. I did not remember exactly which guardians had special abilities, so I prepared extra carefully each battle and made sure to be protected to anything. Despite using Greenstone Amulet, I had RoFA + Shield of Harmony equpped because of the short duration of the amulet (1 turn), and I noticed that the buff often expired midfight (not a problem when you know what’s coming, but I’m less familiar with WK). With a Fallen Deva and 2 Skeleton Warriors to help, the level was cleared easily as well.
- Maze level: now this level is much much more dangerous. I often fled using different portals, and lost my way a few times. In the end, I managed to kill Karashur and bring his heart to the demon Tahazzar, fled a few other battles, killed Aesgareth and his troops, and found my way to the next level (it actually took quite a while because I had to re-read a walkthrough to remember and prepare for each successive room).
- Lum’s level: as levels and HLA’s started piling up, Treize became a bit overconfident. I had a huge fright against the Killer Mimics, forgot to wear the RoFA and got webbed. Luckily, I had summons nearby and they killed a few mimics and aggroed fire, long enough to allow me to regain my senses and kill the last one (I was left with less than 40 HP when the Web expired).
Afterwards, I humbled myself and got extra careful again, and cleared the Illithid and Gith lairs, killed the Demilich (with Angurdaval that I just grabbed in the previous room, and while Protected from Undead). Saladrex was left in peace.
My summons and I then killed Rock and Garock, and my Blackguard used the Machine to increase her stats.
- Now I stand in the final seal level, but I’m not sure if I want to keep going. I’d love those gauntlets of extraordinary specialization, but I don’t think I have what it takes to face Nalmissra’s group right now. I’ll need some testing/strategies first.
Congrats! How did you survive against Dispel Magic at the start of the battle?
So, coming back to this discussion. I just played against Aec'Letec under SCS (I use the old 31th install version): his Dispel and Gazes (both paralyze & dying attacks) GO THROUGH PfM there. I don't think it is right (with PfM being the ultimate source of protection), but that is the way it is. Your character might be under PfM, but it's not a reliable solution.
He's a screenshot showing the gaze attack going through (but I also had another case where Dispel went through):
"An instant death-component isn't blocked by anything"
So the only reliable way to deal with Aec'Letec under SCS is:
Get Free Action from an item (undispellable) - this will prevent paralyze.
Once you're dying, gulp a potion of magic blocking, or cast PfM (you have 30 seconds for this) to dispel that effect.
Prepare to do that a lot, while fireballing all the minions from wands/necklaces/potions.
If Dispel happens (eg. at the start), drink a Potion of Mirror Eyes after he does it.
Just decided to share (I know the discussion was about Belhifet).
Congrats! How did you survive against Dispel Magic at the start of the battle?
So, coming back to this discussion. I just played against Aec'Letec under SCS (I use the old 31th install version): his Dispel and Gazes (both paralyze & dying attacks) GO THROUGH PfM there. I don't think it is right (with PfM being the ultimate source of protection), but that is the way it is. Your character might be under PfM, but it's not a reliable solution.
He's a screenshot showing the gaze attack going through (but I also had another case where Dispel went through):
"An instant death-component isn't blocked by anything"
So the only reliable way to deal with Aec'Letec under SCS is:
Get Free Action from an item (undispellable) - this will prevent paralyze.
Once you're dying, gulp a potion of magic blocking, or cast PfM (you have 30 seconds for this) to dispel that effect.
Prepare to do that a lot, while fireballing all the minions from wands/necklaces/potions.
If Dispel happens (eg. at the start), drink a Potion of Mirror Eyes after he does it.
I don't think the gaze going through PfM is the result of it having a death component (spells like finger of death won't go through). Instead, I think it's because the gaze is not a magical attack as such, but a 'quasi-natural' ability. The same occurs with the gaze of a basilisk for instance or fear auras emitted by various creatures, like dragons. Magic resistance though, does offer broader protection than PfM and covers these sorts of abilities.
I seem to remember that in early versions of the EE, PfM did block dispel magic, but I don't think that's been so for quite a while - now the 2 just ignore each other, i.e. PfM won't be dispelled, but won't protect other buffs either.
After a relatively long pause from this challenge, I went back to it:
- First, I noticed that my first post listed a currently running sorcerer (attempt #14). By rummaging through my saves, I found the save in SoD. I'm not sure if I got bored mid-run or if he died (I think the latter, since I found I had already created attempt #15). Nevertheless, I decided not to continue this savegame, and consider the run as failed.
(EDIT: in fact, I think I got bored of SoD, not the run, since I found a savegame from that attempt #14 in BG2... right before Suldanessalar ! I did not even remember going this far ! Ah well, if I can't remember it, then it doesn't count)
- Attempt #15 was rolled yesterday, and I ended up with an half elven FMT with very lackluster stats & proficiencies (14/17/14/16/9/13 and 2 pips in daggers and katana... which I couldn't buy yet).
In any case, this attempt was short-lived since I tried to take on the spiders in Beregost at level 1 : a sleep spell managed to render the 4 of them unconscious, but armed with a normal dagger and only 1,5 ApR (and no STR bonus), I only managed to kill 2 of them before the remaining two woke up and poisoned me before I could flee.
- Attempt #16 ended up being an elven swashbuckler. I actually was looking forward to a new single-class thief run, I especially missed the sweet backstabs... only to end up with a non-backstabing thief !
Anyway, I'm excited about this run, I don't remember the exact stats, but I rolled a 19 for DEX ! Pips were 2* in longswords, and I'll add 1* in shortbow and 1* in single-weapon-fighting for BG1.
TWF will wait until BG2.
I think I'll have to resort to traps a lot, so I already started investing in set traps.
Plenty of thieves skills and very high DEX means I can do whatever I need, and barely had to use potions (for high level traps or pickpocket a few items).
Combat-wise, although the AC increase brings great survivability (in BG1, even +1 AC is quite useful), only 1 ApR and very lackluster thac0 (even with the swashy bonus) requires careful planning. In the end, I mostly used the bow.
At lvl8, I decided to go for first pip in 2WFinstead of 1 handed, to plan for SoD.
Most group fights were taken care of with fireballs (necklace or arrows), single tough enemies were killed or at least heavily wounded with traps.
I also made sometimes good use of Algernon’s cloak to charm one tough enemy to serve as distraction against enemies (notably the bandit’s tent and the guard before Davaeorn).
I was worried about the Ducal Palace fight: in the end, 6 traps managed to kill 2 doppelgangers from the start and heavily wounding the rest. A few dispelling arrows and acid arrows, plus help from the mercenaries/dukes, took care of the rest before any duke fell (Liia was near death though).
I almost died against Cythiandra, felt overconfident and thought I could one-shot her after bringing her near death. It turns out my first hit was a critical miss, the second arrow landed at the same time that her fear spell hit me (luckily, I had already lured the 2 ogres outside).
The fight against Sarevok was:
- 3 traps near Semaj’ spawn point
- 3 traps where I planned to lure Sarevok
- lots of potions/buffs
- triggered the fight with an arrow of detonation on a nearby bat
- Semaj teleported, was brought to near death by the traps, an arrow of dispelling and then acid arrows killed him in one round, preventing his scripted dispel to even show up
- I then lured Sarevok and first hit him with a dispel arrow (removes his haste), then a few hits from my heavily buffed Swashi quickly fell him (surprisingly to me). I did not even have to use healing potions.
BG1 cleared ! SoD is already underway (cleared the repository of death).
I avoided much of the content, and I am starting to be familiar enough with SoD to avoid nasty surprises.
In fact, apart from the repository of death (easily cleared with Prot. from Undead) to get nice XP, the only other area I did do some real fighting was the Temple of Cyric.
I first killed the green dragon by hurling tons of daggers at its heart... Apparently the clattering of daggers hitting the floor did not wake it up from its sleep, luckily for me.
I had to reload once though, because a bug occurred when I freed the priestess, the game sort of froze in cinematic mode. Luckily, there is an autosave as you walk in the area (although I almost died against Ziatar the second time. I would have felt really angry if my run had ended there haha).
Managed to kill the neothelid with the help of some traps (lured him outside his room), then I just killed the priestess to get the wardstone and left the map
The coalition camp battle was easily taken care of with detonation arrows and dispeling arrows.
Then made my way to Avernus and the final fight, made sure to use prot scrolls and gulp lots of potions, had Caelar absorb the dispel for me and distrct the goons while the MC focused on Belhifet.
Well, I did gulp a few healing potion, but in Core rule the damage/healing is easy to manage, and so after a few rounds Belhifet finally fell to a nice critical hit
Damned. Died early in BG2 (fell to a charm spell trying to solve the slavers quest). Early BG2 with almost no equipment is quite challenging as a solo thief to be honest.
I should have started with easy XP (non violent quests, disarming/unlocking chests everywhere).
@monico , Sorry for your loss. You were doing so well. I wonder if going all the way through SoD before BG2 can make a no-reloader start to feel a bit fatigued, and therefore more prone to make an error. Or alternatively, the extra levels from SoD could make one a bit overconfident and possibly have a careless moment going into early BG2.
@monico , Sorry for your loss. You were doing so well. I wonder if going all the way through SoD before BG2 can make a no-reloader start to feel a bit fatigued, and therefore more prone to make an error. Or alternatively, the extra levels from SoD could make one a bit overconfident and possibly have a careless moment going into early BG2.
Thanks for the support !
It is definitely a possibility, although generally, I make sure to make a pause between games to avoid this. The real problem though is that by the end of SoD with all the gear and potions, your lvl10ish character is more powerful than a regular lvl 15ish character. The difference in power between end SoD and early BG2 is quite drastic.
Relatively to this particular run, the problem was that my swashbuckler, despite reaching lvl13 easily, was a very bad fighter. Even resorting to kiting with the Tuigan Bow, I rarely managed to hit the slaver mercenaries (especially the captain), and once my oil of speed expired, I was not fast enough to flee and hide in shadows to avoid the cleric’s spell (that I still had more than 90% chances of evading thanks to innate elf resistance and general saving throws).
Anyway, I rolled my new character, ended up getting a very powerful human Priest of Tempus, that my randomized rolls decided should be later dualed to fighter (at the start of SoD, so ending up C8 -> F9 by the end of SoD if I get up to there)
I started going north to FAI and clear some quests up north (killed Tarnesh, found Joia’s ring, recovered Brun’s son’s body, retrieved Tenya’s bowl), allowing me to hit lvl3 already.
I made my way back south to Beregost, killing the belt Ogre on the way, and nearly died against Silke : I prebuffed a bit (at such low level, prebuffs generally don’t last long), immediately cast Silence once the fight started, but the long casting time and a critical miss with my sling allowed Silke to turn invisible, plus I hit myself with the silence spell.
Then Silke and I had a fist fight which turned more to her advantage thanks to her improved invisibility and my expired buffs.
Silence soon wore off and she started casting her dreaded Lightning Bolt spell. Luckily, since I was so close to her, it passed behind me without hitting me (I also tried evading it by moving around, but I think I evaded it thanks to the former, although I am not sure if this behaviour wasn’t corrected in the last patch).
Silke herself and poor Garrick did not have such luck and were killed by the bouncing bolt.
After such a close call and realizing that I was playing too carelessly, I’ve decided that it was time to do my laundry and stop here for a while
Evening session with attempt #17 (Priest of Tempus) went quite well:
I started south to kill some Ogrillons and Hobgoblins, then south again to retrieve Colquette’s amulet under Sanctuary
Then back north west to get Bassilus’ hammer (first cast Silence, then Doom, then Hold, he failed both saves)
Going up north, I failed to save Melicamp (sad, that’s sweet xp and reputation)
After giving back Bassilus’ holy symbol to Keldath, I came back in Beregost to give Zhurlong his boots, Perdue his sword (killing the dwarven mercenary along the way), and Colquette his amulet, allowing me to hit a perfect lvl up, opening lvl 3 spells and the beloved skellies
South to Nashkell, I directly went to the mines, helping Prism first. Made a beeline for Mulahey under sanctuary, who failed a save against Silence before managing to walk up to me (I forgot that if he doesn’t speak to you, he won’t ever turn hostile, so killing him was easy).
Then made my way out of his lair, killed the amazon group in the Valley of the Tombs and the revenant:
After some quests here and there, I cleared the bandit camp’s main tent, silencing the leaders so they won’t call for help while my skellies and I butcher them (well, the fight doesn’t alert the bandits outside anyway, but at least here I had a good reason why)
Davaeorn fell victim to the same strategy (a mute spellcaster is a dead spellcaster)
Before going to BG city, I made a detour to Mutamin’s garden, easily cleared with Korax and skellies, and made a short visit to Durlag’s Tower to get the WIS tome.
North to BG, there wasn’t much to note, I skipped most content, only doing Lothander quest, grabbing the INT and DEX tome, Balduran’s Helmet and recovering the priest’ son’s body.
Then I directly went to the Iron Throne building, killed the mercenaries on the top floor, grabbed some documents and reported to Duke Eltan
Eltan sent me back to candlekeep, I used the violet potion and other buffs to grab the STR and WIS tome, and escaped the catacombs under Sanctuary.
Since I almost hit the XP cap and was getting tired, I decided to stop here for the night. The next step will be grabing Durlag’s goblet (which I end up never needing in non LoB run, but I want it just to be safe ), and finishing BG1.
My problem right now is deciding when to dual: my original plan was to dual as soon as I start SoD, but starting SoD as a lvl1 fighter might prove difficult (although clearing Korlasz tomb with PfUndead scrolls might be relatively easy, not sure how I’ll be able to vanquish Korlasz herself, since my Charisma is too low to persuade her to surrender).
Question: Why Silence instead of Hold Person? Hold Person has an even better effect if it lands (no fist fight), and it can't hurt you. The only reason I can think of to ever use Silence over Hold Person is if you're trying to neutralize more than one caster, and they're too spread out for the small AoE of Hold Person.
EDIT: Oh, I just thought of something else - the invisibility. I don't use SCS, so I don't think of stuff like that.
Enemies save against Silence 15' Radius at a -5 penalty, whereas the cleric version of the Hold spell is a plain save vs spell, no penalty.
Sure, Silence is not party friendly, but I generally am better at targeting this spell (in fact, in my whole run so far, the fight against Silke is the only time I was hit by the spell, problem being that you have to talk to her to start the fight, so end up right next to her).
If fighting one or more spellcasters, I always start the fight with a silence.
Then it's generally Chant (more to lower enemy saves by 1 than for the actual buff to me or my team), eventually Doom on one high level and very dangerous enemy, and then Hold.
Of course, it all depends on who/what I am facing. Sometimes I start with the Hold spell, hoping to disable at least 1 or 2 enemies in a tight group of only melee attackers.
Yeah, it's huge, especially for a lvl2 spell. It really is the bane of any spellcaster (although in BG2 onward, mage enemies generally have one Vocalize memorized... but it has a relatively short duration and you can just cast a first Silence, step back for a turn, then cast a second Silence and go finish the enemy spellcaster).
That spell is actually the best way I have found to take care of Davaeorn (he has 50% chances of failing his save). He still teleports randomly a few times, but after that, he is just a sacrificial lamb.
If you're prepared to abuse it, silence is incredibly effective in BG1. It can shut down most casters before they can even attempt a spell (vocalize is very common in BG2, but not BG1). It can be cast out of sight range (that's also possible with hold person, but is trickier, has a far smaller area of effect and only affects hostiles). It can also prevent large numbers of potential enemies from taking any action - often they won't go hostile until they've given a speech (so Drasus for instance will just stand there like a lemon while you slaughter his companions).
@Grond0 I have no qualms abusing it, abusing this spell and sanctuary to place myself tactically before a tough fight is what allowed me to advance so far in my poverty-no reload-LoB run with a cleric/thief
Sometimes I use the most cheesy of cheese out there, namely fake talking an enemy to avoid triggering a fight until I am carefully placed where I want to be, but that's my last resort cheese and generally consider having "failed" that encounter if I do that (strangely, I'm comfortable with most of the other cheese and abuses, but this one is really too much for me).
Anyway, back to my current run, I did not progress much because I'm at the most difficult stage of the game and it requires much concentration.
I did go to Durlag's tower, tried taking on the 2 battle horrors with buffed Skellies... Who fell in seconds, whereas my buffed Cleric easily killed them without a scratch... Which is when I remembered that this is not a LoB run, and my MC is way more powerful than any summons he has at disposal (still useful as canon fodder).
I cleared Durlag's tower first underground level without much fighting. I killed the three greater doppelgangers singlehandedly, but apart from that I mostly cast Prot from Fire + fire prot. Ring (for 127% fire res, meaning all those fireball traps actually cure me), Prot from Lightning, Greenstone Amulet, Sanctuary and solved all the riddles.
I then triggered the warden fight and lured them in the north-western room with the infinite-fireball-trap, and continually walked over it until the 4 guards were dead and I stood fully healed by the fire... We were talking about cheese/abuse ?
Next level was just me grabbing Kiel's Helmet and Durlag's goblet, and I was out.
Back to BG city, I first saved Duke Eltan, fought Cythiandra (lured the two ogres on the roof, used the invisibility ring and went back down... Yup, another abuse ).
I then went to the undercellar, summoned 3 skellies that I sent near Krystin-honey, buffed myself with potions & spells, lured Slythe away from there and took him down one on one without breaking a sweat (the Chaos of Battle or whatever special ability of the Priest of Tempus is random, but I luckily ended up rolling thac0, so +2 thac0 for me and -2 for Slythe), while my skellies took care of Krystin.
Then it was nighty night time, only the Ducal Fight and Sarevok himself are left for the next session.
The Ducal Palace was short and efficient : 3 buffed skellies, triggered the fight.
2 doppelgangers targeted my summons, 2 attacked Belt and 2 Liia.
I started casting Chant and then Hold on 3 doppelgangers stacked near each other. By the time Hold was cast, 1 doppel fighting Liia was dead, another gravely injured.
The hold spell managed to hold the 3 doppelgangers.
I was so sure that it would fail that I was casting a second hold spell for no benefit.
The two non held doppelgangers were already being targeted by my skellies and mercenaries and soon fell, the held ones did not last much longer either.
Since the spell proved so effective, I memorized 4 casts for the fight against Irenicus.
Under Sanctuary, I reached the temple and rested.
I went inside and summoned 4 skellies, buffed myself with all sorts of potions and spells, and lured Sarevok near my hidden skeletons.
They barely lasted long enough for me to cast Doom + Chant, lowering Sarevok’s saves by 3.
I then unleashed all my Hold spells (fleeing and gulping an invisibility potions between each cast)... Sarevok saved against the 4 hold spells!
Thinking that my run had probably failed, but remembering the number of buffs I had at disposal, I still tried to take Sarevok on one on one.
Well, now he’s dead (I had to use Durlag’s goblet a few times though).
My cleric’s stats during the fight:
Maybe I am too used of playing LoB, but sometimes I forget how powerful a buffed cleric can be in melee !
Upon starting SoD, I immediately dualed my cleric into fighter (2 pips in flail & 2 pips in TWF). With all the gear and high stats, I was pleasantly surprised to see my lvl1 character sitting on a comfortable 12 thac0 unbuffed
Necklace of missiles helped me take care of the first level, PfUndead the second level. Levels built up quickly, and Korlasz fight was not that difficult in the end (two missiles cleared most of the room rapidly).
Next, I did a few quests in BG city and here I stand, ready for departure, already lvl6:
A previous session saw me clearing repository of undead and the whole chapter 8 in general.
I came back this morning to try and get those 25k or so XP needed to regain my priest abilities, only to fall five seconds later to a hold spell from a hobgoblin shaman... I forgot to buff altogether
Attempt #18 was a half-orc F/T with Quarterstaff + Darts.
Grabbed Drizzt's armor (my brother taught me that the armor could be used by F/T without preventing them to use their thieve's skills, which I never noticed)
I relied heavily on backstabs
110 damage ! Yay !
Nearly fell against Nimbul: my backstab was a critical miss, and it took me a while to go through his mirror images.
But died against Davaeorn (a misstep trying to disarm the traps not only triggered the fight but summoned the 2 battle horrors, and since I was not prepared yet for the fight, I soon fell to a charm spell while trying to defend against the horrors)
Attempt #19 was an half-elf shaman. My previous shaman run ended against a wolf straight out of Candlekeep.
This time, I made it to the FAI. Yay, progress !
Attempt #20 was a gnome cleric/illusionist, the ultimate spellcaster.
So far, mostly relied on blindness spell (enemies save at -2 since I'm part illusionist) and other debilitating spells to take care of enemies.
I didn't advance much yet with this character, but I'm looking forward to it !
Comments
- As Aran Linvail was dead and the Shadow Thieves destroyed, Treize reported to Bodhi who informed her that Irenicus was held in a remote island called Brynnlaw.
- While Bodhi freighted a ship, Treize decided to put the time to good use, and made a trip to a merchant town in the region to resupply. She first had to solve the local problems, before the merchants were resupplied (Tradmeet’s quests & vendors provided necessary gear before facing the underdark’s foes, mainly the Shield of Harmony, to protect against Charms, Confusions and the like. Also grabbed Belm and the belt of Inertial Barrier).
- At last, Treize arrived in Brynnlaw, interrogated and killed a local cowled wizard and gained access to the Asylum, Irenicus is within grasp!
- ... Or not. Apparently Irenicus managed to take possession of Spellhold’s asylum, and used the facilities to capture Treize and rid her of her divine essence!
- Treize managed to escape the asylum, discovering that a powerful but double-edged monster form dwelved in the depths of her soul. She also gained much understanding of her power as a Blackguard (HLA’s unlocked, started with Fallen Deva and Whirlwinds)
- Irenicus managed to escape to the Underdark, and Treize chased after him using a portal in Spellhold.
- In the Underdark, aided by her fallen deva and skeletons, Treize killed a Demon that would not submit to her blackguard’s patron, helping a svirfneblin’s community in the process.
- While investigating the west caverns, Treize stumbled upon a tribe of Kuo-Toans, and killed them and their leader. She also found a shrine dedicated to a Demon Prince, but the summon used as a sacrifice did not satisfy the Demon Lord and instead of granting powers to her, he sent a few of his soldiers to punish her.
- Transformed in Jelly form, and aided by her summons, Treize killed a few Beholders and found a very useful Greenstone Amulet.
- Armed with said amulet, Treize also cleared an Illithid’s lair. Still no sign of Irenicus though.
- Up north, Treize finally found traces of Irenicus, working with drows, and a Silver Dragon used her magic to allow Treize gain access to the drow city. The dragon apparently wants her eggs back, although Treize couldn’t care less about those.
- In Ust Natha, the drow city, Treize rapidly climbed the ranks as a soldier for the Matrons, and used cunning and deception to fool the drows, replacing and keeping the Dragon’s eggs.
- Matron Mother Ardulace summoned a Demon Lord, but Treize was disappointed to notice that it was only a lesser Demon Lord. She still agreed to exchange the Eggs for a powerful weapon.
- Adalon the silver dragon did not seem happy with this trade, and turned hostile. It took Treize two trips out of Adalon’s lair, using all her abilities, summons and transformations (Jelly first to absorb spells, then Slayer to bring Adalon to gravely wounded, but the Dragon started to use her powerful claws to attack, and Treize had to revert to her human form, the Slayer form being too fragile). At long last, Adalon was killed, and Treize retrieved some of her blood along a scroll to open the access to the surface.
- Treize finally reached the surface, and met with an elven army who informed her that Irenicus was more powerful than ever and managed to assiege the elven city of Suldanessalar.
- the elves tasked Treize with retrieving an artifact from Bodhi, to grant access to the elven city. Bodhi should not prove difficult to deal with, but Treize knows that she needs even more power before facing Irenicus. The lesser Demon Lord met in Ust Natha advised Treize to go visit a grand tower in the South, where one could find great power and wealth.
So. Out of the Underdark at last! It really was difficult, I relied heavily on Shield of Harmony + ring of Free action in Spellhold, and once I hit 3 million XP, the Fallen Deva was quite a relief to take care of the Underdark.
Next stop: Bodhi, then Watcher’s Keep.
Next was Watcher’s Keep:
- First level: no real risk here, brute force and great saves are key.
- Elemental level: freeing a Demon to mess with the Helmites appealed to my blackguard, so she resolved to find the 4 scepters. I did not remember exactly which guardians had special abilities, so I prepared extra carefully each battle and made sure to be protected to anything. Despite using Greenstone Amulet, I had RoFA + Shield of Harmony equpped because of the short duration of the amulet (1 turn), and I noticed that the buff often expired midfight (not a problem when you know what’s coming, but I’m less familiar with WK). With a Fallen Deva and 2 Skeleton Warriors to help, the level was cleared easily as well.
- Maze level: now this level is much much more dangerous. I often fled using different portals, and lost my way a few times. In the end, I managed to kill Karashur and bring his heart to the demon Tahazzar, fled a few other battles, killed Aesgareth and his troops, and found my way to the next level (it actually took quite a while because I had to re-read a walkthrough to remember and prepare for each successive room).
- Lum’s level: as levels and HLA’s started piling up, Treize became a bit overconfident. I had a huge fright against the Killer Mimics, forgot to wear the RoFA and got webbed. Luckily, I had summons nearby and they killed a few mimics and aggroed fire, long enough to allow me to regain my senses and kill the last one (I was left with less than 40 HP when the Web expired).
Afterwards, I humbled myself and got extra careful again, and cleared the Illithid and Gith lairs, killed the Demilich (with Angurdaval that I just grabbed in the previous room, and while Protected from Undead). Saladrex was left in peace.
My summons and I then killed Rock and Garock, and my Blackguard used the Machine to increase her stats.
- Now I stand in the final seal level, but I’m not sure if I want to keep going. I’d love those gauntlets of extraordinary specialization, but I don’t think I have what it takes to face Nalmissra’s group right now. I’ll need some testing/strategies first.
Fell in hell against Irenicus’ Maze spell
At least I won’t have to scratch my head about killing Nalmissra & co ?
Oh right, screenshots:
Well, that was a really fun ride ! I have no regrets
So, coming back to this discussion. I just played against Aec'Letec under SCS (I use the old 31th install version): his Dispel and Gazes (both paralyze & dying attacks) GO THROUGH PfM there. I don't think it is right (with PfM being the ultimate source of protection), but that is the way it is. Your character might be under PfM, but it's not a reliable solution.
He's a screenshot showing the gaze attack going through (but I also had another case where Dispel went through):
This also is confirmed by CamDawg here - https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/296513/#Comment_296513
"An instant death-component isn't blocked by anything"
So the only reliable way to deal with Aec'Letec under SCS is:
Get Free Action from an item (undispellable) - this will prevent paralyze.
Once you're dying, gulp a potion of magic blocking, or cast PfM (you have 30 seconds for this) to dispel that effect.
Prepare to do that a lot, while fireballing all the minions from wands/necklaces/potions.
If Dispel happens (eg. at the start), drink a Potion of Mirror Eyes after he does it.
Just decided to share (I know the discussion was about Belhifet).
I don't think the gaze going through PfM is the result of it having a death component (spells like finger of death won't go through). Instead, I think it's because the gaze is not a magical attack as such, but a 'quasi-natural' ability. The same occurs with the gaze of a basilisk for instance or fear auras emitted by various creatures, like dragons. Magic resistance though, does offer broader protection than PfM and covers these sorts of abilities.
I seem to remember that in early versions of the EE, PfM did block dispel magic, but I don't think that's been so for quite a while - now the 2 just ignore each other, i.e. PfM won't be dispelled, but won't protect other buffs either.
- First, I noticed that my first post listed a currently running sorcerer (attempt #14). By rummaging through my saves, I found the save in SoD. I'm not sure if I got bored mid-run or if he died (I think the latter, since I found I had already created attempt #15). Nevertheless, I decided not to continue this savegame, and consider the run as failed.
(EDIT: in fact, I think I got bored of SoD, not the run, since I found a savegame from that attempt #14 in BG2... right before Suldanessalar ! I did not even remember going this far ! Ah well, if I can't remember it, then it doesn't count)
- Attempt #15 was rolled yesterday, and I ended up with an half elven FMT with very lackluster stats & proficiencies (14/17/14/16/9/13 and 2 pips in daggers and katana... which I couldn't buy yet).
In any case, this attempt was short-lived since I tried to take on the spiders in Beregost at level 1 : a sleep spell managed to render the 4 of them unconscious, but armed with a normal dagger and only 1,5 ApR (and no STR bonus), I only managed to kill 2 of them before the remaining two woke up and poisoned me before I could flee.
- Attempt #16 ended up being an elven swashbuckler. I actually was looking forward to a new single-class thief run, I especially missed the sweet backstabs... only to end up with a non-backstabing thief !
Anyway, I'm excited about this run, I don't remember the exact stats, but I rolled a 19 for DEX ! Pips were 2* in longswords, and I'll add 1* in shortbow and 1* in single-weapon-fighting for BG1.
TWF will wait until BG2.
I think I'll have to resort to traps a lot, so I already started investing in set traps.
Plenty of thieves skills and very high DEX means I can do whatever I need, and barely had to use potions (for high level traps or pickpocket a few items).
Combat-wise, although the AC increase brings great survivability (in BG1, even +1 AC is quite useful), only 1 ApR and very lackluster thac0 (even with the swashy bonus) requires careful planning. In the end, I mostly used the bow.
At lvl8, I decided to go for first pip in 2WFinstead of 1 handed, to plan for SoD.
Most group fights were taken care of with fireballs (necklace or arrows), single tough enemies were killed or at least heavily wounded with traps.
I also made sometimes good use of Algernon’s cloak to charm one tough enemy to serve as distraction against enemies (notably the bandit’s tent and the guard before Davaeorn).
I was worried about the Ducal Palace fight: in the end, 6 traps managed to kill 2 doppelgangers from the start and heavily wounding the rest. A few dispelling arrows and acid arrows, plus help from the mercenaries/dukes, took care of the rest before any duke fell (Liia was near death though).
I almost died against Cythiandra, felt overconfident and thought I could one-shot her after bringing her near death. It turns out my first hit was a critical miss, the second arrow landed at the same time that her fear spell hit me (luckily, I had already lured the 2 ogres outside).
The fight against Sarevok was:
- 3 traps near Semaj’ spawn point
- 3 traps where I planned to lure Sarevok
- lots of potions/buffs
- triggered the fight with an arrow of detonation on a nearby bat
- Semaj teleported, was brought to near death by the traps, an arrow of dispelling and then acid arrows killed him in one round, preventing his scripted dispel to even show up
- I then lured Sarevok and first hit him with a dispel arrow (removes his haste), then a few hits from my heavily buffed Swashi quickly fell him (surprisingly to me). I did not even have to use healing potions.
BG1 cleared ! SoD is already underway (cleared the repository of death).
Screenshots:
I avoided much of the content, and I am starting to be familiar enough with SoD to avoid nasty surprises.
In fact, apart from the repository of death (easily cleared with Prot. from Undead) to get nice XP, the only other area I did do some real fighting was the Temple of Cyric.
I first killed the green dragon by hurling tons of daggers at its heart... Apparently the clattering of daggers hitting the floor did not wake it up from its sleep, luckily for me.
I had to reload once though, because a bug occurred when I freed the priestess, the game sort of froze in cinematic mode. Luckily, there is an autosave as you walk in the area (although I almost died against Ziatar the second time. I would have felt really angry if my run had ended there haha).
Managed to kill the neothelid with the help of some traps (lured him outside his room), then I just killed the priestess to get the wardstone and left the map
The coalition camp battle was easily taken care of with detonation arrows and dispeling arrows.
Then made my way to Avernus and the final fight, made sure to use prot scrolls and gulp lots of potions, had Caelar absorb the dispel for me and distrct the goons while the MC focused on Belhifet.
Well, I did gulp a few healing potion, but in Core rule the damage/healing is easy to manage, and so after a few rounds Belhifet finally fell to a nice critical hit
Here are my swashi’s stats for the fight:
I should have started with easy XP (non violent quests, disarming/unlocking chests everywhere).
Ah I guess it’s time to roll attempt #17...
Thanks for the support !
It is definitely a possibility, although generally, I make sure to make a pause between games to avoid this. The real problem though is that by the end of SoD with all the gear and potions, your lvl10ish character is more powerful than a regular lvl 15ish character. The difference in power between end SoD and early BG2 is quite drastic.
Relatively to this particular run, the problem was that my swashbuckler, despite reaching lvl13 easily, was a very bad fighter. Even resorting to kiting with the Tuigan Bow, I rarely managed to hit the slaver mercenaries (especially the captain), and once my oil of speed expired, I was not fast enough to flee and hide in shadows to avoid the cleric’s spell (that I still had more than 90% chances of evading thanks to innate elf resistance and general saving throws).
Anyway, I rolled my new character, ended up getting a very powerful human Priest of Tempus, that my randomized rolls decided should be later dualed to fighter (at the start of SoD, so ending up C8 -> F9 by the end of SoD if I get up to there)
I started going north to FAI and clear some quests up north (killed Tarnesh, found Joia’s ring, recovered Brun’s son’s body, retrieved Tenya’s bowl), allowing me to hit lvl3 already.
I made my way back south to Beregost, killing the belt Ogre on the way, and nearly died against Silke : I prebuffed a bit (at such low level, prebuffs generally don’t last long), immediately cast Silence once the fight started, but the long casting time and a critical miss with my sling allowed Silke to turn invisible, plus I hit myself with the silence spell.
Then Silke and I had a fist fight which turned more to her advantage thanks to her improved invisibility and my expired buffs.
Silence soon wore off and she started casting her dreaded Lightning Bolt spell. Luckily, since I was so close to her, it passed behind me without hitting me (I also tried evading it by moving around, but I think I evaded it thanks to the former, although I am not sure if this behaviour wasn’t corrected in the last patch).
Silke herself and poor Garrick did not have such luck and were killed by the bouncing bolt.
After such a close call and realizing that I was playing too carelessly, I’ve decided that it was time to do my laundry and stop here for a while
I started south to kill some Ogrillons and Hobgoblins, then south again to retrieve Colquette’s amulet under Sanctuary
Then back north west to get Bassilus’ hammer (first cast Silence, then Doom, then Hold, he failed both saves)
Going up north, I failed to save Melicamp (sad, that’s sweet xp and reputation)
After giving back Bassilus’ holy symbol to Keldath, I came back in Beregost to give Zhurlong his boots, Perdue his sword (killing the dwarven mercenary along the way), and Colquette his amulet, allowing me to hit a perfect lvl up, opening lvl 3 spells and the beloved skellies
South to Nashkell, I directly went to the mines, helping Prism first. Made a beeline for Mulahey under sanctuary, who failed a save against Silence before managing to walk up to me (I forgot that if he doesn’t speak to you, he won’t ever turn hostile, so killing him was easy).
Then made my way out of his lair, killed the amazon group in the Valley of the Tombs and the revenant:
After some quests here and there, I cleared the bandit camp’s main tent, silencing the leaders so they won’t call for help while my skellies and I butcher them (well, the fight doesn’t alert the bandits outside anyway, but at least here I had a good reason why)
Davaeorn fell victim to the same strategy (a mute spellcaster is a dead spellcaster)
Before going to BG city, I made a detour to Mutamin’s garden, easily cleared with Korax and skellies, and made a short visit to Durlag’s Tower to get the WIS tome.
North to BG, there wasn’t much to note, I skipped most content, only doing Lothander quest, grabbing the INT and DEX tome, Balduran’s Helmet and recovering the priest’ son’s body.
Then I directly went to the Iron Throne building, killed the mercenaries on the top floor, grabbed some documents and reported to Duke Eltan
Eltan sent me back to candlekeep, I used the violet potion and other buffs to grab the STR and WIS tome, and escaped the catacombs under Sanctuary.
Since I almost hit the XP cap and was getting tired, I decided to stop here for the night. The next step will be grabing Durlag’s goblet (which I end up never needing in non LoB run, but I want it just to be safe
My problem right now is deciding when to dual: my original plan was to dual as soon as I start SoD, but starting SoD as a lvl1 fighter might prove difficult (although clearing Korlasz tomb with PfUndead scrolls might be relatively easy, not sure how I’ll be able to vanquish Korlasz herself, since my Charisma is too low to persuade her to surrender).
EDIT: Oh, I just thought of something else - the invisibility. I don't use SCS, so I don't think of stuff like that.
Enemies save against Silence 15' Radius at a -5 penalty, whereas the cleric version of the Hold spell is a plain save vs spell, no penalty.
Sure, Silence is not party friendly, but I generally am better at targeting this spell (in fact, in my whole run so far, the fight against Silke is the only time I was hit by the spell, problem being that you have to talk to her to start the fight, so end up right next to her).
If fighting one or more spellcasters, I always start the fight with a silence.
Then it's generally Chant (more to lower enemy saves by 1 than for the actual buff to me or my team), eventually Doom on one high level and very dangerous enemy, and then Hold.
Of course, it all depends on who/what I am facing. Sometimes I start with the Hold spell, hoping to disable at least 1 or 2 enemies in a tight group of only melee attackers.
That spell is actually the best way I have found to take care of Davaeorn (he has 50% chances of failing his save). He still teleports randomly a few times, but after that, he is just a sacrificial lamb.
Still learning how to play this game better, after all these years...
Sometimes I use the most cheesy of cheese out there, namely fake talking an enemy to avoid triggering a fight until I am carefully placed where I want to be, but that's my last resort cheese and generally consider having "failed" that encounter if I do that (strangely, I'm comfortable with most of the other cheese and abuses, but this one is really too much for me).
Anyway, back to my current run, I did not progress much because I'm at the most difficult stage of the game and it requires much concentration.
I did go to Durlag's tower, tried taking on the 2 battle horrors with buffed Skellies... Who fell in seconds, whereas my buffed Cleric easily killed them without a scratch... Which is when I remembered that this is not a LoB run, and my MC is way more powerful than any summons he has at disposal (still useful as canon fodder).
I cleared Durlag's tower first underground level without much fighting. I killed the three greater doppelgangers singlehandedly, but apart from that I mostly cast Prot from Fire + fire prot. Ring (for 127% fire res, meaning all those fireball traps actually cure me), Prot from Lightning, Greenstone Amulet, Sanctuary and solved all the riddles.
I then triggered the warden fight and lured them in the north-western room with the infinite-fireball-trap, and continually walked over it until the 4 guards were dead and I stood fully healed by the fire... We were talking about cheese/abuse ?
Next level was just me grabbing Kiel's Helmet and Durlag's goblet, and I was out.
Back to BG city, I first saved Duke Eltan, fought Cythiandra (lured the two ogres on the roof, used the invisibility ring and went back down... Yup, another abuse
I then went to the undercellar, summoned 3 skellies that I sent near Krystin-honey, buffed myself with potions & spells, lured Slythe away from there and took him down one on one without breaking a sweat (the Chaos of Battle or whatever special ability of the Priest of Tempus is random, but I luckily ended up rolling thac0, so +2 thac0 for me and -2 for Slythe), while my skellies took care of Krystin.
Then it was nighty night time, only the Ducal Fight and Sarevok himself are left for the next session.
The Ducal Palace was short and efficient : 3 buffed skellies, triggered the fight.
2 doppelgangers targeted my summons, 2 attacked Belt and 2 Liia.
I started casting Chant and then Hold on 3 doppelgangers stacked near each other. By the time Hold was cast, 1 doppel fighting Liia was dead, another gravely injured.
The hold spell managed to hold the 3 doppelgangers.
I was so sure that it would fail that I was casting a second hold spell for no benefit.
The two non held doppelgangers were already being targeted by my skellies and mercenaries and soon fell, the held ones did not last much longer either.
Since the spell proved so effective, I memorized 4 casts for the fight against Irenicus.
Under Sanctuary, I reached the temple and rested.
I went inside and summoned 4 skellies, buffed myself with all sorts of potions and spells, and lured Sarevok near my hidden skeletons.
They barely lasted long enough for me to cast Doom + Chant, lowering Sarevok’s saves by 3.
I then unleashed all my Hold spells (fleeing and gulping an invisibility potions between each cast)... Sarevok saved against the 4 hold spells!
Thinking that my run had probably failed, but remembering the number of buffs I had at disposal, I still tried to take Sarevok on one on one.
Well, now he’s dead (I had to use Durlag’s goblet a few times though).
My cleric’s stats during the fight:
Maybe I am too used of playing LoB, but sometimes I forget how powerful a buffed cleric can be in melee !
And with that, BG1 is cleared !!
Upon starting SoD, I immediately dualed my cleric into fighter (2 pips in flail & 2 pips in TWF). With all the gear and high stats, I was pleasantly surprised to see my lvl1 character sitting on a comfortable 12 thac0 unbuffed
Necklace of missiles helped me take care of the first level, PfUndead the second level. Levels built up quickly, and Korlasz fight was not that difficult in the end (two missiles cleared most of the room rapidly).
Next, I did a few quests in BG city and here I stand, ready for departure, already lvl6:
A previous session saw me clearing repository of undead and the whole chapter 8 in general.
I came back this morning to try and get those 25k or so XP needed to regain my priest abilities, only to fall five seconds later to a hold spell from a hobgoblin shaman... I forgot to buff altogether
Attempt #18 was a half-orc F/T with Quarterstaff + Darts.
Grabbed Drizzt's armor (my brother taught me that the armor could be used by F/T without preventing them to use their thieve's skills, which I never noticed)
I relied heavily on backstabs
110 damage ! Yay !
Nearly fell against Nimbul: my backstab was a critical miss, and it took me a while to go through his mirror images.
But died against Davaeorn (a misstep trying to disarm the traps not only triggered the fight but summoned the 2 battle horrors, and since I was not prepared yet for the fight, I soon fell to a charm spell while trying to defend against the horrors)
Attempt #19 was an half-elf shaman. My previous shaman run ended against a wolf straight out of Candlekeep.
This time, I made it to the FAI. Yay, progress !
Attempt #20 was a gnome cleric/illusionist, the ultimate spellcaster.
So far, mostly relied on blindness spell (enemies save at -2 since I'm part illusionist) and other debilitating spells to take care of enemies.
I didn't advance much yet with this character, but I'm looking forward to it !