No reload runs and TotSC content
Pingwin
Member Posts: 262
If you are trying a no-reload run through BG1, do you bother with Durlag's Tower, Ice Island and Balduran's Island?
Durlag's Tower in particular seems far too dangerous once you get down to around level 2 or 3 and there doesn't seem to be that much loot that makes the danger levels worthwhile.
Durlag's Tower in particular seems far too dangerous once you get down to around level 2 or 3 and there doesn't seem to be that much loot that makes the danger levels worthwhile.
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Ice Island can be real tricky, because the first fight is against three good mages. If you have a good backstabber, you can take one out in one hit, but it’s still a hard fight. After that though, it’s not that bad; you only fight one arcane caster at a time. The rest of the island is easy. And it nets you a Stoneskin scroll. Worthwhile if you ask me.
Balduran Island is super easy, because there’s only melee grunts there. A well buffed fighter can deal with the place by himself. However, if you don’t have Item Randomizer, there’s not much of a reason to do it. So yeah, I only do it with Item Randomizer - or with Item Revisions, because then the items there are much better. IR bastard swords are super cool.
Durlag’s Tower, I often stop before the chess fight. Before that, there’s some cool stuff to find. It’s just that, the chess fight can be really dicey and there’s not a lot of good loot after that. I’d say that the chess fight is the hardest part of Durlag, because the rest is not too hard. The wardens, taken one at a time, are not too troublesome. The demon, with the right tactic, can also be dealt with without too much of a problem. I never finish the cutists arc nowadays though. It leads to problematic fights (can’t prebuff when you arrive in Ulgoth’s Beard) for not much of a reward.
That being said, I recently did lose a run at Balduran's Island due to picking the wrong dialogue options when talking to Dradeel, so there's no 100% safety. Every piece of content carries some risk with it.
When playing solo, I usually only get the wisdom tome from Durlag's and sometimes clear the Ice Island with PfM if I need the extra XP or the spellscrolls. Yes, for some characters items like the Sling +3 or the Large Shield +2 would be an upgrade, but I don't have similiarly safe tactics for solo characters as I have for large groups, and I also like to maintain a faster pace of play when soloing, so I'm more likely to skip content in general.
The bit of Durlag's tower that I really hate is the garden area before that. I've seen Garrick get chunked by a backstab from one of those invisible monsters that did over 80 damage which was probably a critical hit, but even non-critical backstabs from those things I've seen do 48 damage.
Overall I'm thinking that, whilst Balduran's Island or going deep in Durlag's Tower might get my party that final level up, there's too much scope for getting killed by a single mistake whereas going up against Sarevok without having hit max levels is still going to be pretty easy.
I don't use any mods so the treasure isn't worth bothering with unless there's a significance to the butter knife that I'm unaware of.
I'm about to start a no-reload run. I'll probably explore the upper part of Durlag's Tower and maybe go down deep enough to get the helm and the goblet but then that will be it.
PS - For Ravenloft fans, the snow golems are inspired by the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium.