Early on the monks didn't bother with any summons, but just ran things around while shooting them.
In Beregost they picked up Algernon's Cloak and using that to pull sirines out of Beregost Temple got everyone the XP for level 2.
They didn't immediately take that though as it's dubious whether that would make them safer (as they lose L1 protection). Instead they headed north, picking up the ogre's belt and returning Tenya's bowl. They produced totemic summons for the first time against the ankheg there.
At Ulgoth's Beard they grabbed Dushai's ring before heading back south. As Drizzt has such a good weapon for druids they wanted that. Unlike solo play though, the XP for Drizzt would be pretty handy as well, so they decided to try to kill him. London had a oil of speed ready to kite him if necessary, but the druids waited to attack (outside his sight range) until he only had about 10 HPs left. That meant the remaining gnolls might easily have killed him, but on this occasion I struck lucky.
That gave everyone the XP for level 3 and they took the levels this time (a good lot of rolls there, with the lowest being 14 HPs for the 2 levels).
Reputation was taken down to 3 by Drizzt's death, which would make them unwelcome in towns - so they picked up reputation from Charleston Nib (a first use of web there on the Doomsayer)
and Brage on the way to Nashkel. Taliesin took the ankheg armor in order to have a potential tank at each end of the party. Merlin rested there in order to get LMD - with everyone having divine spells there doesn't seem much point in taking the CLW or slow poison. LMD is significantly less useful than it was, however, as so many things are immune to it in v2.5. I understand the rationale for making undead etc immune, but it's still a bit hard to get used to.
At the basilisk area everyone quickly got another level (again good HPs) as London started following Korax round killing all the basilisks (and Mutamin).
To the south, Baerin was charmed and pulled away from his friends to his doom. The same happened to Lindin and Peter before the party was out of charm options. On her own though Kirian had no real chance against the attacks raining in on her.
Korax decided to go hostile after that, but failed to surprise the druids and didn't last long in a web.
At Durlag's Tower a battle horror failed to break free from a pair of webs, getting everyone up to level 5 (more excellent HPs).
In future encounters in the open they will now have the option to cook with gas electricity by calling down lightning. The webs didn't quite last long enough to deal with the other battle horror on the path and rather than renew those, the avengers finished it off with a first use of chromatic orbs.
Before going into the Tower they went to High Hedge to stock up on daggers. While there the totemic summons got only their second workout to help London rip up the flesh golems.
They got some shooting practice at the ghasts in the upper Tower and webbed Riggilo. London grabbed the tome, proving immune to the dire charm trap there (all the druids are half-elves to help reduce the chance of being affected by sleep and charm).
The roof was cleared with the help of a PfP scroll. That was enough to get everyone to level 6,
but they hadn't yet taken the level when Polgara went to open the trapped container. She was wielding Drizzt's sword and had resist fire as well, so I was thinking she would have 100% resistance to the fireball. I'd forgotten though that I'd given her Gorion's belt at the start of the game and after an untroubled run to here, she became the party's first death.
I suspect she won't be the last though .
After raising Polgara everyone levelled up, still with good rolls all round (she got up to 52 HPs, which would have been enough to survive the trap if she had levelled up first). London has the worst HPs in the group, with a still very impressive 50 out of a possible 60 HPs.
Plurem (protagonist) - Half-Orc Kensai, 22 kills - fav. weapon - throwing axe Wertle - Dwarven Berserker, 17 kills - fav. weapon - long sword April - Gnomish Berserker, 15 kills - bow & arrow Itwebemine - Gnomish Kensai, 14 kills - fav. weapon - throwing dagger (which is funny - she has No skill in throwing daggers, only two-hand swords! But she needs more HP if she wants to survive in melee) Trapper - Human Kensai, 30 kills - fav. weapon - throwing dagger
Entering the Trilgoy no-reload challenge with this character:
If you wish, click following spoiler to see the party members (created by MP player)
You may wondering about the curious name - it's a conglomeration of the phrase "Iron Throne will be mine" - which if you watch the Game of Thrones and know the character, perfectly fits the portrait.
I have to say, this new party is much more to my style. I have never had a high level Kensai, hopefully I can do that with this party.
The party has left Candlekeep, traveled to Nashkel to get the Ankheg armor, done the Beregost quests, and traveled to get the DEX gauntlets for Wertle. No deaths so far, and interestingly enough, very few potions have been used up to this point.
The kill leaders, as you see by the stats, are the Kensais with proficiencies in melee weapons that also have a ranged counterpart. Which leads to me to the following conclusion: I find it deeply ironic, that the best range attackers of the game, are in fact the range attackers prohibited from using ranged weapons in their kit description!!!
So far, the typical strategy is the following: for weak enemies, Wertle will tank them and everyone else range attacks. For strong enemies like bears, Wertle will run them around while the rest of the party peppers the enemies with missiles. This has worked well so far. Since I have 3 glass cannons in the party, I have kept AI OFF. Might do this for entire run, not sure yet.
I'm having fun. I'm glad I made this party. I might even restart them if they don't make it.
@Grond0 You got power gaming down to a science! You know, my group never had access to web, which completely changes things. And I notice it almost seems to the most cast spell you have, at least by your write-up.
@Grond0 You got power gaming down to a science! You know, my group never had access to web, which completely changes things. And I notice it almost seems to the most cast spell you have, at least by your write-up.
@Corey_Russell it's a great spell, but I've not used it a lot and never in a situation where pure druid alternatives couldn't have been used instead. For most encounters the shapeshifter either melees directly or acts as a moving target while the others do the necessary damage (usually with missiles, but lightning / insects are available for targets immune to missiles). Totemic summons have only been used a few times so far, but they could deal with nearly all opponents on their own if necessary. The only spells used at all frequently so far are CLW to top up HPs.
While in Beregost the druids did a few more jobs, including picking up a magic staff from Silke.
They also commissioned another suit of ankheg armor for Merlin.
Moving on to the Cloud Peaks I tried to get a bit of extra XP by killing Rufie after claiming the reward for finding him. I've not done that recently, but it used to be possible - trying it now crashed the game though. The remaining areas up to the Gnoll Stronghold were no problem - nearly always just using shooting with London as the tank.
With the high expenditure of missiles, the druids went to collect more daggers from High Hedge. There was a rare use of lightning there when I couldn't be bothered to run spiders as well as ghouls around.
Missiles and web were used for a horde of gibberlings just to the north of the Gnoll Stronghold, but ogre berserkers on the nearby bridge were given a rather quicker shock treatment.
Totemic lions got another run out to help speed through the occupants of the xvart village - they also made short work of Borda there.
There wasn't that much XP in those areas, but every little helps! There was a bit more of offer at the Valley of the Tombs, where the Revenant was soon in a sticky situation.
Summons helped with Narcillicus and his mustard jellies, but otherwise it was just the normal shooting and tanking and a concerted lightning blast to make Lamalha feel all alone. They also came across a couple of ankhegs in that area, so went back to Beregost thinking to make a 3rd and final suit of armor (the 2 avengers and the shapeshifter can't wear ankheg). However, Taerom was no longer offering that service.
Looking for some more productive encounters they headed west. Bassilus managed one spell before being held, but that proved ineffective.
Arriving at the coast they doubled up the totemic lions for the first time as there seemed to be plenty of sirines to feed them.
The party got the XP for level 7 during the attack on Sil's group.
They didn't take that until they'd cleared the golem cave - no summons and no use of missiles there meaning they took a bit more damage than usual.
Still generally very good HPs, though Getafix only got 4 extra that time (previous lowest roll for anybody had been 6).
Deciding it was time to make some progress on the main quest the druids went to the Nashkel Mine. It didn't take long for them to track down Mulahey - he managed to confuse London (Xan paying the price for that), but that was his lot.
Back in Beregost I noted I'd forgotten to fumigate some spiders. With that done Tranzig just had time to try and bargain for his life - he failed.
I'm now working with a new installation - full SCS + Ascension with the addition of JimFix, installed via BWS. While my BG2 install still has some problems (I can't get smarter Abazigal to install correctly), the BG1 version seems to be working, so here's a new party. This one is designed for success (though, while I do hope that I can at least make it to Amn, given that I've only ever finished the game with SCS+Ascension once and with quite a few reloads, immediate success seems unlikely). Difficulty level is core rules.
The Bhaalspawn: Nabatil, true neutral half-elven skald, *Sling, *Sword and Shield-Style 18/18/18/18/3/18 Meant to stay in the background and buff the party via song, thus increasing his chances of survival.
Primary fighter: Cadrax, true neutral dwarven berserker, **War Hammer, **Bastard Sword 18,95/17/19/18/3/13 Early game tank, late game damage dealer, with low saves and useful immunities.
Anti-thievery/anti-magic specialist: Ayla, lawful good human inquisitor, **Two-Handed Sword, **Longbow 18,99/18/18/10/13/17 Basically, I only chose this class for quick access to true sight. Inquisiors are nerfed in my installation (dispel magic only at 1,5*character level, Carsomyr dispel allows for a save).
Flexible arcane and combat support: Sarastro, true neutral gnomish fighter/illusionist: **Long Sword, **Shortbow 18,92/18/18/19/2/3 Late game tank, and more arcane power. Also, blindness with the specialist saving throw penalty!
Utility character: Valeria, true neutral half-orc cleric/thief, *Quarterstaff, *Sling 19/18/19/11/18/3 Cleric buffs and thievery, also backstabs and traps later in the game. Not great for actual combat.
Primary arcane spellcaster: Thallian, true neutral elven sorcerer, *Sling 18/19/17/18/3/10 A single-class arcane spellcaster to get high-end spellcasting a bit earlier. While vulnerable early on, I want to have access to level 3 spells like invisibility 10' radius or haste as soon as possible.
This is a completionist run, and I'm taking this one a bit more slowly. So far, I've made my way from Candlekeep to Beregost and Beregost to Nashkel, clearing the areas in between. Additionally, most of the Beregost quests have been completed. The only significant encounters I've fought so far were against Bassilus (who failed to save against blindness) and Tarnesh (who, amusingly enough, died to the very first attack Cadrax threw his way - he really got unlucky with his mirror images:
Thoughts about my 2 berserker + 3 kensai run so far - even though by their kit descriptions Kensais are supposed to be the greatest swordsmen, more or less, I find it isn't working out that way in practice. What I mean is, occasionally I will send a Kensai into melee, only for 1/2 his health to drop in a single swipe of an enemy. I find my Kensais are better off throwing daggers and axes every where, and let the berserkers melee...
Lanil, the Not-So-Perfect Fighter vs. Baldur's Gate: Round 2, Part 2
Time for Chapter 4!
Before the party headed out to the Cloakwood, they traveled to the gnoll fortress and rescued Dynaheir, who joined the party. The party then went to the High Hedge and bought lots of stuff, mostly scrolls. I decided to dual-class Imoen to mage (she had been a level 6 thief).
In the first area of the Cloakwood, the party helped out Aldeth against the druids. The battle went fine at first. Imoen interrupted Seniyad's Call Lightning spell with her wand of frost, and Branwen scattered the druids with her Wand of Terror. Then I had Dynaheir cast Web, but I misjudged the range of it and Lanil got trapped in the web. Since she has a -50 penalty to all saving throws, she wasn't going to get out the web until in wore off. Meanwhile, several of the druids (including Seniyad) also got trapped in the web, and Branwen and Dynaheir killed them with bullets and Magic Missiles.
But here was where the real problem began. One of the panicking druids had run away, and Aldeth was not going anywhere until that druid was dead. Xan cast Invisibility on Lanil, and she searched the ENTIRE AREA for that druid, but she wasn't able to find him. Eventually I gave up and had the party rest and go to the next area.
The next area was the spider area, which was filled with web traps. Because I had dual-classed Imoen, I no longer had a thief. I didn't recruit Coran because I wanted to save the party slot for someone else. But it's okay, because I had an old strategy for getting through the traps (this is far from the first BG1 playthrough I've done where I've been without a thief). I had Xan cast Invisibility on himself (since he was the party member with the best Save vs. Spell). I then had him go through the area, setting off all the web traps. The enemies did not attack him while he was paralyzed because he was invisible. Once he had triggered all of the traps, he returned to the party, and I waited until the traps went away.
I had Lanil use the Protection from Poison scroll I had bought from the High Hedge. With Lanil in front, the party plowed through the spiders and ettercaps in the area until they reached Centeol's lair. Branwen, who was level 5 now, summoned two skeletons outside the lair. Lanil went inside by herself and lured the enemies out a couple at a time. Even the sword spiders weren't that bad. After all the enemies inside the lair were killed, Lanil retrieved the items, including the Spider's Bane two-handed sword.
Finally, Lanil has a weapon again!
Afterwords, the party went to the next area of the Cloakwood. On the way, they were waylaid by two wyverns. By this point, the Protection from Poison effect had worn off, and I didn't want Lanil to get poisoned to death (10 damage per second!). So the party ran away. Once they got to the Shadow Druid area, I had Faldorn join the party.
In the next area, Branwen summoned three skeletons outside of the wyvern cave. Lanil went in the cave and lured out one or two wyverns at a time. The wyverns attacked the skeletons, which were immune to poison, while Lanil killed them.
The party arrived at the Cloakwood Mines. Right outside Drasus' field of vision, Xan cast Skull Trap, Dynaheir cast Fireball, and Lanil used the Necklace of Missiles. This salvo killed both of the enemy mages.
Branwen then paralyzed both fighters with a single Hold Person.
(I'm not sure why the "Held" message triggered twice for them)
The party then entered the mines. The guards in the first few areas were no problem - Lanil soloed them. The ghasts in the hallway were easy too, since Lanil now had Spider's Bane.
To deal with the big room that has lots of guards, Dynaheir cast two Web spells into the room, paralyzing almost everyone, then Lanil went in with Spider's Bane and killed everyone.
But it was on the next floor that things went horribly wrong. The party came up against the mage Natasha. I sent Dynaheir in alone to cast a Fireball and clear out the hobgoblins, as well as hurt Natasha. As Dynaheir was casting Fireball, Natasha was casting Confusion. The fireball failed to interrupt Natasha's spell, and Dynaheir got confused. Natasha then cast Lightning Bolt on Dynaheir. The rest of my party was down the hallway a little, so they couldn't come help in time. The lightning bolt killed Dynaheir instantly, then it ricocheted through the hallway to where the rest of my party was, instakilling Xan and Branwen and badly wounding the others. Xan and Dynaheir were killed permanently.
It is at this point that the party fled. They picked up the dead characters' equipment and recruited Yeslick to fill in one of the empty party slots. They exited the Cloakwood Mines and returned to Beregost, where they raised Branwen. Since both Branwen and Yeslick used hammers and the party only had one magical hammer, they went and killed Bassilus, got his hammer, and got the 5000 gold. Then they returned to the mines.
The party went past Natasha and entered Davaeorn's floor. Since the party didn't have a thief, they had to fight the battle horrors. Lanil lured out them one at a time and destroyed them in single combat.
I didn't want to take any chances with Davaeorn, so I did the fight an easy way. Lanil used a Protection from Magic scroll on herself while the rest of the party huddled in a corner. Lanil killed Davaeorn easily, then she went back to the previous level and killed the ogre mage and Natasha.
REVENGE!
Lanil was able to force open most of Davaeorn's chests, with the exception of the chest next to his bed. After looting the place, the party flooded the mine.
At the Bandit Camp the early bandits all fell easily, but the group near Taurgosz scored several rapid hits on London - prompting him to retreat. A couple of nymphs were produced (for the first time) to heal his damage and they also persuaded Taurgosz to change sides.
When he tried to switch back he was held in contempt of court and given summary execution.
After clearing the rest of the area the druids invaded Tazok's tent. Venkt died before he could finish a spell and the rest of them didn't last long thereafter.
After exploring the first Cloakwood area the druids sussed out some competition. I didn't really expect Seniyad to complete a call lightning spell - and he didn't.
In the second area there was a hint of trouble when London was poisoned by a phase spider, but several of the druids had slow poison memorized for that sort of trouble and he survived.
The enemies in Centeol's nest were pulled outside piecemeal for easy disposal.
After briefly returning to Beregost for more missile supplies, they pushed on to the third area. Without SCS the druids there aren't much of a threat and none of them completed a spell.
The druids had been ambushed a number of times in the Cloakwood and travelling to the 4th area were accosted by a pair of wyverns. London was poisoned once more there, but Taliesin had carefully kept his aura clear and was able to help after the wyverns were electrocuted.
They then cleared the area, including the cave, without any particular alarms.
At the mine I wasn't being cautious about exploring the surrounding area and Getafix ran into a volley of arrows from a group of Black Talons - he was just able to retreat in time though.
Some nymphs provided healing there and threw in confusions at Drasus & co - Kysus survived that, but not the follow-up attacks.
Moving into the mine London tripped a lightning trap to devastating effect. He had received protection, but Hareishan and some of his guards had not .
Moving downstairs, they cleared the next level without difficulty and moved down to find Davaeorn. The battle horrors were drawn back one at a time and mainly eaten by insects while chasing London.
A couple of spirit snakes were killed by lightning and fireball, but Davaeorn was then hunted down by the druids.
They had to try about a dozen rests, but eventually Merlin got a second horror Bhaal power and they flooded the mine and left.
With no more need to keep reputation down the druids went to complete a number of quests left on their earlier travels. A polar bear looked threatening during their travels and they took the precaution of killing it to get the last of them the XP for level 8 - acquiring more incredibly good HPs.
More completion exploring saw a mistake when Getafix ran out of ammunition and I didn't react quickly enough to stop him meleeing a ghast. Fortunately London was quickly able to attract its attention after Getafix was paralyzed.
Carrying on they successfully revived Melicamp and hit 19 reputation while clearing up all the southern areas. The final point of reputation will be gained at the ankheg area before spending some of the 150k or so gold they have. Not sure whether I'll finish off the remaining few wilderness areas or go into the City after that.
@OlvynChuru Things certainly did go horribly wrong. RIP Dynaheir and Xan.
Firehelm has just thrashed the Ice Island and Werewolf island. Tenya had to be raised after being killed by the werewolf at Ulgoth's Beard.
Now at the Ulcaster ruins just finished.
EDIT
The only problem arose when the beast of Ulcaster howled and Sirene panicked. She then set off a trap harming most of the party. The party were still able to prevail, but I was worried that she might set off another trap or run into another enemy. She didn't. The party exited and rested before returning. They needn't have bothered there was only one werewolf and a trap left. Imoen used invisibility to disarm the trap and after that the party dealt with the werewolf easily.
The party has now entered the area under Gullykin. They have rescued Indira and left her outside in the village where she should be safe. At her current level she isn't any use to the party.
Firehelm and his friends finished the Gullykin quests though decided not to enter the second dungeon at the Firewine Bridge until some research has been done.
He has a problem in that he has no soultaker dagger. It wasn't on the Demonknight's body.
I am assuming that this is a bug and not a change in EE or one made by a mod.
- SCS (full prebuffs, full tactical challenges) - Tweak Anthology (unnerfed thac0 table, Weapon Styles for all)
The start of SoD was dealt with real fast. After having cleared the first level, I used a PfU scroll to render most of the enemy of the second level harmless. I killed a few of these anyway, just to gain my first level in SoD. After that, I went straigth to Korlasz, who was slaughtered with a combination of Dispelling arrows, OGL fireballs, arrows of Detonation and arrows of biting. Kaa-boom, Korlaz.
Then, I didn't stay too long in Baldur's Gate; I went shopping a bit at the Sorcerous Sundries and grabbed the Spectacles along the way. After that, off to war we were.
The first map was almost completely bypassed. I did took the time to do the vampire questline, but only because I thought that the shield that can cast Sunfire was a buckler. I forgot it was a small shield. Would have been helpful, but was ultimately useless. I completely bypassed the dwarven questline, because it's dangerous and I don't need it.
After that, the bridge was blown and we were off to Troll Claw woods. In the Forest of Wyrms, I one-shotted a green dragon with a dagger.
Then, in the old Bhaal temple, I took the time to kill the inhabitants of the place before facing Ziatar. Even if she was able to deal solid damage with her dragon breath, a mixture of Dispelling arrow and backstab was too much for her.
I thought that I could bypass the Neothelid with invisibility, but he actually sees through it. Well, waddaya know. I should have known, actually. So, I drank a potion of Clear Thoughts, wore my Free Action ring, lowered my saves as much as possible and went to work against him. I was able to kite without too much of a problem.
I decided to kill Akanna in an ol' fashion way : backstab ! After an initial backstab, Akanna went invisible. I then put on the Spectacles and, even though I haven't invested yet in Detect Illusion, I was able to dispel her invisibility with it. However, at badly injured or near death, she went into Sanctuary. Hell no, ya ain't gonna get away with it that easily, woman ! I blasted her off with OGL's fireballs.
Since we all have a bit of @Grond0 in us, I decided to tackle the Aerial Servant for fun, even though it was completely unnecessary. I backstabbed it a few times, but he managed to get a hit on me, and a big one at that :
I think it's been the lowest hp Fryya has ever been until now. Ouch. Anyway, it was killed after that.
Then, at the Boareskyr bridge, I discovered that I'm totally able to make my life more complicated than necessary on my own. While I was trying to recover the scroll needed to get the Voidstone shards, I wrongly thought that I had to kill Vichand to get it. I was able to hurt him significantly, but not before the whole camp decided to go aggro on me. Things were, um, getting uncomfortable.
One last backstab in the middle of all those enemies was able to poison and kill Vichand.
Since I didn't find any scroll on his body, I only then remembered that the scroll was in the cart. Ugh. I took it, went invisible while wearing my Cloak of Non-Detection to avoid their True Sight.
I safely made it back to the fort to get myself a few +3 arrows. Since the fight was already started, I decided to tackle the crusader by myself. A few Fist soldiers tried to help, but these were slaughtered fast. The right amount of OGL fireballs, Dispelling arrows and backstab was enough to wipe out the crusader forces. After killing Barghest and Oloneiros, the rest of the Fists joined me. It was a super fun fight, actually.
I also managed to save the bridge by blasting the remainder of the crusader forces with arrows of explosion. The mage was finished with arrows of biting. Hell to the yeah.
We're getting there, slowly. Coalition camp, here we come !
Since I didn't find any scroll on his body, I only then remembered that the scroll was in the cart. Ugh. I took it, went invisible while wearing my Cloak of Non-Detection to avoid their True Sight.
It's in the cart, but I don't think he'll let you pick it up from there without attacking or talking to him (you can intimidate him into co-operating). You do have to kill him pretty quickly (about 2 rounds I think) to avoid the camp going hostile. If that does happen I've found the Flaming Fist will eventually appear in your support, but there are a lot of variables in what can happen in this area - so I'm not sure if the Fist will appear irrespective or if there are specific triggers for that.
I decided I should finish clearing the southern areas before going after the ankhegs. I hadn't yet been to Firewine Bridge, so picked up some nice bracers from Meilum there.
A few summons were fed to Kahrk to drain his spells before attacking. Call lightnings nearly killed him and London finished him off before more spells arrived.
Next they looted Gullykin, picking up a second +1 sling there. They successfully killed Jenkal before he could run away and went in through the back door to the ruins to kill the ogre mage and Lendarn.
I don't find the ruins much fun and, as this is not specifically a completionist run, won't do the rest of them.
The last of the southern areas outstanding was Ulcaster. The exterior there was soon done, with Icharyd blasted by lightning (bit of revenge there for all the lightning SCS Icharyd has cast at me).
Inside, a couple of spirit lions offered a target for the wolf. The lions couldn't hurt it, but the druids didn't need any help for that.
It took a while to find the ghost to give him a book, but eventually that was done and the druids were free to leave.
Travelling to the Red Wizard area they were ambushed by a basilisk. Fortunately that tried to melee them and they were able to just run away.
On arrival they soon reduced the spider population - call lightning now producing 2 bolts rather than just 1.
The Red Wizards were next - contributing the ring of energy, which won't get used much in this run though I find it's an under-rated item for solo play.
I didn't bother with Larswood or Peldvale, but went to the ankheg area. I was a bit gung-ho on arrival there and London charged to the attack against 3 ankhegs - and then had a nervous wait to see who would die first.
I didn't take any more chances after that though and the nest was safely cleared.
There was also a nice profit from hauling quite a few ankheg shells back to Beregost.
A final bit of exploring saw them dismantle a wolf pack at the Beregost Temple in shocking style
before they did the rounds of the wilderness shops to look for bargains.
In the City their first encounter was a dive into the sewers to find an ogre mage - a rare use of chromatic orb proving successful there.
I noticed there that I'd made a mistake in putting the Claw of Kazgaroth on London - his constitution reduces to 16 when shapeshifted, so the further reduction of 2 from the Claw hurts his HPs a lot. A visit to a temple saw the Claw transferred to Merlin.
The druids are working their way through encounters in the City. Most of those have been straightforward - often using the 'get your retaliation in first' philosophy. They picked up another pair of boots of speed from Lothander,
but are not likely to make use of those - as they complicate keeping movement patterns correct. The only slightly misjudged encounter thus far was with Desreta - London tried meleeing her, but she lasted longer than expected and he had to withdraw hastily.
Incidentally, I noticed not long ago that London could still get an extra attack by dual-wielding while shapeshifted. That's not the case in the latest BG2EE version, so I had assumed that would have been harmonized in v2.5. London now has the poison dagger in his off-hand (as if he wasn't vicious enough before) - here he is getting a bit of revenge on phase spiders for past poisonings.
Shortly after that the druids investigated the Seven Suns and the last of them picked up the XP for level 9.
HPs for that were only barely above the theoretical average, but with their totals ranging from 73 - 79 there are no particular weak links in this group .
The druids continued their City clearance programme. A first use of Pixie Dust allowed them to sneak up to Drelik and he failed to complete a spell.
I realized after killing Jardak and getting his Helm of Glory that by reflex I'd killed Shoal at the start of the run - I should really have let her talk in order to get a nice helm there as well .
With only the Iron Throne left in the City, I decided to tie up a couple of loose ends elsewhere. I'd previously sold all the wyvern heads collected, so went to find some more of those in an ambush.
One of them was handed in at Beregost Temple before Kelddath had a nasty accident.
There must have been a bug going round as shortly afterwards a similar thing happened to Thalantyr, which turned Melicamp hostile. I thought killing him probably cost reputation, but as I've got more money than I can use anyway, I confirmed that.
Back in the City the druids used webs to kill all the spellcasters at the Iron Throne. For the fighters though I decided to give the insects an outing - doom and summon insects was accompanied by a first use of insect plagues to eat up the fighters.
With so many options open to a full group of druids, their nymphs haven't seen much love this run - so I decided to give them an outing against the Iron Throne leaders at Candlekeep (who quickly became confused).
Tuth survived his confusion pretty much unscathed, but was targeted by a number of insect spells and his remaining 80 or so HPs were quickly nibbled away.
The strength tome can only be obtained by druids through using the violet potion - and they duly did that. After resting to reset constitution the druids cleared the rest of the tombs. Prat's gang were confused and covered with insects,
but in hunting Prat down I got into a fight with spiders and realized too late that London had replaced his ring of free action with fire resistance while opening a tomb.
With urgent action required the druids resorted to using Wands of the Heavens for the first time.
Checking XP, the druids would achieve level 10 before the end of BGEE, so I decided not to do any more of the TotSC content. I did though do some other end-game content I don't normally bother with - like rescuing Duke Eltan and teaching Cythandria a lesson.
Slythe killed one spirit lion, but another was waiting,
while Krystin really needs to learn not to cloudkill herself.
At the palace a pair of lions and 3 nymphs were produced (the latter wasting their domination spells to avoid accidents). Only 1 doppleganger was confused by initial nymph spells and none were scared by Merlin's first use of Bhaal horror,
but the others were hampered by insects (one of the nice things about those is that the constant attacks effectively stagger enemies, reducing movement and APR) and both dukes survived comfortably.
Fighting through some jellies in the maze got everyone to level 10.
Given that I decided to leave alone the maze inhabitants not on the direct route - I did though attack the Undercity party. Tamoko was charmed to help with that, but a number of undead were activated at the same time. With the charm being short-lived I resorted to a first use of a fireball to sort out most of the undead while the other 5 druids threw insect plagues at Tamoko.
Inside the temple they threw 3 dispels at the dais, but to no apparent effect. London approached invisibly to activate Sarevok's dialogue and persuade Semaj to teleport out. A spirit lion dragged an insect plague onto him and he was then meleed to death.
Five more plagues were sent up to find the other 3 enemies and it didn't take long for them to do their work.
The party is continuing to make good progress, and is level 5. We have cleared the southern portions of the map, and all of the western areas. Eastern and Northern areas will be next. Mulahey of course was of little trouble for this party - we probably could have taken him level 1, but there was no need to do that.
Now that the Kensais have more HP, they have been in melee more often, but still usually do ranged attacks. The Doomsayer was very easy. We all just go into melee, and the Doomsayer lasted no more than 3 rounds. There haven't been any deaths, and we haven't bought as many heal potions as my runs usually do, which is interesting. If the entire party gets into melee, the battles are very, very short.
Enemy casters, however, are still quite dangerous to the Kensais, which is why when/if we face them, the berserkers lead the way, and the Kensais support with ranged fire.
Today, I cleared the wilderness areas on the western side of the map. No deaths, no significant trouble. A couple of fights against arcane spellcasters were involved, such as against Teyngan's party - a quick combination of opening up with a raged Cadrax by himself to drive the mage away and using blindness to take down the archer allowed for an easy victory:
I also decided to buy some magical ammo from High Hedge to take down the vampire wolves near the Beregost Temple, once again using rage immunities:
I gained decent amounts of experience, mainly from high value enemies such as winter wolves and ankhegs. While leveling, I did make a slight mistake by accidentally allocating Valeria's thief ability points into set traps instead of find traps (2 times!) - not too bad, though it might force me to buy a couple of potions of perception. Some other updates: The charisma tome went to Nabatil, the constitution tome to Ayla. Fighting Sirens was easy, as I simply used a raging Cadrax and the naturally charm-immune Ayla to get all that juicy experience. I also went on my first scroll scribing spree. As for Thallian, my sorcerer, these are his spellpicks right now: Blindness, Shield, Magic Missle, Protection from Petrification, Invisibility, Web.
When chosing my battles, I, so far, have avoided any mages that have access to stone skin. The only one I engaged but wasn't completely sure about was Droth, but it turned out he didn't have access to 4th level spells. I was able to heavily simplify this battle by affecting the ogre mage with silence:
Nabatil has managed to stay safe so far, as planned - the only time he even took a hit was during a battle with a large group of hobgoblins at the lighthouse area, when I didn't notice that a couple of archers were firing at him. Still, a quick potion and a fast retreat prevented any further harm.
Since my party is between levels 4-6 now, I did get some new proficency points. Nabatil went for Bastard Sword, Cadrax chose Darts, Ayla invested in Quarterstaff, Sarastro is learning to use Flails and Valeria is going for Two Handed Weapon Style.
Well - looking at my notes I see I've had 66 attempts with a party of monks, so I suppose my brain cells are probably a bit hard-wired to refer to those .
Wow, 66 attempts - even my favorite class (paladins), only done all paladin parties like 7-8 runs of those. Of course, some of your monk runs were SCS, so no suprise you might need extra attempts...
In the SoD dungeon they persuaded Porios to surrender his forces before going down to the next level. To avoid the hassle of chasing down lots of undead they used Pixie Dust to set up fireballs to deal with most of them.
As they had lots of money and would lose that at the end of the dungeon, they paid the Flaming Fist Healer for healing when necessary. Insects were used on Korlasz - she tried to surrender, but was killed anyway.
I didn't notice until late though that one of the mercenaries was using arrows of biting and Bodhmall nearly died as a result.
I couldn't get at the head of the staff, but did the other quests before heading on into the City. I did the quests available there as well - and also renewed my funds from the equipment of various NPCs.
After marching out I consolidated equipment before going to the Coast Way Forest. I've got in the habit there of helping the vampire in order to get a source of regeneration and insects made that easy, though it's probably not the best option for a party.
Back at Coast Way Crossing I went to the dwarven mines. I don't generally bother with side quests in solo runs, so it's a little while since I did this. However, the opening level was no problem - Bodhmall was confused by an umber hulk, but that was already dying from insects and couldn't finish her off.
I rested a couple of times going through the next level of the mine, in order to keep totemic summons active, but they were out of position when a mummy appeared from a new direction - it has a large area effect cloak of fear and 3 of the party were immediately scared - the others burnt it down before it could do any more damage.
Unusually for him, London stayed in man form most of the time - mainly to avoid level draining undead.
While the others waited near the fire portal, London went with a couple of spirit lions to try and kill the lich. I was thinking the Secret Revealed would prevent it casting at all, but apparently it just genuinely does inflict miscast magic (inducing an 80% chance of spell failure).
That meant I should have had the others helping to kill the lich quickly as a successful wilting killed the lions - luckily London's 20% werewolf magic resistance shrugged that off (he's also wearing the Cloak of Balduran, but the werewolf shape sets MR to 20% irrespective of other equipment) and he was able to finish the job before another spell worked.
Hurrying back using boots of speed he was able to destroy the phylactery before the lich manifested again.
The remainder of the area was explored. I wasn't able though to complete the Ancient Menhirs quest. The one near Prin just kept referring to "runes eroded by time ...". I dare say that's a bug, but just carried on regardless to the bridge. For a solo character the fight there can be hard and I tend to avoid it now, but for a party fireballs are your friend (4 of the druids have Necklaces, but the other 2 threw potions in as well there).
At Troll Claw Woods the druids again cleared the area - making regular use of Pixie Dust to ensure they were never surprised by combats. Polgara was the only one carrying sunstone bullets and got some bonus kills there finishing off trolls. They were all able to level up after an encounter with various beetles - gaining 6th level spells. London rarely uses the ironskin he's memorized, but did so in order to enhance his tanking ability in a troll cave. The trolls though chose to ignore him entirely and attack the other druids - which led to taking more damage than I had expected while 5 insect plagues did their work.
There was an oddity at the end of the area when Voghiln appeared to object to me beating up a bunch of trolls - oh well, I never liked him anyway.
On the way to the Forest of Wyrms the druids found another troll cave and had some more insect fun - this time I was anticipating the trolls would ignore London and there was room to run round, so rather less damage was taken.
The Firefly sling found there will make killing future trolls a little easier.
The party is continuing to clear wilderness areas. With 12 protection from petrification spells available, the basilisks are a natural next choice. Silence quickly turns the Mutamin battle in our favor:
With a Wand of the Heavens and a Wand of Frost at the ready, I also feel comfortable taking on the upper levels of Durlag's Tower. The only significant threat here is the Ghost on level 3. I decide to take a careful approach with my two available skeletons and an invisible Cadrax (who evaded the one detect invisibility spell the ghost seemed to have) testing out the level of danger. Now, the ghost is very dangerous and even has a level 6 spell (PfMW), plus multiple deadly level 5 spells - but he used those on the skeletons, and cloudkill or cone of cold simply do absolutely nothing to the poison- and cold immune summons. Even with SCS, this foe isn't the smartest. Still, eventually he resorts to magic missles and chromatic orbs, quickly destroying the animated dead. I've been counting spells, so I'm relatively sure that he will mainly have only a couple of relatively weak nukes left. Cadrax engages and evades some spells by going up and down the stairs, only getting hit by 2 magic missle spells before finally taking down the ghost (which takes a lot of time, since he has ~3 stoneskins):
After that, the rest of the upper levels is easy to clear, and we get some good experience plus a wisdom tome for Valeria. Since we had success with our first stoneskin-using mage, I also decide to take on Silke, who gets absolutely destroyed thanks to some elemental ammunition, so her stoneskins don't do much:
As a result, I now feel comfortable to take on most of the other mages (not counting Kahrk) in the wilderness areas. Narcilicus is killed before getting his protections up, thanks to invisibility. The eastern wilderness areas are mostly cleared - the exceptions are Ulcaster, the Firewine Dungeon and Kahrk. I did somehwat underestimate the Red Wizards, because I misremembered their spell levels - I thought only one of them would have access to stoneskin, but they all do. Luckily, a very good opener with an invisible enraged Cadrax and Skeletons allowed me to take down one of them right away, and the other two wasted their first round of spells. Meanwhile, the high APR of a hasted party made short work of another mage. The third one landed a very effective Emotion spell on my party, sending four of us to sleep, but was defeated a few seconds later. Finally, Cadrax, Sarastro and the skeletons were able to chase down the final mage, who, constantly under pressure, was unable to deal any more damage:
The only significant threat to Nabatil was encountered when clearing Larswood and Peldvale - a bunch of Black Talon Elites snuck up on the party, trying to focus down the Bhaalspawn. Unprepared as I was, I had to drink an invisibility potion to ensure his safety:
After all that, I made my way to the Nashkel mines. The hasted party had no trouble when taking down Mulahey:
Completing this quest resulted in me encountering the Molkar ambush. I made three quick moves that won me the battle: Using "The Captive Audience" on Molkar to dominate him, casting Hold Person on the cleric and using true sight to get rid of the mage's defenses:
After that, the battle was easily won. Now, I only had to clear the Bandit Camp as well - while I did have webs and a wand of fire (which is my usual approach to the SCS version of this fight), I did go for a different approach, mostly relying on the inherent tankiness of Cadrax and my party, backing up the berserker mostly with Holy Smite and Sleep spells, hold person on Taugosz and a quick, focused, hasted attack on the mage to make sure he wouldn't make any trouble. I moved around a bit to get into good positions (trying to keep Cadrax the primary target of my foes) and didn't take a lot of damage over all:
The next significant encounter I had to deal with was the amazon ambush. However, most of the danger was prevented by Ayla's True Sight, revealing the two thieves right away. A wand of paralyzation charge took one of them right out of combat, and while the cleric resisted my hold person attempt, some quick hasted attacks and a blindness spell on the other thief prevented my foes from dealing any damage to the party:
I am now ready to enter Cloakwood. Some further updates: Thallian (as you might've figured out already) took haste as his first level 3 spell. I've also gained additional profiencies for my fighters - Two Weapon Fighting for Cadrax and Quarterstaff again for Ayla (she's currently using the +3 quarterstaff from Ulgoth's Beard). Thallian gained profiency with the quarterstaff as well. I bought most of the available interesting items for now (the sandthief ring is the only thing left) and stole a cloak from Algernon, a ring from Dushai and a bunch of scrolls from Shandalar (very risky, I know. Shouldn't have done that, propably).
Many more of the eastern areas cleared, such as Firewine Bridge, Gullykin, Baslisks' area, Durlag's Tower, Ankheg Farm, and Ulcaster School. The party is level 6 now.
*Ulcaster School - Ulcaster School was pretty straightforward, only special thing we did is put high fire resistance on April so she can trip the two fire traps that could not be avoided.
* Firewine Bridge - We didn't clear the interior, or bother engaging the mages down there. We did engage both Khark and also Melium using melee for all characters - unsurprisingly, neither Khark or Melium could survive. There were so many attacks pouring in on Khark (we all were using melee), that he coudln't even so much as get a spell off.
* Gullykin - The enraged berserkers led the way, with the Kensais pouring in ranged fire. Molkar's party was helpless to our onslaught. We picked up the +1 sling while we were here, but realized no one needed it, so will just sell it. We did buy the heal potions here, our potion supply was low, although this party does not use a lot of potions normally.
* Basilisks' aera - My normal stategy is 1st take out Kirian's group. Enraged berserkers led the way, the Kensais pouring in lots of ranged fire. A clear victory. We then tried to pull Mutamutin, but he saw April - April by this point had the green PfP scroll on her, so she just took out Mutamutin and his pets on her own. Then when she killed the last basilisk on the map, the party cleared out of there.
* Ankheg Farm - The berserkers did get hit a few times, but battles went extremely fast. It was rare for an Ankheg to even survive 2 rounds. So no problems here. April is a juggernaut, with with her *** in Quarterstaff, her high strength, ** in two hand weapon fighting, the weapons bracer from Melium, and she's using the +3 staff from Ulgoth's Beard. This is reflected in the kill count, as she is the kill leader of the party.
* Durlag's Tower - The battle horrors were quite easy for this group - just simple melee and they fall. We also killed the doom guards on the left and right areas of the Durlag's Tower, surface. Melee once again carried the day. So we obtained the Wisdom tome, first imprisoned the thief by giving him the nymph's hair, then killing him. We sold the WIS tome, as no one needed it, we all have 0 lore anyways. Next was the basilisks on the roof. Wertle would take the mirror eyes potion, then the party would assist. For the trap by the +2 scimitar, April used her fire resistance ring + fire resistance potion, and tripped it to get the scimitar. This was all the business we wanted to do in Durlag's, so we left the area.
We will venture in Larswood and Pelvale next session.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 162 - 1st and final update Bother (gnome cleric/thief, Grond0); Damem (human dark moon monk, Gate70)
With a fresh pair of lambs for the slaughter we bravely set off from Candlekeep - and bravely died immediately.
That's the result of an arrow fired in the cutscene coming into the main game when you quit the cutscene at the wrong moment - I was hoping that had been fixed in the new v2.5 cutscene, but looks like that's still a potential problem.
In single player I would have accepted the death, but we decided to reload the game from the autosave. That reprieve proved to be relatively short-lived though. After seeing off Shoal,
a few tasks in Beregost included Damem blinding Silke.
We then made our way down to Nashkel to get a PfP scroll before heading for some basilisks.
The southern group were dealt with appropriately, but when approaching the ones near Mutamin Damem hid. That was entirely appropriate and expected and I should have then hung back waiting for him to find a basilisk and attack. However, I was too keen to get to the statue and didn't initially consider the possibility that Mutamin's pet lesser basilisk might be in its less usual position near the statue rather than just above Mutamin. I did realize my mistake just before actually seeing the basilisk - but too late to reverse movement before it spotted me .
@Enuhal said... "...bunch of scrolls from Shandalar (very risky, I know. Shouldn't have done that, propably)."
Seems reasonable to me. If the entire party is near the area exit, and you put fire resistance on the thief/bard who is doing the pick-pocketing, then I would say there is little risk. In vanilla, I think he fires off two fireballs and then runs away. But if you have a number of arcane party members, the scrolls could be a big help, as there so few level 4+ arcane scrolls available before Chapter 5.
Comments
Early on the monks didn't bother with any summons, but just ran things around while shooting them.
At Ulgoth's Beard they grabbed Dushai's ring before heading back south. As Drizzt has such a good weapon for druids they wanted that. Unlike solo play though, the XP for Drizzt would be pretty handy as well, so they decided to try to kill him. London had a oil of speed ready to kite him if necessary, but the druids waited to attack (outside his sight range) until he only had about 10 HPs left. That meant the remaining gnolls might easily have killed him, but on this occasion I struck lucky.
Reputation was taken down to 3 by Drizzt's death, which would make them unwelcome in towns - so they picked up reputation from Charleston Nib (a first use of web there on the Doomsayer)
At the basilisk area everyone quickly got another level (again good HPs) as London started following Korax round killing all the basilisks (and Mutamin).
At Durlag's Tower a battle horror failed to break free from a pair of webs, getting everyone up to level 5 (more excellent HPs).
gaselectricity by calling down lightning. The webs didn't quite last long enough to deal with the other battle horror on the path and rather than renew those, the avengers finished it off with a first use of chromatic orbs.Before going into the Tower they went to High Hedge to stock up on daggers. While there the totemic summons got only their second workout to help London rip up the flesh golems.
The roof was cleared with the help of a PfP scroll. That was enough to get everyone to level 6,
After raising Polgara everyone levelled up, still with good rolls all round (she got up to 52 HPs, which would have been enough to survive the trap if she had levelled up first). London has the worst HPs in the group, with a still very impressive 50 out of a possible 60 HPs.
London (shapeshifter) - L6, 50 HPs, 90 kills, 0 deaths
Polgara (totemic) - L6, 52 HPs, 15 kills, 1 death
Merlin (totemic) - L6, 53 HPs, 23 kills,
Getafix (avenger) - L6, 56 HPs, 20 kills, 0 deaths
Bodhmall (avenger) - L6, 52 HPs, 16 kills, 0 deaths
Taliesin (pure) - L6, 52 HPs, 25 kills, 0 deaths
Party stats:
Wertle - Dwarven Berserker, 17 kills - fav. weapon - long sword
April - Gnomish Berserker, 15 kills - bow & arrow
Itwebemine - Gnomish Kensai, 14 kills - fav. weapon - throwing dagger (which is funny - she has No skill in throwing daggers, only two-hand swords! But she needs more HP if she wants to survive in melee)
Trapper - Human Kensai, 30 kills - fav. weapon - throwing dagger
Entering the Trilgoy no-reload challenge with this character:
If you wish, click following spoiler to see the party members (created by MP player)
You may wondering about the curious name - it's a conglomeration of the phrase "Iron Throne will be mine" - which if you watch the Game of Thrones and know the character, perfectly fits the portrait.
I have to say, this new party is much more to my style. I have never had a high level Kensai, hopefully I can do that with this party.
The party has left Candlekeep, traveled to Nashkel to get the Ankheg armor, done the Beregost quests, and traveled to get the DEX gauntlets for Wertle. No deaths so far, and interestingly enough, very few potions have been used up to this point.
The kill leaders, as you see by the stats, are the Kensais with proficiencies in melee weapons that also have a ranged counterpart. Which leads to me to the following conclusion: I find it deeply ironic, that the best range attackers of the game, are in fact the range attackers prohibited from using ranged weapons in their kit description!!!
So far, the typical strategy is the following: for weak enemies, Wertle will tank them and everyone else range attacks. For strong enemies like bears, Wertle will run them around while the rest of the party peppers the enemies with missiles. This has worked well so far. Since I have 3 glass cannons in the party, I have kept AI OFF. Might do this for entire run, not sure yet.
I'm having fun. I'm glad I made this party. I might even restart them if they don't make it.
@Arthas infinite throwing axes (and some +1 ones) are for sale at the Thunderhammer Smithy in Beregost (in unmodded BGEE).
Previous updates:
While in Beregost the druids did a few more jobs, including picking up a magic staff from Silke.
Moving on to the Cloud Peaks I tried to get a bit of extra XP by killing Rufie after claiming the reward for finding him. I've not done that recently, but it used to be possible - trying it now crashed the game though. The remaining areas up to the Gnoll Stronghold were no problem - nearly always just using shooting with London as the tank.
With the high expenditure of missiles, the druids went to collect more daggers from High Hedge. There was a rare use of lightning there when I couldn't be bothered to run spiders as well as ghouls around.
Missiles and web were used for a horde of gibberlings just to the north of the Gnoll Stronghold, but ogre berserkers on the nearby bridge were given a rather quicker shock treatment.
Totemic lions got another run out to help speed through the occupants of the xvart village - they also made short work of Borda there.
There wasn't that much XP in those areas, but every little helps! There was a bit more of offer at the Valley of the Tombs, where the Revenant was soon in a sticky situation.
Looking for some more productive encounters they headed west. Bassilus managed one spell before being held, but that proved ineffective.
Deciding it was time to make some progress on the main quest the druids went to the Nashkel Mine. It didn't take long for them to track down Mulahey - he managed to confuse London (Xan paying the price for that), but that was his lot.
Back in Beregost I noted I'd forgotten to fumigate some spiders. With that done Tranzig just had time to try and bargain for his life - he failed.
London (shapeshifter)- L7, 60 HPs, 301 kills, 0 deaths
Polgara (totemic)- L7, 59 HPs, 55 kills, 1 death
Merlin (totemic) - L7, 62 HPs, 93 kills,
Getafix (avenger)- L7, 60 HPs, 61 kills, 0 deaths
Bodhmall (avenger)- L7, 59 HPs, 51 kills, 0 deaths
Taliesin (pure)- L7, 61 HPs, 84 kills, 0 deaths
I'm now working with a new installation - full SCS + Ascension with the addition of JimFix, installed via BWS. While my BG2 install still has some problems (I can't get smarter Abazigal to install correctly), the BG1 version seems to be working, so here's a new party. This one is designed for success (though, while I do hope that I can at least make it to Amn, given that I've only ever finished the game with SCS+Ascension once and with quite a few reloads, immediate success seems unlikely). Difficulty level is core rules.
The Bhaalspawn: Nabatil, true neutral half-elven skald, *Sling, *Sword and Shield-Style
18/18/18/18/3/18
Meant to stay in the background and buff the party via song, thus increasing his chances of survival.
Primary fighter: Cadrax, true neutral dwarven berserker, **War Hammer, **Bastard Sword
18,95/17/19/18/3/13
Early game tank, late game damage dealer, with low saves and useful immunities.
Anti-thievery/anti-magic specialist: Ayla, lawful good human inquisitor, **Two-Handed Sword, **Longbow
18,99/18/18/10/13/17
Basically, I only chose this class for quick access to true sight. Inquisiors are nerfed in my installation (dispel magic only at 1,5*character level, Carsomyr dispel allows for a save).
Flexible arcane and combat support: Sarastro, true neutral gnomish fighter/illusionist: **Long Sword, **Shortbow
18,92/18/18/19/2/3
Late game tank, and more arcane power. Also, blindness with the specialist saving throw penalty!
Utility character: Valeria, true neutral half-orc cleric/thief, *Quarterstaff, *Sling
19/18/19/11/18/3
Cleric buffs and thievery, also backstabs and traps later in the game. Not great for actual combat.
Primary arcane spellcaster: Thallian, true neutral elven sorcerer, *Sling
18/19/17/18/3/10
A single-class arcane spellcaster to get high-end spellcasting a bit earlier. While vulnerable early on, I want to have access to level 3 spells like invisibility 10' radius or haste as soon as possible.
This is a completionist run, and I'm taking this one a bit more slowly. So far, I've made my way from Candlekeep to Beregost and Beregost to Nashkel, clearing the areas in between. Additionally, most of the Beregost quests have been completed. The only significant encounters I've fought so far were against Bassilus (who failed to save against blindness) and Tarnesh (who, amusingly enough, died to the very first attack Cadrax threw his way - he really got unlucky with his mirror images:
My party levels are currently between 1-3.
Next up is Chapter 4! Lanil is still unarmed...
You might want to engage Arghain. He's in the area NE of Nashkel, about the center of the map. he has a magical +1 sword that won't break.
Lanil, the Not-So-Perfect Fighter vs. Baldur's Gate: Round 2, Part 2
Time for Chapter 4!Before the party headed out to the Cloakwood, they traveled to the gnoll fortress and rescued Dynaheir, who joined the party. The party then went to the High Hedge and bought lots of stuff, mostly scrolls. I decided to dual-class Imoen to mage (she had been a level 6 thief).
In the first area of the Cloakwood, the party helped out Aldeth against the druids. The battle went fine at first. Imoen interrupted Seniyad's Call Lightning spell with her wand of frost, and Branwen scattered the druids with her Wand of Terror. Then I had Dynaheir cast Web, but I misjudged the range of it and Lanil got trapped in the web. Since she has a -50 penalty to all saving throws, she wasn't going to get out the web until in wore off. Meanwhile, several of the druids (including Seniyad) also got trapped in the web, and Branwen and Dynaheir killed them with bullets and Magic Missiles.
But here was where the real problem began. One of the panicking druids had run away, and Aldeth was not going anywhere until that druid was dead. Xan cast Invisibility on Lanil, and she searched the ENTIRE AREA for that druid, but she wasn't able to find him. Eventually I gave up and had the party rest and go to the next area.
The next area was the spider area, which was filled with web traps. Because I had dual-classed Imoen, I no longer had a thief. I didn't recruit Coran because I wanted to save the party slot for someone else. But it's okay, because I had an old strategy for getting through the traps (this is far from the first BG1 playthrough I've done where I've been without a thief). I had Xan cast Invisibility on himself (since he was the party member with the best Save vs. Spell). I then had him go through the area, setting off all the web traps. The enemies did not attack him while he was paralyzed because he was invisible. Once he had triggered all of the traps, he returned to the party, and I waited until the traps went away.
I had Lanil use the Protection from Poison scroll I had bought from the High Hedge. With Lanil in front, the party plowed through the spiders and ettercaps in the area until they reached Centeol's lair. Branwen, who was level 5 now, summoned two skeletons outside the lair. Lanil went inside by herself and lured the enemies out a couple at a time. Even the sword spiders weren't that bad. After all the enemies inside the lair were killed, Lanil retrieved the items, including the Spider's Bane two-handed sword.
Finally, Lanil has a weapon again!
Afterwords, the party went to the next area of the Cloakwood. On the way, they were waylaid by two wyverns. By this point, the Protection from Poison effect had worn off, and I didn't want Lanil to get poisoned to death (10 damage per second!). So the party ran away. Once they got to the Shadow Druid area, I had Faldorn join the party.
In the next area, Branwen summoned three skeletons outside of the wyvern cave. Lanil went in the cave and lured out one or two wyverns at a time. The wyverns attacked the skeletons, which were immune to poison, while Lanil killed them.
The party arrived at the Cloakwood Mines. Right outside Drasus' field of vision, Xan cast Skull Trap, Dynaheir cast Fireball, and Lanil used the Necklace of Missiles. This salvo killed both of the enemy mages.
Branwen then paralyzed both fighters with a single Hold Person.
(I'm not sure why the "Held" message triggered twice for them)
The party then entered the mines. The guards in the first few areas were no problem - Lanil soloed them. The ghasts in the hallway were easy too, since Lanil now had Spider's Bane.
To deal with the big room that has lots of guards, Dynaheir cast two Web spells into the room, paralyzing almost everyone, then Lanil went in with Spider's Bane and killed everyone.
But it was on the next floor that things went horribly wrong. The party came up against the mage Natasha. I sent Dynaheir in alone to cast a Fireball and clear out the hobgoblins, as well as hurt Natasha. As Dynaheir was casting Fireball, Natasha was casting Confusion. The fireball failed to interrupt Natasha's spell, and Dynaheir got confused. Natasha then cast Lightning Bolt on Dynaheir. The rest of my party was down the hallway a little, so they couldn't come help in time. The lightning bolt killed Dynaheir instantly, then it ricocheted through the hallway to where the rest of my party was, instakilling Xan and Branwen and badly wounding the others. Xan and Dynaheir were killed permanently.
It is at this point that the party fled. They picked up the dead characters' equipment and recruited Yeslick to fill in one of the empty party slots. They exited the Cloakwood Mines and returned to Beregost, where they raised Branwen. Since both Branwen and Yeslick used hammers and the party only had one magical hammer, they went and killed Bassilus, got his hammer, and got the 5000 gold. Then they returned to the mines.
The party went past Natasha and entered Davaeorn's floor. Since the party didn't have a thief, they had to fight the battle horrors. Lanil lured out them one at a time and destroyed them in single combat.
I didn't want to take any chances with Davaeorn, so I did the fight an easy way. Lanil used a Protection from Magic scroll on herself while the rest of the party huddled in a corner. Lanil killed Davaeorn easily, then she went back to the previous level and killed the ogre mage and Natasha.
REVENGE!
Lanil was able to force open most of Davaeorn's chests, with the exception of the chest next to his bed. After looting the place, the party flooded the mine.
Next up is Chapter 5!
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005404/#Comment_1005404
At the Bandit Camp the early bandits all fell easily, but the group near Taurgosz scored several rapid hits on London - prompting him to retreat. A couple of nymphs were produced (for the first time) to heal his damage and they also persuaded Taurgosz to change sides.
After exploring the first Cloakwood area the druids sussed out some competition. I didn't really expect Seniyad to complete a call lightning spell - and he didn't.
In the second area there was a hint of trouble when London was poisoned by a phase spider, but several of the druids had slow poison memorized for that sort of trouble and he survived.
After briefly returning to Beregost for more missile supplies, they pushed on to the third area. Without SCS the druids there aren't much of a threat and none of them completed a spell.
The druids had been ambushed a number of times in the Cloakwood and travelling to the 4th area were accosted by a pair of wyverns. London was poisoned once more there, but Taliesin had carefully kept his aura clear and was able to help after the wyverns were electrocuted.
At the mine I wasn't being cautious about exploring the surrounding area and Getafix ran into a volley of arrows from a group of Black Talons - he was just able to retreat in time though.
Moving into the mine London tripped a lightning trap to devastating effect. He had received protection, but Hareishan and some of his guards had not
With no more need to keep reputation down the druids went to complete a number of quests left on their earlier travels. A polar bear looked threatening during their travels and they took the precaution of killing it to get the last of them the XP for level 8 - acquiring more incredibly good HPs.
More completion exploring saw a mistake when Getafix ran out of ammunition and I didn't react quickly enough to stop him meleeing a ghast. Fortunately London was quickly able to attract its attention after Getafix was paralyzed.
London (shapeshifter) - L8, 69 HPs, 539 kills, 0 deaths
Polgara (totemic) - L8, 67 HPs, 85 kills, 1 death
Merlin (totemic) - L8, 72 HPs, 139 kills,
Getafix (avenger) - L8, 69 HPs, 85 kills, 0 deaths
Bodhmall (avenger) - L8, 69 HPs, 79 kills, 0 deaths
Taliesin (pure) - L8, 68 HPs, 110 kills, 0 deaths
Firehelm has just thrashed the Ice Island and Werewolf island. Tenya had to be raised after being killed by the werewolf at Ulgoth's Beard.
Now at the Ulcaster ruins just finished.
EDIT
The only problem arose when the beast of Ulcaster howled and Sirene panicked. She then set off a trap harming most of the party. The party were still able to prevail, but I was worried that she might set off another trap or run into another enemy. She didn't. The party exited and rested before returning. They needn't have bothered there was only one werewolf and a trap left. Imoen used invisibility to disarm the trap and after that the party dealt with the werewolf easily.The party has now entered the area under Gullykin. They have rescued Indira and left her outside in the village where she should be safe. At her current level she isn't any use to the party.
He has a problem in that he has no soultaker dagger. It wasn't on the Demonknight's body.
I am assuming that this is a bug and not a change in EE or one made by a mod.
Fryya Applesmasher, solo halfling Shadowdancer
BG1 posts : 1, 2
SoD first post
Notable mods:
- SCS (full prebuffs, full tactical challenges)
- Tweak Anthology (unnerfed thac0 table, Weapon Styles for all)
The start of SoD was dealt with real fast. After having cleared the first level, I used a PfU scroll to render most of the enemy of the second level harmless. I killed a few of these anyway, just to gain my first level in SoD. After that, I went straigth to Korlasz, who was slaughtered with a combination of Dispelling arrows, OGL fireballs, arrows of Detonation and arrows of biting. Kaa-boom, Korlaz.
Then, I didn't stay too long in Baldur's Gate; I went shopping a bit at the Sorcerous Sundries and grabbed the Spectacles along the way. After that, off to war we were.
The first map was almost completely bypassed. I did took the time to do the vampire questline, but only because I thought that the shield that can cast Sunfire was a buckler. I forgot it was a small shield. Would have been helpful, but was ultimately useless. I completely bypassed the dwarven questline, because it's dangerous and I don't need it.
After that, the bridge was blown and we were off to Troll Claw woods. In the Forest of Wyrms, I one-shotted a green dragon with a dagger.
Then, in the old Bhaal temple, I took the time to kill the inhabitants of the place before facing Ziatar. Even if she was able to deal solid damage with her dragon breath, a mixture of Dispelling arrow and backstab was too much for her.
I thought that I could bypass the Neothelid with invisibility, but he actually sees through it. Well, waddaya know. I should have known, actually. So, I drank a potion of Clear Thoughts, wore my Free Action ring, lowered my saves as much as possible and went to work against him. I was able to kite without too much of a problem.
I decided to kill Akanna in an ol' fashion way : backstab ! After an initial backstab, Akanna went invisible. I then put on the Spectacles and, even though I haven't invested yet in Detect Illusion, I was able to dispel her invisibility with it. However, at badly injured or near death, she went into Sanctuary. Hell no, ya ain't gonna get away with it that easily, woman ! I blasted her off with OGL's fireballs.
Since we all have a bit of @Grond0 in us, I decided to tackle the Aerial Servant for fun, even though it was completely unnecessary. I backstabbed it a few times, but he managed to get a hit on me, and a big one at that :
I think it's been the lowest hp Fryya has ever been until now. Ouch. Anyway, it was killed after that.
Then, at the Boareskyr bridge, I discovered that I'm totally able to make my life more complicated than necessary on my own. While I was trying to recover the scroll needed to get the Voidstone shards, I wrongly thought that I had to kill Vichand to get it. I was able to hurt him significantly, but not before the whole camp decided to go aggro on me. Things were, um, getting uncomfortable.
One last backstab in the middle of all those enemies was able to poison and kill Vichand.
Since I didn't find any scroll on his body, I only then remembered that the scroll was in the cart. Ugh. I took it, went invisible while wearing my Cloak of Non-Detection to avoid their True Sight.
I safely made it back to the fort to get myself a few +3 arrows. Since the fight was already started, I decided to tackle the crusader by myself. A few Fist soldiers tried to help, but these were slaughtered fast. The right amount of OGL fireballs, Dispelling arrows and backstab was enough to wipe out the crusader forces. After killing Barghest and Oloneiros, the rest of the Fists joined me. It was a super fun fight, actually.
I also managed to save the bridge by blasting the remainder of the crusader forces with arrows of explosion. The mage was finished with arrows of biting. Hell to the yeah.
We're getting there, slowly. Coalition camp, here we come !
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005404/#Comment_1005404
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005507/#Comment_1005507
I decided I should finish clearing the southern areas before going after the ankhegs. I hadn't yet been to Firewine Bridge, so picked up some nice bracers from Meilum there.
Next they looted Gullykin, picking up a second +1 sling there. They successfully killed Jenkal before he could run away and went in through the back door to the ruins to kill the ogre mage and Lendarn.
The last of the southern areas outstanding was Ulcaster. The exterior there was soon done, with Icharyd blasted by lightning (bit of revenge there for all the lightning SCS Icharyd has cast at me).
Travelling to the Red Wizard area they were ambushed by a basilisk. Fortunately that tried to melee them and they were able to just run away.
I didn't bother with Larswood or Peldvale, but went to the ankheg area. I was a bit gung-ho on arrival there and London charged to the attack against 3 ankhegs - and then had a nervous wait to see who would die first.
A final bit of exploring saw them dismantle a wolf pack at the Beregost Temple in shocking style
In the City their first encounter was a dive into the sewers to find an ogre mage - a rare use of chromatic orb proving successful there.
The druids are working their way through encounters in the City. Most of those have been straightforward - often using the 'get your retaliation in first' philosophy. They picked up another pair of boots of speed from Lothander,
Incidentally, I noticed not long ago that London could still get an extra attack by dual-wielding while shapeshifted. That's not the case in the latest BG2EE version, so I had assumed that would have been harmonized in v2.5. London now has the poison dagger in his off-hand (as if he wasn't vicious enough before) - here he is getting a bit of revenge on phase spiders for past poisonings.
London (shapeshifter) - L9, 79 HPs, 709 kills, 0 deaths
Polgara (totemic) - L9, 75 HPs, 108 kills, 1 death
Merlin (totemic) - L9, 79 HPs, 175 kills,
Getafix (avenger) - L9, 75 HPs, 105 kills, 0 deaths
Bodhmall (avenger) - L9, 75 HPs, 94 kills, 0 deaths
Taliesin (pure) - L9, 73 HPs, 146 kills, 0 deaths
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005404/#Comment_1005404
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005507/#Comment_1005507
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005660/#Comment_1005660
The druids continued their City clearance programme. A first use of Pixie Dust allowed them to sneak up to Drelik and he failed to complete a spell.
With only the Iron Throne left in the City, I decided to tie up a couple of loose ends elsewhere. I'd previously sold all the wyvern heads collected, so went to find some more of those in an ambush.
Back in the City the druids used webs to kill all the spellcasters at the Iron Throne. For the fighters though I decided to give the insects an outing - doom and summon insects was accompanied by a first use of insect plagues to eat up the fighters.
With so many options open to a full group of druids, their nymphs haven't seen much love this run - so I decided to give them an outing against the Iron Throne leaders at Candlekeep (who quickly became confused).
The strength tome can only be obtained by druids through using the violet potion - and they duly did that. After resting to reset constitution the druids cleared the rest of the tombs. Prat's gang were confused and covered with insects,
Checking XP, the druids would achieve level 10 before the end of BGEE, so I decided not to do any more of the TotSC content. I did though do some other end-game content I don't normally bother with - like rescuing Duke Eltan and teaching Cythandria a lesson.
Fighting through some jellies in the maze got everyone to level 10.
Inside the temple they threw 3 dispels at the dais, but to no apparent effect. London approached invisibly to activate Sarevok's dialogue and persuade Semaj to teleport out. A spirit lion dragged an insect plague onto him and he was then meleed to death.
Next up SoD.
London (shapeshifter) - L10, 81 HPs, 805 kills, 0 deaths
Polgara (totemic) - L10, 77 HPs, 132 kills, 1 death
Merlin (totemic) - L10, 86 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 197 kills,
Getafix (avenger) - L10, 77 HPs, 117 kills, 0 deaths
Bodhmall (avenger) - L10, 77 HPs, 104 kills, 0 deaths
Taliesin (pure) - L10, 75 HPs, 168 kills, 0 deaths
Party Stats:
Wertle - Dwarven Berserker, 133 kills - fav. weapon - long sword
April - Gnomish Berserker, 129 kills - fav. weapon - quarterstaff
Itwebemine - Gnomish Kensai, 86 kills - fav. weapon - throwing dagger
Trapper - Human Kensai, 123 kills - fav. weapon - throwing dagger
The party is continuing to make good progress, and is level 5. We have cleared the southern portions of the map, and all of the western areas. Eastern and Northern areas will be next. Mulahey of course was of little trouble for this party - we probably could have taken him level 1, but there was no need to do that.
Now that the Kensais have more HP, they have been in melee more often, but still usually do ranged attacks. The Doomsayer was very easy. We all just go into melee, and the Doomsayer lasted no more than 3 rounds. There haven't been any deaths, and we haven't bought as many heal potions as my runs usually do, which is interesting. If the entire party gets into melee, the battles are very, very short.
Enemy casters, however, are still quite dangerous to the Kensais, which is why when/if we face them, the berserkers lead the way, and the Kensais support with ranged fire.
I hope I can go far with this group.
Previous updates:
Today, I cleared the wilderness areas on the western side of the map. No deaths, no significant trouble. A couple of fights against arcane spellcasters were involved, such as against Teyngan's party - a quick combination of opening up with a raged Cadrax by himself to drive the mage away and using blindness to take down the archer allowed for an easy victory:
I also decided to buy some magical ammo from High Hedge to take down the vampire wolves near the Beregost Temple, once again using rage immunities:
I gained decent amounts of experience, mainly from high value enemies such as winter wolves and ankhegs. While leveling, I did make a slight mistake by accidentally allocating Valeria's thief ability points into set traps instead of find traps (2 times!) - not too bad, though it might force me to buy a couple of potions of perception. Some other updates: The charisma tome went to Nabatil, the constitution tome to Ayla. Fighting Sirens was easy, as I simply used a raging Cadrax and the naturally charm-immune Ayla to get all that juicy experience. I also went on my first scroll scribing spree. As for Thallian, my sorcerer, these are his spellpicks right now: Blindness, Shield, Magic Missle, Protection from Petrification, Invisibility, Web.
When chosing my battles, I, so far, have avoided any mages that have access to stone skin. The only one I engaged but wasn't completely sure about was Droth, but it turned out he didn't have access to 4th level spells. I was able to heavily simplify this battle by affecting the ogre mage with silence:
Nabatil has managed to stay safe so far, as planned - the only time he even took a hit was during a battle with a large group of hobgoblins at the lighthouse area, when I didn't notice that a couple of archers were firing at him. Still, a quick potion and a fast retreat prevented any further harm.
Since my party is between levels 4-6 now, I did get some new proficency points. Nabatil went for Bastard Sword, Cadrax chose Darts, Ayla invested in Quarterstaff, Sarastro is learning to use Flails and Valeria is going for Two Handed Weapon Style.
Early on the monks didn't bother with any summons, but just ran things around while shooting them.
Is that why your druids seem to be doing better than my fighter/druids? You play your druids like monks, lol.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005404/#Comment_1005404
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005507/#Comment_1005507
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005660/#Comment_1005660
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005698/#Comment_1005698
In the SoD dungeon they persuaded Porios to surrender his forces before going down to the next level. To avoid the hassle of chasing down lots of undead they used Pixie Dust to set up fireballs to deal with most of them.
After marching out I consolidated equipment before going to the Coast Way Forest. I've got in the habit there of helping the vampire in order to get a source of regeneration and insects made that easy, though it's probably not the best option for a party.
Back at Coast Way Crossing I went to the dwarven mines. I don't generally bother with side quests in solo runs, so it's a little while since I did this. However, the opening level was no problem - Bodhmall was confused by an umber hulk, but that was already dying from insects and couldn't finish her off.
While the others waited near the fire portal, London went with a couple of spirit lions to try and kill the lich. I was thinking the Secret Revealed would prevent it casting at all, but apparently it just genuinely does inflict miscast magic (inducing an 80% chance of spell failure).
The remainder of the area was explored. I wasn't able though to complete the Ancient Menhirs quest. The one near Prin just kept referring to "runes eroded by time ...". I dare say that's a bug, but just carried on regardless to the bridge. For a solo character the fight there can be hard and I tend to avoid it now, but for a party fireballs are your friend (4 of the druids have Necklaces, but the other 2 threw potions in as well there).
At Troll Claw Woods the druids again cleared the area - making regular use of Pixie Dust to ensure they were never surprised by combats. Polgara was the only one carrying sunstone bullets and got some bonus kills there finishing off trolls. They were all able to level up after an encounter with various beetles - gaining 6th level spells. London rarely uses the ironskin he's memorized, but did so in order to enhance his tanking ability in a troll cave. The trolls though chose to ignore him entirely and attack the other druids - which led to taking more damage than I had expected while 5 insect plagues did their work.
On the way to the Forest of Wyrms the druids found another troll cave and had some more insect fun - this time I was anticipating the trolls would ignore London and there was room to run round, so rather less damage was taken.
London (shapeshifter) - L11, 83 HPs, 899 kills, 0 deaths
Polgara (totemic) - L11, 79 HPs, 182 kills, 1 death
Merlin (totemic) - L11, 88 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 241 kills
Getafix (avenger) - L11, 79 HPs, 122 kills, 0 deaths
Bodhmall (avenger) - L11, 79 HPs, 122 kills, 0 deaths
Taliesin (pure) - L11, 77 HPs, 197 kills, 0 deaths
Previous updates:
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005776/#Comment_1005776
The party is continuing to clear wilderness areas. With 12 protection from petrification spells available, the basilisks are a natural next choice. Silence quickly turns the Mutamin battle in our favor:
With a Wand of the Heavens and a Wand of Frost at the ready, I also feel comfortable taking on the upper levels of Durlag's Tower. The only significant threat here is the Ghost on level 3. I decide to take a careful approach with my two available skeletons and an invisible Cadrax (who evaded the one detect invisibility spell the ghost seemed to have) testing out the level of danger. Now, the ghost is very dangerous and even has a level 6 spell (PfMW), plus multiple deadly level 5 spells - but he used those on the skeletons, and cloudkill or cone of cold simply do absolutely nothing to the poison- and cold immune summons. Even with SCS, this foe isn't the smartest. Still, eventually he resorts to magic missles and chromatic orbs, quickly destroying the animated dead. I've been counting spells, so I'm relatively sure that he will mainly have only a couple of relatively weak nukes left. Cadrax engages and evades some spells by going up and down the stairs, only getting hit by 2 magic missle spells before finally taking down the ghost (which takes a lot of time, since he has ~3 stoneskins):
After that, the rest of the upper levels is easy to clear, and we get some good experience plus a wisdom tome for Valeria. Since we had success with our first stoneskin-using mage, I also decide to take on Silke, who gets absolutely destroyed thanks to some elemental ammunition, so her stoneskins don't do much:
As a result, I now feel comfortable to take on most of the other mages (not counting Kahrk) in the wilderness areas. Narcilicus is killed before getting his protections up, thanks to invisibility. The eastern wilderness areas are mostly cleared - the exceptions are Ulcaster, the Firewine Dungeon and Kahrk. I did somehwat underestimate the Red Wizards, because I misremembered their spell levels - I thought only one of them would have access to stoneskin, but they all do. Luckily, a very good opener with an invisible enraged Cadrax and Skeletons allowed me to take down one of them right away, and the other two wasted their first round of spells. Meanwhile, the high APR of a hasted party made short work of another mage. The third one landed a very effective Emotion spell on my party, sending four of us to sleep, but was defeated a few seconds later. Finally, Cadrax, Sarastro and the skeletons were able to chase down the final mage, who, constantly under pressure, was unable to deal any more damage:
The only significant threat to Nabatil was encountered when clearing Larswood and Peldvale - a bunch of Black Talon Elites snuck up on the party, trying to focus down the Bhaalspawn. Unprepared as I was, I had to drink an invisibility potion to ensure his safety:
After all that, I made my way to the Nashkel mines. The hasted party had no trouble when taking down Mulahey:
Completing this quest resulted in me encountering the Molkar ambush. I made three quick moves that won me the battle: Using "The Captive Audience" on Molkar to dominate him, casting Hold Person on the cleric and using true sight to get rid of the mage's defenses:
After that, the battle was easily won. Now, I only had to clear the Bandit Camp as well - while I did have webs and a wand of fire (which is my usual approach to the SCS version of this fight), I did go for a different approach, mostly relying on the inherent tankiness of Cadrax and my party, backing up the berserker mostly with Holy Smite and Sleep spells, hold person on Taugosz and a quick, focused, hasted attack on the mage to make sure he wouldn't make any trouble. I moved around a bit to get into good positions (trying to keep Cadrax the primary target of my foes) and didn't take a lot of damage over all:
The next significant encounter I had to deal with was the amazon ambush. However, most of the danger was prevented by Ayla's True Sight, revealing the two thieves right away. A wand of paralyzation charge took one of them right out of combat, and while the cleric resisted my hold person attempt, some quick hasted attacks and a blindness spell on the other thief prevented my foes from dealing any damage to the party:
I am now ready to enter Cloakwood. Some further updates:
Thallian (as you might've figured out already) took haste as his first level 3 spell. I've also gained additional profiencies for my fighters - Two Weapon Fighting for Cadrax and Quarterstaff again for Ayla (she's currently using the +3 quarterstaff from Ulgoth's Beard). Thallian gained profiency with the quarterstaff as well. I bought most of the available interesting items for now (the sandthief ring is the only thing left) and stole a cloak from Algernon, a ring from Dushai and a bunch of scrolls from Shandalar (very risky, I know. Shouldn't have done that, propably).
Party Stats:
Wertle - Dwarven Berserker, 202 kills - fav. weapon - long sword
April - Gnomish Berserker, 204 kills - fav. weapon - quarterstaff
Itwebemine - Gnomish Kensai, 109 kills - fav. weapon - throwing dagger
Trapper - Human Kensai, 167 kills - fav. weapon - throwing dagger
Many more of the eastern areas cleared, such as Firewine Bridge, Gullykin, Baslisks' area, Durlag's Tower, Ankheg Farm, and Ulcaster School. The party is level 6 now.
*Ulcaster School - Ulcaster School was pretty straightforward, only special thing we did is put high fire resistance on April so she can trip the two fire traps that could not be avoided.
* Firewine Bridge - We didn't clear the interior, or bother engaging the mages down there. We did engage both Khark and also Melium using melee for all characters - unsurprisingly, neither Khark or Melium could survive. There were so many attacks pouring in on Khark (we all were using melee), that he coudln't even so much as get a spell off.
* Gullykin - The enraged berserkers led the way, with the Kensais pouring in ranged fire. Molkar's party was helpless to our onslaught. We picked up the +1 sling while we were here, but realized no one needed it, so will just sell it. We did buy the heal potions here, our potion supply was low, although this party does not use a lot of potions normally.
* Basilisks' aera - My normal stategy is 1st take out Kirian's group. Enraged berserkers led the way, the Kensais pouring in lots of ranged fire. A clear victory. We then tried to pull Mutamutin, but he saw April - April by this point had the green PfP scroll on her, so she just took out Mutamutin and his pets on her own. Then when she killed the last basilisk on the map, the party cleared out of there.
* Ankheg Farm - The berserkers did get hit a few times, but battles went extremely fast. It was rare for an Ankheg to even survive 2 rounds. So no problems here. April is a juggernaut, with with her *** in Quarterstaff, her high strength, ** in two hand weapon fighting, the weapons bracer from Melium, and she's using the +3 staff from Ulgoth's Beard. This is reflected in the kill count, as she is the kill leader of the party.
* Durlag's Tower - The battle horrors were quite easy for this group - just simple melee and they fall. We also killed the doom guards on the left and right areas of the Durlag's Tower, surface. Melee once again carried the day. So we obtained the Wisdom tome, first imprisoned the thief by giving him the nymph's hair, then killing him. We sold the WIS tome, as no one needed it, we all have 0 lore anyways. Next was the basilisks on the roof. Wertle would take the mirror eyes potion, then the party would assist. For the trap by the +2 scimitar, April used her fire resistance ring + fire resistance potion, and tripped it to get the scimitar. This was all the business we wanted to do in Durlag's, so we left the area.
We will venture in Larswood and Pelvale next session.
Bother (gnome cleric/thief, Grond0); Damem (human dark moon monk, Gate70)
With a fresh pair of lambs for the slaughter we bravely set off from Candlekeep - and bravely died immediately.
In single player I would have accepted the death, but we decided to reload the game from the autosave. That reprieve proved to be relatively short-lived though. After seeing off Shoal,
The southern group were dealt with appropriately, but when approaching the ones near Mutamin Damem hid. That was entirely appropriate and expected and I should have then hung back waiting for him to find a basilisk and attack. However, I was too keen to get to the statue and didn't initially consider the possibility that Mutamin's pet lesser basilisk might be in its less usual position near the statue rather than just above Mutamin. I did realize my mistake just before actually seeing the basilisk - but too late to reverse movement before it spotted me
"...bunch of scrolls from Shandalar (very risky, I know. Shouldn't have done that, propably)."
Seems reasonable to me. If the entire party is near the area exit, and you put fire resistance on the thief/bard who is doing the pick-pocketing, then I would say there is little risk. In vanilla, I think he fires off two fireballs and then runs away. But if you have a number of arcane party members, the scrolls could be a big help, as there so few level 4+ arcane scrolls available before Chapter 5.