Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 165 (123 4) Lunkh (human male Inquisitor, Gate70); Sparky (gnome female Cleric of Talos, Grond0) BG:EE Lunkh and Sparky whipped around underneath Candlekeep, looting as they went. For some reason Sparky protected Lunkh from lightning and then tripped a lightning trap herself. Fortunately this was not fatal and we were free to see what Prat and his gang didn't have to say for themselves.
Back in the city we had little to do other than see if Sparky could run into the Flaming Fist - it was close but she realised in time and her boots of speed kept her at a safe distance from them. Or the other way around.
Slythe and Kristin provided us with entry to the Coronation, and a True sight there helped skeletons and our buffs. Sarevok showed his displeasure but teleported away, meaning Belt had to send us after him.
The Thieves maze held little danger for us although Lunkh insisted in rooting about in a scroll container while Sparky valiantly battled a skeleton warrior. Eventually Lunkh noticed the danger and weighed in.
Rahvin and his gang caught Lunkh unawares, but allowed a hasty retreat. Sparky dragged Rahvin and a couple of others out and Lunkh killed them off - the ogre causing heavy damage. Draw upon holy might and a bit of healing later a True sight was used to kill off the mage before a charm left Carston on his own. With a cloudkill active we retreated to shower their charmed remnant with missiles.
We reach the abandoned temple and make a throwaway remark that we could use the many (5) Larael's Tears that Sparky has bagged to purchase the building and halt his plans but step inside anyway.
Semaj narrowly avoids us killing him with a well-timed fireball. Unfortunately for him the only victim is a mage... called Semaj.
Sarevok is on his own and using his haste to pick on Lunkh. Sparky screams for Lunkh to sheathe his sword and glug an oil of speed but such un-paladin-like behaviour cannot be seriously considered. A second inquisitor Dispel finally slows the brute down.
Tazok has appeared by this time so we cut him down and shift back to Sarevok. Draw upon holy mights are enough to see us to victory but despite regeneration potions Lunkh grabs a very late healing potion.
With Sarevok down we move on to BGII:EE and escape from the chateau with enough time left to sort out the circus and pick up some chores in the Copper Coronet. The back rooms are next.
After my very latest mishap I had rolled a ranger. But my planning was foiled early on - in the latest patch Drizzt doesnt die willingly .
So I decided to roll something different and Completely new: a chaotic good hafling barbarian. The run ended at the golems when I learned that barbarian rage overwrites the potion of clarity and in all isnt as good as the beserker rage..
The result was a new NE halfling female barbarian. She will wear the human flesh in BG2:ee and can use Drizzt scimitars with a little help. We will get back to that later.
The halfling has super saves against the most important spells and traps. With the right potions she will become nigh unstoppable. All that I have divined all by myself, and have fittingly called her: Isit Alessia?
Pips in scimitars and shortbow - how unique..
Isit kited the first 3 levels of foes
Then did the basilisks for some sweet XP
Then did the first Dorn ambush for a magical weapon - and did the golems
The ankhegs pushed Isit to level 7 and Isit got the main quest going
The bandit camp was kited - and killed
Cloakwood has a nice scimmy upgrade, and Drasus was the first to die - along with the rest
Resting for the horror bhaal power proved why the spell is worth the hassle:
The city was done quick and dirty: skipping the iron throne unseen - and focussing on the tomes, money, reputation and gear.
CK the same way
Isit bid her former home goodbye and headed for Durlags. A goblet and 2 helmets are on the bucket list. After that its Drizzt, Iron throne, the palace and Sarevok. Easy - hopefully
As most fights would be done using spirits, I wanted to get up to level 6 as quickly as possible for the availability of improved spirits - prior to that the 2 spirits at once available are still pretty durable in LoB, but find it hard to hit enemies and only do 1-3 damage when they do hit (so fights can take a looong time).
After leaving Candlekeep, Shagrat took the well-worn trail to the seaside to find Shoal. Her lack of a melee weapon means the spirits could still kill her pretty quickly to provide an easy couple of levels and a useful extra 18 HPs.
Mad Arcand then got his ring back.
In Beregost Marl provided a bit of XP while the Manor House yielded an invisibility potion to help with the odd emergency.
Looking for another big XP gain I decided to try and kill Drizzt. In v2.5 that's no longer as simple as it was as Drizzt will now use his attacks. However, it's still possible to activate some gnolls without Drizzt if you never get into his sight range. I did that with 2 of the gnolls and waited while they broke their weapons and gradually beat Drizzt unconscious. It's always possible that a gnoll will keep its weapon sharp and it's definitely possible for Drizzt to die to a natural lightning strike. On this occasion though everything went to plan and Shagrat picked up a nice 12k XP to get another level and 9 more HPs.
In Nashkel Shagrat got a small bit of XP from Noober and Vitiare as well as stealing another invisibility potion. He made some donations at the temple to boost reputation a bit and added to that thanks to doing those quests available without much fighting or potentially dangerous travel ambushes - picking up gains from Oublek, Mr Colquetle, Joia, Firebead and Brage. That provided level 5 and a maximum 10 HPs to keep the goodness coming.
Drizzt's equipment funded the purchases of the Dagger of Venom and a +1 axe before Shagrat moved on to the basilisk area. He kept out of sight of basilisks there until Korax had paralyzed them - then waded in dual-wielding the axe and dagger. Those are the best possible weapons available to him for this purpose and helped keep Korax charmed long enough to kill all the basilisks and Mutamin as well (getting all of them in the time available is good going in LoB) - the prize for that was another level with 7 more HPs.
Three rounds later Korax went hostile - only to be greeted with a newly generated panther spirit
and it and its colleagues (available spirits now increased from 2 to 3) soon dealt with the ghoul.
Being a bard is like playing in a band - a rather costly activity in terms of required equip. Which means that we need gold, lots of it.
Viccy remains on board for the time being and we proceed by carefully picking our fights around the Sword Coast. Blindness, Mirror Images, Hold and Wand of Sleep give us sufficient leverage for overcoming most of the challenges. Zargal and his lads provided the first easy targets.
We ship Barge back to Nashkel, collect the ankegh plate for Viconia and pay a visit to Prism.
At the carnival, Gisli purchases Necklace of Missiles and manages to outwit Vitiare, the cutpurse extraordinaire, at his own game.
Now back to action. Sendai and her grunts are caught unawares - blinded and held they fall to our missiles.
Vax & Zal, Caldo & Krumm, Gnarl & Hairtooth, they all meet a similar fate in due course.
Our drow partner agrees to complete one last assignment at Mutamin's garden. Pro Petrification, Sanctuary and our undead comrades are enough to defeat the gnome and his walking XP grinders without any trouble.
It was fun, but now it's time to split the spoils of our joint venture (Viccy gets to keep the ankegh plate) and part ways.
Gilsi then clears the rest of the area (with the exception of Kirian's party) on his own and continues south to check on Meilum. Short on direct damage, we resorted to Wand of Ice to wear him down to badly injured. And I should have known better (so long Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise)...
After playing modded Long War 2 for the past couple of months, I think I'm ready to return to Baldur's Gate. My last run was with Nukesalot the Chaos Sorcerer back in late April to May, and now I'm going to give @Artimius_I's Warlock kit another try in no-reload. The Warlock kit has been updated a few times since I played it last, and the 3 major differences are: -Many invocations and Eldritch Essences now give improved effects based on the caster's Charisma -3 new Warlock-only items are now available in both games -Eldritch Chain no longer nukes everything when multiple enemies are clustered together. Last time, I restarted my run of Dragonspear because this was patched, and I got careless which caused my kind-of-deserved death.
So, I introduce to you, Spaz II the Warlock! I haven't changed my mod installation, but the relevant mods besides the Warlock are the following: Tweaks Anthology, Rogue Rebalancing, aTweaks, Enchant the Missile Launchers, More Style for Mages.
My first invocation is Leaps and Bounds.
From here on, I'm going to follow the same routine as I did last time.
I learn Dark One's Own Luck, which gives me a Luck and Saving Throw bonus equal to Leaps and Bounds' bonuses (+4). Hideous Blow is also learned at this level, which lets me inflict an Eldritch Blast when I hit with a melee attack.
Still following my traditional early game path for easy levels.
Suddenly, something goes very wrong. Kelddath's sirene crits me.
I put it down and test my luck on the second sirene.
It looks like I'll have to revise my early game a bit to take crits into account. It's pretty messed up that, while the sirines couldn't hit me with anything other than a 20, 20's always crit. At least in NWN there is a critical roll confirmation for situations like this, which makes it almost certain that enemies who can only hit you on 20's won't get it promoted to a crit. I will have my revenge!
On leaving the basilisk area, Shagrat had an unwelcome encounter with another of the monsters - but managed to run away before it focused its gaze.
That took him to Durlag's Tower where he took advantage of the limited movement available for the shaman while dancing. For those not familiar with how that works, if the shaman tries to do most actions while dancing that will immediately unsummon spirits. However, the game only actually checks if he's actually dancing once a round. That means that you can wait until a dance check is made then pause the game, click to stop dancing and move a little way before clicking to dance again to maintain existing spirits. In this case Shagrat summoned some spirits to deal with a battle horror before showing himself to it as he moved away.
Even the new major animal spirits need a critical to hit battle horrors and they are also pretty good on offense - so it is possible for them to kill all the spirits before new replacements arrive. However, that's not likely and Shagrat hadn't needed to retreat with the battle horror down to its last few HPs when natural lightning finished it off. Fortunately, as often happens in that situation, Shagrat was credited with the XP for the kill anyway.
The second battle horror on the path also failed to get past spirits before Shagrat tackled the skeletons on the walls. The ones on the left are not too difficult - Shagrat just showed himself briefly then ran back downstairs and along to the end of the wall. Standing just out of sight of the skeletons he could produce an endless stream of summons to soak up skeleton arrows, before moving in closer to actually be able to kill them.
The skeletons on the other side are trickier as, with SCS, they will always target Shagrat in preference to his summons - therefore it's necessary to get them into melee with spirits before they see him.
Shagrat got to level 7 in the process of dealing with the skeletons
and was then able to finish off the doom guard without any problem.
Inside the Tower, Shagrat spent a while hunting down ghasts. Without free action, the tendency of the ghasts to hunt in packs and use both sets of stairs when moving between levels makes them dangerous and Shagrat had to resort to the use of an invisibility potion to avoid being trapped on one occasion.
On the roof he used a green PfP scroll to allow him to approach the basilisks. However, his spirits were getting petrified as quickly as he could produce them and he ran out of healing spells and was badly injured while trying to stay close enough to the basilisks to get them to ignore the spirits. At that point he hadn't even finished off the first of the greater basilisks, but rather than waste the PfP scroll he resorted to using his normal staff (should have gone to get the +3 staff from Ulgoth's Beard before using the scroll ). Both potions of speed were invested here and by attacking from maximum range he was successfully able to react in time and dodge all further attempts by the basilisks to melee him. The last of them got him to level 8 (making nymphs available) and his good rolls continued with 9 more HPs.
I forgot a few things last post: Forgot to show off Spaz II's character sheet. Spaz III is the exact same as II. And I forgot to mention this is v2.3 because v2.5 is broke as hell. Also, this is Insane with extra damage disabled. Basically it's just Core Rules but with extra spawns in SoD.
Trying again. Candlekeep is taken care of and I get my first level off Marl.
I charm Firebead again after many attempts and accidentally mis-aimed his Fireball. While it killed all but one spider, it also hit himself, causing the charm to be broken and he went hostile. I use an Oil of Speed to flee from him as he casts Shadow Door. When it wears off, I approach and use Eldritch Blasts on him followed by sling shots. When my attacks fail to interrupt his casting, I flee to the Beregost Temple and return to finish him off. I eventually do, gaining a level, but I forgot to screenshot this.
Now, how to deal with the sirines... I decide to wait and save them for later when I have a proper headgear to protect myself from crits, but that won't happen until I hit Baldur's Gate and get to Black Lily's store. Thanks to Rogue Rebalancing, there are a couple of helmet-slot items for rogues and bards that can prevent crits. So I leave for High Hedge to see what I can buy from Thalantyr when I remember that he goes hostile if you kill his flesh golems after you talk to him.
So I eliminate his 2 flesh golems with a +1 sling and gain a level, thanks to Enchant the Missile Launchers. Now that I'm level 5, I get slight physical damage resistance and choose See the Unseen as my 3rd Least Invocation.
Turns out the Deep Red Ioun Stone that Thalantyr sells, added by Rogue Rebalancing, negates crits, so I need a little bit more cash after buying Kelddath's Stone to Flesh scrolls. I get Perdue's short sword and neutralize Silke, forcing her to use her fists so I can deal extra damage.
From the money I make off of her, its enough to buy the Ioun Stone. Now I don't have to worry about taking huge amounts of damage because some mook got lucky and rolled a 20, and my AC is improved by 1 to boot. I pay Shoal a visit and deal with the giant humanoid band south of her for another level.
Revenge is a dish best served cold, but I can't wait to taste it. I need a good way to lower my saving throws so I don't have to worry about being poisoned or Feebleminded by Sirines. I go back to Thalantyr and buy all 3 of his Potions of Mirrored Eyes. It's time for the tried-and-true Basilisk loop. With Korax's help, I nab my first basilisk.
I level up 3 times using 19 scrolls, reaching level 9. In addition to getting my first two Lesser Invocations - Walk Unseen and The Dead Walk - I gain 1 HP/3 rounds regeneration and Eldritch Spear, which is basically the Warlock's Lightning Bolt.
Newly strengthed, I summon my faithful skellingtons and walk unseen to deal with Kirian's group, reaching level 10 and gaining 10% acid, cold, electric, fire, and magic damage resistance.
I need to free some space in my inventory, so my skellies kill Tarnesh and I bring back Landrin's stuff. I sell Kirian's group's loot, get the Golden Pantaloons and Joia's ring back, and return to the Beregost Temple for some sweet revenge. My skellies are much better suited to taking on Sirines, so I charm them, lure them outside, summon a pair of skellies, and go invisible. Vengeance is mine!
Next I think I'll take on the top levels of Durlag's Tower. I level up from the pair of ghasts in the uppermost cellar. This grants me my 3rd Lesser Invocation, Flee the Scene. Handy for getting out of sticky situations, jumping over traps, and other things.
I go inside the first level of the dungeon and scrounge around, having my skellies beat things up for me. I need to come back when I have a Bag of Holding, though. I do a couple of wilderness quests and clear out Firewine, buying Alvenhendar's Stone to Flesh scrolls. Returning to Basilisk Country, I cash in the scrolls for yet another level.
With enough HPs to reduce the dangers of travel ambushes, Shagrat sought out a few of the more significant encounters. Nymphs were used for the first time against Tarnesh and appeared frequently after that - often just leading enemies onto the spirits. Melicamp died, but reputation was still pushed up to 19 when saving a minesite from the Doomsayer (once again Shagrat got the XP there when he was finished off by lightning when at near death). Reputation hit its maximum by helping Mirianne and Shagrat picked up good XP in that area as well by dodging the charms of the sirines while using spirits and nymphs as targets for their poison arrows. He did though have to use up his potion of clarity anyway when a second sirine from the original group sneaked up on him from a different direction at one point.
With another level very close Shagrat returned to Beregost and tested Silke's ability to save against save or die spells - the latter proved the favorite. His final BG1 level kept up the good work with another maximum 10 HPs.
He picked up the remaining tomes from the Gnoll Stronghold and Durlag's Tower (using a potion of magic blocking up for the latter). He also couldn't resist attacking Riggilo there - he saved against 4 initial confusions and numerous hold monsters and hold persons and Shagrat eventually had to call out the spirits to finish him off.
After buying up the remaining allowed potions and scrolls at High Hedge and the Carnival, Shagrat travelled north to Ulgoth's Beard - reuniting Tenya with her bowl on the way. With the +3 staff in hand Shagrat decided he didn't need high reputation any more for a while and went to get another PfM scroll from Bentan. Being caught stealing reduced reputation to 9 to provide the opportunity for Shagrat to pick up an evil Bhaal power next.
That meant his next target was the Nashkel Mines and nymphs, spirits and charm person all featured heavily as he worked his way down through there. Note that charm person is far more effective than you would expect there as a result of 2 factors. The first is a long-standing issue I wasn't aware of until recently - that the Infinity Engine treats a base saving throw requirement of 20 as an automatic fail. The second is that in v2.5 a bug means that base saving throws for all enemies have been increased by 5. For low level creatures like kobolds, that takes base saving throws above 20. That means they automatically fail all their saving throws - despite the LoB adjustment of +5 to the actual roll and the +3 from the charm person or mammal spell meaning actual rolls would often be higher than even the bugged base saving throw.
Unfortunately, while progress was easy enough, the time taken to plough through so many kobolds allows more opportunity for errors and a little one of those proved costly. Shagrat sent a nymph ahead to activate the kobolds near the shaman & chieftain and it did well to get a hold monster spell off to hold 3 kobolds attacking it in melee. Shagrat cast a charm spell at the same time on one of those. With the charmed kobold providing a tempting target for the chieftain's poison arrows Shagrat started pulling the nymph back - but didn't move himself for a crucial half-second. That proved costly when a horror spell from the shaman appeared out of the blackness. That was aimed at the nymph, but Shagrat's delay in moving back had left him just close enough to be caught by it - and he immediately turned round and ran back into the kobolds ...
I might have omitted Gisli's proficiencies earlier so here you go: * staves, * short bow, * darts (and the last pip will go into two-handed style).
This time Gisli ventures north to purchase some more essential gear at Ulgoth's Beard (Cloak of Displacement, Darts of Stunning, Greenstone Amulet, Aule's Staff, scolls of Emotion, Malision and Improved Invisibility). Braving the ankegh cave on the way, he also acquires a Wand of Fire. Here's a cool GoPro shot of his Skull Trap.
As we've already been using the Claw of Kazgaroth for some time, it is desirable to get our hands on the Manual of Bodily Health to mitigate the HP penalty (since Gilsli's default constitution score is 17). We complete the dirty job as unscrupulous rogues by utilizing invisibility (to avoid the sirines and flesh golems) and Greenstone Amulet (to counter the traps inside the cave).
Similar approach is employed in obtaining the Wisdom tome from Durlag's, only that Greenstone Amulet is replaced with Minor Spell Deflection. While there, Gisli buffs with Strength and Pro Petrification to hunt down the rooftop basilisks. And how lucky we are with the random drop?!
Stay put, ye beastie!
With Web in our pockets so early, Gisli purchases some Potions of Mastery Thievery to perform the grand heist of pickpocketing the Ring of Free Action in Ulgoth's Beard. Great success!
We wanted to test the new tactical avenue of Web + Free Action on Silke, although a single Dart of Stunning was sufficient to do the job. She had been a lousy artist anyway.
Young Garrick participates in yet another of our thieving attempts, this time yielding three (!) potions of defense (bards' favourite) in addition to the official reward from Faltis.
We're finally ready to investigate the mines. Mulahey's cave is reached under invisibility in order to avoid being harassed by the kobolds (oh, by the way I really appreciate the v2.5 fix, whereby picking up items though the loot bar breaks the invisibility effect). Wearing the Ring of Free Action, Gilsi buffs with Shield, Pro Undead Scroll, Greenstone Amulet and opens with Web.
Then uses Skull Trap to deals with the reinforcements.
And definitely secures the victory by using Darts of Stunning while enjoying guaranteed hits on Mulahey.
With the mines cleared and Pro Undead still running, Gisli looted the tombs on the surface for potions and a Wand of Monster Summoning. The very same wand was subsequently used against Nimbul in combination with our Web + Ring of Free Action combo. We'll be more than happy to get that Summon Familiar scroll for further HP boost.
Frost the Breton Mage: No-Reload Legendary Mode Run of Skyrim Redone
Part 11
Frost's next move in the Skyrim main questline is to infiltrate the Thalmor embassy and poke around to see what the Thalmor know about the reappearance of the dragons. Delphine smuggles us in, we use the Deep Storage spell to hang on to all of our items, and to let us slip out of the party and into the back room, we make friends with a nearby alcoholic so he can provide a distraction.
We've got a bunch of Thalmor goons to deal with, which include a mix of mace-wielding bouncers (not really what you'd expect from high elves, honestly, a mage-oriented race) and a smaller number of wizards with lightning magic. Slow Time potions let us dodge their attacks, and the Arrowhail perk from Skyrim Redone lets us deal exponentially increasing damage with each hit. Notice the enemy mage Rulindil going pure white; I took the screenshot just as his armor spell lit him up.
One of the interesting things about Slow Time is that it has no influence on the speed of dialog. Here's our buddy Malborn declaring victory while he's still winding up a punch.
We steal some documents from a chest and discover that the Thalmor have no idea why the dragons have returned. Our mission complete, we sneak out through a tunnel and head back to Delphine. She's surprised the Thalmor are in the dark about the dragons, but she recognizes a name from our research: Esbern, an old friend of hers camping out in Riften.
We head out to Riften and another Elder Dragon attacks the city. With Arrowhail, we can slay almost any dragon in the space of a single Slow Time spell, and kill this one in mid-flight. Dragons can't die in midair, so it lands on the ground and immediately dies. Dragon skeletons have kooky physics in Skyrim, and we're treated to the image of a dragon skeleton clipping into the ground.
Esbern is inside the Riften Ratway, a close-quarters area with some surprisingly tough enemies. We can deal with the bad guys with Slow Time, but Frost nearly dies to a swinging log trap in the process, and we take some heavy damage from some Thalmor spies whose fire spells prove difficult to dodge.
We meet up with Esbern, hurry out of Riften before the Thalmor converge on us, and start hiking out to Sky Haven Temple in search of Alduin's Wall, which Esbern thinks can give us some useful information. On the way, we spot Alduin resurrecting another dragon just outside Rorikstead--and right after the dragon bursts out of the ground, another one flies in to join the fight.
I've never had to deal with two dragons at once before, but fortunately, we have a lot of innocent bystanders to distract the dragons. The first dragon, named Nahagliiv, lands too far away for us to kill it before it returns to the sky, but we still make decent progress.
We are forced to wait until he lands again (hitting dragons in midair is tricky, and I have no real experience doing so), and after drinking another Slow Time spell, we finish off Nahagliiv with some arrows to the side.
We have to wait a while before the other dragon lands, but once we drink another potion...
...both dragons fall.
As usual, we've got another dragon spawning at Karthspire for the typical three-way fight between (1) the player, Delphine, and Esbern, (2) the various Forsworn and the lone Hagraven inhabiting the area, and (3) a new dragon, which is usually higher-level than it's supposed to be.
Since we're already high-level, this dragon is a Revered Dragon, a very strange-looking critter like some kind of flat water dragon thingy with fin-like stuff and odd coloring.
It doesn't fly away during Slow Time, which means we have lots of time to pin it down. Dragons get blood splattered over them as they take damage, so a flurry of arrows during Slow Time really paints it red.
Since the Forsworn are numerous and spread very far apart, it takes multiple Slow Time spells to get them all, but we have more than enough. I always carry dozens of Slow Time potions.
I still vividly remember our painful and pointless death to a fire trap in Sky Haven Temple, so before dealing with it, I drink potions of Resist Magicka as well as Resist Fire, Slow Time, and just for good measure, I use Breath Ward to give Frost 90% resistance to all magic and shouts.
I get out of it with only scratch damage, though I might have suffered some falling damage after running off a bridge shortly afterward, if not for a Become Ethereal Shout I used right before approaching the bridge.
We reach Alduin's Wall without dying horribly, and Esbern spends some time fanboying over the ancient reliefs. To be fair, it is a pretty cool wall.
The way to kill Alduin lies with the Dragonrend Shout, a long-lost Shout invented by humans to kill dragons. The only way to find it is to use an Elder Scroll to peer backwards in time to the place where the Shout was last used, and with the help of the folks at the College of Winterhold, we find a scholar living out on an ice floe who tells us we can find an Elder Scroll in Blackreach, under the Dwemer ruin Alfthand.
In other words, our next move is to enter another dungeon and kill stuff.
Alfthand is mostly just Dwemer spider robots and hideous Falmer freaks.
I play safe around the traps (which could easily kill me) and drink Slow Time potions generously, so we get through Alfthand in good shape. Even the giant Dwemer Centurion can't handle the Arrowhail perk.
We make our way to Blackreach, which is crawling with enemies. Rather than spend a lot of Slow Time potions taking them all down, I drink a single one and dash all the way across the map. By the time I turn around, I've got a bunch of little red dots at the top of the screen indicating all the enemies who are searching for me, but are much too far away to catch up.
Finally, we reach the Elder Scroll chamber.
A little puzzle-solving later, the scroll is ours. It's time to make our way to the Throat of the World to learn the Dragonrend Shout we need to slay Alduin.
I've got an excellent pickpocket score now, so I head up to Ulgoth's Beard to take the Ring of Free Action. This is why you should travel while invisible if you can.
Yoink.
I do some wilderness quests, so I won't bore you with the details. Melicamp does not survive antichickenation.
I pick up the CON tome and get my healing Bhaal Power. I get to Nashkel and buy the XP scrolls, then cash them in for level 13 and my first Greater invocation. Vitriolic Blast is the only way I can directly deal with magic resistant enemies using my Eldritch Blast.
Gibberlings rudely interrupt as I console in the XP.
Obviously Drizzt is next now that I can bypass magic resistance.
A couple more wilderness quests are done and I breeze right through the Nashkel Mines.
After this I pick up the Charisma tome. Time to do the main story now. Tranzig and the bandit camp are handled easily. Skellybros beat Drasus' party and I stroll through the Cloakwood Mines while invisible. I jump over Daveorn's traps and Dave himself is pretty easy because my skellies are magic resistant, and he prefers to teleport over actually doing anything productive.
Finally, I reach Baldur's Gate. I hit up Sorcerous Sundries first and see these gauntlets at the top of the store list.
Sweet. This is the only casting time reducing item I can use for a long while. I pick up Black Lily's tome and now my DEX is maximized at 25 when I cast Leaps and Bounds! I also pick up the Safeguard buckler, which is a buckler +2 that grants Bless while equipped and has a Sanctuary charge ability 1x/day.
Some more burglary and I leveled up doing a sidequest to 14.
Most of the quests in BG are done, so I return to Basilisk Country and cash in the XP scrolls for two levels. I learn Tenacious Plague and Eldritch Cone. I gain +5% physical damage resistance and my regeneration improves to 1 HP/2 rounds.
Time to deal with the Iron Throne. My skellybros have undergone their last upgrade and I summon three of them to deal with the goon squad at the top. Not content to let them have all the fun, I test out Tenacious Plague. Pretty nice!
Two seconds later...
I recover from my confusion, and though Thaldorn is dead, I'm still alive. But its a harsh reminder to pay better attention if I'm joining in the fights with my bonermancer bros. The return to Candlekeep is up next.
Shortly after extorting the bandit camp's location from Tranzig, Gisli sets out to conclude some unfinished business with Kirian. I'll use this opportunity to briefly demonstrate his rather straightforward approach, which will be employed in various other battles to come.
The plan: Equip Ring of Free Action, buff with Shield, Minor Spell Deflection, MIs (Blur will most likely remain unavailable until Davaeorn) and push the offense with Web, Darts of Stunning, Aule's and Wand of Fire/Necklace of Missiles (if in a need of an extra kick). The execution should be rather self-explanatory.
Our initial move while the enemies buff.
We try to target as many held enemies as possible with Darts of Stunning.
Sitting safely behind his defensive buffs, Gisli can use his aura offensively. Wand of Fire! (You may note the slightly inefficient targeting of the scorcher from the screenshots below - this way I try not to overuse the effect of the wand).
Infiltrating the bandit camp with the help of Raiken was a trivial task for Gisli's people skills, whom (unlike Taurgosh) actually finds these rather useful. In preparation for the close quarters fight in the tent, Gisli layers Potion of Defense and Greenstone Amulet charge in between his regular pre-buffs. Upon entry, Venkt fires his MIs while making his save against our opening Web and Darts of Stunning.
Time to hit hard with Wand of Fire in order to avoid Remove Magic from Venkt. His favourite Slow does not concern us because we're running Free Action anyway.
Britik drank his strength potion and he can be dangerous while not webbed (next time I might just try pickpocketing him before the combat begins). We gotta stay fleet footed and on the move, while Aule's provides us the decisive reach and speed. Raemon's down and Hakt and the other archers are either stunned or demoralized. We're looking good.
It's over. Gisli collects the papers, goes invisible and rushes out of the tent.
There was, however, one last thing to do in order to crown the bandits' downfall. So long, loosers.
Gisli takes a day-off at FAI to recover and to purchase the remaning potions from the temple (Extra Healing and Mind Focusing).
We didn't have to wait long for the assassins to show up. Molkar came down on us first. However, travelling invisible gave us a head start on the ambushers by having the opportunity to buff properly.
There was no need to change our current tactis - Web and stun worked just fine. Poor Drakar loses his Unholy Blight at the very last moment (bummer).
The rest of the party was stunned and slowly worn down with arrows.
And the final touch once our Web has cleared.
The amazons were quick to follow, but Gisli still had the chance to nap and thus refresh his depleted spell book in the meantime. The girls were joined by a band of xvarts. Oh, how much I hate their shrieks. Battle-wise it was the same story all over again: Invisibility -> Free Action, Shield, Minor Spell Deflection -> Web, Darts of Stunning -> Aule's Staff -> MMs (for style).
Apologies for the stereotype, but our offensive capabilities are otherwise somewhat limited at this point.
Bassilus was the last major opponent of any interest before heading to Cloakwood. Free Action and Minor Spell Deflection would thwart his disablers and therefore the only danger came from his high level Unholy Blights and eventual summons. Formidable as he may be, he is extremely vulnerable to direct magical attacks. Magic Missiles and Wand of Fire did the job.
Time to collect the bounty, stock on all available consumables and head towards Davaeorn.
1st Cloakwood area: A rather uneventful stroll through the forest with the exception of acquiring the Cloak of Non-Detection. We're on a budget and so Aldeth and Seniyad are avoided.
2nd Cloakwood area: Now there's finally some action. Gisli swipes the map clean in melee with Pro Poison, Strength, Free Action and bard song, by utilizing the full potential of Aule's Staff (which, for me, is the undisputed king of weapons in BG1). There have also been some nice crits (for a bard with default strength of 12, that is). Gisli reaches level 9 and this means that we're still one level short of L4 spells.
3rd Cloakwood area: I can recall quite a few characters of mine falling to SCS Amarande. I've became quite fond of Gisli and I'm not going to try my chances against that high level avenger. Let's just enjoy the fresh air and move along.
4th Cloakwood area: Just passing. Sorry.
Cloakwood mines: With his Potion of Magic Shielding (!), Frost Giant Strength and Enrage, SCS Drasus is a respectable foe on his own. However, he lacks two things - restraint and the means to deal with Mirror Imaged bard with Girdle of Bluntness, running Potion of Absorbtion and Strength while singing his bard song.
Note for future self: Don't be so conservative next time and try pickpocketing the man for his high value potion.
Gisli returns to the previous area to rest and thereafter sneaks under invisibility past Kysus and the remainder of Drasus' crew all the way down to Davaeorn's chamber (talking to Ril en route).
Heavy buffs are necessary and Gilsli goes for 100% fire and cold resist (green protection scroll + respective protection potion), Pro Petrification (green protection scroll), Shield, Potions of Defense, Magic Protection, Mind Focusing and Oil of Speed. He adds Vampiric Touch (cast on the entrance guard via spell), Resist Fear, Minor Spell Deflection and Greenstone Amulet. OK, now I realize that this was an overkill since it most likely will get removed by Davaeorn anyway. At least we're not short on potion/scroll supplies.
Gisli eliminates the first Battle Horror with Wand of Ice.
Here comes Davaeorn's Remove Magic.
Yep. All gone.
Gisli -> Potion of Invisibility, Cloak of Non-Detection -> rebuff. This time he also adds Mirror Image and Potion of Regeneration because of the converging guardsmen.
Wand of Fire is used to break the first wave of resistance. Davaeorn manages to avoid our poison darts and is able to keep himself healthy despite the bombarding, but otherwise is harmless.
Gisli tries Arrows of Ice to break through his stoneskins.
He even dominates one of the Blacktalons (by using the harp from Ulgoth's Beard) to do the same.
Davaeorn panics and incinerates his remaining guards (perfect "madman" scripting here by SCS).
Finally we're able peel his skins and pin him down with Aule's.
I've been doing this challenge for 30 months now And success is somewhat elusive I've ticked off 2 classes as done and complete But 72 left will be hard to beat As I become yet more reclusive
I'm not great at maintaining my focus And give too many chances to luck That means fighters seem a good pick And if I'm in need of earning a tick The Dwarven Defender should not come unstuck
Though concept is easy, execution is poor And I've tried 18 times without joy This time as I load the starting position I try to feel I'm a man on a mission And in search of the real mccoy
Frost the Breton Mage: No-Reload Legendary Mode Run of Skyrim Redone
Part 12
To the Throat of the World! We read the Elder Scroll at the Time Wound or something and peer into the past, allowing us to learn the Shout using to defeat Alduin.
Alduin, apparently realizing what's going on, arrives on the scene to kill us. We use the Dragonrend Shout, forcing Alduin to land (unlike other dragons, he can remain skyborne and therefore immortal).
Alduin blasts us with his breath weapon, but the Breath Ward spell and several potions of resistance and healing keep us at high health, allowing us to slip over to his side under Slow Time and start using the Arrowhail perk to deal exponential damage.
We take Alduin down to zero health, but he takes flight and instantly recovers all of it. It's not strictly fair, and I'm not sure this is normal behavior, but we can force him to land using Dragonrend again and drink another Slow Time potion to kill him a second time.
But Alduin cannot be slain here; only defeated. He flees the scene, and we have no idea where he went. Luckily, our dragon friend Parthuurnax has an idea: if we capture one of Alduin's followers and interrogate him, we can find out where Alduin fled. There's only way to trap a dragon: use the hall at Dragonsreach, which was designed for just that purpose long ago. The local Jarl, though, doesn't like the idea of luring a dragon to his home.
Balgruuf is willing to help us out, though, if we negotiate a truce to hold off the civil war for the time being. Once that lengthy chore is out of the way, we call the dragon Odahviing to Dragonsreach. He gets distracted by Lydia, though, and refuses to walk into the trap.
We fire a bunch of arrows at Odahviing until he dies, is instantly restored to full health, and finally chases after us. We drop the trap on him.
Odahviing reveals that Alduin has fled to Sovngarde, the afterlife of the Nords, but there is a portal to Sovngarde at the faraway Skuldafn Temple. The only way to reach the temple is by air, but Odahviing fortunately happens to have little faith in Alduin's leadership, and agrees to betray Alduin by letting us ride him to the temple--rather than simply shaking us off in midair and letting Frost fall to her death.
We only have a single dungeon, albeit an extremely difficult one, before Alduin and the end of the game.
Frost the Breton Mage: No-Reload Legendary Mode Run of Skyrim Redone
Part 13
The exterior of Skuldafn Temple is crawling with high-level draugr. We can take them down safely, but only as long as our Slow Time potions last, and while we have dozens of the potions, the draugr are far more numerous--and the strongest ones have hundreds and hundreds of health.
Rather than spend precious potions slaying them all, I decide to just run right up to the temple entrance and slip inside. But the interior is also crawling with high-level enemies. Notice we're using a summoned Dremora Pit Fighter to serve as our tank--Lydia could not follow us on Odahviing's back, so Frost is on her own.
The situation gets ugly. Frost is deadly while Slow Time is active, but there are just too many draugr. I don't think we can kill them all without running dangerously low on potions.
Worse yet, we can't just run through the dungeon--there's a puzzle here whose solution I don't completely remember that we need to solve before we can proceed.
I take a moment under Slow Time to think through the puzzle, and I manage to open the gate to the next area, but I don't know if there are more puzzle down the line that will slow me down.
If there are, the previous draugr could catch up to me, and I could find myself completely surrounded by draugr. If I get surrounded, I can't dodge attacks even with Slow Time--a situation that would virtually guarantee death.
I need to keep the draugr from following me through that gate. Rather than just open it and run through, I open it, then pull the lever to close it, and try to slip under the gate before it closes. But I'm just barely short. The gate slams down in front of me. Even when I use Longstride instead of sprinting, I'm not fast enough.
Then I realize I can use Whirlwind Sprint to get a slight extra boost under Slow Time. I just barely manage to get under the gate before it shuts down.
The draugr are trapped behind the gate! We're free!
There are more puzzles and more closed spaces deeper in the dungeon, so trapping those draugr was very necessary indeed. We have many more fights ahead of us, but nothing as overwhelming as that first mob of enemies. We reach the boss, a Draugr Death Overlord, but he is alone and therefore helpless to Arrowhail and Slow Time.
We make it out of the temple, but there are still more enemies before the portal to Sovngarde. The enemy lands a lucky hit, but our armor spell pre-buff keeps us in good condition.
We slay a dragon under Slow Time and make our way up the stairs to the portal. There's a Dragon Priest, Nahkriin, who will engage us as soon as he reaches his staff at the top. But with Slow Time, we can shoot him down before he can even float the 20 feet to his staff.
We head through the portal to Sovngarde. You don't spend much time in Sovngarde, but it's a very beautiful place.
Alduin has covered the land in mist to cloak himself, and by ourselves, we can't penetrate the mist with our Clear Skies Shout. We need help from the Nord heroes who first killed Alduin, currently in the Hall of Valor. Entering the Hall means fighting Tsun, the biggest human in the game, but since he comes alone, we can just kite him during Slow Time.
We grab the three heroes, use the Clear Skies Shout to dispel Alduin's mist, and use Dragonrend to pull Alduin to the ground. The final battle begins.
But with Alduin grounded and three allies to distract him, we are free to fire arrows at his side in safety.
Like in our fight at the Throat of the World, Alduin regenerates all his health and takes flight. We bring him back down with Dragonrend, survive a hostile Shout, and keep firing arrows at his side. His health bar rapidly narrows.
Alduin goes down! His black soul rises from his skeleton and then burns to nothing.
We leave Sovngarde and visit Parthuurnax, who plans to rally the remaining dragons now that Alduin is gone.
The main quest is complete, and this run has come to an end. Here is Frost at the end of the game, with Lydia by her side.
One no-reload Legendary mode run of Skyrim Redone, complete.
We met Borda. Her destiny was sealed together with Ursa, the bear that attacks the xvart that we promptly charmed and used to face Borda's challenge.
We did Kozah's quest. We didn't get the artifact, because we are good.
We noticed that even if enemy npcs meet other enemy npcs, they don't attack each other sadly.
We helped Drizzt. And found a family of bears :'). We didn't charm them because there was no need to, or at least so we thought.
this is because we were going to face Bassilus. Basically, things turned ugly; I even faced bugged summonings that gave us no xp (but I do not know, are you supposed to get xp from enemy summons?
That's how it went: we chose the right answers and Bassilus lost all the skeletons.
For some strange reason, "hold person" casted by my two clerics had no effect on him. Maybe it is due to Spell Revision? I should check later. Truth is that I received no message about it being uneffective\magic resistance.
Bassiluss casted > silence on all my mages > hold person on both my character (successfully) and minsc (successfully), > summoned two skeletons that I was able to turn
A few Candlekeep tasks opened a door to the world Where shots closed the door to Imoen's life Then it was off to the Coast to look for Shoal Some running and shooting achieved the goal Of swapping 2 levels in exchange for her life
Some Beregost tasks included shooting down Neera While Algernon's death provided a cloak That cape turned the tables on a local sirine And bites from a dog meant it was pretty routine To get a 4th level with one hammer stroke
More sirines were charmed and lured from the temple Worn down and used to gain good further XP That meant not much more was needed for a 5th level And therefore no need to consider fighting a devil Enough was on hand from a spider or three
When entering the glorious city of Baldur's Gate, Amn already seems so much closer. But in order to get there, we need to restock our supplies in Sorcerous Sundries. Using the Red Potion, Gilsli spends an entire day studying scrolls at Elfsong Tavern. He also buys extra available copies of useful spells like MIs, Vampiric Touch, Shield, Blur etc. As for potions, we're mostly excited about the opportunity to finally get our hands on the rare Potions of Magic Shielding. Getting ammunition like Arrows of Dispelling and Detonation is a no-brainer. And so there goes our fortune.
We collect the tomes around the town, Ring of Protection +2 and Amulet of Metaspell Influence from Ramazith, Eagle Bow from Marek, sneak into the Iron Throne compound and report our findings to the Duke. Off we go to Candlekeep.
Potion of Magic Blocking takes care of the ogre magi ambush, while Invisibility, MGoI and Knock grants us safe access to the remaining tomes locked away in the catacombs. Invisible, we rush back to the city to meet Slythe at the Blushing Mermaid.
Time to get serious. *gulp*
Gisli buffs with Violet Potion, Oil of Speed, Potions of Dexterity, Fortitude, Mind Focusing, Defense and Regeneration. He adds in Shield, MIs, Blur and Improved Invisibility. If possible, our aim will be to separate Slythe from Krystin and beat him down with a staff before he can do serious damage.
The first part of the plan didn't work, Krystin's on our heels, most likely getting ready to dispel our precious buffs. We can't have that. Slythe corners and backstabs Gilsi.
We gotta move. Gisli tries to keep Krystin occupied by dispelling her protections with a quick shot. Her own Remove Magic mercifully fails.
And we've got one little trick up our sleeves - Potion of Firebreath.
That's already too much for poor Slythe. Not minding Krystin, we grab the invitations and run straight for the palace.
Gisli refreshes his short duration spells, gets his fire resistance to 100%, summons some cannon fodder and completes his buffs with Potion of Power and DuHM. Here's a snapshot of his character sheet right before approaching the dukes.
Gisli uses the first round to dispel three melee doppelgangers with his arrows.
Aule's hits hard and Gisli uses his aura to cast Slow, which (with its save penalty) is effective even without prior Malision.
Only two doppelgangers remain, including the mage. We try to dispel each other, but Gisli comes out on the top.
Just as our regeneration potion faded (which means it's been exactly 3 turns after engaging Slythe) the mage gets crushed.
Sarevok goes berserk and chunks Liia. But Belt lives. And we've got some hunting to do.
Candlekeep goes as expected. I've been saving the Violet Potion for the catacombs to break open the two locked tombs with the stat tomes. I just have to be extra careful because I'm very squishy and much easier to hit after drinking it.
The catacombs are cleared without incident, so it's time to do some TotSC. I do the Ice Island first and find this ring on Dezkiel. This would be pretty nice if I was using Hellrime Blast, but the utility of Walk Unseen, Flee the Scene, and The Dead Walk just can't beat it.
Leaving Candlekeep with the last of the XP scrolls in tow, I cash them in and say goodbye to my farming partners. See you next game, guys.
But it just wouldn't be complete without the Gibberlings attending the farewell party.
Now for the rest of Durlag's Tower. I haven't cleared the roof yet and gain a level from the Lesser Basilisk.
Level 1 goes as expected, though I was kind of nervous about how well my bone boys would hold up.
Levels 2 and 3 are also cleared without incident, but it was pretty tense since I usually run shorty characters, who have saves vs. death and spell in the negatives by now. I reach the chessboard. Instead of summoning skellies for this fight, I decide to take the easy way out: put on the Boots of Grounding, drink a Potion of Insulation, go invisible, and have the chessboard's lightning eliminate the opponents for me.
Level 4 is finished, now to fight the Demon Knight. I'm also very nervous about this fight since his Power Word Stun is basically a guarenteed disabler if your magic resistance isn't high enough. In hindsight, I probably should've used a Potion of Magic Protection and broken the mirror. But I'm not really sure when the Demon Knight decides to throw out his Power Words, so I used the obvious option to not engage him at all: spam skeletons at him.
Um... Is that MAGICAL fire damage? Oh jeez. He's going to carve through my summons faster than he usually does. But he eventually falls anyway.
So this is the sword he was using. Nice! This should make torching mobs in SoD much easier with Wands of Fire. The sword's CON penalty is actually -2 and not -4, so my HP remains unchanged. I believe it's time to return to Baldur's Gate and finish off Sarevok. I save Duke Eltan and charm Larze into helping me kill Krystin and Slythe.
At the coronation, I summon a bunch of skellies to defend the dukes before the doppelgangers transform.
In the ensuing fight, I level up again to 18. Liia is killed but Belt survives. I tried opening with a Wand of Fear but all of the doppelgangers resisted it. In hindsight I should've tried Devour Magic since they apparently begin with Mirror Image and Haste instead of casting it after they transform like Greater Doppelgangers usually do.
I summon more help against Sarevok. They take down Semaj just fine, but he manages to land a last-ditch Greater Malison on me.
I move my boney horde forwards and Sarevok, Angelo, and Tazok all crash against the tide. Angelo repeatedly bombs his own party to devastating effect with Arrows of Detonation. Tazok goes down first because of this, followed by Sarevok. Miraculously, Angelo himself is merely injured.
Although I really like the final battle with Sarevok (other than with druids), making it through Slythe and the Ducal Palace already smells of success.
The Violet Potion used in the previous battles has worn out already and Gisli only uses light buffs (MIs, Shield, Oil of Speed, Potion of Cold Resist) in anticipation of Semaj's dispel. He opens with Arrow of Dispelling on Sarevok to eliminate his haste.
Sarevok calls on his lackeys for help. Semaj does not disappoint and falls into our fake-buffs trap.
Gisli gulps a PoI and browses his potion and scroll cases for useful stuff. He ends up with 100% fire resistance, Oil of Speed, Potion of Mind Focusing, Potion of Power, Potion of Defense, Shield, Blur, MIs and Pro Evil. Keeping his aura clear Gisli targets his enemies one by one with Arrows of Dispelling.
Angelo: Chaos -> Gisli: Potion of Magic Shielding.
We switch to Arrows of Detonation (cheesy, I know, but so much fun). Diarmid is the first to fall to the fiery onslaught.
He's soon followed by Semaj, Tazok (whom never leaved invisibility) and finally Angelo. Gisli also uses Pro Undead scroll to deter their skeletal forms from coming back at him.
And thus Sarevok falls to Gisli and Gisli goes to Athkatla.
Note: I don't know why, but defeating Sarevok did not trigger the final dialogue/cutscene/SoD. I tried to replay the entire final battle again and the results were the same. I've not experienced this behaviour before. I'll export Gisli from a save file but I have to admit it was a bit anti-climatic.
@Flashburn I was checking your no-reload and frankly I'm unapologetic.
I was reading your posts and you are using a custom kit. That wouldn't be a reason of disconcern, until you see that you are actually using - or should I say (ab)using - the game in such a way to make the challenge void and empty :
> You use a warlock custom kit with not only native spells (doubt many including me knows their effects) but that can learn spells from scrolls - that could be ok, until you see you use it to render void all the challenge, given that you actually buy spells just to level up and use a tweak that improves the amount gained by xp comparable to bg2 > The amount of xp could be tolerated, provided that you didn't have god stats out of an auto-roll >.< > the warlock kit you use has custom items for a warlock ( I'm on the edge for this too given that these could be extremely unbalancing as well) > you seem to add yourself xp based on who knows what
And in the end it seems like you reached level 19 in a game where your opponent, Sarevok, is level 15.
@Arthas I have found this thread very openminded, and I see no problem in the posting in recent times - perhaps some spoiler marks wrapping the pictures is in need . My phone dont like the loading time ...
But glad the thread is alive and well. I still learn a lot, so dont hold it back.
Kits of novelty have been used and is widely accepted. I have fond memories of Wisegrimwalds many dwarf types - and the war hulk runs where epic.
New spells have frequently been introduced - dont do spells myself, but dont mind seeing something new. Btw @semiticgod could you release your instant buff spell as a mod (sorry had to ask)
XP cap is optional. 50 is the max no matter what. Off course the game gets easier, but encounters scale somewhat and difficulty can be changed.
So imo this thread is alive and well. Wouldnt mind seeing Alessia back, Blackraven more often, Grond0 to get to the throne even with his strict rules and see Semiticgod play BG again (perhaps some spider gnomes again?). But thats just icing on an allready tasty cake
I'd like too for the images to be put in spoilers marks please! Otherwise it makes scrolling the page quite long.
I think the extra XP from @Flashburn is from learning spells from scrolls, but I'm not sure as Warlocks can't learn spells AFAIK.
All these runs are very good! Good luck to everyone playing here.
I played the game once again for the first time in two years, on a heavily modded setup (thanks to the BWS). But my character (a M/C) suddenly died for no reason while walking in the wilderness with his party, I tried to recreate the bug but to no avail. Because the character was still very early in to the game, I chose to delete it and to start anew, but I'm not decided yet on what to play.
It's fine for people to play heavily modded games, even mods that significantly decrease the difficulty. There's no real rule against it, and the purpose of this thread, after all, is not to score points or tout one's own skill with the game per se (although that is part of the fun). The point is to play fun and interesting runs that other people enjoy reading about.
As long as we're up front about what mods we're using and how we're playing the game, other people can make their own judgments about the difficulty of the run. Beating the game on Easy mode with overpowered characters and lots of exploits might not be as impressive as soloing the game in LoB mode with a weak character, but both challenges are more than welcome here.
@everyone There is as compromise that can be done. Rather than all images in an individual spoiler, the entire story can be in a single spoiler. This way people who don't want to scroll so much can just not click the spoiler, and those that don't mind and want to follow the story can just click on the single spoiler, so to see the posts just as they are now.
Having every single image in a spoiler, I think might be a bit much the other way, as some events demand non spoiler images (final battles in BG1, BG 2, and ToB for example), and maybe special events (near deaths). Certain mundane unremarkable fights, I will put those images in a spoiler. I often crop my images and are also jpg, which means they don't affect load times at all when they are that small. But this paragraph is just my opinion.
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Lunkh (human male Inquisitor, Gate70); Sparky (gnome female Cleric of Talos, Grond0)
BG:EE
Lunkh and Sparky whipped around underneath Candlekeep, looting as they went. For some reason Sparky protected Lunkh from lightning and then tripped a lightning trap herself. Fortunately this was not fatal and we were free to see what Prat and his gang didn't have to say for themselves.
Back in the city we had little to do other than see if Sparky could run into the Flaming Fist - it was close but she realised in time and her boots of speed kept her at a safe distance from them. Or the other way around.
Slythe and Kristin provided us with entry to the Coronation, and a True sight there helped skeletons and our buffs. Sarevok showed his displeasure but teleported away, meaning Belt had to send us after him.
The Thieves maze held little danger for us although Lunkh insisted in rooting about in a scroll container while Sparky valiantly battled a skeleton warrior. Eventually Lunkh noticed the danger and weighed in.
Rahvin and his gang caught Lunkh unawares, but allowed a hasty retreat. Sparky dragged Rahvin and a couple of others out and Lunkh killed them off - the ogre causing heavy damage. Draw upon holy might and a bit of healing later a True sight was used to kill off the mage before a charm left Carston on his own. With a cloudkill active we retreated to shower their charmed remnant with missiles.
We reach the abandoned temple and make a throwaway remark that we could use the many (5) Larael's Tears that Sparky has bagged to purchase the building and halt his plans but step inside anyway.
Semaj narrowly avoids us killing him with a well-timed fireball. Unfortunately for him the only victim is a mage... called Semaj.
Sarevok is on his own and using his haste to pick on Lunkh. Sparky screams for Lunkh to sheathe his sword and glug an oil of speed but such un-paladin-like behaviour cannot be seriously considered. A second inquisitor Dispel finally slows the brute down.
Tazok has appeared by this time so we cut him down and shift back to Sarevok. Draw upon holy mights are enough to see us to victory but despite regeneration potions Lunkh grabs a very late healing potion.
With Sarevok down we move on to BGII:EE and escape from the chateau with enough time left to sort out the circus and pick up some chores in the Copper Coronet. The back rooms are next.
Isit - the halfling novelty
After my very latest mishap I had rolled a ranger. But my planning was foiled early on - in the latest patch Drizzt doesnt die willinglySo I decided to roll something different and Completely new: a chaotic good hafling barbarian. The run ended at the golems when I learned that barbarian rage overwrites the potion of clarity and in all isnt as good as the beserker rage..
The result was a new NE halfling female barbarian. She will wear the human flesh in BG2:ee and can use Drizzt scimitars with a little help. We will get back to that later.
The halfling has super saves against the most important spells and traps. With the right potions she will become nigh unstoppable. All that I have divined all by myself, and have fittingly called her: Isit Alessia?
Isit kited the first 3 levels of foes
Then did the basilisks for some sweet XP
Then did the first Dorn ambush for a magical weapon - and did the golems
The ankhegs pushed Isit to level 7 and Isit got the main quest going
The bandit camp was kited - and killed
Cloakwood has a nice scimmy upgrade, and Drasus was the first to die - along with the rest
Resting for the horror bhaal power proved why the spell is worth the hassle:
The city was done quick and dirty: skipping the iron throne unseen - and focussing on the tomes, money, reputation and gear.
CK the same way
Isit bid her former home goodbye and headed for Durlags. A goblet and 2 helmets are on the bucket list. After that its Drizzt, Iron throne, the palace and Sarevok. Easy - hopefully
I've had quite a few attempts at this, but thought I'd try once again to make some decent progress using the Chosen One rules from https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/62202/the-lob-scs-solo-challenge-proudly-presents-the-crusaders-of-blades-and-stars/p1 - those allow only the use of weapons, most potions and green & divine scrolls.
As most fights would be done using spirits, I wanted to get up to level 6 as quickly as possible for the availability of improved spirits - prior to that the 2 spirits at once available are still pretty durable in LoB, but find it hard to hit enemies and only do 1-3 damage when they do hit (so fights can take a looong time).
After leaving Candlekeep, Shagrat took the well-worn trail to the seaside to find Shoal. Her lack of a melee weapon means the spirits could still kill her pretty quickly to provide an easy couple of levels and a useful extra 18 HPs.
In Beregost Marl provided a bit of XP while the Manor House yielded an invisibility potion to help with the odd emergency.
Looking for another big XP gain I decided to try and kill Drizzt. In v2.5 that's no longer as simple as it was as Drizzt will now use his attacks. However, it's still possible to activate some gnolls without Drizzt if you never get into his sight range. I did that with 2 of the gnolls and waited while they broke their weapons and gradually beat Drizzt unconscious. It's always possible that a gnoll will keep its weapon sharp and it's definitely possible for Drizzt to die to a natural lightning strike. On this occasion though everything went to plan and Shagrat picked up a nice 12k XP to get another level and 9 more HPs.
In Nashkel Shagrat got a small bit of XP from Noober and Vitiare as well as stealing another invisibility potion. He made some donations at the temple to boost reputation a bit and added to that thanks to doing those quests available without much fighting or potentially dangerous travel ambushes - picking up gains from Oublek, Mr Colquetle, Joia, Firebead and Brage. That provided level 5 and a maximum 10 HPs to keep the goodness coming.
Drizzt's equipment funded the purchases of the Dagger of Venom and a +1 axe before Shagrat moved on to the basilisk area. He kept out of sight of basilisks there until Korax had paralyzed them - then waded in dual-wielding the axe and dagger. Those are the best possible weapons available to him for this purpose and helped keep Korax charmed long enough to kill all the basilisks and Mutamin as well (getting all of them in the time available is good going in LoB) - the prize for that was another level with 7 more HPs.
Shaman L6, 54 HPs, 13 kills
Previous entries: 1
Being a bard is like playing in a band - a rather costly activity in terms of required equip. Which means that we need gold, lots of it.
Viccy remains on board for the time being and we proceed by carefully picking our fights around the Sword Coast. Blindness, Mirror Images, Hold and Wand of Sleep give us sufficient leverage for overcoming most of the challenges. Zargal and his lads provided the first easy targets.
We ship Barge back to Nashkel, collect the ankegh plate for Viconia and pay a visit to Prism.
At the carnival, Gisli purchases Necklace of Missiles and manages to outwit Vitiare, the cutpurse extraordinaire, at his own game.
Now back to action. Sendai and her grunts are caught unawares - blinded and held they fall to our missiles.
Vax & Zal, Caldo & Krumm, Gnarl & Hairtooth, they all meet a similar fate in due course.
Our drow partner agrees to complete one last assignment at Mutamin's garden. Pro Petrification, Sanctuary and our undead comrades are enough to defeat the gnome and his walking XP grinders without any trouble.
It was fun, but now it's time to split the spoils of our joint venture (Viccy gets to keep the ankegh plate) and part ways.
Gilsi then clears the rest of the area (with the exception of Kirian's party) on his own and continues south to check on Meilum. Short on direct damage, we resorted to Wand of Ice to wear him down to badly injured. And I should have known better (so long Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise)...
To be continued.
Regards,
B.
-Many invocations and Eldritch Essences now give improved effects based on the caster's Charisma
-3 new Warlock-only items are now available in both games
-Eldritch Chain no longer nukes everything when multiple enemies are clustered together. Last time, I restarted my run of Dragonspear because this was patched, and I got careless which caused my kind-of-deserved death.
So, I introduce to you, Spaz II the Warlock!
I haven't changed my mod installation, but the relevant mods besides the Warlock are the following:
Tweaks Anthology, Rogue Rebalancing, aTweaks, Enchant the Missile Launchers, More Style for Mages.
My first invocation is Leaps and Bounds.
From here on, I'm going to follow the same routine as I did last time.
I learn Dark One's Own Luck, which gives me a Luck and Saving Throw bonus equal to Leaps and Bounds' bonuses (+4). Hideous Blow is also learned at this level, which lets me inflict an Eldritch Blast when I hit with a melee attack.
Still following my traditional early game path for easy levels.
Suddenly, something goes very wrong. Kelddath's sirene crits me.
I put it down and test my luck on the second sirene.
It looks like I'll have to revise my early game a bit to take crits into account. It's pretty messed up that, while the sirines couldn't hit me with anything other than a 20, 20's always crit. At least in NWN there is a critical roll confirmation for situations like this, which makes it almost certain that enemies who can only hit you on 20's won't get it promoted to a crit. I will have my revenge!
Spaz II - Warlock 4 (RIP)
Previous updates
On leaving the basilisk area, Shagrat had an unwelcome encounter with another of the monsters - but managed to run away before it focused its gaze.
The second battle horror on the path also failed to get past spirits before Shagrat tackled the skeletons on the walls. The ones on the left are not too difficult - Shagrat just showed himself briefly then ran back downstairs and along to the end of the wall. Standing just out of sight of the skeletons he could produce an endless stream of summons to soak up skeleton arrows, before moving in closer to actually be able to kill them.
Inside the Tower, Shagrat spent a while hunting down ghasts. Without free action, the tendency of the ghasts to hunt in packs and use both sets of stairs when moving between levels makes them dangerous and Shagrat had to resort to the use of an invisibility potion to avoid being trapped on one occasion.
Shaman L8, 73 HPs, 16 kills
Spaz III the Warlock!
I forgot a few things last post:Forgot to show off Spaz II's character sheet. Spaz III is the exact same as II. And I forgot to mention this is v2.3 because v2.5 is broke as hell. Also, this is Insane with extra damage disabled. Basically it's just Core Rules but with extra spawns in SoD.
Trying again. Candlekeep is taken care of and I get my first level off Marl.
I charm Firebead again after many attempts and accidentally mis-aimed his Fireball. While it killed all but one spider, it also hit himself, causing the charm to be broken and he went hostile. I use an Oil of Speed to flee from him as he casts Shadow Door. When it wears off, I approach and use Eldritch Blasts on him followed by sling shots. When my attacks fail to interrupt his casting, I flee to the Beregost Temple and return to finish him off. I eventually do, gaining a level, but I forgot to screenshot this.
Now, how to deal with the sirines... I decide to wait and save them for later when I have a proper headgear to protect myself from crits, but that won't happen until I hit Baldur's Gate and get to Black Lily's store. Thanks to Rogue Rebalancing, there are a couple of helmet-slot items for rogues and bards that can prevent crits. So I leave for High Hedge to see what I can buy from Thalantyr when I remember that he goes hostile if you kill his flesh golems after you talk to him.
So I eliminate his 2 flesh golems with a +1 sling and gain a level, thanks to Enchant the Missile Launchers. Now that I'm level 5, I get slight physical damage resistance and choose See the Unseen as my 3rd Least Invocation.
Turns out the Deep Red Ioun Stone that Thalantyr sells, added by Rogue Rebalancing, negates crits, so I need a little bit more cash after buying Kelddath's Stone to Flesh scrolls. I get Perdue's short sword and neutralize Silke, forcing her to use her fists so I can deal extra damage.
From the money I make off of her, its enough to buy the Ioun Stone. Now I don't have to worry about taking huge amounts of damage because some mook got lucky and rolled a 20, and my AC is improved by 1 to boot. I pay Shoal a visit and deal with the giant humanoid band south of her for another level.
Revenge is a dish best served cold, but I can't wait to taste it. I need a good way to lower my saving throws so I don't have to worry about being poisoned or Feebleminded by Sirines. I go back to Thalantyr and buy all 3 of his Potions of Mirrored Eyes. It's time for the tried-and-true Basilisk loop. With Korax's help, I nab my first basilisk.
I level up 3 times using 19 scrolls, reaching level 9. In addition to getting my first two Lesser Invocations - Walk Unseen and The Dead Walk - I gain 1 HP/3 rounds regeneration and Eldritch Spear, which is basically the Warlock's Lightning Bolt.
Newly strengthed, I summon my faithful skellingtons and walk unseen to deal with Kirian's group, reaching level 10 and gaining 10% acid, cold, electric, fire, and magic damage resistance.
I need to free some space in my inventory, so my skellies kill Tarnesh and I bring back Landrin's stuff. I sell Kirian's group's loot, get the Golden Pantaloons and Joia's ring back, and return to the Beregost Temple for some sweet revenge. My skellies are much better suited to taking on Sirines, so I charm them, lure them outside, summon a pair of skellies, and go invisible. Vengeance is mine!
Next I think I'll take on the top levels of Durlag's Tower. I level up from the pair of ghasts in the uppermost cellar. This grants me my 3rd Lesser Invocation, Flee the Scene. Handy for getting out of sticky situations, jumping over traps, and other things.
I go inside the first level of the dungeon and scrounge around, having my skellies beat things up for me. I need to come back when I have a Bag of Holding, though. I do a couple of wilderness quests and clear out Firewine, buying Alvenhendar's Stone to Flesh scrolls. Returning to Basilisk Country, I cash in the scrolls for yet another level.
Spaz III - Warlock 12
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1017588/#Comment_1017588
With enough HPs to reduce the dangers of travel ambushes, Shagrat sought out a few of the more significant encounters. Nymphs were used for the first time against Tarnesh and appeared frequently after that - often just leading enemies onto the spirits. Melicamp died, but reputation was still pushed up to 19 when saving a minesite from the Doomsayer (once again Shagrat got the XP there when he was finished off by lightning when at near death). Reputation hit its maximum by helping Mirianne and Shagrat picked up good XP in that area as well by dodging the charms of the sirines while using spirits and nymphs as targets for their poison arrows. He did though have to use up his potion of clarity anyway when a second sirine from the original group sneaked up on him from a different direction at one point.
With another level very close Shagrat returned to Beregost and tested Silke's ability to save against save or die spells - the latter proved the favorite. His final BG1 level kept up the good work with another maximum 10 HPs.
He picked up the remaining tomes from the Gnoll Stronghold and Durlag's Tower (using a potion of magic blocking up for the latter). He also couldn't resist attacking Riggilo there - he saved against 4 initial confusions and numerous hold monsters and hold persons and Shagrat eventually had to call out the spirits to finish him off.
After buying up the remaining allowed potions and scrolls at High Hedge and the Carnival, Shagrat travelled north to Ulgoth's Beard - reuniting Tenya with her bowl on the way. With the +3 staff in hand Shagrat decided he didn't need high reputation any more for a while and went to get another PfM scroll from Bentan. Being caught stealing reduced reputation to 9 to provide the opportunity for Shagrat to pick up an evil Bhaal power next.
That meant his next target was the Nashkel Mines and nymphs, spirits and charm person all featured heavily as he worked his way down through there. Note that charm person is far more effective than you would expect there as a result of 2 factors. The first is a long-standing issue I wasn't aware of until recently - that the Infinity Engine treats a base saving throw requirement of 20 as an automatic fail. The second is that in v2.5 a bug means that base saving throws for all enemies have been increased by 5. For low level creatures like kobolds, that takes base saving throws above 20. That means they automatically fail all their saving throws - despite the LoB adjustment of +5 to the actual roll and the +3 from the charm person or mammal spell meaning actual rolls would often be higher than even the bugged base saving throw.
Unfortunately, while progress was easy enough, the time taken to plough through so many kobolds allows more opportunity for errors and a little one of those proved costly. Shagrat sent a nymph ahead to activate the kobolds near the shaman & chieftain and it did well to get a hold monster spell off to hold 3 kobolds attacking it in melee. Shagrat cast a charm spell at the same time on one of those. With the charmed kobold providing a tempting target for the chieftain's poison arrows Shagrat started pulling the nymph back - but didn't move himself for a crucial half-second. That proved costly when a horror spell from the shaman appeared out of the blackness. That was aimed at the nymph, but Shagrat's delay in moving back had left him just close enough to be caught by it - and he immediately turned round and ran back into the kobolds ...
Previous entries: 1, 2
I might have omitted Gisli's proficiencies earlier so here you go: * staves, * short bow, * darts (and the last pip will go into two-handed style).
This time Gisli ventures north to purchase some more essential gear at Ulgoth's Beard (Cloak of Displacement, Darts of Stunning, Greenstone Amulet, Aule's Staff, scolls of Emotion, Malision and Improved Invisibility). Braving the ankegh cave on the way, he also acquires a Wand of Fire. Here's a cool GoPro shot of his Skull Trap.
As we've already been using the Claw of Kazgaroth for some time, it is desirable to get our hands on the Manual of Bodily Health to mitigate the HP penalty (since Gilsli's default constitution score is 17). We complete the dirty job as unscrupulous rogues by utilizing invisibility (to avoid the sirines and flesh golems) and Greenstone Amulet (to counter the traps inside the cave).
Similar approach is employed in obtaining the Wisdom tome from Durlag's, only that Greenstone Amulet is replaced with Minor Spell Deflection. While there, Gisli buffs with Strength and Pro Petrification to hunt down the rooftop basilisks. And how lucky we are with the random drop?!
Stay put, ye beastie!
With Web in our pockets so early, Gisli purchases some Potions of Mastery Thievery to perform the grand heist of pickpocketing the Ring of Free Action in Ulgoth's Beard. Great success!
We wanted to test the new tactical avenue of Web + Free Action on Silke, although a single Dart of Stunning was sufficient to do the job. She had been a lousy artist anyway.
Young Garrick participates in yet another of our thieving attempts, this time yielding three (!) potions of defense (bards' favourite) in addition to the official reward from Faltis.
We're finally ready to investigate the mines. Mulahey's cave is reached under invisibility in order to avoid being harassed by the kobolds (oh, by the way I really appreciate the v2.5 fix, whereby picking up items though the loot bar breaks the invisibility effect). Wearing the Ring of Free Action, Gilsi buffs with Shield, Pro Undead Scroll, Greenstone Amulet and opens with Web.
Then uses Skull Trap to deals with the reinforcements.
And definitely secures the victory by using Darts of Stunning while enjoying guaranteed hits on Mulahey.
With the mines cleared and Pro Undead still running, Gisli looted the tombs on the surface for potions and a Wand of Monster Summoning. The very same wand was subsequently used against Nimbul in combination with our Web + Ring of Free Action combo. We'll be more than happy to get that Summon Familiar scroll for further HP boost.
Bandit camp's next.
Regards,
B.
Frost the Breton Mage: No-Reload Legendary Mode Run of Skyrim Redone
Part 11
Frost's next move in the Skyrim main questline is to infiltrate the Thalmor embassy and poke around to see what the Thalmor know about the reappearance of the dragons. Delphine smuggles us in, we use the Deep Storage spell to hang on to all of our items, and to let us slip out of the party and into the back room, we make friends with a nearby alcoholic so he can provide a distraction.We've got a bunch of Thalmor goons to deal with, which include a mix of mace-wielding bouncers (not really what you'd expect from high elves, honestly, a mage-oriented race) and a smaller number of wizards with lightning magic. Slow Time potions let us dodge their attacks, and the Arrowhail perk from Skyrim Redone lets us deal exponentially increasing damage with each hit. Notice the enemy mage Rulindil going pure white; I took the screenshot just as his armor spell lit him up.
One of the interesting things about Slow Time is that it has no influence on the speed of dialog. Here's our buddy Malborn declaring victory while he's still winding up a punch.
We steal some documents from a chest and discover that the Thalmor have no idea why the dragons have returned. Our mission complete, we sneak out through a tunnel and head back to Delphine. She's surprised the Thalmor are in the dark about the dragons, but she recognizes a name from our research: Esbern, an old friend of hers camping out in Riften.
We head out to Riften and another Elder Dragon attacks the city. With Arrowhail, we can slay almost any dragon in the space of a single Slow Time spell, and kill this one in mid-flight. Dragons can't die in midair, so it lands on the ground and immediately dies. Dragon skeletons have kooky physics in Skyrim, and we're treated to the image of a dragon skeleton clipping into the ground.
Esbern is inside the Riften Ratway, a close-quarters area with some surprisingly tough enemies. We can deal with the bad guys with Slow Time, but Frost nearly dies to a swinging log trap in the process, and we take some heavy damage from some Thalmor spies whose fire spells prove difficult to dodge.
We meet up with Esbern, hurry out of Riften before the Thalmor converge on us, and start hiking out to Sky Haven Temple in search of Alduin's Wall, which Esbern thinks can give us some useful information. On the way, we spot Alduin resurrecting another dragon just outside Rorikstead--and right after the dragon bursts out of the ground, another one flies in to join the fight.
I've never had to deal with two dragons at once before, but fortunately, we have a lot of innocent bystanders to distract the dragons. The first dragon, named Nahagliiv, lands too far away for us to kill it before it returns to the sky, but we still make decent progress.
We are forced to wait until he lands again (hitting dragons in midair is tricky, and I have no real experience doing so), and after drinking another Slow Time spell, we finish off Nahagliiv with some arrows to the side.
We have to wait a while before the other dragon lands, but once we drink another potion...
...both dragons fall.
As usual, we've got another dragon spawning at Karthspire for the typical three-way fight between (1) the player, Delphine, and Esbern, (2) the various Forsworn and the lone Hagraven inhabiting the area, and (3) a new dragon, which is usually higher-level than it's supposed to be.
Since we're already high-level, this dragon is a Revered Dragon, a very strange-looking critter like some kind of flat water dragon thingy with fin-like stuff and odd coloring.
It doesn't fly away during Slow Time, which means we have lots of time to pin it down. Dragons get blood splattered over them as they take damage, so a flurry of arrows during Slow Time really paints it red.
Since the Forsworn are numerous and spread very far apart, it takes multiple Slow Time spells to get them all, but we have more than enough. I always carry dozens of Slow Time potions.
I still vividly remember our painful and pointless death to a fire trap in Sky Haven Temple, so before dealing with it, I drink potions of Resist Magicka as well as Resist Fire, Slow Time, and just for good measure, I use Breath Ward to give Frost 90% resistance to all magic and shouts.
I get out of it with only scratch damage, though I might have suffered some falling damage after running off a bridge shortly afterward, if not for a Become Ethereal Shout I used right before approaching the bridge.
We reach Alduin's Wall without dying horribly, and Esbern spends some time fanboying over the ancient reliefs. To be fair, it is a pretty cool wall.
The way to kill Alduin lies with the Dragonrend Shout, a long-lost Shout invented by humans to kill dragons. The only way to find it is to use an Elder Scroll to peer backwards in time to the place where the Shout was last used, and with the help of the folks at the College of Winterhold, we find a scholar living out on an ice floe who tells us we can find an Elder Scroll in Blackreach, under the Dwemer ruin Alfthand.
In other words, our next move is to enter another dungeon and kill stuff.
Alfthand is mostly just Dwemer spider robots and hideous Falmer freaks.
I play safe around the traps (which could easily kill me) and drink Slow Time potions generously, so we get through Alfthand in good shape. Even the giant Dwemer Centurion can't handle the Arrowhail perk.
We make our way to Blackreach, which is crawling with enemies. Rather than spend a lot of Slow Time potions taking them all down, I drink a single one and dash all the way across the map. By the time I turn around, I've got a bunch of little red dots at the top of the screen indicating all the enemies who are searching for me, but are much too far away to catch up.
Finally, we reach the Elder Scroll chamber.
A little puzzle-solving later, the scroll is ours. It's time to make our way to the Throat of the World to learn the Dragonrend Shout we need to slay Alduin.
Spaz III the Warlock!
BG1: 0.5, 1I've got an excellent pickpocket score now, so I head up to Ulgoth's Beard to take the Ring of Free Action. This is why you should travel while invisible if you can.
Yoink.
I do some wilderness quests, so I won't bore you with the details. Melicamp does not survive antichickenation.
I pick up the CON tome and get my healing Bhaal Power. I get to Nashkel and buy the XP scrolls, then cash them in for level 13 and my first Greater invocation. Vitriolic Blast is the only way I can directly deal with magic resistant enemies using my Eldritch Blast.
Obviously Drizzt is next now that I can bypass magic resistance.
A couple more wilderness quests are done and I breeze right through the Nashkel Mines.
After this I pick up the Charisma tome. Time to do the main story now. Tranzig and the bandit camp are handled easily. Skellybros beat Drasus' party and I stroll through the Cloakwood Mines while invisible. I jump over Daveorn's traps and Dave himself is pretty easy because my skellies are magic resistant, and he prefers to teleport over actually doing anything productive.
Finally, I reach Baldur's Gate. I hit up Sorcerous Sundries first and see these gauntlets at the top of the store list.
Sweet. This is the only casting time reducing item I can use for a long while. I pick up Black Lily's tome and now my DEX is maximized at 25 when I cast Leaps and Bounds! I also pick up the Safeguard buckler, which is a buckler +2 that grants Bless while equipped and has a Sanctuary charge ability 1x/day.
Some more burglary and I leveled up doing a sidequest to 14.
Most of the quests in BG are done, so I return to Basilisk Country and cash in the XP scrolls for two levels. I learn Tenacious Plague and Eldritch Cone. I gain +5% physical damage resistance and my regeneration improves to 1 HP/2 rounds.
Time to deal with the Iron Throne. My skellybros have undergone their last upgrade and I summon three of them to deal with the goon squad at the top. Not content to let them have all the fun, I test out Tenacious Plague. Pretty nice!
Two seconds later...
I recover from my confusion, and though Thaldorn is dead, I'm still alive. But its a harsh reminder to pay better attention if I'm joining in the fights with my bonermancer bros. The return to Candlekeep is up next.
Spaz III - Warlock 16
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3
Shortly after extorting the bandit camp's location from Tranzig, Gisli sets out to conclude some unfinished business with Kirian. I'll use this opportunity to briefly demonstrate his rather straightforward approach, which will be employed in various other battles to come.
The plan:
Equip Ring of Free Action, buff with Shield, Minor Spell Deflection, MIs (Blur will most likely remain unavailable until Davaeorn) and push the offense with Web, Darts of Stunning, Aule's and Wand of Fire/Necklace of Missiles (if in a need of an extra kick). The execution should be rather self-explanatory.
Our initial move while the enemies buff.
We try to target as many held enemies as possible with Darts of Stunning.
Sitting safely behind his defensive buffs, Gisli can use his aura offensively. Wand of Fire! (You may note the slightly inefficient targeting of the scorcher from the screenshots below - this way I try not to overuse the effect of the wand).
Two more stuns in the next round. Baerin:
Peter:
All clear.
Regards,
B.
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4
Infiltrating the bandit camp with the help of Raiken was a trivial task for Gisli's people skills, whom (unlike Taurgosh) actually finds these rather useful. In preparation for the close quarters fight in the tent, Gisli layers Potion of Defense and Greenstone Amulet charge in between his regular pre-buffs. Upon entry, Venkt fires his MIs while making his save against our opening Web and Darts of Stunning.
Time to hit hard with Wand of Fire in order to avoid Remove Magic from Venkt. His favourite Slow does not concern us because we're running Free Action anyway.
Britik drank his strength potion and he can be dangerous while not webbed (next time I might just try pickpocketing him before the combat begins). We gotta stay fleet footed and on the move, while Aule's provides us the decisive reach and speed. Raemon's down and Hakt and the other archers are either stunned or demoralized. We're looking good.
It's over. Gisli collects the papers, goes invisible and rushes out of the tent.
There was, however, one last thing to do in order to crown the bandits' downfall. So long, loosers.
Gisli takes a day-off at FAI to recover and to purchase the remaning potions from the temple (Extra Healing and Mind Focusing).
We didn't have to wait long for the assassins to show up. Molkar came down on us first. However, travelling invisible gave us a head start on the ambushers by having the opportunity to buff properly.
There was no need to change our current tactis - Web and stun worked just fine. Poor Drakar loses his Unholy Blight at the very last moment (bummer).
The rest of the party was stunned and slowly worn down with arrows.
And the final touch once our Web has cleared.
The amazons were quick to follow, but Gisli still had the chance to nap and thus refresh his depleted spell book in the meantime. The girls were joined by a band of xvarts. Oh, how much I hate their shrieks. Battle-wise it was the same story all over again: Invisibility -> Free Action, Shield, Minor Spell Deflection -> Web, Darts of Stunning -> Aule's Staff -> MMs (for style).
Apologies for the stereotype, but our offensive capabilities are otherwise somewhat limited at this point.
Bassilus was the last major opponent of any interest before heading to Cloakwood. Free Action and Minor Spell Deflection would thwart his disablers and therefore the only danger came from his high level Unholy Blights and eventual summons. Formidable as he may be, he is extremely vulnerable to direct magical attacks. Magic Missiles and Wand of Fire did the job.
Time to collect the bounty, stock on all available consumables and head towards Davaeorn.
Regards,
B.
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
1st Cloakwood area:
A rather uneventful stroll through the forest with the exception of acquiring the Cloak of Non-Detection. We're on a budget and so Aldeth and Seniyad are avoided.
2nd Cloakwood area:
Now there's finally some action. Gisli swipes the map clean in melee with Pro Poison, Strength, Free Action and bard song, by utilizing the full potential of Aule's Staff (which, for me, is the undisputed king of weapons in BG1). There have also been some nice crits (for a bard with default strength of 12, that is). Gisli reaches level 9 and this means that we're still one level short of L4 spells.
3rd Cloakwood area:
I can recall quite a few characters of mine falling to SCS Amarande. I've became quite fond of Gisli and I'm not going to try my chances against that high level avenger. Let's just enjoy the fresh air and move along.
4th Cloakwood area:
Just passing. Sorry.
Cloakwood mines:
With his Potion of Magic Shielding (!), Frost Giant Strength and Enrage, SCS Drasus is a respectable foe on his own. However, he lacks two things - restraint and the means to deal with Mirror Imaged bard with Girdle of Bluntness, running Potion of Absorbtion and Strength while singing his bard song.
Note for future self: Don't be so conservative next time and try pickpocketing the man for his high value potion.
Gisli returns to the previous area to rest and thereafter sneaks under invisibility past Kysus and the remainder of Drasus' crew all the way down to Davaeorn's chamber (talking to Ril en route).
Heavy buffs are necessary and Gilsli goes for 100% fire and cold resist (green protection scroll + respective protection potion), Pro Petrification (green protection scroll), Shield, Potions of Defense, Magic Protection, Mind Focusing and Oil of Speed. He adds Vampiric Touch (cast on the entrance guard via spell), Resist Fear, Minor Spell Deflection and Greenstone Amulet. OK, now I realize that this was an overkill since it most likely will get removed by Davaeorn anyway. At least we're not short on potion/scroll supplies.
Gisli eliminates the first Battle Horror with Wand of Ice.
Here comes Davaeorn's Remove Magic.
Yep. All gone.
Gisli -> Potion of Invisibility, Cloak of Non-Detection -> rebuff. This time he also adds Mirror Image and Potion of Regeneration because of the converging guardsmen.
Wand of Fire is used to break the first wave of resistance. Davaeorn manages to avoid our poison darts and is able to keep himself healthy despite the bombarding, but otherwise is harmless.
Gisli tries Arrows of Ice to break through his stoneskins.
He even dominates one of the Blacktalons (by using the harp from Ulgoth's Beard) to do the same.
Davaeorn panics and incinerates his remaining guards (perfect "madman" scripting here by SCS).
Finally we're able peel his skins and pin him down with Aule's.
Baldur's Gate (and grand shopping) awaits us.
Regards,
B.
I've been doing this challenge for 30 months now
And success is somewhat elusive
I've ticked off 2 classes as done and complete
But 72 left will be hard to beat
As I become yet more reclusive
I'm not great at maintaining my focus
And give too many chances to luck
That means fighters seem a good pick
And if I'm in need of earning a tick
The Dwarven Defender should not come unstuck
Though concept is easy, execution is poor
And I've tried 18 times without joy
This time as I load the starting position
I try to feel I'm a man on a mission
And in search of the real mccoy
Frost the Breton Mage: No-Reload Legendary Mode Run of Skyrim Redone
Part 12
To the Throat of the World! We read the Elder Scroll at the Time Wound or something and peer into the past, allowing us to learn the Shout using to defeat Alduin.Alduin, apparently realizing what's going on, arrives on the scene to kill us. We use the Dragonrend Shout, forcing Alduin to land (unlike other dragons, he can remain skyborne and therefore immortal).
Alduin blasts us with his breath weapon, but the Breath Ward spell and several potions of resistance and healing keep us at high health, allowing us to slip over to his side under Slow Time and start using the Arrowhail perk to deal exponential damage.
We take Alduin down to zero health, but he takes flight and instantly recovers all of it. It's not strictly fair, and I'm not sure this is normal behavior, but we can force him to land using Dragonrend again and drink another Slow Time potion to kill him a second time.
But Alduin cannot be slain here; only defeated. He flees the scene, and we have no idea where he went. Luckily, our dragon friend Parthuurnax has an idea: if we capture one of Alduin's followers and interrogate him, we can find out where Alduin fled. There's only way to trap a dragon: use the hall at Dragonsreach, which was designed for just that purpose long ago. The local Jarl, though, doesn't like the idea of luring a dragon to his home.
Balgruuf is willing to help us out, though, if we negotiate a truce to hold off the civil war for the time being. Once that lengthy chore is out of the way, we call the dragon Odahviing to Dragonsreach. He gets distracted by Lydia, though, and refuses to walk into the trap.
We fire a bunch of arrows at Odahviing until he dies, is instantly restored to full health, and finally chases after us. We drop the trap on him.
Odahviing reveals that Alduin has fled to Sovngarde, the afterlife of the Nords, but there is a portal to Sovngarde at the faraway Skuldafn Temple. The only way to reach the temple is by air, but Odahviing fortunately happens to have little faith in Alduin's leadership, and agrees to betray Alduin by letting us ride him to the temple--rather than simply shaking us off in midair and letting Frost fall to her death.
We only have a single dungeon, albeit an extremely difficult one, before Alduin and the end of the game.
Frost the Breton Mage: No-Reload Legendary Mode Run of Skyrim Redone
Part 13
The exterior of Skuldafn Temple is crawling with high-level draugr. We can take them down safely, but only as long as our Slow Time potions last, and while we have dozens of the potions, the draugr are far more numerous--and the strongest ones have hundreds and hundreds of health.Rather than spend precious potions slaying them all, I decide to just run right up to the temple entrance and slip inside. But the interior is also crawling with high-level enemies. Notice we're using a summoned Dremora Pit Fighter to serve as our tank--Lydia could not follow us on Odahviing's back, so Frost is on her own.
The situation gets ugly. Frost is deadly while Slow Time is active, but there are just too many draugr. I don't think we can kill them all without running dangerously low on potions.
Worse yet, we can't just run through the dungeon--there's a puzzle here whose solution I don't completely remember that we need to solve before we can proceed.
I take a moment under Slow Time to think through the puzzle, and I manage to open the gate to the next area, but I don't know if there are more puzzle down the line that will slow me down.
If there are, the previous draugr could catch up to me, and I could find myself completely surrounded by draugr. If I get surrounded, I can't dodge attacks even with Slow Time--a situation that would virtually guarantee death.
I need to keep the draugr from following me through that gate. Rather than just open it and run through, I open it, then pull the lever to close it, and try to slip under the gate before it closes. But I'm just barely short. The gate slams down in front of me. Even when I use Longstride instead of sprinting, I'm not fast enough.
Then I realize I can use Whirlwind Sprint to get a slight extra boost under Slow Time. I just barely manage to get under the gate before it shuts down.
The draugr are trapped behind the gate! We're free!
There are more puzzles and more closed spaces deeper in the dungeon, so trapping those draugr was very necessary indeed. We have many more fights ahead of us, but nothing as overwhelming as that first mob of enemies. We reach the boss, a Draugr Death Overlord, but he is alone and therefore helpless to Arrowhail and Slow Time.
We make it out of the temple, but there are still more enemies before the portal to Sovngarde. The enemy lands a lucky hit, but our armor spell pre-buff keeps us in good condition.
We slay a dragon under Slow Time and make our way up the stairs to the portal. There's a Dragon Priest, Nahkriin, who will engage us as soon as he reaches his staff at the top. But with Slow Time, we can shoot him down before he can even float the 20 feet to his staff.
We head through the portal to Sovngarde. You don't spend much time in Sovngarde, but it's a very beautiful place.
Alduin has covered the land in mist to cloak himself, and by ourselves, we can't penetrate the mist with our Clear Skies Shout. We need help from the Nord heroes who first killed Alduin, currently in the Hall of Valor. Entering the Hall means fighting Tsun, the biggest human in the game, but since he comes alone, we can just kite him during Slow Time.
We grab the three heroes, use the Clear Skies Shout to dispel Alduin's mist, and use Dragonrend to pull Alduin to the ground. The final battle begins.
But with Alduin grounded and three allies to distract him, we are free to fire arrows at his side in safety.
Like in our fight at the Throat of the World, Alduin regenerates all his health and takes flight. We bring him back down with Dragonrend, survive a hostile Shout, and keep firing arrows at his side. His health bar rapidly narrows.
Alduin goes down! His black soul rises from his skeleton and then burns to nothing.
We leave Sovngarde and visit Parthuurnax, who plans to rally the remaining dragons now that Alduin is gone.
The main quest is complete, and this run has come to an end. Here is Frost at the end of the game, with Lydia by her side.
One no-reload Legendary mode run of Skyrim Redone, complete.
We did Kozah's quest. We didn't get the artifact, because we are good.
We noticed that even if enemy npcs meet other enemy npcs, they don't attack each other sadly.
We helped Drizzt. And found a family of bears :'). We didn't charm them because there was no need to, or at least so we thought.
this is because we were going to face Bassilus. Basically, things turned ugly; I even faced bugged summonings that gave us no xp (but I do not know, are you supposed to get xp from enemy summons?
That's how it went: we chose the right answers and Bassilus lost all the skeletons.
For some strange reason, "hold person" casted by my two clerics had no effect on him. Maybe it is due to Spell Revision? I should check later. Truth is that I received no message about it being uneffective\magic resistance.
Bassiluss casted
> silence on all my mages
> hold person on both my character (successfully) and minsc (successfully),
> summoned two skeletons that I was able to turn
But in the end we prevailed.
Previous updates:
A few Candlekeep tasks opened a door to the world
Where shots closed the door to Imoen's life
Then it was off to the Coast to look for Shoal
Some running and shooting achieved the goal
Of swapping 2 levels in exchange for her life
Some Beregost tasks included shooting down Neera
While Algernon's death provided a cloak
That cape turned the tables on a local sirine
And bites from a dog meant it was pretty routine
To get a 4th level with one hammer stroke
More sirines were charmed and lured from the temple
Worn down and used to gain good further XP
That meant not much more was needed for a 5th level
And therefore no need to consider fighting a devil
Enough was on hand from a spider or three
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
When entering the glorious city of Baldur's Gate, Amn already seems so much closer. But in order to get there, we need to restock our supplies in Sorcerous Sundries. Using the Red Potion, Gilsli spends an entire day studying scrolls at Elfsong Tavern. He also buys extra available copies of useful spells like MIs, Vampiric Touch, Shield, Blur etc. As for potions, we're mostly excited about the opportunity to finally get our hands on the rare Potions of Magic Shielding. Getting ammunition like Arrows of Dispelling and Detonation is a no-brainer. And so there goes our fortune.
We collect the tomes around the town, Ring of Protection +2 and Amulet of Metaspell Influence from Ramazith, Eagle Bow from Marek, sneak into the Iron Throne compound and report our findings to the Duke. Off we go to Candlekeep.
Potion of Magic Blocking takes care of the ogre magi ambush, while Invisibility, MGoI and Knock grants us safe access to the remaining tomes locked away in the catacombs. Invisible, we rush back to the city to meet Slythe at the Blushing Mermaid.
Time to get serious. *gulp*
Gisli buffs with Violet Potion, Oil of Speed, Potions of Dexterity, Fortitude, Mind Focusing, Defense and Regeneration. He adds in Shield, MIs, Blur and Improved Invisibility. If possible, our aim will be to separate Slythe from Krystin and beat him down with a staff before he can do serious damage.
The first part of the plan didn't work, Krystin's on our heels, most likely getting ready to dispel our precious buffs. We can't have that. Slythe corners and backstabs Gilsi.
We gotta move. Gisli tries to keep Krystin occupied by dispelling her protections with a quick shot. Her own Remove Magic mercifully fails.
And we've got one little trick up our sleeves - Potion of Firebreath.
That's already too much for poor Slythe. Not minding Krystin, we grab the invitations and run straight for the palace.
Gisli refreshes his short duration spells, gets his fire resistance to 100%, summons some cannon fodder and completes his buffs with Potion of Power and DuHM. Here's a snapshot of his character sheet right before approaching the dukes.
Gisli uses the first round to dispel three melee doppelgangers with his arrows.
Aule's hits hard and Gisli uses his aura to cast Slow, which (with its save penalty) is effective even without prior Malision.
Only two doppelgangers remain, including the mage. We try to dispel each other, but Gisli comes out on the top.
Just as our regeneration potion faded (which means it's been exactly 3 turns after engaging Slythe) the mage gets crushed.
Sarevok goes berserk and chunks Liia. But Belt lives. And we've got some hunting to do.
Regards,
B.
Spaz III the Warlock!
BG1: 0.5, 1, 2Candlekeep goes as expected. I've been saving the Violet Potion for the catacombs to break open the two locked tombs with the stat tomes. I just have to be extra careful because I'm very squishy and much easier to hit after drinking it.
The catacombs are cleared without incident, so it's time to do some TotSC. I do the Ice Island first and find this ring on Dezkiel. This would be pretty nice if I was using Hellrime Blast, but the utility of Walk Unseen, Flee the Scene, and The Dead Walk just can't beat it.
Leaving Candlekeep with the last of the XP scrolls in tow, I cash them in and say goodbye to my farming partners. See you next game, guys.
Now for the rest of Durlag's Tower. I haven't cleared the roof yet and gain a level from the Lesser Basilisk.
Level 1 goes as expected, though I was kind of nervous about how well my bone boys would hold up.
Levels 2 and 3 are also cleared without incident, but it was pretty tense since I usually run shorty characters, who have saves vs. death and spell in the negatives by now. I reach the chessboard. Instead of summoning skellies for this fight, I decide to take the easy way out: put on the Boots of Grounding, drink a Potion of Insulation, go invisible, and have the chessboard's lightning eliminate the opponents for me.
Level 4 is finished, now to fight the Demon Knight. I'm also very nervous about this fight since his Power Word Stun is basically a guarenteed disabler if your magic resistance isn't high enough. In hindsight, I probably should've used a Potion of Magic Protection and broken the mirror. But I'm not really sure when the Demon Knight decides to throw out his Power Words, so I used the obvious option to not engage him at all: spam skeletons at him.
Um... Is that MAGICAL fire damage? Oh jeez. He's going to carve through my summons faster than he usually does. But he eventually falls anyway.
So this is the sword he was using. Nice! This should make torching mobs in SoD much easier with Wands of Fire. The sword's CON penalty is actually -2 and not -4, so my HP remains unchanged. I believe it's time to return to Baldur's Gate and finish off Sarevok. I save Duke Eltan and charm Larze into helping me kill Krystin and Slythe.
At the coronation, I summon a bunch of skellies to defend the dukes before the doppelgangers transform.
In the ensuing fight, I level up again to 18. Liia is killed but Belt survives. I tried opening with a Wand of Fear but all of the doppelgangers resisted it. In hindsight I should've tried Devour Magic since they apparently begin with Mirror Image and Haste instead of casting it after they transform like Greater Doppelgangers usually do.
I summon more help against Sarevok. They take down Semaj just fine, but he manages to land a last-ditch Greater Malison on me.
I move my boney horde forwards and Sarevok, Angelo, and Tazok all crash against the tide. Angelo repeatedly bombs his own party to devastating effect with Arrows of Detonation. Tazok goes down first because of this, followed by Sarevok. Miraculously, Angelo himself is merely injured.
Baldur's Gate 1 complete!
Spaz III - Warlock 18
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Although I really like the final battle with Sarevok (other than with druids), making it through Slythe and the Ducal Palace already smells of success.
The Violet Potion used in the previous battles has worn out already and Gisli only uses light buffs (MIs, Shield, Oil of Speed, Potion of Cold Resist) in anticipation of Semaj's dispel. He opens with Arrow of Dispelling on Sarevok to eliminate his haste.
Sarevok calls on his lackeys for help. Semaj does not disappoint and falls into our fake-buffs trap.
Gisli gulps a PoI and browses his potion and scroll cases for useful stuff. He ends up with 100% fire resistance, Oil of Speed, Potion of Mind Focusing, Potion of Power, Potion of Defense, Shield, Blur, MIs and Pro Evil. Keeping his aura clear Gisli targets his enemies one by one with Arrows of Dispelling.
Angelo: Chaos -> Gisli: Potion of Magic Shielding.
We switch to Arrows of Detonation (cheesy, I know, but so much fun). Diarmid is the first to fall to the fiery onslaught.
He's soon followed by Semaj, Tazok (whom never leaved invisibility) and finally Angelo. Gisli also uses Pro Undead scroll to deter their skeletal forms from coming back at him.
And thus Sarevok falls to Gisli and Gisli goes to Athkatla.
Note: I don't know why, but defeating Sarevok did not trigger the final dialogue/cutscene/SoD. I tried to replay the entire final battle again and the results were the same. I've not experienced this behaviour before. I'll export Gisli from a save file but I have to admit it was a bit anti-climatic.
Regards,
B.
I was reading your posts and you are using a custom kit. That wouldn't be a reason of disconcern, until you see that you are actually using - or should I say (ab)using - the game in such a way to make the challenge void and empty :
> You use a warlock custom kit with not only native spells (doubt many including me knows their effects) but that can learn spells from scrolls - that could be ok, until you see you use it to render void all the challenge, given that you actually buy spells just to level up and use a tweak that improves the amount gained by xp comparable to bg2
> The amount of xp could be tolerated, provided that you didn't have god stats out of an auto-roll >.<
> the warlock kit you use has custom items for a warlock ( I'm on the edge for this too given that these could be extremely unbalancing as well)
> you seem to add yourself xp based on who knows what
And in the end it seems like you reached level 19 in a game where your opponent, Sarevok, is level 15.
To be honest I find your run extremely weird
But glad the thread is alive and well. I still learn a lot, so dont hold it back.
Kits of novelty have been used and is widely accepted. I have fond memories of Wisegrimwalds many dwarf types - and the war hulk runs where epic.
New spells have frequently been introduced - dont do spells myself, but dont mind seeing something new. Btw @semiticgod could you release your instant buff spell as a mod (sorry had to ask)
XP cap is optional. 50 is the max no matter what. Off course the game gets easier, but encounters scale somewhat and difficulty can be changed.
So imo this thread is alive and well. Wouldnt mind seeing Alessia back, Blackraven more often, Grond0 to get to the throne even with his strict rules and see Semiticgod play BG again (perhaps some spider gnomes again?). But thats just icing on an allready tasty cake
Otherwise it makes scrolling the page quite long.
I think the extra XP from @Flashburn is from learning spells from scrolls, but I'm not sure as Warlocks can't learn spells AFAIK.
All these runs are very good! Good luck to everyone playing here.
I played the game once again for the first time in two years, on a heavily modded setup (thanks to the BWS). But my character (a M/C) suddenly died for no reason while walking in the wilderness with his party, I tried to recreate the bug but to no avail. Because the character was still very early in to the game, I chose to delete it and to start anew, but I'm not decided yet on what to play.
As long as we're up front about what mods we're using and how we're playing the game, other people can make their own judgments about the difficulty of the run. Beating the game on Easy mode with overpowered characters and lots of exploits might not be as impressive as soloing the game in LoB mode with a weak character, but both challenges are more than welcome here.
Having every single image in a spoiler, I think might be a bit much the other way, as some events demand non spoiler images (final battles in BG1, BG 2, and ToB for example), and maybe special events (near deaths). Certain mundane unremarkable fights, I will put those images in a spoiler. I often crop my images and are also jpg, which means they don't affect load times at all when they are that small. But this paragraph is just my opinion.