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"Maybe this time" [NO-RELOAD THREAD]: "The Tale of TEN THOUSAND Trials"

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  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    @CharlestonianTemplar really nice write up with great RP elements.
    RaduzielCharlestonianTemplarAerakar
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    Stating what mods are being used is a good practice. Countless times I've read awesome quests here and didn't know where did they come from because the mods loaded where nowhere to be found.
    CharlestonianTemplarCorey_RussellMantis37
  • jessejmcjessejmc Member Posts: 141
    edited March 2019
    @Grond0 Consider using something like AutoHotKey to remap space to another key.
    ; Remaps space to enter/return when the Baldur's Gate window is active.
    #IfWinActive, Baldur's Gate
      Space::Enter
    Return
    
    Grond0Blind_VisionaryOrlonKronsteenCrevsDaak
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I didn't realize it wasn't possible to change the spacebar hotkey from the game options themselves. I thought it could just be disabled in-game!
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Speaking on the "multi-runner, same-party" no-reload run we've discussed in the Lounge, I'd like to keep the floor open to more votes. It would be nice if we could choose from a small pool of characters, or vote on the ones we find most interesting, before we jumped into it. I say this mostly because I wouldn't really find it interesting to do RP stuff like taking the barbarian alcoholic to taverns to get wasted every now and then.
    Grond0StromaelCrevsDaak
  • jessejmcjessejmc Member Posts: 141
    edited March 2019
    Enhanced Edition, no mods
    Solo

    Jase, half-orc shadowdancer
    S19 D18 C19 I9 Wx CH18


    I played this game when it came out originally and was never very good at it. Spent a lot more time in SoA and ToB. Was looking to get back into it and, while researching potential builds, read Grond0's sun soul monk thread. Seemed like a lot of fun, plus I have terrible restartitis, so here's my attempts so far. Also, a shout out to semiticgod's shadowdancer thread, as it's been a lot of help. I'll try to include pictures in future reports.


    Attempt 1. Daggers for throwing daggers and Quarter Staff. Almost died to a wolf on the approach to Shoal. Had to drink 2 healing potions. Killed Shoal and leveled to 4. Went to the Friendly Arm Inn, grabbing the Ring of Princes and Evermemory. Calmed Marl, retrieved Firebead's book, Mirianne's letter, and the Colquetle Family Amulet. Picked up and equipped the Worn Whispers. Went to High Hedge. The gnolls drobbed a Protection from Petrification scroll, but instead of drawing the flesh golems out, I got sandwiched between them and died.

    Attempt 2. Took Slings. Did essentially the above. Watched Drizzt die but didn't attempt to get the kill, just sold his stuff. Killed Algernon for his cloak. Used the cloak to charm and kill the sirines at the Temple. Used stealth and Korax to clear the basilisks. Went to the Lighthouse, used the Potion of Clarity from Candlekeep, and died to the sirines feeblemind.

    Attempt 3. Rolled a 95. Headed to Shoal. One-shotted by wolf.

    Attempt 4. Go to the FAI for RoP and Evermemory, stealth inside to sell and buy Buckley's Buckler. Head to Beregost for Marl and Firebead, achieving level 2. Killed Shoal, and, more importantly, the wolf, for level 4. Went to watch Drizzt die. Accidentally triggered his speech and abandoned the run.

    Attempt 5. Starting with Daggers again. I like the 2 APR of throwing daggers with the STR bonus. Plus I can get the Dagger of Venom. Once again died to the wolf on the way to Shoal.

    Attempt 6. A solid start. Shoal, RoP, Elve's Bane, FAI, Buckley's Buckler. Picked up arrows for the flesh golems. Arrow of Biting are ineffective. Ran out of arrows and had to stealth in with my +1 dagger. Went and bought more arrows for the second golem. Level 5. Let Drizzt die to sell his equipment. Went to Nashkell for CLW and Chapter 2. Sold Drizzt's stuff and purchased the Dagger of Venom. Killed Algernon for his cloak. Charmed and killed the sirines at the Temple. Level 6 and heading to the basilisks, which were no problem with Korax's help. Level 7. Headed to Lighthouse. Used stealth plus find traps to be able to backstab constantly (from Grond0, which I'll hencefort refer to as shadow dancing), killing all the sirines without issue. Went into the flesh golem cave and failed my save against the charm trap. Had a PoC and everything but didn't know what the trap was.

    Attempt 7. After Candlekeep, unlock High Hedge, but retrieve Belt of Antipode and diamond, unlock Coast Way but travel to High Hedge. Unlock Shipwreck's Coast but head to Beregost. Calm Marl for level 2. Sell the diamond and buy the +1 sling (non-proficient) and 40 +1 bullets, unlocking Temple and South Beregost Road. Kill Shoal with throwing daggers, then retrieve the Worn Whispers. Head back to High Hedge and kill the flesh golems with the sling, only using 9 bullets instead of 20 - 40 arrows. Cleared the basilisks with the help of Korax, but things got a little dicey with the adventurers party. Went to Durlag's Tower and killed the 2 battle horrors with backstabs. Went to firewine and killed Meilum for his bracers. Snuck in to the Gnoll Stronghoold for the charisma manual. Went back to Durlag's and killed the basilisks. Level 8. Refused to help Kirinhale, and she charmed me. I reload to try some different tactics against her and explore a bit of Durlag's Tower for future knowledge. I found the best way to defeat Kirinhale was to agree to help her and then backstab her to death using shadow dancing. If I had beaten her the first time, I would have been charmed retrieving the wisdom tome.

    Attempt 8. Shoal. FAI for Evermemory (no buckler). Girdle. Marl. Firebead. Purchased sling and 20 +1 bullets. Worn Whispers on way to Nashkel for Ankheg Plate and CLW. Watched Drizzt die and sold his items. Killed the flesh golems. Purchased mirrored eye potions. Purchased Dagger of Venom. Tried shadow dancing around basilisks without Korax. It worked. Used Korax for Mutamin and the Adventurers. Sold all their stuff. Purchased the Shadow Armor. Killed Algernon for his cloak. Raised rep to 8 at Temple and killed the Sirines there. Went to Ulgoth's Beard and purchased the Greenstone Amulet and acquired Edventar's Gift from Dushai. Went to Durlag's Tower. Was shadow dancing the basilisks. Last basilisk turned around immediately and petrified me. Timing is finicky. On reload tests I failed several hides and was petrified that way. Always wear protection.

    Attempt 9. Went to Ulgoth's Beard to purchase the staff, amulet, and cloak. Hit level 8 at Durlag's. Went to the Lighthouse. Drank the Potion of Clarity from Candlekeep and killed all the sirines. Forgot to get Algernon's Cloak, but it worked out. 45 traps was enough to disarm the flesh golem cave. Went to the Gnoll Stronghold for the Charisma Tome. Purchased the Shadow Armor and killed Algernon for his cloak. Killed Basilius and rescued Melicamp, who unfortunately died. Killed the sirines in the temple and the vampire wolves nearby to reach level 9 and the 3x backstab. A personal best! Back to Ulgoth's Beard for Dushai's ring. Did the mines. Killed the revenant and Amazons and Nimble. Back to Beregost. Tranzig was easy pickings. Dropped rep to 9. On to the Bandit Camp. Bandit Camp was no issue. Rested for first Horror. Side with merchants in first Cloakwood. Hit level 10 in Cloakwood 2. Killed Davaeorn. Rested for second horror. Flooded the mines. Time to quest up some reputation. Shopping spree. Buying scrolls and potions and the Sandthief's Ring. I missed and hide and was horrored to the last surviving mage on top of Sorceror's Sundries. Had several options but failed to use any of them.

    Side note. After this one died, I ran through Baldur's Gate so that I wouldn't be coming into it blind in the future. I also wanted to test the coronation ceremony. I think I have a pretty good tactic for it. Charm 5 of the nobles, one of each to the far side of the stairs and to a corner in each room to block vision. I only did 4 of them in the pictures, but did a 5th in another run and put him on the stairs near Sarevok.
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    Go rest 16 hours so that they're no longer charmed. Come back and start the coronation. As long as they don't see you, they won't move from where you left them, and you can kill them one at a time. The Flaming Fist guards will attack them and die, but the Greater Dopplegangers didn't move during any of my tests. Another option would be to charm half of them, move them into a corner room, rest 8 hours, then start the coronation. Only 3 would be active, but you'd have to wait around 23 minutes for the other 3 to no longer be charmed, at which point they become dopplegangers.

    Attempt 10. Took shortbows and quarter staves. Daggers and slings are nice early for the strength bonus but quickly fall off to the utility of magic arrows. Grab the belt and diamond, head to High Hedge, unlock west exit, then head to Beregost. Stop by the inn for Marl and Firebead and Algernon's Cloak. Buy 40 +1 arrows for flesh golems. Mansion for invisibility potion and wand to sell. Head south to get Miriam's letter, Worn Walkers, and Colquetle necklace. Donate at the Temple to get back to 8 reputation. Kill Shoal, but almost die to the wolf. To the flesh golems. 21 arrows later, level 5. I now have backstab damage x2 and a Shadow Step. To the FAI, stopping to get the RoP and girdle. Backstab Tarnesh. Sell Evermemory. Head to Ulgoth's for Dushai's ring. Raise reputation to 11 at the FAI temple. Turn in the ring. Turn in the amulet. Backstab Karlat to death. Charm Silke to kill the spiders. Had an unlucky hide and almost got trapped outside of the house. Shadow Stepped and went back in. Spiders attacked Silke and I didn't get the death blow. Backstabbed the rest of the spiders in the street. Poor Melicamp didn't survive. Backstabbed Basilius to death. Did Bjornin's half-ogres. Was too late to save Drizzt. Not comfortable enough trying to last hit him or patient enough. Or even sure how you just get one gnoll to engage. Turned in Brage and got the +1 rep from Oublek and hit level 6. Rested for CLW. Headed to Dryad Falls for the rep there. Did some other rep stuff. Lighthouse, Farm Brun. Got rep to 20. Now with max discounts and 40k gold, time to arm up. Greenstone Amulet, Aule's Staff, Cloak of Displacement, and Sandthief's Ring for 19,095. Shortbow +1 and Shadow Armor for 8,040. With a few random items I picked up from the Ankheg Nest and whatnot, still have over 20,000 left. No more normal arrows for me! Plus gonna go buy some potions and scrolls. Hurrah. Do the sirines at the Temple. The wolf pack nearby brought me up to level 7. Went to kill basilisks. I won't be buying the Cloak of Displacement again. The game reported I was in stealth, but as soon as I walked into range a basilisk petrified me. I need the visual confirmation of the character looking like its in stealth, which the cloak hides. Was a bit disappointed, as I thought this was gonna be a good run.

    Attempt 11. Start with Daggers for throwing daggers and Quarter Staves. Grab RoP, and sell Evermemory, buy Buckley's Buckler. Down to Beregost for Marl and Firebead. Steal the bastard sword from the smithy and purchase a sling (non-proficient) with +1 bullets. Get the wand and invisibility potion at the mansion. Head to kill Shoal. Almost die to wolf again. Kill Shoal. Take Two Handed Weapon Style. Kill flesh golems (9 bullets) for level 5. Head south of Beregost. Get the Worn Walkers for 100/100 HiS/MS. Get the letter and necklace for Beregost. Head to Nashkel to trigger Chapter 2 and get CLW and ankheg plate for sale. Triggered Drizzt's dialogue on accident, and he killed all the gnolls. I guess I could hav attempted talking to him constantly, but whatever. Buy mirrored eye potions. Retrieve Algernon's Cloak. Donate back to 8 reputation. Kill Karlat, spiders, and Silke. Kill Sirines. Level 6. Go kill basilisks and adventurers, hit level 7. Go to Ulgoth's Beard for the Greenstone Amulet and Dushai's ring. Head to Temple and raise rep. Did some rep quests. Melicamp died again. Did the Lighthouse and retrieved the constitution tome. Level 8 and Short Bow. Maxed rep on side quests and grabbed the charisma tome. Time to gear up again. Aule's Staff, Sandthief's Ring, Shadow Armor, and assorted potions/scrolls/arrows. Get Neera's gem bag by accepting her into my party and kicking her out. This is the only companion I pick up, as I don't like killing them. To Durlag's Tower. Kill battle horrors. Agree to help Kirinhale but then backstab her to death. Grab the wisdom tome. Kill basilisks while under protection from petrification. Level 9 and 3x backstab! The Staff Spear from Kirinhale is 1d8 + 3 compared to the 1d6 + 3 of Aule's Staff, although it is piercing instead of crushing, but it's also +2 THAC0 instead of +3 THAC0.

    Time to solve the iron crisis. Mulahey died to a backstab. Backstab Tranzig. Backstab everyone in Tazok's tent. Cloakwood is a stroll with the Ring of Free Action. Backstab Drasus and his whole crew. Speed through the mines. Use Potions of Perception to detect and disarm the traps. Dispel Davaeorn's illusion and land a lucky crit to backstab him in one hit. Get the Dex Tome and stock up on potions/scrolls/arrows. Got the Helm of Balduran, Nymph's Cloak, and Int Tome. Got the Wis Tome and Geas Scroll. Level 10. Got my antidote. Stole the documents. Went to Candlekeep. Accused of murder. Time to bust out. Drink 4 Potions of Perception to detect the traps and get lockpicking high enough. Maybe could have gotten away with 3 which would have brought find traps up to 75, but I don't know the reqs here and didn't want to risk it. I also don't know how deadly these traps are. I may have just been able to walk through them. First tome retrieved. Killed the phase spiders, almost triggering a trap. It's probably just web. Second tome retrieved. Sneak out of the catacombs. Sneak out of the caves, only stopping to kill Diarmid. A quick stop in High Hedge, then off to Baldur's Gate. Cythandria dies to two backstabs. Drink two Potions of Mastery Thievery and pickpocket Quenash for the Cloak of Balduran. Use an Arrow of Dispelling on Slythe, then backstab him to death. Krystin doesn't appear, so I draw her out with the One Gift Lost, wait for her globe to drop, biting arrow her, then backstab her to death. Charm the nobles at the coronation and move them into separate rooms and on the stairs. Wait 16 hours for the charm to wear off, then go trigger the coronation. My coronation plan went off without a hitch. Now through the maze and to the Temple of Bhaal. Still had magic resistance from the maze, used the Greenstone Amulet. Killed Semaj without any issues. Went to backstab Sarevok, partly forgetting there were two other invisible enemies. Failed my hide. Shadow step didn't activate before they killed me. Almost my first BG:EE run.

    A little disappointing that last one, but overall I've been having a blast. I've been thinking of modding in a Bag of Holding at Sorcerous Sundries but haven't done so yet. I also don't know if it's worth getting an experience cap remover, not to level above the BG:EE limit, but to not lose out on experience for SoD. Attempt 9, where I finished the game, with reloads, while doing a lot more quests and killing a lot more enemies, only started me around 188k. I thought it was supposed to keep counting even if it wasn't displayed.

    Also, what do you guys do about the wolf on the way to Shoal? The one that spawns between the single tree and copse of trees right by the entrace. It ended 2 of my runs and was close to ending 3 other ones.
    AerakarBlind_VisionaryCrevsDaak
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @jessejmc: I play with SCS, so that wolf doesn't start out hostile in my installs; it only goes red if I approach it. In an unmodded install, I think you have to sneak around it and stay well to the west of the wolf as you kite Shoal, to make sure you never enter its field of vision.
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 995
    @jessejmc said...
    Also, what do you guys do about the wolf on the way to Shoal?

    You mean if you are level one? Avoid it. In the Trio runs, we immediately go south a bit after arriving in the area, then go under a line of trees while traveling west to Shoal. This avoids the wolf.
  • jessejmcjessejmc Member Posts: 141
    @Corey_Russell: Where do you kite her? Just around that tree that's next to her?
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 995
    She starts in a an open area. Just kite her as much as possible in that area, and if needed go south-east (from her starting position) and run her around under that line of trees too as there are no spawns there.
  • jessejmcjessejmc Member Posts: 141
    Thanks. That worked a treat. Right in time to start attempt 12.
    Corey_RussellCrevsDaak
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,169
    semiticgod wrote: »
    Speaking on the "multi-runner, same-party" no-reload run we've discussed in the Lounge, I'd like to keep the floor open to more votes. It would be nice if we could choose from a small pool of characters, or vote on the ones we find most interesting, before we jumped into it. I say this mostly because I wouldn't really find it interesting to do RP stuff like taking the barbarian alcoholic to taverns to get wasted every now and then.

    I don't mind that character drinking, but I do wish he was a monk in the drunken monkey style ;).
    OrlonKronsteen
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    jessejmc wrote: »
    I played this game when it came out originally and was never very good at it. Spent a lot more time in SoA and ToB. Was looking to get back into it and, while researching potential builds, read Grond0's sun soul monk thread. Seemed like a lot of fun, plus I have terrible restartitis, so here's my attempts so far. Also, a shout out to semiticgod's shadowdancer thread, as it's been a lot of help. I'll try to include pictures in future reports.

    Attempt 1 ... Attempt 11.

    @jessejmc glad you're having fun. Your list of attempts sounded eerily familiar to me. I've often had the following sort of pattern:
    Attempt 1- come across something new and die.
    Attempt 2 - go back to check if that encounter really is fatal. It is.
    Attempt 3 - think of a way to deal with it. Congratulate myself on doing that successfully and immediately die to something else when not concentrating.
    Attempt 4 - deal with it with no problems and go much further in the run before falling asleep / getting interrupted by family / forgetting to pause while game is minimized or finding one of the other multitude of ways to die.
    Attempt 5 - forget all about it and die.

    When I was reading through your post I thought perhaps I should say something about the wolf :D. As others have pointed out you can just avoid going into sight of it, but it's also possible to kite it. That was difficult in vanilla BG1 as wolves had a faster movement than you, but in BGEE it's not particularly difficult - though I don't generally find the XP reward is worth it, given that you get 40 times the XP for Shoal with no more effort.

    You mentioned being petrified while stealthing. Just to note that the stealth button being lit doesn't necessarily mean you are in stealth - it means you are currently trying to hide. Depending on the sequence of orders you make it's possible to have up to a round's delay before the game actually checks whether your stealth attempt has been successful.

    If you start the game using the SoD engine (as opposed to the solely BGEE one), then SoD will automatically start when you kill Sarevok and the game should then give you the extra XP earned in BGEE. If you're playing solo it's not particularly difficult to go into SoD with XP at the cap there of 500k. Presumably you in fact benefited from that process when you started SoD with 188k (as that's above the 161k limit for BGEE).
    StummvonBordwehrAerakarOrlonKronsteenCrevsDaak
  • jessejmcjessejmc Member Posts: 141
    edited March 2019
    Grond0 wrote: »
    When I was reading through your post I thought perhaps I should say something about the wolf :D. As others have pointed out you can just avoid going into sight of it, but it's also possible to kite it. That was difficult in vanilla BG1 as wolves had a faster movement than you, but in BGEE it's not particularly difficult - though I don't generally find the XP reward is worth it, given that you get 40 times the XP for Shoal with no more effort.

    I was able to kite it a few times, but I rarely had time to turn around and attack it, and once it's on you, it's very hard to gain enough distance. It just seemed like too much luck was involved for me, and I've noticed that relying on luck with no-reload is essentially a death sentence
    Grond0 wrote: »
    You mentioned being petrified while stealthing. Just to note that the stealth button being lit doesn't necessarily mean you are in stealth - it means you are currently trying to hide. Depending on the sequence of orders you make it's possible to have up to a round's delay before the game actually checks whether your stealth attempt has been successful.

    Good to know. I have noticed that if I wait for stealth to become avaiable before a backstab, then constantly pause/unpause until the hit roll displays, I can stealth again before the npc realizes I'm there and attacks me.
    Grond0 wrote: »
    If you start the game using the SoD engine (as opposed to the solely BGEE one), then SoD will automatically start when you kill Sarevok and the game should then give you the extra XP earned in BGEE. If you're playing solo it's not particularly difficult to go into SoD with XP at the cap there of 500k. Presumably you in fact benefited from that process when you started SoD with 188k (as that's above the 161k limit for BGEE).

    I'm pretty sure I started with the SoD engine, as the intro screen changed after I purchased it. I was re-reading attempt 11 and realized I didn't write down when I hit level 10, but I feel like I hit the experience cap fairly early and had skipped a lot of things, like killing the spiders in Cloakwood and doing a lot of side quests in Baldur's Gate. It's possible that stuff just wasn't worth as much experience as I thought it was.

    I find it interesting that once you establish yourself, the critical path is actually pretty quick. I'm trying to integrate doing portions of the critical path earlier, as the Nashkel Mines aren't all that difficult.

    To you and anyone else that wants to answer, do you find the Horror power really worth futzing with reputation? What situations do you use it? Maybe hide in plain sight has me spoiled, but it just doesn't seem that useful. I tested it a few times during the coronation, and the greater dopplegangers saved against it every time.
    StummvonBordwehrGrond0OrlonKronsteenCrevsDaak
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