Minimal rest and kills run : an almost pacifist tale (solo)
monico
Member Posts: 571
Hi guys,
After many recent LoB runs, where killing one kobold is an adventure of itself, I thought to myself : "what if I actually don't kill anyone ?"
I know that it is impossible to complete the game without any enemy dying (contrary to Fallout 1 for example, Fallout 2 is almost the same, but one big boss at the end requires dying), but I wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible.
From what I gathered, in BG1 at least, not many enemies need dying : Mulahey, Davaeorn, the doppelgangers at Ducal Palace and Sarevok are the only mandatory enemy deaths.
So with that in mind, I also thought that a minimal-rest run would have good synergy with such a run, so I decided to limit myself to one rest per chapter.
The plan is to (ab)use pickpocketing, charming enemies (without having them killed, that would be too easy, but to allow pickpocketing them) and disabling spells (sleep, web, hold and co).
As I restrict myself to 1 rest per chapter, I will try to avoid going back and forth between far-away areas, but some travel will be unavoidable to get some non-violent quest XP.
I don’t have my screenshots with me while writing this, but here’s a summary so far :
Main Character :
Prologue :
- Did a few quests in Candlekeep, followed the Gatewarden for a training session, gulped a Oil of Speed from a temporary companion and immediately left, ran to Fuller, cast Friends, completed his quest (Dagger +1) and ran to the Inn to convince the nobles to stash their jewels away (Friends has very short duration, I needed the haste from the potion to ensure my Reaction was high enough for both Fuller & the nobles, could not care less about Hull’s reward). Looted all the Inn’s chests, learned Identify spell.
- RESTED at Winthrop’s inn (memorized spells : Familiar + Friends), cast Familiar = Ferret (50% pickpocket)
End of Prologue : 300 XP ; around 2.500 GP
Chapter 1:
- Crossroad : looted remnants from Gorion’s last stand, found a nice gem in a tree, grabbed all gear from would-be companions
- High Hedge : visited Thalantyr : cast Friends, bought a few scrolls (mainly sleep, friends, invisibility, and charm spells), bought a sleep wand. Outside, with the help of stealth (takes ages to actually work though…), aggroed a gnoll away from his friends, cast Charm Person from a scroll, asked my Ferret to pickpocket perdue’s sword
- Beregost : looted ALL containers/locks in town (found a invisibility potion, should come in handy), appeased Marl (900XP), had familiar pickpocket Algernon + Silke, bought a book for Firebead (+1 REP), gave Perdue his sword back, which allowed me to LVL UP (all thief skills in stealth) stats : 2.700 XP / 3.500 GP + unindentified items to sell
- Lathander Temple : identified some items (mainly Algernon’s cloak)
- Area North of Beregost : charmed an ogre with Algernon’s cloak, ferret stole his belts
- Friendly Arm Inn : got a wizard ring beneath some rocks, identified gear and bought some potions, avoided Tarnesh to enter the inn, gave some gnome his belt back, took Jaheira’s Potion of Invisibility.
RESTED at FAI’s inn (memorized spells : 2x Charm / 1x Identify / 1x Sleep), charmed a hobgoblin and ferret pickpocketed him, gave Joia her ring back (+1 REP).
So far : 3.600 XP.
- North to Ankheg’s map : accepted Sonner’s quest, had ferret pickpocket him though (Flail +1 and strange Bowl), stealthed my way into Ankheg’s cave, grabbed the loot and immediately gulped a Potion of Invisibility, helped Brun (+1 REP and lots of XP) hit 5k total XP = LVL UP! (Disarm Traps to 40, the rest in stealth)
- Wyrm’s crossing : gave some little girl her bowl back (+2500 XP), had to “talk” some sense into her with my staff first though (I actually could have avoided it since I already had the bowl, but it made no sense RP wise since my MC had no way of knowing it was hers)
- Back south to High Hedge to buy some potions/scrolls and a potion bag
- South then west to Lighthouse : stealthed my way into the cave, disarmed a few traps, waited for the flesh golem to walk away and looted the pool (mainly for the CON tome and Wand of Paralyzation), sneaked my way back out.
- Archeological Site: freed Brage from his curse (+1000XP ; 1000 GP and +1 REP)
Chapter 2:
- Nashkel : looted/lockpicked everything, out-talked Noober (400 XP) and corrected Oublek’s mistake (+1 REP)
- Map SW of Nashkell : Helped Albert find his dog Ruffie (+1000 XP) hit 10k XP LVL UP ! (upped Disarm Traps and Pickpocket)
- Cloudpeak Mountains : found a cat in a waterfall. Did not give it back to Drienne yet (reaction not high enough)
- Gnoll Stronghold : Stealthed my way into the cave, looted the chest, cast Sleep, stealthed my way back out of the map : Identified the book, CHA went up to 14 without modifiers ;
- Cloudpeak Mountains : with 15 REP (+1 reaction) and 16 CHARISMA with Algernon’s cloak (+4 reaction), it was enough to give Drienne her cat back and get better rewards (+200XP, +1 REP, Protection from Undead scroll)
- Back to Nashkell : entered the Inn while stealthed, aggroed Neira into a back room and hid in shadows again.
RESTED at the Inn (memorized spells : 2x Identify, 2x Friends, 1x Charm Person, 1x Sleep, 2x Invisibility), got Bhaal’s dream ability.
- Nashkell Mines : Stealthed my way into the mines, grabbed Joseph’s ring, disarmed traps, Paralyzed Mulahey with the wand, pounced his head with my reliable quarterstaff, looted his corpse and chest.
End of Chapter 2: about 11k XP, lots of gold, one person dead.
Chapter 3:
- Exited mines : gave Hentold’s dagger to the revenant, grabbed Invisibility potion from his coffin
- South Eastern map: rescued Samuel, talked to a gnome (Prot. From Magic scroll), grabbed Ring of Fire resistance
- Carnival: bought a few potions, while MC is in stealth, ferret pickpocketed Vitiare for his Potion of Master Thievery (oh the irony)
- Nashkell : talked to Berrun (+1 REP, +1.000 XP, 900 GP) and Joseph’s wife (+800 XP)
- Area north of Nashkel: grabed Cloquette’s family amulet
- Beregost: talked to Colquette (+1 REP), bought Shadow Armor from Taerom (18 REP + friends meant it cost only around 8,5k GP), visited Landrin’s house, cast Sleep on the spiders and grabbed the wine & boots from the chest.
- Friendly Arm Inn : rescued Samuelle (+1 REP), spoke to Landrin (6 antidotes, plus some XP and gold for the wine and boots)
RESTED again at F.A.I. and got my second bhaal’s power
- Larswood: got recruited by Teven
- Bandit Camp : looted/lockpicked every container, stealthed my way into the chief’s tent, disarmed a trap and grabbed the documents to trigger the next chapter, before running away while invisible.
End of Chapter 3 : much much gold, still only 1 kill so far.
Chapter 4 :
- Had to go north to Ulgoth’s Beard : it is too far away, my character was fatigued, which I wanted to avoid as much as possible. Gulped a Potion of Perception + Potion of Mind Focusing and stole RoFA from Dushai, bought Aule’s staff
- Friendly Arm Inn : mandatory REST
- First Cloakwood map : nothing to declare, just frolicking in the woods
- Second Cloakwood map (spiders) : agreed to help Tiber, disarmed all traps while under Invisibility spell, grabbed the Scimitar, visited the nest and grabbed the loot and Chelak’s body, immediately gulped a Potion of Invisibility (casting time for the spell being too long), before sloooowly made my way back to Tiber (I was overloaded, that dead guy is HEAVY)
- Third and Fourth Cloakwood maps : nothing to declare, just making my way to the mines.
- Cloakwood mines: avoided Drasus and co, stealthed my way directly to Davaeorn (freeing some slaves and grabbing some minor loot on the way). Killed Davaeorn by hiding in the shadows everytime he tried casting a spell (fleeing with a Oil of Speed everytime he spotted me), then bashed his skull with my staff once he ran out of spells
End of Chapter 4 : second kill, unavoidable (tried to flood the mines just stealing his key & letters, but chapter 5 won’t trigger and the bridge in Wyrm’s crossing won’t lower, so I had to reload a prior save).
Next up : Chapter 5 and Baldur’s gate. I might first make a visit to Durlag’s tower, and I am currently considering charming a basilisk to petrify everyone in the map (only once, no Stone-to-Flesh scrolls cheese abuse) to get some XP. Since petrified enemies are not dead per se, but it still feels a bit contradictory to the premise of the run.
After many recent LoB runs, where killing one kobold is an adventure of itself, I thought to myself : "what if I actually don't kill anyone ?"
I know that it is impossible to complete the game without any enemy dying (contrary to Fallout 1 for example, Fallout 2 is almost the same, but one big boss at the end requires dying), but I wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible.
From what I gathered, in BG1 at least, not many enemies need dying : Mulahey, Davaeorn, the doppelgangers at Ducal Palace and Sarevok are the only mandatory enemy deaths.
So with that in mind, I also thought that a minimal-rest run would have good synergy with such a run, so I decided to limit myself to one rest per chapter.
The plan is to (ab)use pickpocketing, charming enemies (without having them killed, that would be too easy, but to allow pickpocketing them) and disabling spells (sleep, web, hold and co).
As I restrict myself to 1 rest per chapter, I will try to avoid going back and forth between far-away areas, but some travel will be unavoidable to get some non-violent quest XP.
I don’t have my screenshots with me while writing this, but here’s a summary so far :
Main Character :
Jolluv – lawful neutral gnomish Illusionist/Thief : 18/18/17/19/9/13 (94, really lucky roll, did not even take very long).
Spell picks : Find Familiar, Friends, Blindness (mandaroty illu spell), chose Friends & Blindness first
Thief skills : 60 open locks, the rest in stealth (as Invisibility spell won’t be available until 10k XP)
Pips : darts (for darts of stunning) and Staff, as a blunt weapon seemed mandatory RP-wise for this kind of non-lethal run.
Spell picks : Find Familiar, Friends, Blindness (mandaroty illu spell), chose Friends & Blindness first
Thief skills : 60 open locks, the rest in stealth (as Invisibility spell won’t be available until 10k XP)
Pips : darts (for darts of stunning) and Staff, as a blunt weapon seemed mandatory RP-wise for this kind of non-lethal run.
Prologue :
- Did a few quests in Candlekeep, followed the Gatewarden for a training session, gulped a Oil of Speed from a temporary companion and immediately left, ran to Fuller, cast Friends, completed his quest (Dagger +1) and ran to the Inn to convince the nobles to stash their jewels away (Friends has very short duration, I needed the haste from the potion to ensure my Reaction was high enough for both Fuller & the nobles, could not care less about Hull’s reward). Looted all the Inn’s chests, learned Identify spell.
- RESTED at Winthrop’s inn (memorized spells : Familiar + Friends), cast Familiar = Ferret (50% pickpocket)
End of Prologue : 300 XP ; around 2.500 GP
Chapter 1:
- Crossroad : looted remnants from Gorion’s last stand, found a nice gem in a tree, grabbed all gear from would-be companions
- High Hedge : visited Thalantyr : cast Friends, bought a few scrolls (mainly sleep, friends, invisibility, and charm spells), bought a sleep wand. Outside, with the help of stealth (takes ages to actually work though…), aggroed a gnoll away from his friends, cast Charm Person from a scroll, asked my Ferret to pickpocket perdue’s sword
- Beregost : looted ALL containers/locks in town (found a invisibility potion, should come in handy), appeased Marl (900XP), had familiar pickpocket Algernon + Silke, bought a book for Firebead (+1 REP), gave Perdue his sword back, which allowed me to LVL UP (all thief skills in stealth) stats : 2.700 XP / 3.500 GP + unindentified items to sell
- Lathander Temple : identified some items (mainly Algernon’s cloak)
- Area North of Beregost : charmed an ogre with Algernon’s cloak, ferret stole his belts
- Friendly Arm Inn : got a wizard ring beneath some rocks, identified gear and bought some potions, avoided Tarnesh to enter the inn, gave some gnome his belt back, took Jaheira’s Potion of Invisibility.
RESTED at FAI’s inn (memorized spells : 2x Charm / 1x Identify / 1x Sleep), charmed a hobgoblin and ferret pickpocketed him, gave Joia her ring back (+1 REP).
So far : 3.600 XP.
- North to Ankheg’s map : accepted Sonner’s quest, had ferret pickpocket him though (Flail +1 and strange Bowl), stealthed my way into Ankheg’s cave, grabbed the loot and immediately gulped a Potion of Invisibility, helped Brun (+1 REP and lots of XP) hit 5k total XP = LVL UP! (Disarm Traps to 40, the rest in stealth)
- Wyrm’s crossing : gave some little girl her bowl back (+2500 XP), had to “talk” some sense into her with my staff first though (I actually could have avoided it since I already had the bowl, but it made no sense RP wise since my MC had no way of knowing it was hers)
- Back south to High Hedge to buy some potions/scrolls and a potion bag
- South then west to Lighthouse : stealthed my way into the cave, disarmed a few traps, waited for the flesh golem to walk away and looted the pool (mainly for the CON tome and Wand of Paralyzation), sneaked my way back out.
- Archeological Site: freed Brage from his curse (+1000XP ; 1000 GP and +1 REP)
Chapter 2:
- Nashkel : looted/lockpicked everything, out-talked Noober (400 XP) and corrected Oublek’s mistake (+1 REP)
- Map SW of Nashkell : Helped Albert find his dog Ruffie (+1000 XP) hit 10k XP LVL UP ! (upped Disarm Traps and Pickpocket)
- Cloudpeak Mountains : found a cat in a waterfall. Did not give it back to Drienne yet (reaction not high enough)
- Gnoll Stronghold : Stealthed my way into the cave, looted the chest, cast Sleep, stealthed my way back out of the map : Identified the book, CHA went up to 14 without modifiers ;
- Cloudpeak Mountains : with 15 REP (+1 reaction) and 16 CHARISMA with Algernon’s cloak (+4 reaction), it was enough to give Drienne her cat back and get better rewards (+200XP, +1 REP, Protection from Undead scroll)
- Back to Nashkell : entered the Inn while stealthed, aggroed Neira into a back room and hid in shadows again.
RESTED at the Inn (memorized spells : 2x Identify, 2x Friends, 1x Charm Person, 1x Sleep, 2x Invisibility), got Bhaal’s dream ability.
- Nashkell Mines : Stealthed my way into the mines, grabbed Joseph’s ring, disarmed traps, Paralyzed Mulahey with the wand, pounced his head with my reliable quarterstaff, looted his corpse and chest.
End of Chapter 2: about 11k XP, lots of gold, one person dead.
Chapter 3:
- Exited mines : gave Hentold’s dagger to the revenant, grabbed Invisibility potion from his coffin
- South Eastern map: rescued Samuel, talked to a gnome (Prot. From Magic scroll), grabbed Ring of Fire resistance
- Carnival: bought a few potions, while MC is in stealth, ferret pickpocketed Vitiare for his Potion of Master Thievery (oh the irony)
- Nashkell : talked to Berrun (+1 REP, +1.000 XP, 900 GP) and Joseph’s wife (+800 XP)
- Area north of Nashkel: grabed Cloquette’s family amulet
- Beregost: talked to Colquette (+1 REP), bought Shadow Armor from Taerom (18 REP + friends meant it cost only around 8,5k GP), visited Landrin’s house, cast Sleep on the spiders and grabbed the wine & boots from the chest.
- Friendly Arm Inn : rescued Samuelle (+1 REP), spoke to Landrin (6 antidotes, plus some XP and gold for the wine and boots)
RESTED again at F.A.I. and got my second bhaal’s power
- Larswood: got recruited by Teven
- Bandit Camp : looted/lockpicked every container, stealthed my way into the chief’s tent, disarmed a trap and grabbed the documents to trigger the next chapter, before running away while invisible.
End of Chapter 3 : much much gold, still only 1 kill so far.
Chapter 4 :
- Had to go north to Ulgoth’s Beard : it is too far away, my character was fatigued, which I wanted to avoid as much as possible. Gulped a Potion of Perception + Potion of Mind Focusing and stole RoFA from Dushai, bought Aule’s staff
- Friendly Arm Inn : mandatory REST
- First Cloakwood map : nothing to declare, just frolicking in the woods
- Second Cloakwood map (spiders) : agreed to help Tiber, disarmed all traps while under Invisibility spell, grabbed the Scimitar, visited the nest and grabbed the loot and Chelak’s body, immediately gulped a Potion of Invisibility (casting time for the spell being too long), before sloooowly made my way back to Tiber (I was overloaded, that dead guy is HEAVY)
- Third and Fourth Cloakwood maps : nothing to declare, just making my way to the mines.
- Cloakwood mines: avoided Drasus and co, stealthed my way directly to Davaeorn (freeing some slaves and grabbing some minor loot on the way). Killed Davaeorn by hiding in the shadows everytime he tried casting a spell (fleeing with a Oil of Speed everytime he spotted me), then bashed his skull with my staff once he ran out of spells
End of Chapter 4 : second kill, unavoidable (tried to flood the mines just stealing his key & letters, but chapter 5 won’t trigger and the bridge in Wyrm’s crossing won’t lower, so I had to reload a prior save).
Next up : Chapter 5 and Baldur’s gate. I might first make a visit to Durlag’s tower, and I am currently considering charming a basilisk to petrify everyone in the map (only once, no Stone-to-Flesh scrolls cheese abuse) to get some XP. Since petrified enemies are not dead per se, but it still feels a bit contradictory to the premise of the run.
4
Comments
In the same idea, enemies charmed and sent to their death, or killing their former companions, also counts as kills obviously.
I think that petrified enemies don't count as deaths, same with Imprisonment, at least if I cast Flesh-to-Stone spells myself (still not decided with the charming basilisks thingy)
The idea is not that my character should not be the one doing the killing, but to avoid deaths happening around my character as much as possible.
The main problem comes from fights such as the Ducal Palace:
- buffing the Flaming Fist to have them kill the Doppelgangers counts as "death happening because of the character"
- but in the same way, having the Doppelgangers kill some of the Flaming Fist (or dukes) because of my inaptitude to protect them ALSO counts as "death happening because of the character".
It would be a different story if I have nothing to do with the battle occurring (such as when Shank and Carbos fight each other in BG2 Bridge district over an unimpressed lady), but as soon as the battle triggers because of my actions, or I have an impact to its issue, I will try and avoid any unnecessary deaths.
So back to the ducal palace, that means that:
- I either let the fight resolve itself without any intervention (except triggering it off course), since it would have happened with or without me entering the palace. It would be a bit weird though, since my entering the Palace is precisely to foil Sarevok's plans.
- or I participate in the battle, and make sure to cause the least death possible, meaning only the doppelgangers should die. Ideally, with me only buffing/debuffing but without actually hacking the doppelgangers to their deaths.
- first I went back to Beregost and talked to Officer Vai and sold my loot.
- then East to Mutamin’s garden, finally decided to charm a Basilisk, and my Familiar (immune to petrification) opened the way for my new pet to petrify everyone on the map, allowing for some nice XP and a fun discovery : you can pickpocket petrified targets (as long as they did not turn hostile) ! Here comes my Golden Girdle !!
- Durlag’s tower : looted the whole upper tower and 1st labyrinth level, gave Kirinhale’s lock of hair to an unsuspecting thief fellow (4,5k XP) and solved the 4 Wardens riddles before running the hell out.
It allowed me to hit a bit more than 65k XP (40k XP for lvl 5 illu / 6 thief was hit while petrifying basilisks, opening level 3 spells)
- Baldur’s gate city : explored every house, did all available quests that did not require killing someone, and had to rest once to do the night quests. Here is the list (not in order of completion) :
- Alator and Oberon’s estate’s thievery : 4k XP, Narlen took care of the Halruaan mage
- looted the Hall of Wonders for Brevlik : 5,5k XP
- G’axir the Seer looked into my future : 1k XP
- Recovered Tremain’s son’s body with Tenya’s help : 5k XP
- Marek & Lothander : gave up on the WIS tome to avoid unnecessary fight, pickpocketed Marek’s antidote : 11,5k XP
- recovered Noralee’s gauntlet : 1k XP
- stole Yago’s spellbook for Brielbara : 1k XP
- cured Ghorak the ghoul : 1k XP
- helped Petrinne find her cat : 500 XP
- gave Rinnie a history book to help her ballad : 900XP
- gave Fergus an angel skin ring for his fiancee : 800 XP
- freed Abela the Nymph : 2k XP
- found a male body in the sewers for Arkion : 1,8k XP
- stole Arkion’s amulet and Nemphre’s ring for Ordulinian : 3,5k XP
All in all, that’s almost 40k quest XP, plus a few locked chests and disarmed traps, I am now a bit over 110k XP ! Just 10.000 more XP and I’ll get lvl7 as a mage to open lvl4 spell slots. Should happen somewhere in Chapter 6.
And not one creature died because of my MC in the whole chapter. Although many a pocket in the city of Baldur’s Gate must feel very light.
To be honest, I did not think it would be such a fun run. Since I solo or play with really small parties, I tend to already hit level cap before BG city. I almost never do all those quests, it felt good to discover again some (most) of them. I also take my time to really explore all houses and talk to all named NPCs (sometimes triggering unwanted fights, from which I flee as fast as possible). Quite fun so far.
Chapter 6 went very fast late last night:
- reported to Duke Eltan, who gave me a book and sent me back to my childhood home (btw, fun fact about the missions given by Scar & Eltan : I always knew that you can refuse Scar's second quest to investigate the sewers, but never knew that you could accept the Seven Suns quest and immediately tell him "nothing to report" to get to the next quest... and you still get paid 2.000 GP ! Now that's easy money !)
I was sad to note that completing Eltan's investigation of the Iron Throne did not give any quest XP
- Candlekeep : absolutely no XP to be made here, just some nostalgic encounters and catharsis to your lost innocence. And obviously huge revelation about your lineage (although I can't remember if it did come as a surprise in my first playthrough). Talked to everybody, looted/lockpicked every container & bookcases for completion's sake.
Then RESTED at Winthrop's inn (Dream ability : DuHM, handy), before being arrested the next morning.
- Catacombs: some XP from traps & chests (about 20 traps, I think I missed some), nice loot, stealthed my way through all encounters, talked to Diarmid, exited the catacombs.
End of Chapter 6 : 0 XP gained
Chapter 7:
- back to BG City: found clues (you are actually flooded by people looking for you to tell you what to do) about Sarevok's plans
- rescued Duke Eltan : aggroed his healer in a nearby room, moved and stealthed while he changed and buffed himself, talked to Eltan and grabbed his body. First time ever that I do not kill that false healer. Handed Eltan to the Harbor Master (2,500 XP !! At last !).
- sneaked into the Iron Throne headquarters, confronted Cythandria, attacked her : first roll was a natural 20 (!), she took 38 damage and immediately surrendered, before Arghh and Ughh even appeared.
First attack roll in 3 chapters, and I make it a critical. Now that is efficiency !!
- got Husam and his amnian shadow thieves' help to sneak into the Undercellar (no XP), charmed and pickpocketed Slythe (still no XP), went up to the Blushing Mermaid and...
I stopped here for now. I am still about 5k XP short of lvl4 spells, and won't get it before facing Sarevok if I only focus on the main questline.
So here was the dilemma before going to bed:
- I could postpone the main questline (and my only available rest) to wander the whole Sword Coast to get the required XP from the rare few quests I did not complete (coming to mind : Ice Island & Ulcaster/Firewine), scribing scrolls, unlocking chests and disarming traps along the way to get the rest of the XP. But that would probably take quite some time.
- stopping here to wander the sword coast for weeks would feel anti-climactic and weird RP-wise. It is not like I need those lvl4 spells, and I can easily cast them from scrolls. Plus, the way I see it, Sarevok's fight in non-LoB, non-SCS should be pretty easy with this character.
So, after having slept on it, I have decided to confront Sarevok (and the Ducal Palace assassination attempt before that) with what I already have in hand. After all, when I started, I never imagined that I would be lvl 6/7 before Sarevok.
- First, I hastened to the Ducal palace to prevent the assassination attempt (it’s been a long time since I played vanilla, I did not expect the Dukes to fall that fast! Had to use some cheese and use myself as a meatshield to allow the dukes and Flaming Fist mercenaries to cut down the doppelgangers. I even felled one myself)
- Then Belt teleported me in pursuit of Sarevok. I easily ran theough the thieve’s guild maze, unlocking traps and stealthily avoiding fights along the way.
- I soon chanced upon an ancient temple reeking of evil. It soon became obvious that Sarevok did not flee, but retreated to this bastion to make a last stand. I gulped every potion in my bag, cast many scrolls from my spellbook and scroll case (mainly : greater malisons, slow, web, ray of enfeeblement, cloudkill). Sarevok left his altar to search for me (i kept hiding in shadows between casting spells), he soon fell victim to my Wand of Paralization (not so soon in fact, took 5 casts, he failed saves against Web more often than againt my wand).
Then it was just a matter of time before my good old staff smashed his skull, ending Sarevok’s threat on the sword coast once and for all.
End of BG1 : with 1 doppelganger and Sarevok, MC has 4 direct kills, and 5 indirect ones on top of that (the other doppelgangers from the assassination attempt in Ducal Palace).
Strangely, I gained twice the 15k XP from killing Sarevok, and hit around 150k XP overall. I feel that I underestimated Sarevok’s threat a bit, even though he was slowed and malisoned, he proved quote a threat even in "standart" (non-LoB, non-SCS) insane difficulty.
Luckily, illusionist / thief with lots of Invisibility potions and scrolls in tow is not that easily taken down.
And once Sarevok failed one save against Wand of Paralization, it was over.
Next challenge: Siege of Dragonspear !!
- Weeks have passed since Sarevok’s demise, apparently now is a good time to hunt his last followers, namely his most trusted aid : Korlasz (in fact, such a close and trusted aid that she never appeared in any of the tens of missives from Sarevok beforehand and was not close enough to earn a place alongside him for his last stand in the Temple pf Bhaal.... just sayin’ ...)
- Found myself exploring an extensive layout of tombs, where that Korlasz witch is supposed to be hiding. Strange choice of stronghold, an undead-infested cavern with no back exit whatsoever... just sayin’ ....
- sneaked my way into the tomb, convinced Porios to surrender, avoided legions of undead, sneaked behind Korlasz, stunned her with a well adjusted dart of stunning, beat the crap outta her with an even better adjusted backstab from my oh-so-awesome-albeit-barely-used staff, waited a few rounds for her to come back to her senses, and she quickly surrendered herself to the Flaming Fist.
- Triumphaly made my way back to the Ducal Palace for a well earned rest.
- Immediately faced an assassination attempt by some amateur assassins (a rude but efficient Flaming Fist archer made short work of them)
- Foiled this really amateurish ambush (sleep spell is awesome) in the whole ducal palace (Corwin and the Flaming Fist took care of the unconscious assassins)
- Got recruited by the Dukes to participate in their crusade against Caelar’s crusade, but immediately turned them down, using my rights as a "consciencous objector" (« objecteur de conscience » in French, I don’t know the right term in english, but basically means that I reject a draft in the army since it contradicts my principles as a Pacifist).
And so ends Siege of Dragonspear (let’s face it, this campaign has no role-play flavour, and feels totally forced upon you).
Faking interest in helping the Dukes, Jolluv turned the next corner, cast an Invisibility spell and fled the city without a look back.
But apparently, fate still had plans for our hero, who somehow got himself captured by some crazy mage...
A very interesting concept. Looking forward to BG2, a lot of the quest experience tends to be "per party member"... but at the same time, the experience from disarming traps, picking locks, and scribing scrolls goes way up. Your character shouldn't be hurting for levels.
Thanks for the input
You’ve got it right for BG2, XP is easy. Problem is gear and gold. For the gold, I might have to resort to use some steal-sell-resteal-resell cheese.
Chapter 1
- Chateau Irenicus, first level: disarmed all traps, unlocked chests, scribed scrolls for easy xp. Stole Ylich’s acorns, freed the Djinni, avoided all fights. Some problem arose when enemies crowded hallways, I often had to aggro them and flee for a long time before managing to hide in the shadows again. I think I will have to abandon my "one rest per chapter" rule to have more casts of Invisibility (or should have rolled a Shadowdancer)
- Second level: sadly, you can’t progress past the mephit room unless you kill the 4 portals. Did so, but with a heavy heart. I comforted myself remembering that portals are not sentient creatures, and it could be said I was just bashing some magical doors. The invoked mephits did not seem particularly relieved by the thought. So, one way or another, still counts as 4 kills.
Then it was just a matter of hiding in shadows again, looting the level, agreeing to free Frennedan (but actually leaving him there afterwards, locking the door behind me: his story didn’t add up), aggroing enemies from rooms I want to loot and sneaking my way back.
- Waukeen’s promenade: sold my loot, stole some scrolls and containers, visited the nearby inn : some angry dwarf asked me to leave his room, I agreed, but did not leave and pickpocketed his entire party before opening all locked chests. He did not react. (actually weird, I thought he would attack after a few rounds, it has been a long time since I did not kill this group). Spent my gold in the temple next door to bring my reputation to 14. Stole Ribald’s ring of regeneration.
- Met Gaelan Bayle (coo!), chapter 2 begins.
Chapter 2, part 1
Slums District I decided that, for once in all my runs, I should actually visit every house, talk to every named NPC:
- stole some stuff from Arledrian, disarmed/unlocked chests
- entered the boat-house next door, turned out to be a slaver’s hideout. Sneaked in, freed kids, aggroed enemies somewhere and cast Invisibility, looted the building, got out.
- not much to loot in the other empty houses (for lack of triggered quest)
- Copper Coronet: looted some pickpocketing gloves, sneaked backstage, stole a key from the beastmaster, freed Hendak and the other slaves, watched him one-shot Lehtinan. Doesn’t count as a kill in my book, just some very satisfying cause-and-effect. Got some nice Rep and XP for freeing all the slaves.
Graveyard District
This walkthrough is very strange in the order of completion, but it was night already, felt like taking a stroll in some tombs.
- Looted the normal tombs, and was happy to learn that those undead don’t follow you out after you disturbed their rest.
- In the large complex of tombs, I avoided many spiders, managed to steal a Spider figurine from Pai’na and hide in shadows again before she noticed me. Did the same with the nearby loot, then sneaked away with none the wiser.
- Visited another complex of tombs, filled with undead, except disarming some traps, not much to loot here.
- Back out, I rescued some poor fellow who has been buried alive. Local grave-digger told me to look in the bridge district to solve this.
City Gates
A quick visit to the gates district, just long enough to pickpocket a lich and raid the chests.
So I decided to go to the bridge district next, but first had to pay a visit to the Government district to buy myself a permit to take care of that "no spellcasting in the streets" rule.
On the way back from the Government district (I saved the actual looting of the district for later), I stumbled upon some thugs grouped around a wounded man.
A few spells made sure they were all disabled, and I quickly picked him up and left.
I forgot to take screenshots before, but here is my character after just a few hours of looting in Athkatla:
Next: Bridge District.
I am also considering which Stronghold to take :
- planar sphere, for the formidable loot (if I’m not wrong, only 2 deaths necessary : a demon, and Lavok himself) and nice but very costly rewards from students ?
- the thieves guild, way more appropriate RP-wise, also only 2 mandatory kill (Rayic Gethras, and Mae’Var himself), lots of golds and useful gear also for a sneaky character.
Bridge District
- looted all houses, even the big estate (the door on the ground floor is barred, but not the one on the first floor). Obviously avoided going through the Twisted Rune encounter.
- solved the skinner’s murders, and found the man who buried Tirdir alive, and rescued a kidnapped noble woman (couldn’t bother to get the ransom, since I forgot the golden pantaloons from BG1).
- I thought I deserved some quiet time, and thus decided to watch a stage play at the Five Flagon Inn. It was a disaster, and the director soon asked for help rescuing their main actor. I agreed to lend a hand.
Nothing else to do in the bridge district, after having looted all the houses.
The Docks
- Since it felt weird to travel with an unconscious man on my back, I decided to first head to the docks to bring Renfeld to his Harper friends.
- I met with an old acquaintance, Xzar, who asked me to help rescue Montaron. I agreed, remembering how they offered me their assistance when I first left Candlekeep.
- Talked to the Harper at the door, who agreed to let me in if I did a "small task" for him... He actually asked me to murder two mages in cold blood ! Who asks that ? There was no way I would stoop so low for a few potions randomly offered a few months back, and told Xzar that he should find someone else to run his errands. Last thing I want was to become Athkathla’s new serial killer. We saw what happened to the Tanner from the Bridge district.
- I then paid a visit to the local thieve’s guild to get some good honest burglary jobs. Renal Bloodscalp asked me to find dirt on his subordinate, Mae Var, who runs a branch of the Shadow Thieves in the lower part of the docks. Why everyone assumes I am their dry-cleaner is beyond me. I accepted the job nevertheless since I needed the money.
- I met Mae’Var. I soon understood why he gets on people’s nerves. That attitude ! Well, we’ll see who will laugh last. He decided to test me first : I am to pickpocket some necklace from a priest. Obviously, Mae’Var has no idea who he is talking to...
Temple District
- Made my way to Talos’ temple, stole the necklace from their highpriestess in broad daylight, sneaked back out. Easy. Just a regular week day for Jolluv Swiftfingers.
- Explored the Temple sewers, pickpocketed some adventurers, and found entrance to Mekrath’s lair.
- Sneaked my way into the mage’s quarters, found Haer’Dalis who seemed under a domination spell. I decided that a more direct approach would probably make better results, and simply asked Mekrath what his price would be to release Haer Dalis. Apparently, some imp stole a magic mirror and he wants it back.
- I stalked the Imp in the sewers, found him soon enough, sneaked behind him and stole the mirror back.
- Brought back the mirror to Mekrath who lamented that it was now broken. He then left to gather ingredients to mend the mirror, allowing me to loot the whole floor, and rescue Haer Dalis.
Back to the Bridge District, I reported to Raelis Shai and sold her Makrath’s gem.
She needed it to travel between planes, and asked for my help preventing anyone from disturbing her incantations.
I agreed, but the whole troup was soon discovered by their enemies and taken captives.
...
I thought I could sneak my way in, steal some stuff (most importantly : it is the only early fixed drop of a Flesh to Tone scroll, which I plan to use heavily once I hit lvl12), charm the Warden and pickpocket his key, then leave.
Problem is, I forgot the Warden was holding this :
I am really upset, because I carefully planned the fight, managed to isolate him from his thralls, let him waste his spells on me while polymorphed in Mustard Jelly (used the "infinite polymorph" trick earlier, where you time your transformation to the last 0.5 seconds before the spell runs out to have permanent access to the form you picked), managed to debuff him despite his high saving throws, only to see my lvl5 Domination spells have no effect.
I had to kill him and look at his loot to remember why he is immune to this spell.
So after 2 hours of careful planning and executing, I found myself having to load a previous save and avoid the planar prison entirely.
Instead, I looked into random drops and spent the next few hours reloading before entering Neera’s Hiding Refuge again and again until the Flesh to Stone scroll dropped in one of the containers....what a waste.
Chapter 2, followup:
So, Haer’Dalis left with his merry troup of interplanar actors, and after a visit to Neera’s Hidden Refuge, I came back to the city to make a name for myself as the best thief this land has carried.
- First stop, waukeen’s promenade where I stole many, many, many scrolls from merchants, scribed them all, hit lvl12 as a mage.
- Reported to Mae’Var, gave him Talo’s amulet, he seemed unimpressed and sent me to his second, a mage named Edwin, for reporting
- Edwin asked me to kill a Cowled Wizard. I faked agreeing with the task, sneaked into Rayic Gethras home, started hauling spells at him (Breach, Malison, Blindness, etc.), and finished the fight by Petrifying him
Rayic Gethras is actually out of sight, on the top right corner of the room, where he followed me after being hit by a blindness spell
- reported to Edwin, lied about killing Rayic Gethras, went back to the cowled wizard home and un-petrified him before running away.
- did a few other quests for Mae’Var’s guild, nothing challenging for my skills
- collected proof of Mae’Var’s trichery, reported to Renal Bloodscalp who asked me to kill the man. I reluctantly agreed, sneaked my way in, and backstabbed him to death before sneaking back out.
My first time actually killing a real person since Sarevok (although the game mechanics also count Rayic Gethras as a kill, despite him being alive and well, though quite angry at me).
- Reported to Renal Bloodscalp who gave me command of a thieve’s guild branch. At last, my skills are being put to good use. And money shall be flowing.
While my thieves go wreak havoc in my name, I decided to go back to the Temple district and help the Helmites with a few errands.
Temple District
- Got recruited to inquire about the Eyeless Cult
- The Helmites also asked me to gain the services from a renowned sculptor, Sir Sarles, for their benefit.
- Tried to convince Sir Sarles to use illithium alloy, but the man refused and left. It proved good enough for the Temple who rewarded me handsomely.
- The Helmites then asked me to help their colleagues from Lathander Temple recover some lost artifact. One that I did not steal, for once.
- Found the thief in the Slums, discreetely pickpocket him from the Ring of Dawn, and reported back to the Lathander priests.
- It was time to make my way through the sewers and find that Eyeless cult. Met with one of their commanding priests, Gaal, who asked me to retrieve some broken device from an underground temple.
- On my way there, an ex-cultist revealed the truth behind the Eyeless cult and the powerful device.
- Found the temple, healed the avatar of the forgotten god who gave me half of the device, asking me to bring it back after I have reunited it with its other part and used it against the Beholder behind the cult.
- Sneaked my way into the Beholder lair, found the device, got ambushed by the Unseeing Eye, used the device on him and fled (without killing the beast)
- Brought the device back to the forgotten god, who destroyed it and rewarded me for my bravery. I did not have the heart to tell him that the Beholder still lived on...
- Revealed my findings to Highwatcher Oisig, who refused to give me any reward while the Beholder still lived. Come on dude, I already did 90% of the job. Can’t you do this much ? Screw him, I am not his pawn, and if he is too much of a coward to do anything, why should I ? The hypocrit even dared to suggest I was a "lesser man”. I don’t take jokes about my size very well.
It was time to leave Athkatla for a few days.
I first checked on my thieve’s guild, got a nice return from my thieves and gave his cut to Renal’s subordinate.
Then, direction Windspear Hills:
Windspear Hills
- As soon as I arrived, was met by talkative yet aggressive Ogres and monsters.
- Turned invisibile and sneaked out of the fight, only to find the nearby cabin empty and access to the dungeon closed
... I thought I could rescue Garren’s child by sneaking, pickpocketing, charming and petrifying my way around Firkraag’s lair. Turns out I can’t even begin the quest unless I kill the paladins first. Forgot about that...
So, about possible quests with no kills:
Windspear Hills
- Rescue Garren's child: as stated above, impossible since you need to kill the paladins to trigger the quests and have Firkraag's dungeon available for exploration.
- Helping the captive dryads: done (about 10k XP)
Umar Hills
- Idle Hands in Imnesvalle = ok (2k XP)
- helping Madulf as well (27,5k XP + Shield of the Lost)
- Investigate the deaths in the Umar Hills: searching Merella's Hut grants some XP, exploring the Temple Ruins also allows for some XP and loot (solving the riddles by the statue, retrieving the child's bones, completing Amaunator's symbol). Can't complete the quest without killing the Shade Lord (and destroying the Altar as well, which counts as a kill in the game engine).
Trademeet
- could not help Tiris
- Could not resolve the Genies quest (did pickpocket Ihtafeer for the Periapt of Proof against Poison though)
- Resolved the Animal Trouble in Trademeet : gathered the clues, then Cernd - out of my party - challenged and defeated Faldorn
- could not start the Duelling Families quest, requires solving the Genies quest first
Came back to Athkatla and gave the 15.000 GP to Gaelan Bayle.
Chapter 3
- 1st task : no kill, since defeating Lassal just makes him leave. No way to keep Mook alive alas.
- 2nd task: I had to Petrify the Jaylos and Caehan (the 2 defectors), which counts as 2 kills in the game engine. Gracen does not need to be killed (although he did turn hostile no matter what I said, I thought he could be duped)
- 3rd task: actually, only Lassal needs to be killed. Once you use a wooden stake on his coffin, Bodhi shows up even if you did not kill the other names vampires. Obviously, defeating Bodhi (at this time at least) does not count as a kill.
Chapter 4
Here the body count starts to rise (so far, I only had 9 kills total : the 4 mephit portals in chapter 1, 2 to get the Thieve's Guild stronghold, 3 for Aran Linvail's tasks).
- Brynnlaw :
* can't save Ginia and her brother without killing Chemly
* Perth can be pickpocketed for his wardstone and Book of Infinite Spells
* Desharik can also be persuaded, to gain access to the Asylum without violence (I actually did both)
* Can't use Sanik or Claire to gain access, requires too many deaths (Sanik, for one, and at least Galvena and her wizard)
- Spellhold:
* not much to report before losing bhaal's powers, and getting tossed in the dungeon
* lvl 1 maze: can complete the 2 riddles for non-violent quest XP, I avoided the portal room and grabbed the Bag of Holding while the Golem was wandering the halls
* lvl 2 maze : getting Kurtulmak's crystal shard is tricky : after much trial and error, I noticed that you first have to make sure that all kobolds in the room are not in "visual range" of the altar (you actually don't have to kill them, just aggro them outside). Then, when the 2nd wave appears, only 4 kobolds need to die (the 3 named only "kobold" and the witch doctor, no need to kill the others). Once the 4 are dead (those are the ones that have an explosion animation upon death), the crystal shard automatically appears in your pack.
Another mandatory kill is Dace, for his hand. So 5 kills total for this level alone.
* lvl 3 maze: no kill on this level. Looted all the containers to get 15 tokens and (at last!) get myself some Boots of Speed. Also gulped an oil of speed on top of that to grab Gesen Bow String and leave the room before it closes.
* tests of sanity: this one almost made me crazy. I tried many combinations, trying all rooms and see if you do have to kill the spawning summons. Turns out you do... So, the minimal kill route is actually the "traditional" best route: first test = kill the 6 kobolds to have the Apparition show up, accept to submit to the test. 2nd test = kill the myconid (I petrified it) asap before it summons more. Answer the riddle correctly ("a splinter"). 3rd test = answer the questions correctly (no kill, yay). 4th test= only kill the Troll to collect his head (the shaman troll and spectral troll can be ignored). Optionaly, put the head on the altar to get the magical club.
* Lonk the Sane can be bribed for 2.000 GP to avoid a useless fight
* Battle against Irenicus needs no kill (although the inmates death are inevitable). Once Irenicus fled, I quickly hid in shadows and left.
I decided to take the portal to the Underdark, since the longer route requires killing (at the very least, the Ettin needs to be defeated. I don't remember if, when siding with the rebel prince, simply waiting is enough to defeat the King, or if he must be killed first for the Prince to show up).
So, all in all, Chapter 4 required 13 deaths : 4 kobolds for Kurtulmak's crystal, Dace, 6 kobolds, 1 myconid and 1 troll in the tests of sanity.
With the quest XP, scrolls/locks/traps, I had 3,6 million XP by the end of Chapter 4.
Chapter 5
- Underdark :
* stole all the scrolls from the merchants, sneaked into the Svirfneblin village, stole the Gem to get to Adalon.
* Adalon scolded me but cast her spell. Once I left Adalon's Lair though, all Svirfneblin died !
* Quickly visited the drow city, stole all the merchandise, left and directly went to the Exit (had a summon make a diversion for the Kuo Toa, since they can see through my invisibility), convinced the guards to let me through (say that there is an impending elven attack, then that the Matron Mothers would be angry. Need high reaction score to pull through).
And so I left the Underdark about 15 minutes after first entering it. A first for me !
Chapter 6
- I avoided recruiting help against Bodhi. No need for unnecessary casualties.
- Visited the Adventurer's mart and bought all the scrolls (had to resort to a few selling-stealing sessions) and some gear. Hit 4,5 million XP, and lvl8 mage spells (I don't think there is a single available scroll in any shop in Amn ^^ Maybe I overdid it a bit...)
- Bodhi's Lair: access to the 2nd level is blocked, the 5 named vampires have to die (I tried with only the 3 who end up in the coffins, it was not enough). Then, obviously, you have to kill Bodhi (did not bother with the rest. Mislead has been my best friend since Spellhold).
I then grabbed the Rhynn Lanthorn and reported to Elhan.
Chapter 7, part 1
- Suldanessalar: no kill necessary, the items for the ritual and access to the tree of life can be looted without violence. I even gave Nizidramanii'yt all my gold (you need at least 30k GP to get the option... I did not know that beforehand... I had to go back to the city and sell-steal stuff) in exchange for the Goblet.
- Tree of Life : the elemental guardians (6 in total) must be killed before facing Irenicus.
- Irenicus himself : it actually took me quite a while to defeat him, despite my debuffs, he kept making saves against spells like Symbol, Stun, but in the end failed his save against a lvl 1 blindness... Ah well, whatever works. Oh, and his death doesn't actually counts as death in the game engine.
Tomorrow : the hell trials and final showdown against Irenicus.
Right now, my character sheet states that I have 34 kills so far in BG2. 2 of them would have been avoidable if I skipped the thief stronghold, and it could be argued that a few of them are not really kills (the portals and the petrified enemies).
Ofc you hvae to steal Algernon's cloak but as a thief that should be np.
With Dav it also can take quite a few tries with his saves, it is doable on no reload with clever use of stealth, line of sight and resting but much more comfortable with reloads.
In BG1, there are 9 unavoidable deaths.
In BG2, if I am not mistaken, 34 altogether
In ToB : killed Illasera (1 kill), and tested around a bit for the first Pocket plane challenges, where enemies keep spawning.
I realised that you don't actually have to kill them again and again, there seems to be a timer, and once the timer expires you just have to kill the remaining ones and the challenge is completed.
The first wave was 4 or 5 commoners for me, if I remember correctly, and just had to kill those. I'll try a few times again to see if there is a workaround to kill even less enemies.
Not sure how this minimal kills will work in the rest of ToB. There seem to be so many mandatory deaths.
Just on the top of my head :
- group of soldiers in saradush, Gromnir and probably his goons
- Yaga shura (no other kill mandatory to get there I think)
- many enemies in Sendai's enclave (at least 3 drow captains for 1st entrance and other keys, a lich, ogremoch & the drow priestess' group, and of course Sendai 8 times...).
- Abazigal's lair has fewer mandatory kills : Draconis, a few enemies for loot (breath potion, keys), Abazigal himself.
- off course, all pocket plane challenges (well, they are pertaining becoming the Lord of Murder...)
- Balthazar
- many enemies in the final battle, culminating with Amelissan herself.
I guess that makes around 30 to 50 kills necessary for ToB. Which is more than BG1 and BG2 together.