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

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  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited October 2020
    'Long-life challenge' - shaman {43} (hour 3)
    Previous updates at:
    The first act in the session was to draw some spiders out of their house and dance up spirits to deal with them - taking me to level 8, with yet another 10 HPs :D.
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    I grabbed the pantaloons before heading to the coast to find some sirines - nymphs making those pretty easy.
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    Shooting down the golems got me access to the constitution tome to activate regeneration.

    After a quick shopping trip, I decided it was time to tackle the main quest. Slinging and Fogs took me through to Mulahey, where I was spoilt for choice with options. I decided to go for a first use of Spirit Fires on him, while a Fog cut down most of Mulahey's would-be rescuers. Mulahey himself panicked and ran into the Fog to finish himself off.
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    More area damage then sorted out the Amazons.
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    In Nashkel, Nimbul failed to survive the probing hands of a couple of nymphs even long enough to get hammered by lightning.
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    Nymphly hands were even more deadly against Tranzig - causing deadly wounds there.
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    With time starting to run short, I went for speed at the Bandit Camp, using lightning to take down opponents without bothering about minimising damage taken. Taurgosz was the last of the first tranche of victims there before I rested.
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    Nymphs then waited outside the tent to ambush anyone brave enough to chase me. Venkt was the last to go - he was dominated and then waited patiently to see how many of the five bolts of lightning he could survive (one).
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    After selling surplus loot, there was just enough time to run through the Cloakwood to the mine - where Drasus will have to wait a bit longer to meet his nemesis.

    Shaman 8, 76 HPs, 187 kills
    Wise_GrimwaldEnuhalBlackraven
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    @Grond0 Looks like playing a shaman is very different. An intersting write up.
    Grond0
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    edited October 2020
    Journal of Wyrmbane

    After we killed the basilisks and Mutamin we were joined by Shar-Teel.
    We hunted ankheg to pay for some Shadow Armour and The Army Scythe. Strangely, for an evil character she was not fazed by our reputation of 20.

    We killed Droth and Shoal and then with the help of Hal's True Sight we killed some sirine.
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    Ajantis and Dynaheir then joined us and we went to Durlag's Tower where wand of frost was highly effective .
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    Shar-Teel pick-pocketted Kirinhale's spear and we then went for the kill but Kirinhale escaped by leaving our plane.

    Shar-Teel was badly injured after being poisoned by a phase spider and Ajantis was badly injured by a skeleton warrior. Nevertheless, we are all still alive. :)
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    There is still one of the warders riddles left to solve but that will have to await another time. We are now resting at the Carnival and once we are fully prepared the Nashkel Mines await.

    Shar-Teel now has two suits of armour to wear. Durlag's Plate when her role is a fighter and Shadow Armour for when she needs to act as a thief.

    EDIT

    In the mines we joined up with Xan before dealing with Mulahey.

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    Upon leaving we killed the Amazons before leaving Xan in the safety of the Carnival. At Beregost Officer Vai took nearly two dozen bandit scalps off our hands.
    Post edited by Wise_Grimwald on
    Grond0AerakarBlackravenEnuhal
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Pearl, Ruva, Valos, Rila Lira, Poppy, and Yi Grovana in IWD2:EE
    Part 3

    Time to tackle the Horde Fortress! Since we finally have a little breathing room, I decide to go ahead and create our final, 6th party member, a mage.
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    Yi Grovana is an old name with a new portrait. The EE specialist schools are changed up, and as a Necromancer, Yi will only lose out on Conjuration spells.

    We have to be super careful since Yi only has 5 HP and a single hit can kill her. But then, our primary tank, Valos, is also pretty easy to kill in Insane mode.
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    She was wounded when this hit landed, but still, these half-goblins don't even need to roll critical hits to deal 30+ damage. We lose most of our remaining funds bringing Valos back.

    Trugnuk has always been a very scary encounter in IWD2, as he comes bolstered with multiple spellcasters and LOTS of fighters. As I nearly always do, I summon monsters and then sneak over to Trugnuk's band. This is a tricky encounter with multiple competing threats: we use Entangle to thwart the enemies coming in from the west, a party-friendly Web spell to disrupt the spellcasters to the east, send Valos to shut down Trugnuk's spells with the Moonblade, and have our primary damage dealer, Ruva, slash up the War Drum before any enemies can use it to summon enemy worg riders. We fail to snare a couple of Ice Trolls, who easily land hits on Ruva. Only Ruva's crazy maximum HP keeps her safe.
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    Trugnuk can't do much with the Moonblade bearing down on him, and Valos thankfully dodges the one Call Lightning spell with her Mirror Image pre-buff (as a deep gnome she gets a free casting of the spell once per day). Once the drum is gone, Ruva marches over to help clear up the spellcasters to the east before the Web spell wears off, and we keep throwing out area-effect disablers to keep the pressure off of our vulnerable spellcasters and keep the fighters to the west safely pinned down. When the coast is clear, Pearl, our druid, helps clear the field with Rainstorm.
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    An unfortunate crash forces us to repeat the fight, which we badly mismanage. Thankfully some dense layering of party-friendly Web spells in a narrow area held down both enemy spellcaster and fighter and our sorcerer barely clung to life with Mirror Image.

    We suffer another two avoidable deaths in the goblin warrens when I fail to appreciate how vulnerable Pearl is to Flame Arrows, which hit very hard and bypass AC. Yi Grovana also died, less surprisingly. We actually had to sell off some stuff just to afford the resurrections.

    Yi Grovana is an elf and can only be raised by Resurrection (when we're at a healer, anyway; things will be different when our own cleric can cast Raise Dead), which is far more expensive. Mercifully, Yi is low-level and so the cost is only so high. Otherwise elves can be very pricey to revive.

    We chop through a bunch of fights by relying on Web, Spider Spawn, and Valos and Ruva's tanking abilities (thankfully we're about done with half-goblins and their high attack bonuses). We hit level 7, getting level 4 cleric and druid spells and allowing our druid to finally use polar bear form, which gives her an extra attack per round and sky-high Strength.

    The problem is the rooftop battle, which is very long and has more enemies than we've EVER faced before. And since I don't like fleeing fights in IWD2, we have to clear the field before we can leave.

    It's ugly.
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    Seeing Yi Grovana die again is no surprise. But in a grim repudiation of my faith in the Toughness feat, Ruva is getting thrashed, and she is trapped. Even Ruva can't chop through enemies fast enough to get to safety.

    We need to get Rila Lira, our cleric, over to Ruva so she can heal up our best fighter. Ruva is our best hope of actually putting down these enemies, and if we can get our cleric close enough, we can spam spontaneously cast healing spells to repair her.

    But that will take a little time, and right now our cleric can't reach her. Instead, Rila Lira casts Hold Monster, and since we're no longer in Shaengarne and not every enemy in sight has rage immunities, she can actually freeze a lot of critters here.
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    It won't be enough, though; we've got even more enemies coming in from the west, and archers attacking from the east. This area is a terrifying mix of melee fighters, archers, and spellcasters both arcane and divine.

    Finally we do enough chopping to break free, though our cleric is occupied for the moment. With Ruva out of the crowd, our sorcerer, Poppy, uses a Fireball scroll we've been hoarding for emergencies. Valos' monk level lets her dodge the whole thing by making a Reflex save.
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    The enemy launches a Fireball of their own, but Ruva is out of range--though Pearl suffers for it. Finally, finally we get Ruva to our healer.

    Spontaneous casting ignores aura, and Improved Initiative gives us a -1 bonus to casting speed--and healing spells are very quick. In seconds, our cleric restores over 100 HP, and our fighter is back up to speed. Our other party members are struggling, though; we haven't been able to keep all the enemy mages webbed.
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    We withdraw from the Web now that the field is a bit more clear and we start chipping away at the enemy. Pearl uses winter wolf form to deal area-effect cold damage from afar; we do NOT want to wrestle with the Verbeegs and their deadly Knockdown spells.
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    The enemy is too hobbled to break us. We stay afloat with potions and healing spells and fight from a safe distance while most of the survivors are struggling to move. Every little number counts; IWD2 is very much a game of optimizing numbers.

    Once the field is clear, we soldier on and head west to finish off the enemies--I could slip away and rest, but for purism reasons I want to take down everything in the area first, even if we're low on spells. We use some Burning Oils and Snilloc's Snowball Swarms to get some early kills on the archers so they won't use up their valuable magic ammunition--I want that for gold fodder.
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    This section of the fight isn't nearly as intense, so we can get by without full buffs and our best spells. It's just cleanup at this point.

    With the rooftop bloody and the battlefield quiet, we head home to resurrect our flimsy elf. The leader of the horde, Guthma, waits for us to return. We have some bugbears to kill.
    AerakarGrond0Wise_Grimwald
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 996
    Enuhal said...
    I decided not to do so yet - this turned out to be a mistake, at least for BG1.

    While I only play unmodded and core rules, it is rarely BG 1 that sets me back. In fact, most times, if I do fail a run, it's usually in ToB. In order to get that far (especially on SCS) will take a great amount of consistency on your part, so if you do end up succeeding, it will still be well earned, even if BG 1 was nearly routine. Just my 2 cents, anyways!
    Wise_GrimwaldGrond0Enuhal
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    Enuhal wrote: »
    ...
    I'll try to write an update every day, but I won't go into too much detail, mostly because I hardly remember anything about the early parts of the run, having started over half a year ago.

    It's too late for this run, but general advice for any run you might post: keep a log of events as you play. It doesn't have to be anything fancy; I just use a plain text file describing what happened and marking where I took screenshots. Then refer back to the log when writing the posts.
    Wise_GrimwaldEnuhal
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 996
    jmerry wrote: »
    Enuhal wrote: »
    ...
    I'll try to write an update every day, but I won't go into too much detail, mostly because I hardly remember anything about the early parts of the run, having started over half a year ago.

    It's too late for this run, but general advice for any run you might post: keep a log of events as you play. It doesn't have to be anything fancy; I just use a plain text file describing what happened and marking where I took screenshots. Then refer back to the log when writing the posts.

    Another way to do basically the same thing is to take lots of screenshots. You wouldn't necessarily have to use all the screenshots in your posts, but they would clue you in on what you did, and also the portraits can clue you in on other events - characters confused, dead, etc.
    Grond0EnuhalWise_Grimwaldsemiticgoddess
  • EnuhalEnuhal Member Posts: 920
    I do have over 300 screenshots already - if something major, such as a character death, the main character getting hit by a disabling status effect, a chapter-ending battle etc. happens, there's always at least one screenshot of the event, often multiple ones - but I mostly won't be able to reconstruct exact battle sequences from these, and a lot of minor quests and battles get lost. However, since I've done hundreds of battle reports in earlier runs and I rarely completely change my strategies, I feel like only significant milestones, failures and unusual approaches require a more detailed write-up at this point.

    As for taking notes, sadly, I'm just way too lazy for that :smile: One time many years ago, I planned on taking detailed notes and writing RP descirptions for one run, but I stopped after just a couple of sessions because it felt like too much work to me.
    Grond0BlackravenAerakarCorey_Russell
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    'Long-life challenge' - shaman {43} (hour 7)
    Previous updates at:
    In the SoD prologue, Porios was as usual intimidated into surrendering. PfU allowed me to kill 3 groups of undead without difficulty. Mainly that was using melee, but I kept Spirit Fire back to catch the invisible wraith in - in fact a single one of those was sufficient thanks to the double damage against spectral undead.
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    That left a number available for the group of mercenaries blocking the way to Korlasz - entangle helping to lock them into place while damage rained down.
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    I rested before assaulting Korlasz - those deadly nymph touches were at it again there.
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    The nymphs didn't last long after that, but retreating to the Flaming Fist and summoning some spirits completed the victory.
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    In the City various NPCs were killed and their equipment sold off to supplement the 62k or so worth of items in my containers. The only quests done were to grab the Spectacles and retrieve some wine to get the Battle Tankard, to be able to avoid fatigue against Belhifet when using restoration scrolls. Apart from potions and scrolls I bought the Buckler of the Fist - that's not only a good shield in SoD, but will reappear again in SoA if you have it in your inventory (not a bag) at the end of SoD.

    There was just time to do the battle at the Coast Way Forest, although that didn't turn out as intended. I mis-clicked on the conversation and fought Tsolak rather than helping him (missing out on the regeneration ioun stone, though that's not much use to this character anyway). I could have just retreated, but decided to run the gauntlet of traps to go and stake the vampire.
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    On the way back to the Coast Way Crossing I came across some orcs and trolls. I wanted the Firefly sling from that encounter, but thought the few minutes available wouldn't have been sufficient to fight everything there - so just recovered it invisibly. That meant there was still time to give Takos back his heirlooms - and take back the identification mirror as a reward - before saving.

    Shaman 10, 88 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 340 kills
    AerakarEnuhalBlackravenMantis37
  • JabberwockJabberwock Member Posts: 75
    Enuhal wrote: »

    I'm frustrated by ToB in general, even without SCS (so just uninstalling the improved lairs wouldn't be helpful for me) - in vanilla mode, it feels like 90% of the expansion is the Bhaalspawn somewhat effortlessly, but tediously wading through hordes of enemies (oh, how I hate Sendai's Enclave), while 10% of the time you have to stay super alert to avoid getting oneshot by bosses like Draconis. Very uneven, and overall not very exciting to me. SoA-style gameplay with fewer, but more unique encounters is certainly more enjoyable in my opinion.

    I hear that. I've finished I and II many times but never managed to get through ToB. I always get bored somewhere around whatever is past the fire giant temple. Every fight is like 10 minutes of prep for 1 minute of combat, and stressful because you have to worry that you missed an immunity somewhere or some mage casts a wish or some monster has a special ability you weren't prepared for...

    Anyway; trying to commit to not getting bored in ToB so I can at least get to throne - even if my party wipes there.

    The only other thing I really don't like in SCS is the lich in spellhold..
    Grond0EnuhalBlackraven
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    edited October 2020
    Journal of Wyrmbane

    After the killing of Mulahey and rescue of Xan we escaped the mine only to be attacked by ogrillon when we attempted to sleep.
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    They were wiped out as was the party of Lamalha.
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    In Nashkel Minsc joined us and we left Xan there.

    We headed to Firewine Bridge and killed Melium and Khark.
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    We went in search of the bandit camp and when resting were attacked by two parties of three ankheg
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    At the camp Taurgosz was killed.
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    Web and silence were effective in the tent.
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    And on the way to kill Tranzig we ran into an ogre followed by Deke and some more bandits.
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    Tranzig was no problem. We then looted the bandit camp and proceeded to Cloakwood.
    Post edited by Wise_Grimwald on
    Grond0EnuhalAerakar
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    edited October 2020
    Journal of Wyrmbane

    On the way to Cloakwood we killed an ogre with a belt fetish.

    In Cloakwood I proved that the name that I had been given was quite apt.

    The mines had no major problems.

    Hareishan's spells proved to be no match for those of Dynaheir.
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    Nor did Natasha's.
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    However, a confusion spell cast by an ogre mage was more of a problem. Only I remained unconfused. I fled from the others after the mage had been killed and waited until the spell wore off.
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    Upon facing Davaeorn, Dynaheir summoned some monsters. Minsc followed them and after talking with Davaeorn he moved to a side room. Davaeorn blasted the monsters first with a lightning bolt and then a fireball.
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    This wiped them out. Minsc then approached by himself and was charmed. We waited until the charm wore off and attacked. He had no answer other than summoning a few monsters who were dispatched once he was dead.

    However an ettercap did poison Minsc. As he was enraged he couldn't use a potion so Dynaheir had to step in to help.
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    Once the enemy were dead we kept out of his way until he calmed down.

    We will take our wyrm trophies to the temple before proceeding to Baldur's Gate.
    AerakarGrond0EnuhalMantis37
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Eyulf, brief final update

    Eyulf has entered my Hall of Zeroes. He weathered the perils of the Isle of Balduran, thwarted Sarevok's coup at the Ducal Palace, and even defeated his half-brother in his own hideout, only to succumb in melee combat to a gargantuan spider's Sleep attack at the Coastway Crossing in SoD. Safana was with him, but she couldn't save him.
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    I had forgotten all about that ability.
    EnuhalGrond0Wise_GrimwaldMantis37
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    Blackraven wrote: »
    Eyulf, brief final update

    Eyulf has entered my Hall of Zeroes. He weathered the perils of the Isle of Balduran, thwarted Sarevok's coup at the Ducal Palace, and even defeated his half-brother in his own hideout, only to succumb in melee combat to a gargantuan spider's Sleep attack at the Coastway Crossing in SoD. Safana was with him, but she couldn't save him.
    122txsr0smuf.png
    I had forgotten all about that ability.
    Blackraven wrote: »
    Eyulf, brief final update

    Eyulf has entered my Hall of Zeroes. He weathered the perils of the Isle of Balduran, thwarted Sarevok's coup at the Ducal Palace, and even defeated his half-brother in his own hideout, only to succumb in melee combat to a gargantuan spider's Sleep attack at the Coastway Crossing in SoD. Safana was with him, but she couldn't save him.
    122txsr0smuf.png
    I had forgotten all about that ability.

    I hadn't forgotten about it. I didn't even know that it existed!!
    Blackravensemiticgoddess
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Blackraven wrote: »
    I hadn't forgotten about it. I didn't even know that it existed!!

    Happened to me in one of my first times in SoD. I've always dealt with those spiders with ranged attacks since then. But it had been a while for me to reach SoD so.... ;)
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    @Enuhal It's getting rather crowded in Baldur'd Gate at the moment. There's you, Wyrmbane, Wacky and Voka just to start with. :)
    Grond0Enuhal
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