I have discovered that I cannot dual a barbarian to a mage which is what I intended to do. Since I have barely started my game I will therefore start a new one with a kensai instead of a barbarian.
I have discovered that I cannot dual a barbarian to a mage which is what I intended to do. Since I have barely started my game I will therefore start a new one with a kensai instead of a barbarian.
You can install Anthology Tweaks' expanded dual class options component to enable Barbarians (and Wild Mages) to dual-class.
@Blackraven I used to have loads of mods such as that one installed. Currently I am playing a virtually unmodded game. All I have changed is to give Gorion's body a bag of holding, made Ajantis an Inquisitor, and installed Xan's New Groove. However, since I don't usually have Xan in my party, that effect is minimal. I have therefore restarted and used an unkitted fighter instead of the barbarian. No big deal.
Having the game virtually unmodded has made it fresh again in much the same way as adding mods made it fresh in the past.
We retrieved Joia's ring for her and upon discovering Sonner's true nature killed him easily before returning Tenya's Bowl and killing a nearby ankheg.
Marcia was hurt when we were attacked by hobgoblins.
After arriving at the FAI we were attacked by a mage assassin who was quickly made harmless by the use of "Command."
We headed south to High Hedge where we helped Mellicamp.
We then headed west where we met Shoal. Droth put me to sleep and then charmed Marcia. Together Marcia and Droth killed Maxine. At that point the charm wore off and Droth chased Marcia. She outdistanced him and returned to me keeping well out of sight of Droth. The two of us then slept after killing Shoal. Killing Shoal had caused Marcia to level up so she now had the silence spell. That spell made Droth relatively harmless, and though the battle was still tough, he fell to our assault on him.
[In future perhaps this should be left until we have better armour. We wouldn't then have to leave with the job only half-done.]
We went to the FAI where Maxine was raised before heading south where an ogre with a belt fetish was killed.
In Beregost we calmed Marl down and took a tome to Firebead.
We then discovered that Silke was evil, so it was her that we killed, not those that she wanted us to kill.
Upon entering the nearby Inn we killed Karlat when he picked a fight with us.
We then went in search of Bassilus who was made relatively harmless with the use of Silence and Command.
Upon going to the temple, Maxine reached level 3 whereupon she dualled to a mage.
It was her who disabled the ogrillon to the south with a sleep spell.
They were then easy to dispose of.
To deal with the Flaming Fist however needed all of our spells.
The hobgoblins to the south were no problem so we were able to pick up the Colquetle Amulet.
In Nashkel I found myself some ankheg armour, I turned down a rewards from Oublek and had a chat with Noober.
Once more we needed all our spells when we fought Zordral.
Killing Greywolf was easier than expected as an animal got between us and I was able to deliver the final blow with a throwing axe.
On to Watcher's Keep level 3. We have a randomized maze, and we are walking into every room without buffs - because I just can't stand spending several minutes with buffing up my party and just randomly walking into a no-magic zone, losing all of my buffs instantly - luckily, we have our enhanced bard song and many item-based immunities, if needed.
Thanks to SCS, I find the hardest battle down here to be the big glabrezu room - so many summon, so many cloud spells. Easy to get overwhelmed. Important to get improved Haste on Cadrax and start casting breach spells in order to get rid of a few of the summoning fiends ASAP:
Rowin clearing up the summons via death spell, twice, allowed my fighter-types the space to win this battle for me:
For the two major demon battles, the bard's song did great work, keeping my fighters protected as they rushed the named foes with GWWs while Rowin prepared to clean up the remaining enemies during a timestop:
Rowin used another timestop against the Demon Wraith in order to safely Spellstrike his buffs, making him vulnerable to our melee attacks:
We lost every single game against the Cambion. Oh well. On to level 4.
We cleared out the githyanki and prepared for the demi-lich. I decided to only enter with party members capable of gaining immunity against imprisonment or other types of strong spell protections, so Dassareth and Khelbara had to wait outside. Once again, I decided to go aggressive with spellstrikes + breach, and soon, we were able to hit and interrupt the demi-lich, and we only had to breach away his contingency PFMW once again to achieve victory:
Another dragon battle, mostly won by fighter HLAs, soon followed:
No trouble with the mind flayers or early WK lvl 5 - the three groups of guardians at the end remained.
Azamantes was our first target, and since we used precise trap locations to kill him instantly, there wasn't much of a battle - and the loot was amazing, as we finally have the Robe of Vecna and The Ravager +6 at our disposal.
For the mixed party, I used my traps to take down the succubus, avoiding any type of creeping death spell. My fighter-types were positioned to take down the cleric immediately, and we soon had only the hive mother and the marilith to deal with - and got quite lucky, as the hive mother got vorpaled by The Ravager +6, turning this into a very short battle:
Also, for maybe the first time in my runs, I was able to take down the Aurumach Rilmani before he managed to cast time stop:
We're done with WK, and some great items have been gained. Next time, we will hopefully put them to good use in Sendai's Enclave.
@Enuhal, I can see an Undead Hunter joining many others in the Hall! Good job in Watcher's Keep. Does the demi-lich cast imprisonment in your install? I can't remember if SCS bans demi-liches from casting Imprisonment altogether or only on Charname.
@Wise_Grimwald, nice to see your Helmites on the road again! I started a new game after the Ducal Palace fiasco with my priestess of Helm. I hope to be able to report some progress this week.
@Blackraven I'm not entirely sure - he never attempted to cast imprisonment, but then again, he didn't get much of a chance, and he might have realized that everyone was immune to the spell, so trying would be pointless. The SCS readme claims that demi-liches can still cast imprisonment at will and they can do so in the same round they're casting other spells in, but there's a -5 death save (if the save succeeds, you still get level drained). I didn't see that happening, though.
However, I can 100% confirm that this SCS version does not ban Imprisonment from enemy spellbooks. Might be that they don't like to use it against the player character (the readme claims that the PC should never be targeted by imprisonment), but they don't show any reluctance against party members - as you might see in an upcoming post.
Regular wizard imprisonment - sure, spellcasting demiliches will use that just as much as any other mage of their level. They won't ever target the PC unless you mess with the ini before installation, but anyone else in the party is fair game.
The special demilich "Trap the Soul" innate ability - that's different. SCS wipes the vanilla script that would cast that spell and gives them a mage script instead. Search my install's script for creature "demilich" ... no hits for "soul", no hits for SPIN788. Same for creature "hldemi".
Well, OK, there is one circumstance that will have Kangaxx using Trap the Soul. If you leave his tomb and he follows you outside, he'll use it on bystanders. There is absolutely no way for either demilich in the main campaign to use their innate Imprisonment variant on party members if you install the "Improved Mages" and "Spellcasting Demiliches" components.
This seems to be an oversight in the mod. They have the ability, so they should be using it.
Incidentally, that level drain on a successful save? Not actually present.
@jmerry Checks out. I was wondering in previous runs, where I definitely had unprotected party members present for this battle, why they didn't get hit with Trap the Soul. Good to know!
Dassareth, Undead Hunter with a custom party, Update 21
No trouble clearing Sendai's Enclave until we ran into Odamaron and his disciples, who are an SCS addition. Rowin started with Time Stop in order to hit Odamaron with two spellstrikes and a breach, allowing Dassareth to charge in and vorpal him to death:
However, being focused on the named mob, we didn't do anything to interrupt the second active lich in the room. With some of the party distracted by taking out the other undead, this lich was able to cast his timestop before I was able to get rid of his defenses - and he immediately followed this up with imprisonment on Khelbara (which makes a lot of sense - Cadrax had his rage going, Rowin both SI:A and a Spell Trap, and the others were too far away for a lich with his slow movement speed) - at the time, I thought that this could've been the end of my run if Dassareth would've been in melee range, but now, knowing that imprisonment isn't targeted at player characters in SCS, this doesn't seem as scary. It was easy to kill the lich, return to Amkethran, get a freedom scroll and get back Khelbara.
Moving on, the Prince of Earth didn't get past my Hardiness HLAs, and my prepared traps weren't needed. I sent a planetar into the other room to weaken the enemy and draw out some spells, but... well, he killed and vorpaled everything except for the still-neutral drow priestess:
Winning the duel and dealing with more mind flayers wasn't especially noteworthy, so we moved on to Sendai. In this version, she has quickly-activating clones - but I have tons of damaged, and I discovered during this battle that her mage versions usually never use mantle/improved mantle/absolute immunity, but only PFMW - so I was able to deal with them without dispelling their buffs by switching to "excellent" weapon types (normal weapons with a +1 bonus, added by SCS instead of most of the magical +1 weapons). I also had the help both of a Planetar of Justice (thanks to the Dorn quest - got one for her and for Abazigal) and my own Planetar, mostly dealing with the summoned drow:
In my previous run, I had trouble keeping up with the number of drow and Sendai clones - but this time, the two planetars and three fighter types, with their high APR, vorpal chances and insane damage, were able to clean everything up, including the second mage clone:
When the real Sendai appeared, Rowin used his spell trigger and sequencer to get rid of her defenses, and while she did manage to hurt the party a bit with an ADHW, she didn't survive for long:
I'm running a party of 6 with a Seer cleric as Charname and I had so much trouble resolving Jaheira's questline and getting her to leave the party without getting upset with us (due to thinking the Harper Hold questline was still unresolved) that I just straight up nailed her with Disintegrate and sent her to Khalid.
The run has been incredibly smooth due to me playing with a full party and no special gimmicks like a poverty run, especially since I've been taking advantage of NPC XP scaling to solo the game for a while and then recruit other NPCs at sky-high XP. We're at 4.5 million XP in Suldannessellar, without touching Watcher's Keep. The Seer kit makes for a nice glass cannon build--excellent THAC0 and lots of critical hits, but very vulnerable to enemy critical hits, since it can't wear helmets even after Use Any Item and has low HP.
I've been toying with the idea of using Divine Shield to enable permanent Slayer form, but I might save that trick for a solo run. Right now it's kind of pointless because our party is already stupidly overpowered. In fact, being in Slayer form would only marginally improve Charname's damage output, just because a Seer cleric can combine DUHM with speed weapons!
This time around, Draconis turned out to be a poor guardian - without the dragon bonus HP and my ability to quickly get rid of magical defenses, he failed to do anything dangerous, except for hitting Galderan, who unwisely wandered into melee combat, once:
I took the lizardmen fights quite a bit more seriously in this playthrough, making sure to quickly go after their spellcasters and interrupt them with whatever they remained vulnerable too, avoiding insect plagues and time stops. Thus, I was able to make it to the quadruple dragon ambush without trouble. I prepared two sets of traps in order to weaken or kill the two initial dragons. Turns out that they do not survive three spike traps on these settings, so, upon reentering the lair area, I was instantly teleported to the field of battle and had to face the green dragon without any buffs. I felt lucky to have my undispellable enhanced bard song with its crucial immunities (especially immunity to fear) - the party ended up getting hit by a breath attack and some melee hits, and we were drinking a few potions while also establishing the most important buffs:
Carnifex appeared, and we didn't have any fire protection established, only what we could gain from items. I had to power through with fighter HLAs and healing potions while trying to keep the party alive - he was able to use two breath weapons before his death, and some party members came close to dying, but in the end, everybody survived:
Next up, we entered the Cave of Eyes, where we had to deal with the Tyrant Golems. With no good permanent protections available against their attacks and no way to kite them, I checked our saving throws and found both Dassareth and Cadrax - with a few item adjustements - to be safe when it came to going into melee combat and taking them down by themselves:
Abazigal remained, and we buffed up to the max before facing him. Before taking down his human form, we made sure to get rid of everything else in the room, while we still had all of our buffs:
Upon Abazigals transformation, we quickly got rid of his almost unprotected mate, and Rowin started his time stop to remove the dragon's buffs, allowing our melees to do their job:
As you can see, Abazigal did in fact use his remove magic, though he only affected Dassareth and Cadrax, as Khelbara was out of range at the time and the others were protected in some way. I renewed their improved haste buffs immediately, and we were able to take down Abazigal before he could errect another set of defenses:
All that remained was returning to Amkethran in order to convince Balthazar to join us.
I also completed the remaining pocket plane challenges. The Ravager is noteworthy for being one of the few foes capable of surviving 7 spike traps, though he is generally near death at this point, and a few hits are enough to take him down:
Next time, the dreaded Ascension battle awaits us at the Throne of Bhaal.
I spent a long time getting my buffs ready for the Ascension battle, getting little advantages such as several types of potions I hadn't used since SoD. In expectation of getting dispelled multiple times, my spellbooks were focused on the most crucial buffs and effects, and I had a bunch of scrolls with me for important defensive spells such as Stoneskin, MI, PFMW and the like in case I would run out of my regular arsenal. We started with an immediate success, as I was able to pause the game and have Sentenza place a time trap before Melissan started giving her speech:
Rowin's initial 3*ADHW chain contingency triggered, hitting Bodhi first and heavily damaging all of her allies - a great start for us:
I made sure to pause frequently, so I wouldn't get surprised by a remove magic, making me vulnerable to some kind of fallen solar vorpal hit, while Rowin was casting his initial time stop (which didn't take all that long, because of his Robe of Vecna + AoP combo). Before that, the fallen solar moved into range of Sentenza's time trap, which spelled his doom - at this point, I realized how incredibly powerful time stop effects are in Ascension if you have Balthazar with you (as he is immune to time stop) and Melissan hasn't appeared yet (as she is the only enemy here not affected by it). During the course of both the time trap and Rowin's time stop, Balthazar and our two spellcasters easily destroyed the Fallen Solar and Bodhi (well, and Imoen, sadly), and Jon couldn't do much on his own, getting his defenses dispelled via Wands of Spell Striking (no reason to waste any spellslots - I had used not a single charge of these wands so far, so plenty of them to go around):
I used my remaining damage-dealing traps (and I had quite a lot) for the three following demon battles, though I made sure to spread them out, so I always had a decent amount of demons surviving. I made sure to avoid meleeing any Balors without Death Ward up, and I made sure to always have Chaotic Commands or some other kind of charm immunity ready on everybody. Balors are still somewhat scary - you never know if some bad timings can get the combo of dispel + vorpal hit on you before you can react - but not even nearly as troublesome as back in the Underdark:
Moving quickly and getting to restore my spells allowed me to be at full power again when preparing for the final battle - The Five plus Amelyssan. I summoned a planetar and magical swords, placed my remaining time traps (and one explosive trap to the left, just for fun), buffed up with everything I thought I could need and started. My opening move: Using the two Protection from Magic scrolls I had saved up from early SoA on Sendai and Abazigal. You can also see Dassareth, using The Reflex, moving up to Ilasera, though her enemy went invisible right away:
You might assume that my time traps are placed rather badly - not in range of the enemy. True. This was just a bad move on my part - but it turned out to be no trouble, because the invisible Ilasera moved into their range very soon. Galderan was the one with traps still left, and I had prepared him for his 100% hit chance by letting him dual wield - he and Balthazar started to bring down The Five, one to the right, one to the left, and the enemy could do pretty much nothing in response:
Three time traps in total gave us enough time to do our best in getting most of them to near death - we couldn't wait anymore, so I decided to first get rid of the still-dangerous members of The Five - basically, the ones not affected my PfM scrolls - I first went after Ilasera, next after Yaga-Shura, after that the relatively harmless Sarevok and Gromnir - weakening and stunning Melissan:
Balthazar was keeping her busy with the others quickly taking down Abazigal. Rowin prepared improved alacrity in order to go after Melissan's defenses as soon as Sendai would fall. I heard the incantation for an alteration spell and triggered Dassareth's focus, but Sendai's death interrupted the potential time stop:
With Melissan alone, Rowin used another ADHW to get rid of the remaining enemy summons from the previous battle:
Our enemy teleported to the north, while I made sure to keep up buffs, heal the party and start using my fighter HLAs while dispelling any divine mantles and the like with wands of spellstriking as soon as possible. However, my usual plan of stunning Amelyssan (this time with Smite) didn't seem to quite work out - is she immune to stun effects now? Maybe a change in SCS or with the new Ascension? Not sure, or maybe she was stunned and I just missed it?):
Ignoring our final foe's gated allies, we went all out on damage, spamming GWWs, Critical Strikes, activating energy blades and always removing divine mantles - it was a bit of a race - kill her before she can do anything too dangerous to us. She successfuly got rid of most of Cadrax' buffs, but that's about it - while it took a surprisingly long time, victory was soon ours:
One more hit, and she was done - and our Undead Hunter enters the Hall of Heroes. Here are some final stats for this custom party:
It's been fun, though ToB, as usual, dragged on for quite a bit. I'm quite happy with my relatively clean Ascension battle, having had quite a few difficulties in earlier attempts, though things will certainly get a lot harder the next time around, as I plan to take the SCS difficulty slider to insane. Not sure when I'll start another run, but as always, I will be back at some point.
However, my usual plan of stunning Amelyssan (this time with Smite) didn't seem to quite work out - is she immune to stun effects now? Maybe a change in SCS or with the new Ascension?
Yes, SCS/Ascension Melissan is immune to stun. On top of her resistances and the immunities the Five all get, she has immunity to stun, hold, sleep, confusion, feeblemind, level drain, maze, imprisonment, and wing buffet.
That last one - Smite uses wing buffets to blow creatures back. So only the automatic critical hits work, out of all that Smite does. She is vulnerable to those, at least.
It's from the Expanded Classes and Kits mod, a compilation of all the kit mods I've ever made, from the unique kits like the Seducer and Alchemist to the cross-class kits like the Kensai paladin and Archer thief kit to the pseudo-multi-classes like the Cleric/Druid and Druid/Mage. There's a cleric and a druid version for the Seer kit, which are otherwise identical.
I just updated the mod to fix some bugs that I found in BG1. I also buffed the Shapeshifter fighter a little, which I thought was previously too lackluster for BG1 and SoD.
Classes and kits still missing from the combined Hall of Heroes
Ranger, Stalker
Cleric, Priest of Helm, Priest of Talos, Priest of Tempus
Shapeshifter, Avenger
Abjurer, Conjurer, Diviner, Invoker, Necromancer, Transmuter
Thief, Bounty Hunter
Bard
Dark Moon Monk
Fighter/Thief (dual, but no mulit)
Fighter/Druid (dual, but no multi)
Cleric/Ranger
Trio 29, Core rules, unmodded (Part 1234 in BG:EE and 56789 10 in BGII:EE)
Loury - male, human undead hunter (Gate70)
Swish - male, dwarf swashbuckler (Grond0)
Corecleric - male, halfling priest of Lathander (Corey_Russell)
Recap...
It's been two weeks since our last escapade. Loury keeps quiet about his extra-curricular shopping activity and wonders how long it will be until his companions notice his inventory is a bit different:
- Picked up the gold and silver pantaloons from our cache
- Picked up the illithium and upgraded the mace of disruption
- Picked up the staff of fire from our cache (sold Haz's s weapon)
- Sold the armour and katana picked up in Bodhi's lair
- Bought the shield of reflection in case we ever run into a fallen solar
- Picked up the human flesh from our cache
- Bought the Ninjato of the Scarlet Brotherhood in case Swish wanted it when he can use any item
(although I hadn't realised quite how far he had to go for that - about 800k xp, 2.4m between us)
Anyway, we just have to fight Bodhi so Aran Linvail will arrange for a trip to Brynnlaw. Anything could happen in the next two hours.
So we make a start, with a mild set of buffs against Bodhi. Swish had laid three snares last time and although they still look fresh we've been around the multiplayer block enough to know they won't work so he lays three more. As we expect, only the later three snares work but they are enough for Bodhi to give up and run, meaning our buffs were not required.
On our way back to Aran Linvail we re-home an orphan girl with a grieving paladin, and then set off for Brynnlaw. Once there we quickly make our way around town, only for the game to crash as Swish talks to Ginia and Corecleric enters the temple to purchase 10 potions of genius (since I failed to allow him time to purchase any before we travelled).
We re-do Brynnlaw and head for Spellhold - with Swish depositing an unwanted book of infinite burning hands on the ground near Perth's corpse.
In Spellhold we are captured and Loury is relieved of his Bhaalspawn abilities. Then we are left to escape with the threat of Bodhi hunting us down. You'd think we would get a move on but there is always time to play around with stuff, isn't there. Loury was a little cautious against a mind flayer and a beholder here, not a bad thing.
Bodhi eventually turns up and wisely runs away as Loury turns into the slayer. Loury goes for a rest and discovers Corecleric despite his epic wisdom is not so wise as Bodhi and is slayered to within a whisker of his life. He may well have perished if a hidden Swish hadn't managed to block the slayer for a moment.
Loury threw caution to the wind for a while and we whisked around the Spellhold challenges before being declared free. Lonk begged to disagree though and despite a Carsomyr debuff on hit he still scrabbled enough together to cast Wilt > PW Kill and that was too much for Swish to handle.
Loury used a rod of resurrection charge at the first opportunity to get Swish back into the game but that first opportunity was when facing Irenicus - so Swish had no gear. Loury threw him a non-proficient Daystar sword and we set about Irenicus. Loury just had time for another debuffing Carsomyr hit and a couple of Foebane + Kundane follow-ups when Wanev interrupted with a timestop.
Loury knew the drill here and as soon as the timestop ended he risked one more hit and ran. His companions were caught flat-footed though and both were caught with another Wilt. Not fatally though this time and CoreCleric was so concerned about Swish that he failed to realise he too was badly wounded until it was pointed out to him.
Loury made sure he was the main target for the following group of murderers as Irenicus left, but Corecleric gulped a potion and waded in. Swish kept running and then risked life + limb to join the attack when he deemed it safe.
With that done we teamed up with Saemon Havarian (the offer of a silver sword does look enticing to Loury), and found ourselves in the City of Caverns. A double regicide followed, with Loury taking a bit of caution against some enemy bolts and equipping the shield of reflection. Fortunately for the many sahuagin his armour class was too much for them so they failed to shoot or stun themselves.
Loury got Corecleric to pop the undead in the area, and then we descended into the Underdark. On arrival we formulated a plan most wonderful and sent Corecleric in to fight a trio of illithid. Loury stayed safely at range but Swish managed to intervene and get his brain snacked on.
Hahaha laughed Loury. You idiot. Duuuh replied Swish.
So even without using a potion of genius Corecleric remained the intellectual of the group and Loury eventually realised he was still the dullest of us all (natural 6 'intelligence' vs Swish's reduced 7).
Corecleric demonstrated his intelligence lead with Firestorm > Sanctuary. Loury found himself wondering how Sanctuary would work against True Sight. Sometimes the cream of intellectuals can overlook the slightest of matters. Anyway, the drow decided they would remain in the Firestorm to cast disrupted spells at Corecleric so he got the result he wanted there.
Loury was sure he'd seen one drow head east, then another head west. Swish thought it was the same drow who had doubled back, and Corecleric thought it was one drow who doubled back twice and rejoined the main group.
Turns out Loury was right, and after killing the eastern drow we found the western one. Loury was busy with spore colonies and Corecleric had been casting so Swish took the brunt of the last drow's attacks. We eventually cleared the area though.
We've returned young Dagglefoss to his father for a reward and killed off a Balor (with the help of Loury's first Deva HLA, but in the write-up I realise I had Loury melee an enemy which may have been able to vorpal. Bad idea).
Corecleric insists we clear the three portals so Swish can get closer to his first HLA, and having done that we should be seeing Use Any Item early next session. Loury can't wait to hand the +3 ninjato to Swish when that happens, and wishing it is gratefully received unlike the bracers of AC4 which our swashbuckler declined to equip (preferring archery bracers to -3 for his armour class).
Loury fancies starting with the beholder lair next time, having a cloak of mirroring for himself and the shield of Balduran for Corecleric (and hoping against all hope that Swish won't get himself targeted).
Here we are in all our glory with some loot:
(We spent 7500gp repurchasing the regenerating ioun stone as Swish fell for the multiplayer-item-lost trick when switching his regeneration ring that we gained in one of Spellhold's puzzles)
Gate70 said...
...but in the write-up I realise I had Loury melee an enemy which may have been able to vorpal. Bad idea..
Are you sure that balor can vorpal? In vanilla there two kinds of balors - the WK and Melissan balors can vorpal and I thought the gnome village and hell balors did not.
Ah, I wasn't aware - do you know of any mod we should propably tag in the future for our updates? I don't really browse these forums outside of the no-reload thread and adventurer's lounge anymore.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 216, Core rules + unmodded (update 1) Flexi (male human monk, Grond0); Marea (female human totemic druid, Gate70)
Previous run
After a couple of weeks off we started a new run today. Our last few runs have been underwhelming attempts, so I was being a bit more cautious than usual to try and make this one an improvement.
There was a typical start with a visit to Shoal after leaving Candlekeep to get a level each under our belts. As I think we've found before with v2.6, Mad Arcand refused to take back his ring - next time we'll try to remember to talk to him before going to look for the ring to see if that makes a difference.
In Beregost I got caught out last time when Neera paid no attention to being shot at before initiating a conversation. This time Flexi was ready to use his monk speed to withdraw quickly, but his initial shot was a clean kill anyway.
Moving on down to Nashkel, Marea donned some green armor before getting another level for talking to Noober (who was 'rewarded' with a bullet in his back). In line with the cautious approach, I bought a PfP scroll at the Carnival rather than trying to rely on spirit summons or Korax. A quick trip to the Valley of the Tombs also netted a free +2 dagger for Marea.
At the basilisk area Marea was protected against their gaze before attacking in concert with a spirit bear. That caused a few problems as a result of the fear effect it can inflict with a hit - and we had to regularly reshuffle positions to deal with that sort of movement.
Eventually one of those occasions resulted in the bear getting petrified, meaning we were on our own when we got to Mutamin. Rather than rest, Marea attacked in melee while Flexi acted as an REMF. Marea was duly scared away, but fortunately her wanderings quickly took her out of sight and she never quite came back into Mutamin's view. Once his mirrors were down, we attacked once more. Mutamin resisted a stunning blow, but died from several hits before he could complete another spell.
We did rest before tackling Kirian's gang and there was a promising start when Marea's opening lightning assault on Baerin was followed by Flexi stunning Peter.
Baerin and Kirian died there, but Flexi was unable to finish off Peter and withdrew before he could get targeted. Marea took Lindin for a long run, but with the fighter finally nearing death got a bit too close to the original position and Peter spotted him and threw in a hold person. Flexi tried to intervene, but Lindin was determined to claim a victim.
After fading into the shadows and then picking up equipment, Flexi visited the temple to revive Marea before returning once more. With fresh spells, Lindin died to lightning before we turned to Peter. Marea got a bit close to her spirit snake and was caught in the area effect of a hold person, but Flexi once more stunned Peter in return - and this time there was no escape.
In Beregost we completed a few quests, including returning Perdue's sword. Karlat was another stunning blow victim there and, while his every muscle shouted at him to run as the blows rained down, they were all frozen in place.
Looking for some more quick XP, we moved on to Durlag's Tower. The first 2 battle horrors there died to lightning and spirits without trouble. We didn't rest before the third and made rather heavy weather of killing that on the wall - Flexi finding the needed critical just as we were thinking we needed to retreat.
We got a bit more XP for Kirinhale and Riggilo, before Flexi thought we should go. However, Marea had pocketed an invisibility potion from Lindin and used that to get past the lesser basilisk on the roof. That allowed her to generate a spirit snake - which fortunately proved to still be immune to petrification.
More snakes then sorted out the greater basilisks on the upper roof.
We passed through the FAI for the first time - saving a bit of time there when Flexi went to retrieve Joia's ring, while Marea used a spirit on Tarnesh. Then it was on to examine an ankheg nest. Marea seemed determined to rely on her armor there rather than summoning spirits, but found that hard going and eventually brought out helpers to deal with the last few enemies.
Further north Flexi approached Tenya to offer her a bowl taken from some dead fishermen. Rather than start a dialogue though, she just grabbed the bowl and stormed off.
I wouldn't mind that except she only gave the XP for killing them, rather than the higher amount due for returning the bowl - I guess you need to talk to her first in v2.6 to get the better reward.
Travelling south once more, we picked up Melicamp (who survived his transformation) on the way to the coast. Marea rang the changes by producing a spirit wolf to face Bassilus, before finishing him off with more lightning.
At the Lighthouse area, a couple of groups of sirines stood no chance against spirit lions. However, those were not yet high enough level to have magical paws, so we had to do the dirty work against flesh golems ourselves. The spirits did at least soak up some of the damage in those combats, allowing us to complete the job without resting.
With just a couple more points of reputation needed for a maximum 20, we went to find the Doomsayer. He is immune to lightning, so Marea stocked up on insect spells. However, the Doomsayer does not need magic weapons to hit and the spirit lions ate him up before the insects could get in on the act.
Taking Brage back to Nashkel provided the final reputation boost. While there we went to find Neira. Her hold person spells were dodged before she got a taste of her own medicine thanks to a nymph.
We then shot up to Ulgoth's Beard to see what we could buy. Flexi offered Marea the opportunity of a +3 staff, but she was slow to respond there - by the time she'd decided she did want it, Flexi had bought the invisibility ring (something we almost never bother with) and didn't have the funds to get the staff.
As a slight aside, a few readers may know of the long-running UK quiz show "University Challenge". While students on opposing teams sit side by side in the studio, on the TV the teams are shown one above the other. This has allowed a few spoofs from comedians - like this famous one from the Young Ones. I was reminded of that when Gate70 said that Marea was complaining about the view (and potentially the smell), given her position in the party relative to Flexi. Here she is, apparently rolling her eyes, as Flexi once more demonstrates his ability to 'open his legs and show his class'.
Classes and kits still missing from the combined Hall of Heroes
Ranger, Stalker
Cleric, Priest of Helm, Priest of Talos, Priest of Tempus
Shapeshifter, Avenger
Abjurer, Conjurer, Diviner, Invoker, Necromancer, Transmuter
Thief, Bounty Hunter
Bard
Dark Moon Monk
Fighter/Thief (dual, but no mulit)
Fighter/Druid (dual, but no multi)
Cleric/Ranger
May I’m mistaken but I think semeticgoddes finished the game with a ranger/cleric? Isn’t it ?
Ah, I wasn't aware - do you know of any mod we should propably tag in the future for our updates? I don't really browse these forums outside of the no-reload thread and adventurer's lounge anymore.
I don't know who is most available, so I'll tag @JuliusBorisov. Maybe one of the moderators could volunteer to update the Hall.
The Nashkel Mines were easier than expected, even Mulahey fell quickly.
The Amazons outside were also quite easy for us to defeat.
We then killed the Revenant.
The ghasts were more of a problem.
Fighting the mage outside and his pet jellies proved to be a walkover.
In heading for the bandit camp we were attacked by a Flaming Fist mercenary who failed to survive the encounter.
Even the toughest of the bandits proved to be relative weaklings.
In Cloakwood we killed Centeol et al and some wyverns.
At the Cloakwood mines we fought our way through to Davaeorn.
We then proceeded to Baldur's Gate where we defeated some doppelgangers before disposing of an ogre-mage and his crawlers.
Lothander and Marek poisoned us and ended up dead themselves.
After freeing a nymph from his grasp, we killed Ragefast.
When fighting Vay-ya I became confused so my friends caused Vay-ya to kill some bystanders to reduce the chances of me killing them.
At the request of a woman being blackmailed, we disposed of her blackmailer.
We then got involved in a pub brawl.
We killed some quite strong house guards after leading them outside into a trap. Most of them were webbed which made the battle fairer.
We fought Razemith at the top of his tower and won.
We then killed Jardak.
By going to Durlag's Tower we acquirted a good scimitar for Safana.
We then killed a ghost and eventually cleared the entire upper reaches of the tower with the exception of Love. He will have to wait his turn.
We went to Ice Island but accidentally returned before completing everything that we intended to do.
We then hunted ankhegs to pay for needed equipment.
Duke Eltan asked us to investigate the Iron Throne in Baldur's Gate. This we did and we comprehensively dfefeated the leaders on the top floor. Some of us were confused however so Xan cast a spell to stop us killing each other.
Feeling motivated to start another run right away, I installed the newest version of SCS (now we can finally try to save against Balor vorpal strikes!). As promised, I've turned the SCS-slider up to Insane. I'm also not playing with a custom party this time around, because it does feel quite unwieldy, especially in BG1, with all the inventory management, and I tend to chose the same kits and multiclasses all the time - instead, I will start playing solo for a bit to gather quick experience, while adding party members later on as needed. Instead of big updates, written a long time after the events occured, these will also be immediate updates, written right after playing each session, so this should be a bit more exciting to read and write, as I have no idea what will happen next.
These are Amel's starting stats:
We are going for elven weapons, putting the thac0 bonus to use - starting with **longswords and ** longbows, and we are going to add short swords after that.
What we've done so far:
- Complete all Candlekeep quests
- Go to High Hedge, stealth around for a bit and kill a skeleton
- Go further south to shoot a wolf and capture Melicamp
- Get him resurrected, gaining level 2 (it's been a while for me since this has actually worked):
- Travel even further south to find Brage and teleport to Nashkel, talk to Noober and Oublek
- Do some stealth + shoot action in order to take down Neira, gaining level 3:
- Travel even further south to get the +1 charisma tome, backstabbing some wandering monsters and shooting some would-be ambushers in the meantime
- Move back to High Hedge to identify and activate the tome while also taking down Perdue's gnolls
- Enter Beregost, calm Marl, get Firebead's book, buy the excellent composite bow
- Deal with Landrin's spiders by using the very short time before they can follow you while moving areas in order to stealth, so we can get a series of backstabs (failed once, and got hit, but saved against the poison):
- Deal with Karlat via stealth + shoot, give Perdue his sword back
- Meet up with Neera for the gem bag - let her take all of the heat, only engage the mage after his most powerful spells are exhausted, gaining level 4:
I moved back to the starting area to collect the diamond, then east to get the RoP +1 and kill the belt ogre. Making my way south, I took care of Mirianne's ogrillions and killed the hobgoblins carrying the boots of stealth before going even further south and dealing with the hobgoblin camp:
Some run + shoot strategies helped me to take down Bjornin's half ogres:
I turned in the assorted quests at Beregost, though I decided to keep the boots of stealth for now. Next up, I made my way to Greywolf, in order to get my primary weapon for BG1 - easy to kite him around the cliff:
To the east, I got my hands on the fire resistance ring, got the PfM scroll and helped Samuel to the FAI, where I backstabbed Tarnesh:
This allowed me to easily turn in my quests around here (I also killed Joia's hobgoblins), and I decided to get a decent off-hand weapon - the short sword +2. This involved backstabbing the ranged hobgoblins, running away (got hit by one arrow in the process, but resisted the poison effect), backstabbing the second one, and kiting the melee fighter:
This brought me to level 5. At this point, I was at 19 reputation, so I decided to max things out by helping to save a cow - that one was close:
I travelled further to the east to pick up gauntlets from Meilum, which was rather easy - backstab him once, kite him around shooting him a few more times. I almost got trapped by a bunch of kobolds though, due to poor movement and failing stealth checks:
That's why I keep Bjornin's shield around. Well, I decided to sell my gems in order to buy the green scroll of PfP from the Carnival. I wanted to get to level 6, so basilisk hunting seemed like the best option:
I killed all the basilisks around the map aside from the ones near Mutamin. To deal with the gnome, I first recruited Corax - and he was able to stun the mage, despite his defenses, pretty much right away, allowing for Amel to move in and kill him:
Corax was still alive at the end of this, so I decided to take a bit of a risk in order to challenge the adventurers for the Golden Belt. An initial backstab on their mage succeeded:
Trouble is, this gave their cleric the chance to complete a spell. I feared that it might be hold person, targeting Amel, but my fears were unfounded (still, quite a risk here - though since this run is in the very early stages, I don't mind taking risks, because restarting wouldn't be too painful). Corax died withing seconds, but Amel was able to get away, stealth again, and backstab the cleric next - another one hit kill. We only had to move around the map until we could restealth to take on the archer:
He didn't die immediately, we had to get another hit in. Now, it was easy to kite the remaining fighter. We returned to FAI to rest, now at level 6 (our two profienciy points were invested in **Short Swords).
Once again, I'm not sure where I will go next. Might it be time already to recruit a party? Possibly, though I think there are a few more things I might want to do solo.
@Enuhal Much the same tactics that I would use for a solo ranger except that I would have killed Sonner and taken the bowl to Tenya for easy experience. You're doing well. Keep it up.
Journal of Michaela the Mighty
Rescued the duke, killed the assassins and Cythandra and defeated Sarevok in the ducal palace. Have picked up Neera and we'll get her belt before heading for the final battle with Sarevok.
Comments
You can install Anthology Tweaks' expanded dual class options component to enable Barbarians (and Wild Mages) to dual-class.
Having the game virtually unmodded has made it fresh again in much the same way as adding mods made it fresh in the past.
We retrieved Joia's ring for her and upon discovering Sonner's true nature killed him easily before returning Tenya's Bowl and killing a nearby ankheg.
Marcia was hurt when we were attacked by hobgoblins.
After arriving at the FAI we were attacked by a mage assassin who was quickly made harmless by the use of "Command."
We headed south to High Hedge where we helped Mellicamp.
We then headed west where we met Shoal. Droth put me to sleep and then charmed Marcia. Together Marcia and Droth killed Maxine. At that point the charm wore off and Droth chased Marcia. She outdistanced him and returned to me keeping well out of sight of Droth. The two of us then slept after killing Shoal. Killing Shoal had caused Marcia to level up so she now had the silence spell. That spell made Droth relatively harmless, and though the battle was still tough, he fell to our assault on him.
[In future perhaps this should be left until we have better armour. We wouldn't then have to leave with the job only half-done.]
We went to the FAI where Maxine was raised before heading south where an ogre with a belt fetish was killed.
In Beregost we calmed Marl down and took a tome to Firebead.
We then discovered that Silke was evil, so it was her that we killed, not those that she wanted us to kill.
Upon entering the nearby Inn we killed Karlat when he picked a fight with us.
We then went in search of Bassilus who was made relatively harmless with the use of Silence and Command.
Upon going to the temple, Maxine reached level 3 whereupon she dualled to a mage.
It was her who disabled the ogrillon to the south with a sleep spell.
They were then easy to dispose of.
To deal with the Flaming Fist however needed all of our spells.
The hobgoblins to the south were no problem so we were able to pick up the Colquetle Amulet.
In Nashkel I found myself some ankheg armour, I turned down a rewards from Oublek and had a chat with Noober.
Once more we needed all our spells when we fought Zordral.
Killing Greywolf was easier than expected as an animal got between us and I was able to deliver the final blow with a throwing axe.
Previous updates:
BG1 End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154817/#Comment_1154817
SoD Start&End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154915/#Comment_1154915
SoA Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155140/#Comment_1155140
SoA End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155796/#Comment_1155796
ToB Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155855/#Comment_1155855
Update 1: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156013/#Comment_1156013
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156352/#Comment_1156352
On to Watcher's Keep level 3. We have a randomized maze, and we are walking into every room without buffs - because I just can't stand spending several minutes with buffing up my party and just randomly walking into a no-magic zone, losing all of my buffs instantly - luckily, we have our enhanced bard song and many item-based immunities, if needed.
Thanks to SCS, I find the hardest battle down here to be the big glabrezu room - so many summon, so many cloud spells. Easy to get overwhelmed. Important to get improved Haste on Cadrax and start casting breach spells in order to get rid of a few of the summoning fiends ASAP:
We cleared out the githyanki and prepared for the demi-lich. I decided to only enter with party members capable of gaining immunity against imprisonment or other types of strong spell protections, so Dassareth and Khelbara had to wait outside. Once again, I decided to go aggressive with spellstrikes + breach, and soon, we were able to hit and interrupt the demi-lich, and we only had to breach away his contingency PFMW once again to achieve victory:
Azamantes was our first target, and since we used precise trap locations to kill him instantly, there wasn't much of a battle - and the loot was amazing, as we finally have the Robe of Vecna and The Ravager +6 at our disposal.
For the mixed party, I used my traps to take down the succubus, avoiding any type of creeping death spell. My fighter-types were positioned to take down the cleric immediately, and we soon had only the hive mother and the marilith to deal with - and got quite lucky, as the hive mother got vorpaled by The Ravager +6, turning this into a very short battle:
Also, for maybe the first time in my runs, I was able to take down the Aurumach Rilmani before he managed to cast time stop:
@Wise_Grimwald, nice to see your Helmites on the road again! I started a new game after the Ducal Palace fiasco with my priestess of Helm. I hope to be able to report some progress this week.
However, I can 100% confirm that this SCS version does not ban Imprisonment from enemy spellbooks. Might be that they don't like to use it against the player character (the readme claims that the PC should never be targeted by imprisonment), but they don't show any reluctance against party members - as you might see in an upcoming post.
Oooh, perfect evidence, hopefully the price in acquiring it was afforable...
The special demilich "Trap the Soul" innate ability - that's different. SCS wipes the vanilla script that would cast that spell and gives them a mage script instead. Search my install's script for creature "demilich" ... no hits for "soul", no hits for SPIN788. Same for creature "hldemi".
Well, OK, there is one circumstance that will have Kangaxx using Trap the Soul. If you leave his tomb and he follows you outside, he'll use it on bystanders. There is absolutely no way for either demilich in the main campaign to use their innate Imprisonment variant on party members if you install the "Improved Mages" and "Spellcasting Demiliches" components.
This seems to be an oversight in the mod. They have the ability, so they should be using it.
Incidentally, that level drain on a successful save? Not actually present.
Dassareth, Undead Hunter with a custom party, Update 21
Previous updates:
BG1 End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154817/#Comment_1154817
SoD Start&End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154915/#Comment_1154915
SoA Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155140/#Comment_1155140
SoA End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155796/#Comment_1155796
ToB Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155855/#Comment_1155855
Update 1: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156013/#Comment_1156013
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156352/#Comment_1156352
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156589/#Comment_1156589
No trouble clearing Sendai's Enclave until we ran into Odamaron and his disciples, who are an SCS addition. Rowin started with Time Stop in order to hit Odamaron with two spellstrikes and a breach, allowing Dassareth to charge in and vorpal him to death:
We killed Oopah easily and then went to reunite Rufus and Albert.
Nearby we killed Vax and Zal.
On the way to help the dryad we killed a bear and on arrival killed wolves, Caldo and Krumm.
We then returned 'Drienne's cat and killed Ingot.
We proceeded to the archaeological site where we killed Gallor before helping Charleston Nib further.
We then escorted Brage to the temple of Helm in Nashkel.
At the lighthouse area we killed a number of sirine some of whom ambushed us in our sleep.
The flesh golems turned out to be less dangerous than usual.
As we returned Arkushule attacked us.
Ankhegs galore attacked us north of the FAI. Easy enough to deal with them singly, a bit harder when two attacked together.
When we had run out of ankhegs, we went hunting basilisks.
We bumped into Lindin and his friends who we were forced to kill.
As well as basilisks we killed Mutamin.
I used my immunity to poison to kill spiders in Beregost.
We then went to Durlag's Tower where the second battle horror proved to be dangerous.
We killed more assissins near Gullykin and Meilum near the Firewine Bridge.
Montaron gave us a lot of scrolls, a ring of freedom of action, Algernon's Cloak, an excellent hammer and some potions which he "found."
We left him to keep Algernon company after first taking him to Firewine Bridge where he "found" a Protection from Magic scroll.
The run has been incredibly smooth due to me playing with a full party and no special gimmicks like a poverty run, especially since I've been taking advantage of NPC XP scaling to solo the game for a while and then recruit other NPCs at sky-high XP. We're at 4.5 million XP in Suldannessellar, without touching Watcher's Keep. The Seer kit makes for a nice glass cannon build--excellent THAC0 and lots of critical hits, but very vulnerable to enemy critical hits, since it can't wear helmets even after Use Any Item and has low HP.
I've been toying with the idea of using Divine Shield to enable permanent Slayer form, but I might save that trick for a solo run. Right now it's kind of pointless because our party is already stupidly overpowered. In fact, being in Slayer form would only marginally improve Charname's damage output, just because a Seer cleric can combine DUHM with speed weapons!
Previous updates:
BG1 End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154817/#Comment_1154817
SoD Start&End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154915/#Comment_1154915
SoA Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155140/#Comment_1155140
SoA End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155796/#Comment_1155796
ToB Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155855/#Comment_1155855
Update 1: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156013/#Comment_1156013
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156352/#Comment_1156352
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156589/#Comment_1156589
Update 4: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156649/#Comment_1156649
This time around, Draconis turned out to be a poor guardian - without the dragon bonus HP and my ability to quickly get rid of magical defenses, he failed to do anything dangerous, except for hitting Galderan, who unwisely wandered into melee combat, once:
I also completed the remaining pocket plane challenges. The Ravager is noteworthy for being one of the few foes capable of surviving 7 spike traps, though he is generally near death at this point, and a few hits are enough to take him down:
Previous updates:
BG1 End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154817/#Comment_1154817
SoD Start&End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154915/#Comment_1154915
SoA Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155140/#Comment_1155140
SoA End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155796/#Comment_1155796
ToB Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155855/#Comment_1155855
Update 1: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156013/#Comment_1156013
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156352/#Comment_1156352
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156589/#Comment_1156589
Update 4: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156649/#Comment_1156649
Update 5: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156746/#Comment_1156746
I spent a long time getting my buffs ready for the Ascension battle, getting little advantages such as several types of potions I hadn't used since SoD. In expectation of getting dispelled multiple times, my spellbooks were focused on the most crucial buffs and effects, and I had a bunch of scrolls with me for important defensive spells such as Stoneskin, MI, PFMW and the like in case I would run out of my regular arsenal. We started with an immediate success, as I was able to pause the game and have Sentenza place a time trap before Melissan started giving her speech:
It's been fun, though ToB, as usual, dragged on for quite a bit. I'm quite happy with my relatively clean Ascension battle, having had quite a few difficulties in earlier attempts, though things will certainly get a lot harder the next time around, as I plan to take the SCS difficulty slider to insane. Not sure when I'll start another run, but as always, I will be back at some point.
Yes, SCS/Ascension Melissan is immune to stun. On top of her resistances and the immunities the Five all get, she has immunity to stun, hold, sleep, confusion, feeblemind, level drain, maze, imprisonment, and wing buffet.
That last one - Smite uses wing buffets to blow creatures back. So only the automatic critical hits work, out of all that Smite does. She is vulnerable to those, at least.
I just updated the mod to fix some bugs that I found in BG1. I also buffed the Shapeshifter fighter a little, which I thought was previously too lackluster for BG1 and SoD.
Dassareth, the Undead Hunter: @Enuhal
Notable Mods: SCS (tactical difficulty), Ascension
Difficulty: Core rules
BG1 End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154817/#Comment_1154817
SoD Start&End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1154915/#Comment_1154915
SoA Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155140/#Comment_1155140
SoA End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155796/#Comment_1155796
ToB Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1155855/#Comment_1155855
ToB End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1156823/#Comment_1156823
Also, now updated:
Classes and kits still missing from the combined Hall of Heroes
Ranger, Stalker
Cleric, Priest of Helm, Priest of Talos, Priest of Tempus
Shapeshifter, Avenger
Abjurer, Conjurer, Diviner, Invoker, Necromancer, Transmuter
Thief, Bounty Hunter
Bard
Dark Moon Monk
Fighter/Thief (dual, but no mulit)
Fighter/Druid (dual, but no multi)
Cleric/Ranger
Loury - male, human undead hunter (Gate70)
Swish - male, dwarf swashbuckler (Grond0)
Corecleric - male, halfling priest of Lathander (Corey_Russell)
Recap... Anyway, we just have to fight Bodhi so Aran Linvail will arrange for a trip to Brynnlaw. Anything could happen in the next two hours.
So we make a start, with a mild set of buffs against Bodhi. Swish had laid three snares last time and although they still look fresh we've been around the multiplayer block enough to know they won't work so he lays three more. As we expect, only the later three snares work but they are enough for Bodhi to give up and run, meaning our buffs were not required.
On our way back to Aran Linvail we re-home an orphan girl with a grieving paladin, and then set off for Brynnlaw. Once there we quickly make our way around town, only for the game to crash as Swish talks to Ginia and Corecleric enters the temple to purchase 10 potions of genius (since I failed to allow him time to purchase any before we travelled).
We re-do Brynnlaw and head for Spellhold - with Swish depositing an unwanted book of infinite burning hands on the ground near Perth's corpse.
In Spellhold we are captured and Loury is relieved of his Bhaalspawn abilities. Then we are left to escape with the threat of Bodhi hunting us down. You'd think we would get a move on but there is always time to play around with stuff, isn't there. Loury was a little cautious against a mind flayer and a beholder here, not a bad thing.
Loury knew the drill here and as soon as the timestop ended he risked one more hit and ran. His companions were caught flat-footed though and both were caught with another Wilt. Not fatally though this time and CoreCleric was so concerned about Swish that he failed to realise he too was badly wounded until it was pointed out to him.
With that done we teamed up with Saemon Havarian (the offer of a silver sword does look enticing to Loury), and found ourselves in the City of Caverns. A double regicide followed, with Loury taking a bit of caution against some enemy bolts and equipping the shield of reflection. Fortunately for the many sahuagin his armour class was too much for them so they failed to shoot or stun themselves.
Loury got Corecleric to pop the undead in the area, and then we descended into the Underdark. On arrival we formulated a plan most wonderful and sent Corecleric in to fight a trio of illithid. Loury stayed safely at range but Swish managed to intervene and get his brain snacked on.
Hahaha laughed Loury. You idiot. Duuuh replied Swish.
So even without using a potion of genius Corecleric remained the intellectual of the group and Loury eventually realised he was still the dullest of us all (natural 6 'intelligence' vs Swish's reduced 7).
Turns out Loury was right, and after killing the eastern drow we found the western one. Loury was busy with spore colonies and Corecleric had been casting so Swish took the brunt of the last drow's attacks. We eventually cleared the area though.
Corecleric insists we clear the three portals so Swish can get closer to his first HLA, and having done that we should be seeing Use Any Item early next session. Loury can't wait to hand the +3 ninjato to Swish when that happens, and wishing it is gratefully received unlike the bracers of AC4 which our swashbuckler declined to equip (preferring archery bracers to -3 for his armour class).
Loury fancies starting with the beholder lair next time, having a cloak of mirroring for himself and the shield of Balduran for Corecleric (and hoping against all hope that Swish won't get himself targeted).
Here we are in all our glory with some loot:
(We spent 7500gp repurchasing the regenerating ioun stone as Swish fell for the multiplayer-item-lost trick when switching his regeneration ring that we gained in one of Spellhold's puzzles)
Flexi (male human monk, Grond0); Marea (female human totemic druid, Gate70)
Previous run
After a couple of weeks off we started a new run today. Our last few runs have been underwhelming attempts, so I was being a bit more cautious than usual to try and make this one an improvement.
There was a typical start with a visit to Shoal after leaving Candlekeep to get a level each under our belts. As I think we've found before with v2.6, Mad Arcand refused to take back his ring - next time we'll try to remember to talk to him before going to look for the ring to see if that makes a difference.
In Beregost I got caught out last time when Neera paid no attention to being shot at before initiating a conversation. This time Flexi was ready to use his monk speed to withdraw quickly, but his initial shot was a clean kill anyway.
Moving on down to Nashkel, Marea donned some green armor before getting another level for talking to Noober (who was 'rewarded' with a bullet in his back). In line with the cautious approach, I bought a PfP scroll at the Carnival rather than trying to rely on spirit summons or Korax. A quick trip to the Valley of the Tombs also netted a free +2 dagger for Marea.
At the basilisk area Marea was protected against their gaze before attacking in concert with a spirit bear. That caused a few problems as a result of the fear effect it can inflict with a hit - and we had to regularly reshuffle positions to deal with that sort of movement.
We did rest before tackling Kirian's gang and there was a promising start when Marea's opening lightning assault on Baerin was followed by Flexi stunning Peter.
After fading into the shadows and then picking up equipment, Flexi visited the temple to revive Marea before returning once more. With fresh spells, Lindin died to lightning before we turned to Peter. Marea got a bit close to her spirit snake and was caught in the area effect of a hold person, but Flexi once more stunned Peter in return - and this time there was no escape.
In Beregost we completed a few quests, including returning Perdue's sword. Karlat was another stunning blow victim there and, while his every muscle shouted at him to run as the blows rained down, they were all frozen in place.
Looking for some more quick XP, we moved on to Durlag's Tower. The first 2 battle horrors there died to lightning and spirits without trouble. We didn't rest before the third and made rather heavy weather of killing that on the wall - Flexi finding the needed critical just as we were thinking we needed to retreat.
We passed through the FAI for the first time - saving a bit of time there when Flexi went to retrieve Joia's ring, while Marea used a spirit on Tarnesh. Then it was on to examine an ankheg nest. Marea seemed determined to rely on her armor there rather than summoning spirits, but found that hard going and eventually brought out helpers to deal with the last few enemies.
Further north Flexi approached Tenya to offer her a bowl taken from some dead fishermen. Rather than start a dialogue though, she just grabbed the bowl and stormed off.
Travelling south once more, we picked up Melicamp (who survived his transformation) on the way to the coast. Marea rang the changes by producing a spirit wolf to face Bassilus, before finishing him off with more lightning.
With just a couple more points of reputation needed for a maximum 20, we went to find the Doomsayer. He is immune to lightning, so Marea stocked up on insect spells. However, the Doomsayer does not need magic weapons to hit and the spirit lions ate him up before the insects could get in on the act.
Taking Brage back to Nashkel provided the final reputation boost. While there we went to find Neira. Her hold person spells were dodged before she got a taste of her own medicine thanks to a nymph.
Monk 7, 56 HPs, 86 kills
Totemic druid 8, 69 HPs, 27 kills, 1 death
As a slight aside, a few readers may know of the long-running UK quiz show "University Challenge". While students on opposing teams sit side by side in the studio, on the TV the teams are shown one above the other. This has allowed a few spoofs from comedians - like this famous one from the Young Ones. I was reminded of that when Gate70 said that Marea was complaining about the view (and potentially the smell), given her position in the party relative to Flexi. Here she is, apparently rolling her eyes, as Flexi once more demonstrates his ability to 'open his legs and show his class'.
May I’m mistaken but I think semeticgoddes finished the game with a ranger/cleric? Isn’t it ?
Ahhh it was an FMC ... my bad
The Nashkel Mines were easier than expected, even Mulahey fell quickly.
Duke Eltan asked us to investigate the Iron Throne in Baldur's Gate. This we did and we comprehensively dfefeated the leaders on the top floor. Some of us were confused however so Xan cast a spell to stop us killing each other.
"Time for bed" said Zebedee.
Feeling motivated to start another run right away, I installed the newest version of SCS (now we can finally try to save against Balor vorpal strikes!). As promised, I've turned the SCS-slider up to Insane. I'm also not playing with a custom party this time around, because it does feel quite unwieldy, especially in BG1, with all the inventory management, and I tend to chose the same kits and multiclasses all the time - instead, I will start playing solo for a bit to gather quick experience, while adding party members later on as needed. Instead of big updates, written a long time after the events occured, these will also be immediate updates, written right after playing each session, so this should be a bit more exciting to read and write, as I have no idea what will happen next.
These are Amel's starting stats:
What we've done so far:
- Complete all Candlekeep quests
- Go to High Hedge, stealth around for a bit and kill a skeleton
- Go further south to shoot a wolf and capture Melicamp
- Get him resurrected, gaining level 2 (it's been a while for me since this has actually worked):
- Do some stealth + shoot action in order to take down Neira, gaining level 3:
- Move back to High Hedge to identify and activate the tome while also taking down Perdue's gnolls
- Enter Beregost, calm Marl, get Firebead's book, buy the excellent composite bow
- Deal with Landrin's spiders by using the very short time before they can follow you while moving areas in order to stealth, so we can get a series of backstabs (failed once, and got hit, but saved against the poison):
- Meet up with Neera for the gem bag - let her take all of the heat, only engage the mage after his most powerful spells are exhausted, gaining level 4:
That's it for now. Not sure where I'll go next!
Previous updates:
I moved back to the starting area to collect the diamond, then east to get the RoP +1 and kill the belt ogre. Making my way south, I took care of Mirianne's ogrillions and killed the hobgoblins carrying the boots of stealth before going even further south and dealing with the hobgoblin camp:
Once again, I'm not sure where I will go next. Might it be time already to recruit a party? Possibly, though I think there are a few more things I might want to do solo.
Journal of Michaela the Mighty
Rescued the duke, killed the assassins and Cythandra and defeated Sarevok in the ducal palace. Have picked up Neera and we'll get her belt before heading for the final battle with Sarevok.