I've been too busy to play much, but did give an outing to Shagrat the shaman today. He'd done pretty well to just reach L6, where his spirit summons got an upgrade. Immediately after that though he confronted Karlat - and regretted that when the dwarf's first action was to make use of an oil of speed. Shagrat had no counter to that and died before he could move more than a few steps towards the door.
Started an old favourite of mine just to see how much suffering a Swashbuckler will bring facing Cataclysm. After a brutal instant death getting one shottet by a Half-Ogre, another death being afk and getting killed by a random spawn at High Hedge and another one Swashbuckler retired cause of bad HP rolls number four is fairing well so far.
Reached Level 8 killing Greywolf after charming him thanks to Sune´s boon and getting him low by Kobolds and then landing the finishing blow. Running into close combat without a helm is suicidal and one of the Flesh Golems at High Hedge critted her down to 8 HP after landing a mighty 45 damage blow - puh. Thanks to Potions of Mastery Thievery stealing Algernon´s Cloak as well as the Ring of Freedom was no big deal but without her new charmed friends Ivy has a hard time killing anything with her own hands... or Long Sword.
Used for instance Silke and Karlat to clear the Spiders, charmed one Greater Basilisk on top of Durlags Tower to petrify the other two but failed to kill the last one as only crits could touch them. Damn it. Pushed reputation and bought Shadow Armor, Greenstone Amulet and Displacer Cloak. Now with Meilums Gloves and the Longsword +2 its maybe finally possible to land some more hits. Hopefully.
Ivy so far got very lucky as her HP are at 61 which is the best result by far for quite some time. This class is a real pain in the beginning and will only shine later in SoA - if we can get there. First there are some bosses blocking the path... as well as misclicks that are lurking around every corner...
1800gold Greenstone Amulet
Wolf waylay (LMD)
8000xp Battle Horrors (23x Ring of Energy)
4000xp Kirinhale lv5 66hp
Wolf waylay (LMD) Sold loot
Wolf waylay (LMD)
Ogrillon waylay (LMD)
1000xp Rufie
Cave Bear waylay (LMD)
Ran the CHA tome from the cave without any resources
Wolf waylay (LMD)
Bought PfA which gave us 70% Acid resistance with Cavalier bonus
1500xp + 20 rep Brun
Bought Sandthief Ring with 13k
Potion of Defense from Gullykin
Back at Durlag's tower, Cloud, 2x Insulation and started looting. Lv2 Oil of Speed + Invisibility #5, lv3 Oil of Speed. Warder level, 2x Oil of Speed. We ran just opening chests and looting all we could. Cavalier Charm immunity comes handy here, and Fire Resistance. We had Ghasts, Skelis and Zombies in tow so we used couple Sandthief charges to lose them
Kobold Commando waylay (LMD)
After selling the loot, back at Durlag's Tower again. Used Absorption and last four charges from Sandthief to collect the stuff to activate the Warders. I wanted to recharge my Sandthief before the Warders, so we left yet again. Was left 6k gold after the recharge
Hobgoblin waylay (LMD)
10000xp Warders
Ghasts chased us to Love, so I used this for Oil of Speed and Greenstone amulet. Activated Love and lured him to the Fireball trap. Avarice almost killed us, but we managed to get Invisible. With our 110 Fire Resistance we used the Fireball trap to kill Love, Avarice and bunch of Ghasts. From the next level we looted Champions Strength, Kiel's Helmet and Durlag's Goblet. One of Cavalier's many boons is the ability to naturally use the Goblet
Hobgoblin waylay (LMD)
Remembered that there was Full Plate in Beregost, and it only costs 250 exchanging Ankheg Plate
Fetched the CON tome with one Sandthief charge, escaped not caring about Sirines Charm attempts
300xp Mad Arcand
Wild Dog waylay (LMD)
16800xp (Green PfP + Korax managed to kill other Basilisks but Mutamin was too much) lv6 86hp
1200xp Meilum (Ring of Energy)
Gibberling waylay (LMD)
650xp Mulahey (Sandthief, Cloud, Defense, Greenstone, Oil of Speed, 12xGoblet)
1000xp Mulahey Symbol
800xp Greenstone Ring
Amnian Soldiers killed Nimbul
975xp Tranzig (level skipped few spells)
Lamalha waylay (LMD)
Raiken escorted us to Bandit camp (2xSandthief and Absorption) using double Invisibilities was good as I was slowed, which probably would've meant death otherwise
Got Molkar + Spider waylay? I don't think I've gotten that before. Anyway Sandthief, then hit Spider and got hit by Halacan and escaped
Nice progress @histamiini...! Are you planning to switch to Helm in SoD cause without being able to recharge Goblet or Sandthief Ring more than once things might get really tricky for a Cavalier, no? ^^
Been playing round with charm in the dukes ambush and no matter what I do the mage, when he finally turns seems to endlessly summon monsters. Feel like the hell fight that is going to kill anastasia v4.
I don't really understand this - is it a reaction to being by itself?
I have 2 ogre berserkers, 4 ogres, an ettercap, 2 ogrillons, 2 gnolls, a flind and a water elemental...
@alice_ashpool Yeah it feels like computer cheats with no summon limits. Happens in many encounters.
It's the first time I have been genuinely frustrated with the SCS scripting being different from what the player is allowed to do. I had one run where I parked him in the piano room and when I checked the whole room was overflowing with lizardmen, must have been 25 or something.
But as always, there is little that going to make a cup of coffee + "pause on enemy sighted" can't deal with.
edit: i've had so many stupid things happen in that fight now. Props to the doppleganger mage going invisible in a side room then doing absolutely nothing. Without detect illusion that might have bricked it. Also second props to Liia who decided on one run she was going to try a melee only approach.
Oh, no @histamiini - what a shame. I did something really stupid relying on the innate charm resistance of Elves too much. A charmed Carrion Crawler soaked up the poison arrows of three Nymphs and when the charms went off i was confident to soak them up with ease... one was resisted... two... three... and then the fourth one turned everything gray....
Executive Summary: Angelo clears the planar sphere using stealth, Mislead and HLAs while opportunistically testing his weapons.
"It's annoying that the planar prison and the planar sphere have such similar names," Felicity complained as the duo knocked on Valygar's door, "I always get confused between the two."
Valygar the Valet
As the proud recipient of Level 1 NPC protection, Valygar could not be slain and his body used to open the planar sphere. However, Angelo was unwilling to let this spurious formality prevent him from accessing this area in a solo game, so temporarily recruited Valygar solely for this purpose. He was unable to avoid the 9,500 XP reward for having Valygar join, but decided not to remove it using cheats to set his XP to its previous value. He sensed there would be lots of free XP this episode, so he started as he meant to go on.
Taking Valygar up the stairway to the planar sphere entrance, Valygar's presence opened the door, ater which Angelo asked the stalker to sashay away. Entering the sphere, Angelo vanished and took the western path, slipping on his ring of lock picks in order to open the chest. The nearby clay golem buffed itself with Haste, but Angelo was quicker to escape the chamber with his new boots of speed. This gave him enough leeway to cast renew his Invisibility just as the golem charged towards him, causing it to stand around aimlessly.
Had Angelo been completing this dungeon pacifistically, he would have left the golem be, but it was easy enough to smack with the rod of smiting for what was basically a free 8,000 XP. He then left the sphere to sell the miscellaneous ammunition from the chests before coming back to tackle its remainder. Ignoring the northeastern chamber (which only contained a steam mephit and a birds' eye view of Athkatla), Angelo rummaged around until he found the planar key, a lever that would allow him to proceed. Felicity told Angelo that this was the point of no return - once he examined the northern door, he would have to complete the entire dungeon before he could leave, although he would gain 17,500 XP upfront.
Fanning the Flames
Stepping into the sphere proper, Angelo met a trio of Knights of Solamnia hailing from Ansalon who were also trapped in the sphere. Reyna warned of cannibalistic halflings to the left, Ancan talked of northern 'fish that walk as men' and Onvo burbled about his brother Elic. Taking the scroll of Khelben's Warding Whip from the central table, Angelo picked Ancan's pockets for potions of hill giant strength, magic shielding and a pair of extra healings, as well as 15 GP (the other knights had nothing worth stealing).
Angelo figured Anca's warning could mean sahuagin or kuo-toa, and since he had no desire to face the latter again (despite Felicity telling him it was the former), he left them alone. Instead, he went westwards and was unsurprised to find himself in a desert - the feral halflings sounded like they were from Athas, an arid world that Angelo had read about in AD&D books. Unfortunately, living in such harsh conditions had not taught them to detect invisibility, so Angelo stealthily circumvented them.
The forge contained two sword spiders, two ettercaps and a table which Angelo looted the table before disappearing and heading north to the furnace. After hiding in the connecting corridor to escape some Oracle casts, Angelo disarmed a steam floor trap on the eastern manhole and a Power Word: Silence trap on the bridge that followed.
A bunch of golems and a safe occupied the room at the end. Noting that he could have raided the safe and vanished before the golems could react had he desired, Angelo decided to put his rod of smiting to use again. Dumping his invisible Mislead clone in the connecting passage, Angelo proceeded to gather 48,000 XP (16,000 XP for the juggernaut golem, 2 x 8,000 XP for the stone golems and 2 x 8,000 XP for the clay golems) from risk-free smacking. Similarly, having now gathered a trio of coal (one from the initial chamber, one from the forge and one from the golem room - with Felicity mentioning that Entu carried a spare if required), Angelo could activate the furnaces invisibly. Although the three summoned fire elementals could be easily have been evaded, Angelo struck them down instantly with Wave, earning 18,000 XP in total.
Lies... the fire elementals won't attack if they can't see you!
Back in the forge, Angelo unlocked the eastern door, renewing his Invisibility to prevent arachnid pursuit. However, although he disarmed the Finger of Death trap on the bridge that followed, he couldn't get through the door beyond it. Defeated, he returned to the forge, which was now active after the furnace had been fired up, and used the golem head and arm (from the initial chamber and the safe) to complete the creature in the tank. This earned 23,500 XP and the awakened guardian golem charged across the bridge to unlock the door. Since his Invisibility had not been broken by this activation, Angelo followed cautiously.
The guardian golem crossed the puzzle rune room swiftly, but Angelo raced to reach the opposite entrance first, unlocking it for a little extra XP before the golem could open it. Unfortunately, while the golem was supposed to take out the elder orb in the next room, it would only do so if the beholder was in close proximity when the golem crossed the bridge into the room. By chance, the elder orb had positioned itself on the wider central gangway as the golem passed by, so there was no way that the golem would have killed the beholder left to its own devices.
Grumbling, Angelo cast Mislead and did the job himself. Funnily enough, this elder orb seemed susceptible to backstabs, a weakness which fittingly provided its downfall.
Wanting to punish the guardian golem for its uselesness, Angelo whacked it several times, but it was immune to the rod's effects and evidently wore a 'minimum HP 1' item. Still, it seemed oblivious to the assault, so Angelo abandoned it to loot a nearby corpse for some diamonds before entering the Navigator's Room.
A Song of Fire and Ice
Valygar had explained his backstory during their approach to the planar sphere, so when Angelo found Lavok during his invisible scouting, he knew that negotiations would not end well. Taking the opportunity to rob Lavok of his ring of acuity before the fight began, Angelo tanked an initial Abi-Dalzim's Horrible Wilting using the belt of inertial barrier and ran away until Lavok's protections had expired. If Angelo had been attempting this at a lower level, he would have concocted some plan to fire ranged weapons as he dashed between two exit passages, shutting the doors intermittently to prevent Lavok from finishing his spell targeting. Luckily, though, Mislead negated the requirement for such elaborate shenanigans.
His defeat earned 28,750 XP and the offer to return the planar sphere to its former location in Athkatla (activating it had sent it to the lower planes). To do this, Angelo had to acquire the heart of a demon that roamed the abyss outside the sphere. Sighing in resignation, Angelo first pickpocketed the fallen Lavok for a second ring of acuity, then he looted the side chambers, invisibly dumping their inhabitants as soon as he came into view. Finally, he returned to the puzzle runes chamber, examining each sigil hoping for some clue as to their function before finding nothing and turning to Felicity Foresight. "In which order should I activate these?" he asked in exasperation. The imp replied that North-South-East-West was the correct combination, and performing this unlocked the door to the Power Core, earning another 24,500 XP.
As the instigator of proceedings, Tolgerias' presence didn't surprise Angelo, but he was surprised by the conjurer's neutrality given that an accompanying nameless mage was already hostile. He was glad of it, though, since it allowed the theft of Toglerias' ring of the ram (as well as a flamedance ring) without a fight. Despite immediately vanishing, Tolgerias was provoked and instantly summoned a fire elemental and two hakaeshars to his aid; Angelo knew better than to employ Wave again, as killing summoned monsters provided no XP, so he fled and waited until the illusory-sensing hakaeshars had expired before moving through.
Although the eastern fire chamber was more dangerous than the northern ice chamber (not least because it featured two repeating steam floor traps from the small circular vents, which Angelo disarmed), Angelo took it because its monsters were more susceptiable to Wave. Parking an invisible Mislead clone in the upward corridor, Angelo took out a noble efreeti (11,000 XP), a greater fire elemental (10,000 XP) and two salamnders (4,000 XP total) with one hit each. The ice chamber wasn't nearly as rewarding, with only the three ice salamanders (9,000 XP in total) providing instant-death targets (as Wave's description didn't specify which types of slsamanders were affected, its effect applies to all of them!). The fire chamber's shield of falling stars and staff of fire also seemed better recompense than the ice chamber's helm of defence, although Angelo questioned the staff's usefulness now he had Wave.
The engine room, however, featured even more possibilities. On the left path stood 2 stone golems, 2 clay golems and a juggernaut golem while the right held but a single clay golem and a Fireball trapped chest. The golems were sitting ducks for the rod of smiting (56,000 XP total) and the chest contained Bala's Axe +2, a ring of danger sense and 6,600 GP. As Lavok had predicted, the engine wouldn't function without a demon's heart, so Angelo steeled his nerves and prepared to enter the unknown.
Into the Abyss
Angelo had been expected to be ravaged as soon as he stepped foot out of the planar sphere's main exit, but the opposition seemed surprisingly tame. Some imps and quasits here, some salamanders there... but Felicity warned him of the tanar'ri up ahead as he looped left. Angelo took heed and set up a barrage of 7 spike traps, retreating into the planar sphere to rest every time (else he be interrupted by maurezhi, ghasts who cast Charm/Hold Person and could see through invisibility). Then, casting Invisibility, he entered the tanar'ri's line of sight.
As the only being capable of spotting Angelo through his illusion, the demon followed him as Angelo led it right onto his assembled traps. Amazingly, it survived the ensemble, but had so few HP left that it only took a single swipe of Angelo's blade to finish it off for 10,000 XP.
Unable to resist the opportunity, Angelo used Wave to kill the pair of salamanders he'd met on the way, quickly vanishing before any imps could wreak revenge.
Scampering back to the engine room, Angelo inserted the demon heart into the machine, grinding it to a halt and earning another 45,500 XP. Funnily the leftmost pack of golems had reassembled nearby, but Angelo drew the line at killing them again. Instead, he returned to take Lavok outside the sphere, earning another 45,500 XP. As the ring of acuity had already been pickpocketed from fallen Lavok, the corpse didn't carry a ring of acuity, but this still meant that Angelo had sneakily double-dipped.
As there was nothing stopping Angelo from re-entering the sphere, so he could park his Mislead clone by the Knights of Solamnia and go to town on the bands of Athas halflings he'd passed earlier. The first troupe consisted of enchanter Kayardi (6,000 XP) and priest Mogadish (14,000 XP), along with fighters Entu (5,000 XP, gauntlets of ogre power) and Togan (5,000 XP, Ripper +2). The second had necromancer Necre (11,000 XP, stiletto of Demarchess) and invoker Taibela (8,000 XP), along with some unimportant warriors.
"Had it not been for Lavok and the tanar'ri, you could have completed this area entirely without combat," Felicity remarked as they left the planar sphere. "But at least you've now acquired the gauntlets of ogre power."
"Now we need to obtain the last piece of the puzzle," Angelo replied, "the Crom Faeyr scroll."
You have a wrong picture in there - a shot of you composing the post instead of the intended beholder backstab.
Incidentally, while it's called an elder orb, it has no spellcasting abilities. It also doesn't get the SCS beholder AI; it just gets a generic melee AI on top of its original script. And it should have the same backstab immunity as other beholders; it has an immunity effect in the character file just like them.
On those puzzle runes ... it is a little odd that there aren't any clues. Then again, I usually just make one of my party members fire immune and take the penalty for wrong guesses. A minor globe would also work, but not the cloak of mirroring.
There is a path through the engine room that doesn't spawn in either of the two golem packs - take the ice entrance and stay away from the fire entrance. Both of the spawn triggers are on paths from the fire entrance. If you do that, there's only the one clay golem to fight.
First post on page 203, glad you guys liked it! I really couldn't have made it without this thread. Writing this makes me even more eager for my futur SCS run later this year! Sorry i'm a slow writter, but anyway here's part 2 out of 4 of my run!
Venturing into SoD, i didn't realise that i totally forgot Kiel's helmet at my Beregost house and only noticed it doing the Coldhearth Lich dungeon. Another big mistake i made was to use my two protection from undead scroll inside Durlag's tower to beat the Skeleton Warriors, which i should have just avoided as it made this dungeon very painful. At least i didn't forget any of my essential stuff and had plenty of potion of clarity... well here's my SoD story:
Interlude: The hunt for Korlasz.
This dungeon was pretty easy as i could avoid almost all fights with invisibility. I rushed right away to the crusader at the beginning of the dungeon and convinced them to surrender, which cleared this first area. After that i went straight to Korlasz with invisibility, avoiding all fights. I though that the fight was going to be pretty hard so i completely buffed up and tried a first time with summons, which really wasn't successful. Second try i backed up and started kiting slowly with the wand of fire in the fog the war and to my surprise, she surrendered after a few fireballs even if her health barely went down... well still a victory! I tried it a few time to make sure it wasn't a glitch and it seems to be consistent. I had to turn invisible a few time as i was getting backstabbed by invisible assassins and they really don't mess around with that extra APR.
Once Korlasz what dealt with, to my pleasure the dungeon was clear of undeads except for the secret area unlocked by the torch puzzle. I did all possible secondary quests in this area : Ammon's request, the mummy' orders, the restless spirit's staff, the unlit torch and Korlasz's secret chamber. I filled all my inventory with the most expensive items i could find in the dungeon to get enough gold to buy everything i needed from Sorcerous Sundries. I then left for Chapter 7.
Chapter 7
Little backstory: From now on, everything i did was to prepare for the final Belhifet fight... a fight that still hunts me that made me discover this tread as i couldn't beat it at all on my first insane solo run with a thief/illusionnist. I managed to do it on a second playthrough but not by myself, by buffing Caelar through the roof and she destroyed him in seconds. I was determined to end both her life and Belhifet's in this playthrough for my first LoB Belhifet attempt.
Preparation: Got to sorcerous sundries to sell my extra loot and dealt with the looters upstairs. Got all arrow of detonation, got a few extra potions and spent the rest of arrow of dispelling. Then went to get the Spectacle of Spectacle to unlock the sequencer robe later on, then the ring of purity and clover leaf. I went to get Lon's amulet at the Iron Throne building for constant Bless and continued with the main quest without caring for the previous companions at all. I didn't bother for any other sidequests and continued on to chapter 8.
Chapter 8 (a really painful one)
This is where my previous mistakes stabbed me the most... and i also made another one!
Went straight away to the blockade to be done with it and i went get the Halfling Treasures to get the identifying mirror. I wanted to be the good guy so after getting the shield from helping the vampire hunter's, i bought some potion of persuasiveness even if i was short on gold to be able to complete the quest the ''right'' way and still request the mirror. I wanted to do the Menhir quest and Telerias quest for the Stone Ally but i wasn't able to complete them. I couldn't get Teleria to spawn at all (never did the quest completely so i probably missed a step) and i couldn't interact with one of the Menhir as i didn't know that you needed a high charisma to not mess up the quest... so i messed it up. Then i headed to the Dwarven Dig Site for one of the most reload heavy segment of my run.
First area was dealt by supporting the dwarves with summons and wand of paralysation/polymorphing and i managed to save Semahl, who is a total beast on this mode. I tried for 30 minutes to charm him but it doesn't seem possible at all as when it feels like it should have worked, the nymph cloak would just lose a charge and nothing would happen. I cleared the whole level by slowly dragging the undead grounds to the dwarfs, as a group too big would result death and the dwarved turning hostile on me. Using summons as meat shields was pretty effective and Semahl would just smash everything pretty quickly so it went pretty well.
The big problem was the underground... i didn't know that no protection from undead scrolls were available in SoD and only 2 (that i knew of) were available on BG1 and i already used them on Durlag's tower... The problem was, i was simply not able to run freely without being killed or blocked by the undeads, especially those bats that would see me through invisibility. So for the first room south, i stacked webs and abused spider spawn while trying to kill at least 2 monsters per rest until they're all dead. I tried to lure some fire skeletons and blinded them so i could win a 1 vs 1 fight with them and it worked, which saved me a few rests. I also turned a few into squirrels especially those who would level drain me or see me invisible. I got a bit cocky a few times, got level drained and had to cure myself to the point that i had not gold left at all... I had to reload everytime it happened (didn't really often by that point, maybe once or twice) So i had to rest spam while invisible inside and outside the mine until everything was dead. Resting anywhere on this chapter is a nightmare. I then cleared the room north by spamming wand of fireball offscreen. I wanted to speed this up and heal myself with the Durlag's goblem then i noticed... i forgot Kiel's helmet in Beregost I really didn't want to waste my potions of clarity especially that i was out of gold for the moment.
Next step was the bronze sentry. I spammed the wand of polymorph after Greater Malison while keeping it busy with summons until it worked, it was very effective and pretty quick. I cleared the north laboratory room from undeads the same way i did the first room but it wasn't as easy due to those invisible snakes, so i used another tactic that i abused while playing on Insane: I drank an oil of speed and used my wand of fire Aganazzar's Scorcher to deal with the majority of the pack. It worked very well (next time i'm bringing more WoF), i had to be careful however as i couldn't recharge it for now. After this i opened the room to the lich and dealt with the pack here the same way. There were skeleton warriors that i couldn't kill and i didn't feel like wasting ressources on them so i dragged them to the laboratory room and left them there, fleeing while invisible. The Coldhearth lich was much easier than i expected. I got the Secret Revealed and sprinted through the dungeon to destroy it's phylactery right away. Then i used the Secret Revealed on it from casting, then spammed wand of paralysation that, to my surprised, worked after only 2 casts. I killed him with my scimitars very quickly after this. I reported my success to the Dwarves, who joined me in battle and proceeded to chapter 9! Oh and i reached XP cap, last pip into single weapon style for 19-20 crit range. This was really a painful chapter... but i really wanted to deal with the lich.
Chapter 9
Got Enchanted Weapon for the final fight, looted the goblin waylay to sell the spell breaker and elven chain for gold, then looted the Forest of Wyrm and the Spider Lair for even more stuff to sell. I wanted to charm the Greater Wyvern to have fun in the area but they would just turn hostile after a few seconds every time so i did everything invisible. Time for Morentherene. I never tried the throwing dagger technique before and i must say... it was actually harder than expected. I could only hit the dragon with a natural 20 so i would just miss the 1 shot constantly until i reloaded and got a crit on my first shot. It would just turn hostile and destroy me otherwise. There might be a way to retreat if the throw fails but i didn't bother with it, i just reloaded until it worked and got it's scales.
Did the bugbear camp invisible and ventured into the Temple of Cyric. For Ziatar, i spammed offscreen webs, then GM, them poly-sniped her into oblivion then used hasted summons for the two mages while i stayed safe. They eventually wasted their spells after i dispelled their protections with Arrows of Dispelling and died quickly. For Neothelid, i had to reload a few time due to missing my GM, luckily i had some spare scrolls and i used them here to give me better odds to land it against it's magic resistance. After that it was a matter of summons, kiting and casting Wand of Polymorphing until it worked. It eventually did after 10-15 casts and the fight was done. Charmed Akanna first try and she died fighting her Aerial Servants... then the mind flayer lair was done with my usual web+summons+wand of poly/para+wand of fire/arrows. Quickly looted the Shadow Aspect chest and got away back to the camp to get some gold.
I then did the sidequests in Bridgefort and surrendered the fort. I really didn't want to deal with the crusader camp. After a much more successful chapter 9, into chapter 10!
Chapter 10
This chapter was done as quickly as possible mostly to not waste ressources and only get items that i could benefit from. Used the Spectacles for Nazmaru to get the Ring of Purity and Cloverleaf. Got Martyr's Morning Star and did the Crusader camp quest ''undestanding the Crusade'' for the ring of the crusade. Ring of Purity + Ring of the crusade + cloverleaf is an amazing defensive/offensive combo especially later on. I didn't waste more time (except trying to charm the Wyverns again which failed as they were constantly returning hostile) and got right away into underground river, told a nice story for the wand of water elemental summoning and did the Druid quest for the Ankheg Summoning amulet. Sadly for him, Ferrusk got charmed and got totally obliterated by the surrounding Myconids, which made the quest completion very easy. I then used the Spectacles to kill the lich inside the ritual chamber the same way that i did for Coldhearth for it's sequencer robe and i left invisible. I then rushed to loot the chests near Hephernaan, especially the spell immunity scroll, and left for the crusader attack.
The attack went much better than i though. Stacked webs + GM + Chaos (leftover scrolls from BG1) + Arrow of Detonation was very effective. I did the first two waves without resting then rested after every wave for the rest. With 87 arrows of detonation, 67 arrows of dispelling (that i didn't use) and cloudkill, they didn't stand a chance. I was left with 47 arrow of detonations after the siege.
Chapter 11
Pretty easy chapter. Did everything but the Ashatiel duel invisible, looted the castle and got the Daeros Full plate. That's pretty much it. I recharged everything i could and bought potions with my leftover gold before leaving to Avernus.
Chapter 12
Avernus, one of the place that i feared the most. I tried to fight the demons there but i figured out that i wouldn't stand a chance and i didn't want to waste my precious buffs on those monsters when there is a much bigger threat ahead. Those with the thorns are just too much trouble and reflect too much damage to be worth it.
My plan for Thrix was to lure the demons near the entrance of the area. However it wasn't that simple with those teleporting demons and failed my first time. Second time i talked to Thrix too quickly and triggered the second dialogue right away after ending the conversation, opening the gates without a fight... Well a win is a win!
Time to super buff for Belhifet, my solo mage/thief run stopper (only manage to polymorph him once on insane, his improved invisibility is ridiculous). Got a strength+strength sequencer to buy myself some time as he doesn't resist positive effects and had a mirror image+improved invisibility+stoneskin sequencer due to the lich robe. I had to use a potion of clarity due to forgetting Kiel's helm. It wasn't a big deal at all as i just had another point to my AC and a bit more HP.
The lift was very easy to deal with. Enemies died so quickly that it felt like insane difficulty. I left 1 enemy and went invisible to finish buffing with potions of heroism (no potion of powers, i had a terrible experience with my illu/thief with those). I switched armor to finish buffing with spells and got blur, mirror image, stoneskin, improved invisibility, immunity:Abjuration and enchanted weapon in effect before switching back to Daeros full plate to do the final fight. *laugh in 524 HP*
Belhifet, destroyer of runs
I really wanted it to be a true solo so taking Caelar with me was a no go. I started the fight debuffing Belhifet's strength with the S+S sequencer and focused on him right away. It was my first real solo success on insane + against this monster and this is where i really realised how strong this build was going to be... it was actually much easier than any of my previous attempts. About a minute later, this was Bel's state :
Caelar really didn't stand a chance after that :
I got ''lucky'' as my potion of heroism started wearing out when i had fun messing with Caelar (tested various summons that i ended up not needing at all) so i ended her quickly after that.
And finally this is it, my first real success (2nd if i count the countless hours i spent landing a single WoPoly with an Illu/Thief) of completing SoD solo after my first LoB attempt.
BG2 obliteration coming soon, have a great day all of you!
I'm too nervous to play Anastasia v4, I don't want to die... the slythe fight still messes up 25% of the time and the dukes 50% neither of which I want to happen.
I think I have the basics of the slythe fight:
Charm the ogre (but I can't get it to come down stairs before charming so I end up keeping it upstairs.)
Charm the 5 Guards and have them mill near the stairs back upstairs
WoH slythe and lure him into the guards, get him to use up all 4-5 invisi potions. Hit him with a few more WoH while he gibs the guards.
Lure him upstairs to the ogre - try not to get chunked, hit him with WoH 'til dead.
The main way it messes up is that Krystin ends up following sometimes which is a world of hurt if she appears upstairs. I think with a backup plan I could do it with a 90% chance of success, but that still leaves the dukes.
---
So because of that I had a go with a shadowdancer - Varia the half-orc. I have never played this class before and well - wow, its great in every way except the shoddy thac0 meaning it takes for ever to land a hit. Even as a 19str half-orc it just doesn't seem to cut it as a pure-class, but for non LoB its quite the powerhouse. Hide in plain sight is everything I want and more.
Anyway, I took Varia to level 7 nR before deciding the low thac0 wasn't worth it, maybe a shadowdancer->fighter dual next time as others have been running.
The Dart Stunning trick looks interesting @AvidGamerFan, can this be combined with pre-Webbing the Nobles first?
Absolutely! Darts have a speed factor of 2, so there's a non-negligible chance of rolling high on your intiative and missing the window of opportunity, but it's still useful to disable one of the dopplegangers. If your Web can disable the back row, then you can not only stop the assassin from instantly appearing, but by hitting webbed nobles, you could reliably stagger the other dopplegangers' appearances.
Another neat thing is that if you use 2 Protection from Fire scrolls on the nobleman you're going to stun, they can serve as a beacon for your arrows of detonation. They'll still take missile damage, but the fire immunity will make them last longer. This means they won't move forward between you firing the arrow and it connecting. I've lost several times by firing at dopplegangers positioned where Sarevok would have been out of the arrow's detonation, only for them to move into the arrow and include Sarevok in the AoE.
Incidentally, not only is using Protection from Fire on the Flaming Fists a waste because they die quickly anyway, but also because they inevitably succumb to Chaos/Greater Command - by removing these with arrows of dispelling, you're also removing their fire immunity. However, there is an upside. Liia Janneth precasts Invisibility and if she succumbs to Greater Command just after, she'll stay invisible for its duration. As her protections make her immune to the detonation, it's the safest place for her!
Time for Morentherene. I never tried the throwing dagger technique before and i must say... it was actually harder than expected. I could only hit the dragon with a natural 20 so i would just miss the 1 shot constantly until i reloaded and got a crit on my first shot. It would just turn hostile and destroy me otherwise. There might be a way to retreat if the throw fails but i didn't bother with it, i just reloaded until it worked and got it's scales.
Funny. In my install, if you throw daggers at her from range, Morentherene stays sleeping until she gets hit (probably on a critical), whereupon she'll die. In this screenshot, you can see Angelo throwing several daggers without interruption on the UI until he hits.
The attack went much better than i though. Stacked webs + GM + Chaos (leftover scrolls from BG1) + Arrow of Detonation was very effective. I did the first two waves without resting then rested after every wave for the rest. With 87 arrows of detonation, 67 arrows of dispelling (that i didn't use) and cloudkill, they didn't stand a chance. I was left with 47 arrow of detonations after the siege.
Any combination who can use both martial weapons and arcane spells (bards, F/M, T/M and F/M/T) probably has the best chance at the crusader attacks and Belhifet. As you say, arrows of detonation and area CC spells deal with the former while Enchanted Weapon and Martyr's Morningstar can smack down the latter. They also have the best options for tanking Belhifet (see 'Belhifet' section). Although they can stack Champion's Strength scrolls, clerics simply don't have the AoE to cope easily with the crusader attacks; druids have better options with Entangle, Spike Stones and summons, along with the Magic Resistance-Harm combo for Belhifet, but I'd still put the F/M ahead.
Funny. In my install, if you throw daggers at her from range, Morentherene stays sleeping until she gets hit (probably on a critical), whereupon she'll die. In this screenshot, you can see Angelo throwing several daggers without interruption on the UI until he hits.[/spoiler]
In my experience this only works if you're completely unbuffed when you approach her: no active potions or spell buffs (not even stuff like invisibility).
Existing buffs done outside the cave are OK, but you can't add new buffs inside the cave. You also need to shoot from full range - if you get too close she will be activated by your presence rather than your thrown daggers.
Lord Vanderley reloaded from the start with the boon of Helm.
250xp Candlekeep
900xp Marl
Invisibility potion Beregost Manor
-3 rep stealing
Ankheg Plate armor from Nashkel
400xp Noober
Invisibility potion #2 Nashkel Manor
LMD ability
Drizzt Scimitars + Freeaction (weapons of choice until SoA)
13 rep (1800 gold)
14 rep Oublek
300xp 15 rep Firebead
35xp Sonner
2500xp Tenya's Bowl lv2 25hp
400xp + 16 rep Joia's ring (lured them to Guards) lv3 39hp
900xp Hentold's Dagger, Invisibility potion #3
500xp + 17 rep Samuel (110 Fire Resistance with Cavalier bonus, Icingdeath, Ballista's Passport)
Xvart waylay (LMD)
200xp + 18 rep Drienne's Cat
1000xp + 19 rep Brage
Invisibility potion #4 from Carnival tent with Stone Giant, and using Fire Giant from the chest
1000xp Albert 20k gold
1500xp + 20 rep Brun (PfA) lv4 47hp
250xp Gnarl (100 gold)
CHA tome picked up with just running there and back
Santhief Ring and Greenstone Amulet (15k gold)
CON tome (one Sandthief charge) 51hp
Full Plate (250gold + Ankheg Plate)
16800xp Basilisks (Korax + PfP) lv5 64hp
4000xp Kirinhale
1st round looting Durlag's tower (Cloud, 2xAbsorption, 2xSanthief)
2nd round looting (Greenstone amulet + Fireball trap for Ghasts)
3rd round looting
Gibberling waylay (LMD)
4th round looting (2x Sandthief)
Recharged Sandthief ring
Last looting (2x Sandthief, Absorption)
10000xp Warders (Speed, Greenstone, Sandthief, Fireball trap for Love) lv6 72hp
Kiel's Helmet, Champion's Strength, Durlag's Goblet which Cavalier can use naturally (Frost)
Potion of Defense and Stoneform from Gullykin
650xp Mulahey (Sandthief, Cloud, Greenstone, Speed, 4x Goblet)
35xp Kobold Commando
800xp Joseph's Ring
1000xp Mulahey's Symbol
Nimbul (Greenstone, Level skipping, Guards, 2xGoblet)
975xp Tranzig (Greenstone, 2xGoblet)
120xp Tarnesh (Greenstone, Guards)
Raiken escorted us to Bandit camp (2xInsulation, 2x Sandthief)
270xp Girdle of Piercing (3x Goblet, 2xPfE)
Right-click looted Cloakwood 2, Spider Bane+2 for freeaction (Sandthief)
Lamalha waylay escaped with 27hp (LMD)
540xp Bridge Guards (2x Goblet)
Back to Cloakwood 1
Molkar waylay took only 10 damage (LMD)
800xp Chekal's body
OGL from Carnival, recharged OGL, Sandthief, Durlag's Goblet and Greenstone, still 15k gold left
Spider waylay (LMD, Spider Bane)
1400xp Drasus (PfM, Frost, Absorption, Speed, 16xGoblet)
1600xp Genthorne (3xGoblet)
Rezrdan went Invisible so we left back to HH to recharge the Goblet
Wyvern waylay (LMD)
Ettercap waylay (LMD, Spiderbane)
Sneaked to Davaeorn with 3 Sandthief charges and waited Guards to amass.
8400xp 20x Guards (17xOGL out of sight)
6000xp Davaeorn (2xBlocking, 1xShielding, then Frost, Speed, 5xGoblet)
We have made it to Baldur's Gate with 35k gold. Interestingly I need to carry my 8x charge OGL to the end, because I can't sell it anymore as it would get recharged. Only close calls with Drasus and party, where I was single digits hp couple times. And only mistake probably was not leaving one Cloud potion for Drasus.
@AvidGamerFan I'm dumb... i tested it again and the problem was that i was using throwing daggers +1, which won't insta-kill it (seriously why?!). When i tried the save-reload thing, it was with regular throwing daggers which worked right away on a critical hit no matter how many times you miss. I just tested it again and it does work like you're saying, you can just throw it until you crit. Many dumb mistakes on this playthrough Well it's going to be much easier next time for sure
I actually tried the harm combo with Jaheira on a party run and it was, as you say, incredibly effective against Belhifet while he still have a small chance to resist it, or you might just miss. I really liked reading through those older Belhifet posts to find strategies like the one you've just linked. I've also read an older post about a player completing it as a mage/thief and debuffing his MR with lower resistance, then detect illusion to be able to cast more LR at him, then GM, then spam wand of polymorphing but this is really not a NR scenario. As explained in the google doc it seemed very simple but in practice, Belhifet's improved invisibility constantly failed my casts and detect illusion was very clunky to dispel it. I managed to have a successful fight after a good hour of trying (still better than the entire night that i spent trying to invisible/critical hit him to no success). Not being able to wear an helmet and no potion of heroism is really painful here, Martyr's morning star effect on crit is ridiculously powerful too, so sad that it cannot be imported legitimately into BG2! I wonder if it would also be possible with Ray of Enfeeblement + 3x Contagion... while it would be a real pain to land everything, on paper an attribute kill ''could'' be possible. Contagion also bypass MR. I'm really not dedicated enough to try it however.
I also managed to kill him with an illu/thief (not legit, i used the console to practice the fight right away and spawned scrolls and gear) on insane with Otiluke Resilient Sphere scrolls + fireshield blue scrolls, keeping an oil of speed up (wearing paws of the cheetah to avoir getting stuck by the teleporting demons, you really have to be quick but 4x speed really works well until you drink your next invisibility potion, you have to run as soon as the sphere ends) and stoneskin/mirror image during the cast and the ''runaway'' phase when the sphere effect ends to avoid taking damage but i have a hard time to see this scenario working on LOB with the 3x HP + 80 as you would need about 10 scrolls of fireshield blue (as i remember, i needed 3 of both scrolls on insane. Should deal a bit more damage per scroll with the +1 APR of LoB but it's still not sufficient with the limited scrolls in the game... i think, i might test this further in the future).
A sorcerer ''might'' be able to pull this off with it's 6 level 4 casts + 6 scrolls from Belegarm + 1 scroll from Resar after Alatos and the Thieves Guild (i think) and sequencer for 14 fireshields, keeping himself alive between the casts with mirror image scrolls, stoneskin scrolls and a sequencer (stoneskin/mirror image/fireshield blue). I would be more than happy to be able to beat him without doing the 1hp at level 1 exploit with a pure mage class... I might actually test this further soon! I still can't see a way for any mage/thief unless it is possible with 9 fireshields (10 if illusionist so it might work with both classes actually...). Facetanking without potion of heroism and an helmet just doesn't work with double damage no matter what even on Insane. Sounds like i'm going to spend hours doing tests on Belhifet again soon...
I also managed to kill him with an illu/thief (not legit, i used the console to practice the fight right away and spawned scrolls and gear) on insane with Otiluke Resilient Sphere scrolls + fireshield blue scrolls, keeping an oil of speed up (wearing paws of the cheetah to avoir getting stuck by the teleporting demons, you really have to be quick but 4x speed really works well until you drink your next invisibility potion, you have to run as soon as the sphere ends) and stoneskin/mirror image during the cast and the ''runaway'' phase when the sphere effect ends to avoid taking damage but i have a hard time to see this scenario working on LOB with the 3x HP + 80 as you would need about 10 scrolls of fireshield blue (as i remember, i needed 3 of both scrolls on insane. Should deal a bit more damage per scroll with the +1 APR of LoB but it's still not sufficient with the limited scrolls in the game... i think, i might test this further in the future).
How did you avoid being just surrounded and unable to move? Every time I've tried this something (I was guessing the erynes since she can see through invisible same as Bel?) seems to dispel my invisibility, while ORS'd, meaning that there is a demonic welcoming party too dense to escape when ORS drops.
edit: just to explain what happens when I try this - Buffed and invisible, Bel can see. FSB + ORS. Bel attacks, other demons mill around. Erynies appears and starts shooting. Other demons seem to notice, begin whaling on ORS like Bel. ORS drops, try and move to re-buff+cast, occasionally works (10%?) but usually ganked.
Ah ha, I see - that just leaves the interminable wait between ORS dropping and drinking the potions which IIRC wasn't immediate - like casting ORS meant aura was still "filled" at the end of the spell - almost like frozen time during its duration. Longest few seconds of Sophia's life.
But yeah, with Stoneskin, MI, + some sort of AC boosts It could be possible to wait out that time if the invisi pot causes the fiends to shift.
@alice_ashpool I managed to get 3 rounds in a row where Belhifet was like this:
It worked after many attempts but for Insane but it is much easier to evade hits due to lower enemy THAC0 and -1 APR compared to LoB, i'm not sure it would even be possible just because of that. it is much better to simply tank him with mirror image and stoneskin and keep fireshield up while staying invisible the whole time on insane, i had good success doing that (6x fireshield scrolls, as many mirror image/stoneskin casts and scroll as possible + sequencer. Would obviously not work on LoB).
I'm not sure what triggers the demon to target you or not while invisible into the sphere, this is what i am going to try to discover.
So a little update on my tests so far on the Otiluke+Fireshield for Belhifet, it seems that the Erinyes (archers that see you invisible, which you are during Otiluke) are the one making the demon gather around you while invulnerable, preventing you from fleeing. I first tried it by killing the Erinyes with CTRL+Y during Otiluke and to my surprise, the demons started wandering around instead of staying aside of me. The window to run away was super tight still, but i still manage to get 3 in a row before dying.
I figured out that i couldn't kill the Erinyes so i tried Feeblemind and Blind on them and to my surprise, it seems to work. They have pretty poor saves with 30 MR so i could land blind and Feeblemind pretty often.
Current tactic so far is spamming wand of summoning and wait for the maximum possible number of demon spawned while blinding/feebleminding the Erinyes. Best run so far:
This was after 4 spheres, i reached 3 spheres multiple times so far. Note to self: do not forget to refresh oil of speed... I think that if i can make it up to 10 times in a row, it's eventually going to work. Definitely viable for insane however. LoB... well we'll see. A single sphere deal around 140 damage not counting regen.
The WS archer has defeated Sarevok et al! This one actually went easier as I expected... and provided you get your setup right, it's actually pretty straightforward.
Preliminaries: Naughty Tricks
First, let's cover the trick that makes this archer WS run possible: if vendors sell items in bundles and you sell them one item in a bundle, then it counts as if you've sold them a full bundle. In particular, Sorcerous Sundries sells arrows of detonation and dispelling in packs of 5, but by selling the arrows back individually, you can replenish their stock by 5 sets of 5. This makes them end up with more than they started with, effectively only limiting numbers the numer of arrows you can buy by the gold you can accrue.
In practice, this means that any archers unscrupulous enough to use this trick get a massive boost as soon as they reach Baldur's Gate. It doesn't work if the vendor doesn't sell stocks... if you sell an arrow of detonation to Taerom Fuiruim, for example, he'll stock them individually as he hasn't got any bundles to replenish and they don't form new ones. But since arrows of detonation automatically hit, this takes care of your ThAC0 worries once you reach Chapter 5 and gold becomes the limiting factor. I'd recommend doing you shopping just before the Duchal Palace ambush, since your reputation will likely take a hit and you'll get less bang-for-your-buck afterwards.
Preliminaries: Required items
Beyond Durlag's goblet and Kiel's helmet, you also need the boots of speed, but that's no biggy. Sneak into the guardhouse to kill the two downstairs guards with darts of stunning, then do the same with the black lotus smoking guard next door. This provides you with two cubby holes that you can drink health potions and enter Stealth freely. Drasus et al will crowd the door of the hut you're hiding in, but they won't folow you and when you leave, you'll appear behind them. Hide in shadows, retreat a little, fire an arrow of detonation, dash into the other hiding hole and repeat until all are dead except Drasus. Drasus will probably close you too fast to use the arrows, but once his initial berkserker rage wears off, his immunity to stun will go with it.
It's also nice to get the Eagle Bow. Obtain Lothander's half of the antidote by tricking Jalantha Mistmyr into giving you the Geas scroll, then cast Chaotic Commands using the scroll from Durlag's Tower level 2. This makes you immune to Marek's double Charm Person sequencer and should give you enough time to successfully land a dart of stunning on him.
Turns out that it does hit through Stoneskin and Mirror Image... what a shame!
Less Haste, Less Speed
Having sneaked to the Temple of Bhaal, I activated Sarevok while hidden and retreated to wait out Diarmid's Protection from Magic. Popping back into view while visible, I retreated, hid in shadows and waited out the oil of speed that Diarmid just popped. Now it's party time... Protection from Magic, then Protection from Poison (Diarmid's 20 arrows of biting), Protection from Acid (Diarmid's 30 acid arrows) and Protection from Fire x 2 (stops the fire bit of my arrows of detonation AoE). If you've saved the Champion's Strength scroll, now's an ideal time to use it, along with Draw Upon Holy Might.
Kiting time. Sarevok starts hasted, so it's imperative that you hit him with an arrow of dispelling to remove it. His AC is -18 and the practical best a WS archer can do is ThAC0 -2 (admittedly, if you can obtain the Longbow of Marksmanship, you can do slightly better). This gives you a 20% chance to hit Sarevok, reducing the frustration considerably. Diarmid will pepper you when he can, but he can't keep up and you're immune to his arrows' side effects, so I only healed with Durlag's goblet when my health was below 30 HP.
Angelo and Tazok start off invisible, but they will only opportunistically try to stab you if you loiter too close, so try to avoid that. They both drink oils of speed, so that's an extra complication if you let them become visible.
Fire and Brimstone
Once Sarevok's slowed down, it's tempting to rely on Diarmid's bad saves to land a lucky stun, but it's probably easier just to firebomb the place. By examining the UI, you can work out roughly where the hidden opponents are and make sure to include them in your arrows' AoE. In my game, Semaj and Tazok never broke cover - if you're protected from magic, Semaj won't bother summoning anything - and I killed them entirely with AoE. The risen skeletons can't stop you either, as they move just as slowly as Sarevok and can get in his way.
Normally, I'm against kiting - it's not tactically satisfying and just seems kinda dirty - but since arrows of detonation auto-hit, there's enough strategy here beyond running away and hoping for the best. In the run above, I used 82 arrows of detonation and 15 arrows of dispelling on the final battle, although the arrows of dispelling usage is more dependent on luck. It's very annoying trying to get just enough distance between you and a hasted Sarevok to squeeze off an arrow and hope for a critical, but once this is done, the battle is 80% over.
I estimate that the big test for this run will be Avernus. I have no idea if racial enemy and the warrior's ApR bonus will be enough for a level 1 character to overcome Belhifet where @histamiini's level 1 cleric failed. I'd forgotten that archers can't specialise in melee weapons, so I am already -0.5 ApR and -2 damage on where I'd hoped to be... but it should be obvious whether a normal level 1 ranger would fare any better.
@AvidGamerFan I don't know if drained lv1 WS Archer can beat Bel melee. When CS's are out, lets say it will do 1d8+3 +7STR +4Racial, about 19 avg damage per hit. And it will hit only 20's, so it does 38*0.75=28.5 avg damage per 20 attacks. And because Martyr's needs to be equipped which doesn't hit, the apr is just 1.5 without Oil of Speed. Average attack damage with 1.5apr is then 42.5 per 20 rounds, and Bel will regen 40hp during this time, which leads to around 8000 rounds average time to kill him.
Ah, still some progress here and good to see that your Archer is still proving strong @AvidGamerFan... but... hey... i dont like this shopping exploit so if anyone ever uses this in Cataclysm you will get cursed for eternity!
Comments
Reached Level 8 killing Greywolf after charming him thanks to Sune´s boon and getting him low by Kobolds and then landing the finishing blow. Running into close combat without a helm is suicidal and one of the Flesh Golems at High Hedge critted her down to 8 HP after landing a mighty 45 damage blow - puh. Thanks to Potions of Mastery Thievery stealing Algernon´s Cloak as well as the Ring of Freedom was no big deal but without her new charmed friends Ivy has a hard time killing anything with her own hands... or Long Sword.
Used for instance Silke and Karlat to clear the Spiders, charmed one Greater Basilisk on top of Durlags Tower to petrify the other two but failed to kill the last one as only crits could touch them. Damn it. Pushed reputation and bought Shadow Armor, Greenstone Amulet and Displacer Cloak. Now with Meilums Gloves and the Longsword +2 its maybe finally possible to land some more hits. Hopefully.
Ivy so far got very lucky as her HP are at 61 which is the best result by far for quite some time. This class is a real pain in the beginning and will only shine later in SoA - if we can get there. First there are some bosses blocking the path... as well as misclicks that are lurking around every corner...
A quick look at the inventory:
1800gold Greenstone Amulet
Wolf waylay (LMD)
8000xp Battle Horrors (23x Ring of Energy)
Wolf waylay (LMD) Sold loot
Wolf waylay (LMD)
Ogrillon waylay (LMD)
1000xp Rufie
Cave Bear waylay (LMD)
Ran the CHA tome from the cave without any resources
Wolf waylay (LMD)
Bought PfA which gave us 70% Acid resistance with Cavalier bonus
1500xp + 20 rep Brun
Bought Sandthief Ring with 13k
Potion of Defense from Gullykin
Back at Durlag's tower, Cloud, 2x Insulation and started looting. Lv2 Oil of Speed + Invisibility #5, lv3 Oil of Speed. Warder level, 2x Oil of Speed. We ran just opening chests and looting all we could. Cavalier Charm immunity comes handy here, and Fire Resistance. We had Ghasts, Skelis and Zombies in tow so we used couple Sandthief charges to lose them
Kobold Commando waylay (LMD)
After selling the loot, back at Durlag's Tower again. Used Absorption and last four charges from Sandthief to collect the stuff to activate the Warders. I wanted to recharge my Sandthief before the Warders, so we left yet again. Was left 6k gold after the recharge
Hobgoblin waylay (LMD)
10000xp Warders
Ghasts chased us to Love, so I used this for Oil of Speed and Greenstone amulet. Activated Love and lured him to the Fireball trap. Avarice almost killed us, but we managed to get Invisible. With our 110 Fire Resistance we used the Fireball trap to kill Love, Avarice and bunch of Ghasts. From the next level we looted Champions Strength, Kiel's Helmet and Durlag's Goblet. One of Cavalier's many boons is the ability to naturally use the Goblet
Remembered that there was Full Plate in Beregost, and it only costs 250 exchanging Ankheg Plate
Fetched the CON tome with one Sandthief charge, escaped not caring about Sirines Charm attempts
300xp Mad Arcand
Wild Dog waylay (LMD)
16800xp (Green PfP + Korax managed to kill other Basilisks but Mutamin was too much) lv6 86hp
1200xp Meilum (Ring of Energy)
Gibberling waylay (LMD)
650xp Mulahey (Sandthief, Cloud, Defense, Greenstone, Oil of Speed, 12xGoblet)
800xp Greenstone Ring
Amnian Soldiers killed Nimbul
975xp Tranzig (level skipped few spells)
Lamalha waylay (LMD)
Raiken escorted us to Bandit camp (2xSandthief and Absorption) using double Invisibilities was good as I was slowed, which probably would've meant death otherwise
Got Molkar + Spider waylay? I don't think I've gotten that before. Anyway Sandthief, then hit Spider and got hit by Halacan and escaped
EDIT: Lol I just read about the changes. Need to think what I've actually done to this point.
I don't really understand this - is it a reaction to being by itself?
I have 2 ogre berserkers, 4 ogres, an ettercap, 2 ogrillons, 2 gnolls, a flind and a water elemental...
It's the first time I have been genuinely frustrated with the SCS scripting being different from what the player is allowed to do. I had one run where I parked him in the piano room and when I checked the whole room was overflowing with lizardmen, must have been 25 or something.
But as always, there is little that going to make a cup of coffee + "pause on enemy sighted" can't deal with.
edit: i've had so many stupid things happen in that fight now. Props to the doppleganger mage going invisible in a side room then doing absolutely nothing. Without detect illusion that might have bricked it. Also second props to Liia who decided on one run she was going to try a melee only approach.
Executive Summary: Angelo clears the planar sphere using stealth, Mislead and HLAs while opportunistically testing his weapons.
"It's annoying that the planar prison and the planar sphere have such similar names," Felicity complained as the duo knocked on Valygar's door, "I always get confused between the two."
Taking Valygar up the stairway to the planar sphere entrance, Valygar's presence opened the door, ater which Angelo asked the stalker to sashay away. Entering the sphere, Angelo vanished and took the western path, slipping on his ring of lock picks in order to open the chest. The nearby clay golem buffed itself with Haste, but Angelo was quicker to escape the chamber with his new boots of speed. This gave him enough leeway to cast renew his Invisibility just as the golem charged towards him, causing it to stand around aimlessly.
Had Angelo been completing this dungeon pacifistically, he would have left the golem be, but it was easy enough to smack with the rod of smiting for what was basically a free 8,000 XP. He then left the sphere to sell the miscellaneous ammunition from the chests before coming back to tackle its remainder. Ignoring the northeastern chamber (which only contained a steam mephit and a birds' eye view of Athkatla), Angelo rummaged around until he found the planar key, a lever that would allow him to proceed. Felicity told Angelo that this was the point of no return - once he examined the northern door, he would have to complete the entire dungeon before he could leave, although he would gain 17,500 XP upfront.
Angelo figured Anca's warning could mean sahuagin or kuo-toa, and since he had no desire to face the latter again (despite Felicity telling him it was the former), he left them alone. Instead, he went westwards and was unsurprised to find himself in a desert - the feral halflings sounded like they were from Athas, an arid world that Angelo had read about in AD&D books. Unfortunately, living in such harsh conditions had not taught them to detect invisibility, so Angelo stealthily circumvented them.
The forge contained two sword spiders, two ettercaps and a table which Angelo looted the table before disappearing and heading north to the furnace. After hiding in the connecting corridor to escape some Oracle casts, Angelo disarmed a steam floor trap on the eastern manhole and a Power Word: Silence trap on the bridge that followed.
A bunch of golems and a safe occupied the room at the end. Noting that he could have raided the safe and vanished before the golems could react had he desired, Angelo decided to put his rod of smiting to use again. Dumping his invisible Mislead clone in the connecting passage, Angelo proceeded to gather 48,000 XP (16,000 XP for the juggernaut golem, 2 x 8,000 XP for the stone golems and 2 x 8,000 XP for the clay golems) from risk-free smacking. Similarly, having now gathered a trio of coal (one from the initial chamber, one from the forge and one from the golem room - with Felicity mentioning that Entu carried a spare if required), Angelo could activate the furnaces invisibly. Although the three summoned fire elementals could be easily have been evaded, Angelo struck them down instantly with Wave, earning 18,000 XP in total.
Lies... the fire elementals won't attack if they can't see you!
Back in the forge, Angelo unlocked the eastern door, renewing his Invisibility to prevent arachnid pursuit. However, although he disarmed the Finger of Death trap on the bridge that followed, he couldn't get through the door beyond it. Defeated, he returned to the forge, which was now active after the furnace had been fired up, and used the golem head and arm (from the initial chamber and the safe) to complete the creature in the tank. This earned 23,500 XP and the awakened guardian golem charged across the bridge to unlock the door. Since his Invisibility had not been broken by this activation, Angelo followed cautiously.
The guardian golem crossed the puzzle rune room swiftly, but Angelo raced to reach the opposite entrance first, unlocking it for a little extra XP before the golem could open it. Unfortunately, while the golem was supposed to take out the elder orb in the next room, it would only do so if the beholder was in close proximity when the golem crossed the bridge into the room. By chance, the elder orb had positioned itself on the wider central gangway as the golem passed by, so there was no way that the golem would have killed the beholder left to its own devices.
Grumbling, Angelo cast Mislead and did the job himself. Funnily enough, this elder orb seemed susceptible to backstabs, a weakness which fittingly provided its downfall.
His defeat earned 28,750 XP and the offer to return the planar sphere to its former location in Athkatla (activating it had sent it to the lower planes). To do this, Angelo had to acquire the heart of a demon that roamed the abyss outside the sphere. Sighing in resignation, Angelo first pickpocketed the fallen Lavok for a second ring of acuity, then he looted the side chambers, invisibly dumping their inhabitants as soon as he came into view. Finally, he returned to the puzzle runes chamber, examining each sigil hoping for some clue as to their function before finding nothing and turning to Felicity Foresight. "In which order should I activate these?" he asked in exasperation. The imp replied that North-South-East-West was the correct combination, and performing this unlocked the door to the Power Core, earning another 24,500 XP.
As the instigator of proceedings, Tolgerias' presence didn't surprise Angelo, but he was surprised by the conjurer's neutrality given that an accompanying nameless mage was already hostile. He was glad of it, though, since it allowed the theft of Toglerias' ring of the ram (as well as a flamedance ring) without a fight. Despite immediately vanishing, Tolgerias was provoked and instantly summoned a fire elemental and two hakaeshars to his aid; Angelo knew better than to employ Wave again, as killing summoned monsters provided no XP, so he fled and waited until the illusory-sensing hakaeshars had expired before moving through.
Although the eastern fire chamber was more dangerous than the northern ice chamber (not least because it featured two repeating steam floor traps from the small circular vents, which Angelo disarmed), Angelo took it because its monsters were more susceptiable to Wave. Parking an invisible Mislead clone in the upward corridor, Angelo took out a noble efreeti (11,000 XP), a greater fire elemental (10,000 XP) and two salamnders (4,000 XP total) with one hit each. The ice chamber wasn't nearly as rewarding, with only the three ice salamanders (9,000 XP in total) providing instant-death targets (as Wave's description didn't specify which types of slsamanders were affected, its effect applies to all of them!). The fire chamber's shield of falling stars and staff of fire also seemed better recompense than the ice chamber's helm of defence, although Angelo questioned the staff's usefulness now he had Wave.
The engine room, however, featured even more possibilities. On the left path stood 2 stone golems, 2 clay golems and a juggernaut golem while the right held but a single clay golem and a Fireball trapped chest. The golems were sitting ducks for the rod of smiting (56,000 XP total) and the chest contained Bala's Axe +2, a ring of danger sense and 6,600 GP. As Lavok had predicted, the engine wouldn't function without a demon's heart, so Angelo steeled his nerves and prepared to enter the unknown.
As the only being capable of spotting Angelo through his illusion, the demon followed him as Angelo led it right onto his assembled traps. Amazingly, it survived the ensemble, but had so few HP left that it only took a single swipe of Angelo's blade to finish it off for 10,000 XP.
Scampering back to the engine room, Angelo inserted the demon heart into the machine, grinding it to a halt and earning another 45,500 XP. Funnily the leftmost pack of golems had reassembled nearby, but Angelo drew the line at killing them again. Instead, he returned to take Lavok outside the sphere, earning another 45,500 XP. As the ring of acuity had already been pickpocketed from fallen Lavok, the corpse didn't carry a ring of acuity, but this still meant that Angelo had sneakily double-dipped.
As there was nothing stopping Angelo from re-entering the sphere, so he could park his Mislead clone by the Knights of Solamnia and go to town on the bands of Athas halflings he'd passed earlier. The first troupe consisted of enchanter Kayardi (6,000 XP) and priest Mogadish (14,000 XP), along with fighters Entu (5,000 XP, gauntlets of ogre power) and Togan (5,000 XP, Ripper +2). The second had necromancer Necre (11,000 XP, stiletto of Demarchess) and invoker Taibela (8,000 XP), along with some unimportant warriors.
"Had it not been for Lavok and the tanar'ri, you could have completed this area entirely without combat," Felicity remarked as they left the planar sphere. "But at least you've now acquired the gauntlets of ogre power."
"Now we need to obtain the last piece of the puzzle," Angelo replied, "the Crom Faeyr scroll."
Incidentally, while it's called an elder orb, it has no spellcasting abilities. It also doesn't get the SCS beholder AI; it just gets a generic melee AI on top of its original script. And it should have the same backstab immunity as other beholders; it has an immunity effect in the character file just like them.
On those puzzle runes ... it is a little odd that there aren't any clues. Then again, I usually just make one of my party members fire immune and take the penalty for wrong guesses. A minor globe would also work, but not the cloak of mirroring.
There is a path through the engine room that doesn't spawn in either of the two golem packs - take the ice entrance and stay away from the fire entrance. Both of the spawn triggers are on paths from the fire entrance. If you do that, there's only the one clay golem to fight.
First post on page 203, glad you guys liked it! I really couldn't have made it without this thread. Writing this makes me even more eager for my futur SCS run later this year! Sorry i'm a slow writter, but anyway here's part 2 out of 4 of my run!
Venturing into SoD, i didn't realise that i totally forgot Kiel's helmet at my Beregost house and only noticed it doing the Coldhearth Lich dungeon. Another big mistake i made was to use my two protection from undead scroll inside Durlag's tower to beat the Skeleton Warriors, which i should have just avoided as it made this dungeon very painful. At least i didn't forget any of my essential stuff and had plenty of potion of clarity... well here's my SoD story:
Interlude: The hunt for Korlasz.
Once Korlasz what dealt with, to my pleasure the dungeon was clear of undeads except for the secret area unlocked by the torch puzzle. I did all possible secondary quests in this area : Ammon's request, the mummy' orders, the restless spirit's staff, the unlit torch and Korlasz's secret chamber. I filled all my inventory with the most expensive items i could find in the dungeon to get enough gold to buy everything i needed from Sorcerous Sundries. I then left for Chapter 7.
Chapter 7
Preparation: Got to sorcerous sundries to sell my extra loot and dealt with the looters upstairs. Got all arrow of detonation, got a few extra potions and spent the rest of arrow of dispelling. Then went to get the Spectacle of Spectacle to unlock the sequencer robe later on, then the ring of purity and clover leaf. I went to get Lon's amulet at the Iron Throne building for constant Bless and continued with the main quest without caring for the previous companions at all. I didn't bother for any other sidequests and continued on to chapter 8.
Chapter 8 (a really painful one)
Went straight away to the blockade to be done with it and i went get the Halfling Treasures to get the identifying mirror. I wanted to be the good guy so after getting the shield from helping the vampire hunter's, i bought some potion of persuasiveness even if i was short on gold to be able to complete the quest the ''right'' way and still request the mirror. I wanted to do the Menhir quest and Telerias quest for the Stone Ally but i wasn't able to complete them. I couldn't get Teleria to spawn at all (never did the quest completely so i probably missed a step) and i couldn't interact with one of the Menhir as i didn't know that you needed a high charisma to not mess up the quest... so i messed it up. Then i headed to the Dwarven Dig Site for one of the most reload heavy segment of my run.
First area was dealt by supporting the dwarves with summons and wand of paralysation/polymorphing and i managed to save Semahl, who is a total beast on this mode. I tried for 30 minutes to charm him but it doesn't seem possible at all as when it feels like it should have worked, the nymph cloak would just lose a charge and nothing would happen. I cleared the whole level by slowly dragging the undead grounds to the dwarfs, as a group too big would result death and the dwarved turning hostile on me. Using summons as meat shields was pretty effective and Semahl would just smash everything pretty quickly so it went pretty well.
The big problem was the underground... i didn't know that no protection from undead scrolls were available in SoD and only 2 (that i knew of) were available on BG1 and i already used them on Durlag's tower... The problem was, i was simply not able to run freely without being killed or blocked by the undeads, especially those bats that would see me through invisibility. So for the first room south, i stacked webs and abused spider spawn while trying to kill at least 2 monsters per rest until they're all dead. I tried to lure some fire skeletons and blinded them so i could win a 1 vs 1 fight with them and it worked, which saved me a few rests. I also turned a few into squirrels especially those who would level drain me or see me invisible. I got a bit cocky a few times, got level drained and had to cure myself to the point that i had not gold left at all... I had to reload everytime it happened (didn't really often by that point, maybe once or twice) So i had to rest spam while invisible inside and outside the mine until everything was dead. Resting anywhere on this chapter is a nightmare. I then cleared the room north by spamming wand of fireball offscreen. I wanted to speed this up and heal myself with the Durlag's goblem then i noticed... i forgot Kiel's helmet in Beregost
Next step was the bronze sentry. I spammed the wand of polymorph after Greater Malison while keeping it busy with summons until it worked, it was very effective and pretty quick. I cleared the north laboratory room from undeads the same way i did the first room but it wasn't as easy due to those invisible snakes, so i used another tactic that i abused while playing on Insane: I drank an oil of speed and used my wand of fire Aganazzar's Scorcher to deal with the majority of the pack. It worked very well (next time i'm bringing more WoF), i had to be careful however as i couldn't recharge it for now. After this i opened the room to the lich and dealt with the pack here the same way. There were skeleton warriors that i couldn't kill and i didn't feel like wasting ressources on them so i dragged them to the laboratory room and left them there, fleeing while invisible. The Coldhearth lich was much easier than i expected. I got the Secret Revealed and sprinted through the dungeon to destroy it's phylactery right away. Then i used the Secret Revealed on it from casting, then spammed wand of paralysation that, to my surprised, worked after only 2 casts. I killed him with my scimitars very quickly after this. I reported my success to the Dwarves, who joined me in battle and proceeded to chapter 9! Oh and i reached XP cap, last pip into single weapon style for 19-20 crit range. This was really a painful chapter... but i really wanted to deal with the lich.
Chapter 9
Did the bugbear camp invisible and ventured into the Temple of Cyric. For Ziatar, i spammed offscreen webs, then GM, them poly-sniped her into oblivion then used hasted summons for the two mages while i stayed safe. They eventually wasted their spells after i dispelled their protections with Arrows of Dispelling and died quickly. For Neothelid, i had to reload a few time due to missing my GM, luckily i had some spare scrolls and i used them here to give me better odds to land it against it's magic resistance. After that it was a matter of summons, kiting and casting Wand of Polymorphing until it worked. It eventually did after 10-15 casts and the fight was done. Charmed Akanna first try and she died fighting her Aerial Servants... then the mind flayer lair was done with my usual web+summons+wand of poly/para+wand of fire/arrows. Quickly looted the Shadow Aspect chest and got away back to the camp to get some gold.
I then did the sidequests in Bridgefort and surrendered the fort. I really didn't want to deal with the crusader camp. After a much more successful chapter 9, into chapter 10!
Chapter 10
The attack went much better than i though. Stacked webs + GM + Chaos (leftover scrolls from BG1) + Arrow of Detonation was very effective. I did the first two waves without resting then rested after every wave for the rest. With 87 arrows of detonation, 67 arrows of dispelling (that i didn't use) and cloudkill, they didn't stand a chance. I was left with 47 arrow of detonations after the siege.
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
My plan for Thrix was to lure the demons near the entrance of the area. However it wasn't that simple with those teleporting demons and failed my first time. Second time i talked to Thrix too quickly and triggered the second dialogue right away after ending the conversation, opening the gates without a fight... Well a win is a win!
Time to super buff for Belhifet, my solo mage/thief run stopper (only manage to polymorph him once on insane, his improved invisibility is ridiculous). Got a strength+strength sequencer to buy myself some time as he doesn't resist positive effects and had a mirror image+improved invisibility+stoneskin sequencer due to the lich robe. I had to use a potion of clarity due to forgetting Kiel's helm. It wasn't a big deal at all as i just had another point to my AC and a bit more HP.
The lift was very easy to deal with. Enemies died so quickly that it felt like insane difficulty. I left 1 enemy and went invisible to finish buffing with potions of heroism (no potion of powers, i had a terrible experience with my illu/thief with those). I switched armor to finish buffing with spells and got blur, mirror image, stoneskin, improved invisibility, immunity:Abjuration and enchanted weapon in effect before switching back to Daeros full plate to do the final fight. *laugh in 524 HP*
Belhifet, destroyer of runs
Caelar really didn't stand a chance after that :
I got ''lucky'' as my potion of heroism started wearing out when i had fun messing with Caelar (tested various summons that i ended up not needing at all) so i ended her quickly after that.
And finally this is it, my first real success (2nd if i count the countless hours i spent landing a single WoPoly with an Illu/Thief) of completing SoD solo after my first LoB attempt.
BG2 obliteration coming soon, have a great day all of you!
I think I have the basics of the slythe fight:
Charm the ogre (but I can't get it to come down stairs before charming so I end up keeping it upstairs.)
Charm the 5 Guards and have them mill near the stairs back upstairs
WoH slythe and lure him into the guards, get him to use up all 4-5 invisi potions. Hit him with a few more WoH while he gibs the guards.
Lure him upstairs to the ogre - try not to get chunked, hit him with WoH 'til dead.
The main way it messes up is that Krystin ends up following sometimes which is a world of hurt if she appears upstairs. I think with a backup plan I could do it with a 90% chance of success, but that still leaves the dukes.
---
So because of that I had a go with a shadowdancer - Varia the half-orc. I have never played this class before and well - wow, its great in every way except the shoddy thac0 meaning it takes for ever to land a hit. Even as a 19str half-orc it just doesn't seem to cut it as a pure-class, but for non LoB its quite the powerhouse. Hide in plain sight is everything I want and more.
Anyway, I took Varia to level 7 nR before deciding the low thac0 wasn't worth it, maybe a shadowdancer->fighter dual next time as others have been running.
Absolutely! Darts have a speed factor of 2, so there's a non-negligible chance of rolling high on your intiative and missing the window of opportunity, but it's still useful to disable one of the dopplegangers. If your Web can disable the back row, then you can not only stop the assassin from instantly appearing, but by hitting webbed nobles, you could reliably stagger the other dopplegangers' appearances.
Another neat thing is that if you use 2 Protection from Fire scrolls on the nobleman you're going to stun, they can serve as a beacon for your arrows of detonation. They'll still take missile damage, but the fire immunity will make them last longer. This means they won't move forward between you firing the arrow and it connecting. I've lost several times by firing at dopplegangers positioned where Sarevok would have been out of the arrow's detonation, only for them to move into the arrow and include Sarevok in the AoE.
Incidentally, not only is using Protection from Fire on the Flaming Fists a waste because they die quickly anyway, but also because they inevitably succumb to Chaos/Greater Command - by removing these with arrows of dispelling, you're also removing their fire immunity. However, there is an upside. Liia Janneth precasts Invisibility and if she succumbs to Greater Command just after, she'll stay invisible for its duration. As her protections make her immune to the detonation, it's the safest place for her!
Funny. In my install, if you throw daggers at her from range, Morentherene stays sleeping until she gets hit (probably on a critical), whereupon she'll die. In this screenshot, you can see Angelo throwing several daggers without interruption on the UI until he hits.
Any combination who can use both martial weapons and arcane spells (bards, F/M, T/M and F/M/T) probably has the best chance at the crusader attacks and Belhifet. As you say, arrows of detonation and area CC spells deal with the former while Enchanted Weapon and Martyr's Morningstar can smack down the latter. They also have the best options for tanking Belhifet (see 'Belhifet' section). Although they can stack Champion's Strength scrolls, clerics simply don't have the AoE to cope easily with the crusader attacks; druids have better options with Entangle, Spike Stones and summons, along with the Magic Resistance-Harm combo for Belhifet, but I'd still put the F/M ahead.
250xp Candlekeep
900xp Marl
Invisibility potion Beregost Manor
-3 rep stealing
Ankheg Plate armor from Nashkel
400xp Noober
Invisibility potion #2 Nashkel Manor
LMD ability
Drizzt Scimitars + Freeaction (weapons of choice until SoA)
13 rep (1800 gold)
14 rep Oublek
300xp 15 rep Firebead
35xp Sonner
2500xp Tenya's Bowl lv2 25hp
400xp + 16 rep Joia's ring (lured them to Guards) lv3 39hp
900xp Hentold's Dagger, Invisibility potion #3
500xp + 17 rep Samuel (110 Fire Resistance with Cavalier bonus, Icingdeath, Ballista's Passport)
Xvart waylay (LMD)
200xp + 18 rep Drienne's Cat
1000xp + 19 rep Brage
Invisibility potion #4 from Carnival tent with Stone Giant, and using Fire Giant from the chest
1000xp Albert 20k gold
1500xp + 20 rep Brun (PfA) lv4 47hp
250xp Gnarl (100 gold)
CHA tome picked up with just running there and back
Santhief Ring and Greenstone Amulet (15k gold)
CON tome (one Sandthief charge) 51hp
Full Plate (250gold + Ankheg Plate)
16800xp Basilisks (Korax + PfP) lv5 64hp
4000xp Kirinhale
1st round looting Durlag's tower (Cloud, 2xAbsorption, 2xSanthief)
2nd round looting (Greenstone amulet + Fireball trap for Ghasts)
3rd round looting
Gibberling waylay (LMD)
4th round looting (2x Sandthief)
Recharged Sandthief ring
Last looting (2x Sandthief, Absorption)
10000xp Warders (Speed, Greenstone, Sandthief, Fireball trap for Love) lv6 72hp
Kiel's Helmet, Champion's Strength, Durlag's Goblet which Cavalier can use naturally (Frost)
Potion of Defense and Stoneform from Gullykin
650xp Mulahey (Sandthief, Cloud, Greenstone, Speed, 4x Goblet)
35xp Kobold Commando
800xp Joseph's Ring
1000xp Mulahey's Symbol
Nimbul (Greenstone, Level skipping, Guards, 2xGoblet)
975xp Tranzig (Greenstone, 2xGoblet)
120xp Tarnesh (Greenstone, Guards)
Raiken escorted us to Bandit camp (2xInsulation, 2x Sandthief)
270xp Girdle of Piercing (3x Goblet, 2xPfE)
Right-click looted Cloakwood 2, Spider Bane+2 for freeaction (Sandthief)
Lamalha waylay escaped with 27hp (LMD)
540xp Bridge Guards (2x Goblet)
Back to Cloakwood 1
Molkar waylay took only 10 damage (LMD)
800xp Chekal's body
OGL from Carnival, recharged OGL, Sandthief, Durlag's Goblet and Greenstone, still 15k gold left
Spider waylay (LMD, Spider Bane)
1400xp Drasus (PfM, Frost, Absorption, Speed, 16xGoblet)
1600xp Genthorne (3xGoblet)
Rezrdan went Invisible so we left back to HH to recharge the Goblet
Wyvern waylay (LMD)
Ettercap waylay (LMD, Spiderbane)
Sneaked to Davaeorn with 3 Sandthief charges and waited Guards to amass.
8400xp 20x Guards (17xOGL out of sight)
6000xp Davaeorn (2xBlocking, 1xShielding, then Frost, Speed, 5xGoblet)
2000xp Flooded Mines
Wyvern waylay (LMD)
Ettercap waylay (Scimitars)
We have made it to Baldur's Gate with 35k gold. Interestingly I need to carry my 8x charge OGL to the end, because I can't sell it anymore as it would get recharged. Only close calls with Drasus and party, where I was single digits hp couple times. And only mistake probably was not leaving one Cloud potion for Drasus.
I actually tried the harm combo with Jaheira on a party run and it was, as you say, incredibly effective against Belhifet while he still have a small chance to resist it, or you might just miss. I really liked reading through those older Belhifet posts to find strategies like the one you've just linked. I've also read an older post about a player completing it as a mage/thief and debuffing his MR with lower resistance, then detect illusion to be able to cast more LR at him, then GM, then spam wand of polymorphing but this is really not a NR scenario. As explained in the google doc it seemed very simple but in practice, Belhifet's improved invisibility constantly failed my casts and detect illusion was very clunky to dispel it. I managed to have a successful fight after a good hour of trying (still better than the entire night that i spent trying to invisible/critical hit him to no success). Not being able to wear an helmet and no potion of heroism is really painful here, Martyr's morning star effect on crit is ridiculously powerful too, so sad that it cannot be imported legitimately into BG2! I wonder if it would also be possible with Ray of Enfeeblement + 3x Contagion... while it would be a real pain to land everything, on paper an attribute kill ''could'' be possible. Contagion also bypass MR. I'm really not dedicated enough to try it however.
I also managed to kill him with an illu/thief (not legit, i used the console to practice the fight right away and spawned scrolls and gear) on insane with Otiluke Resilient Sphere scrolls + fireshield blue scrolls, keeping an oil of speed up (wearing paws of the cheetah to avoir getting stuck by the teleporting demons, you really have to be quick but 4x speed really works well until you drink your next invisibility potion, you have to run as soon as the sphere ends) and stoneskin/mirror image during the cast and the ''runaway'' phase when the sphere effect ends to avoid taking damage but i have a hard time to see this scenario working on LOB with the 3x HP + 80 as you would need about 10 scrolls of fireshield blue (as i remember, i needed 3 of both scrolls on insane. Should deal a bit more damage per scroll with the +1 APR of LoB but it's still not sufficient with the limited scrolls in the game... i think, i might test this further in the future).
A sorcerer ''might'' be able to pull this off with it's 6 level 4 casts + 6 scrolls from Belegarm + 1 scroll from Resar after Alatos and the Thieves Guild (i think) and sequencer for 14 fireshields, keeping himself alive between the casts with mirror image scrolls, stoneskin scrolls and a sequencer (stoneskin/mirror image/fireshield blue). I would be more than happy to be able to beat him without doing the 1hp at level 1 exploit with a pure mage class... I might actually test this further soon! I still can't see a way for any mage/thief unless it is possible with 9 fireshields (10 if illusionist so it might work with both classes actually...). Facetanking without potion of heroism and an helmet just doesn't work with double damage no matter what even on Insane. Sounds like i'm going to spend hours doing tests on Belhifet again soon...
How did you avoid being just surrounded and unable to move? Every time I've tried this something (I was guessing the erynes since she can see through invisible same as Bel?) seems to dispel my invisibility, while ORS'd, meaning that there is a demonic welcoming party too dense to escape when ORS drops.
edit: just to explain what happens when I try this - Buffed and invisible, Bel can see. FSB + ORS. Bel attacks, other demons mill around. Erynies appears and starts shooting. Other demons seem to notice, begin whaling on ORS like Bel. ORS drops, try and move to re-buff+cast, occasionally works (10%?) but usually ganked.
But yeah, with Stoneskin, MI, + some sort of AC boosts It could be possible to wait out that time if the invisi pot causes the fiends to shift.
It worked after many attempts but for Insane but it is much easier to evade hits due to lower enemy THAC0 and -1 APR compared to LoB, i'm not sure it would even be possible just because of that. it is much better to simply tank him with mirror image and stoneskin and keep fireshield up while staying invisible the whole time on insane, i had good success doing that (6x fireshield scrolls, as many mirror image/stoneskin casts and scroll as possible + sequencer. Would obviously not work on LoB).
I'm not sure what triggers the demon to target you or not while invisible into the sphere, this is what i am going to try to discover.
I figured out that i couldn't kill the Erinyes so i tried Feeblemind and Blind on them and to my surprise, it seems to work. They have pretty poor saves with 30 MR so i could land blind and Feeblemind pretty often.
Current tactic so far is spamming wand of summoning and wait for the maximum possible number of demon spawned while blinding/feebleminding the Erinyes. Best run so far:
This was after 4 spheres, i reached 3 spheres multiple times so far. Note to self: do not forget to refresh oil of speed... I think that if i can make it up to 10 times in a row, it's eventually going to work. Definitely viable for insane however. LoB... well we'll see. A single sphere deal around 140 damage not counting regen.
In practice, this means that any archers unscrupulous enough to use this trick get a massive boost as soon as they reach Baldur's Gate. It doesn't work if the vendor doesn't sell stocks... if you sell an arrow of detonation to Taerom Fuiruim, for example, he'll stock them individually as he hasn't got any bundles to replenish and they don't form new ones. But since arrows of detonation automatically hit, this takes care of your ThAC0 worries once you reach Chapter 5 and gold becomes the limiting factor. I'd recommend doing you shopping just before the Duchal Palace ambush, since your reputation will likely take a hit and you'll get less bang-for-your-buck afterwards.
It's also nice to get the Eagle Bow. Obtain Lothander's half of the antidote by tricking Jalantha Mistmyr into giving you the Geas scroll, then cast Chaotic Commands using the scroll from Durlag's Tower level 2. This makes you immune to Marek's double Charm Person sequencer and should give you enough time to successfully land a dart of stunning on him.
Kiting time. Sarevok starts hasted, so it's imperative that you hit him with an arrow of dispelling to remove it. His AC is -18 and the practical best a WS archer can do is ThAC0 -2 (admittedly, if you can obtain the Longbow of Marksmanship, you can do slightly better). This gives you a 20% chance to hit Sarevok, reducing the frustration considerably. Diarmid will pepper you when he can, but he can't keep up and you're immune to his arrows' side effects, so I only healed with Durlag's goblet when my health was below 30 HP.
Normally, I'm against kiting - it's not tactically satisfying and just seems kinda dirty - but since arrows of detonation auto-hit, there's enough strategy here beyond running away and hoping for the best. In the run above, I used 82 arrows of detonation and 15 arrows of dispelling on the final battle, although the arrows of dispelling usage is more dependent on luck. It's very annoying trying to get just enough distance between you and a hasted Sarevok to squeeze off an arrow and hope for a critical, but once this is done, the battle is 80% over.
I estimate that the big test for this run will be Avernus. I have no idea if racial enemy and the warrior's ApR bonus will be enough for a level 1 character to overcome Belhifet where @histamiini's level 1 cleric failed. I'd forgotten that archers can't specialise in melee weapons, so I am already -0.5 ApR and -2 damage on where I'd hoped to be... but it should be obvious whether a normal level 1 ranger would fare any better.
Anyway: Good hunting! ;o)