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The LoB + SCS Solo Challenge vs Bhaal´s Cataclysm

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  • XDarkStrikerXXDarkStrikerX Member Posts: 102
    @alice_ashpool ah... this is clearly something i missed there, which couldn't be covered during Histamiini's run as he did the run staying at level 1 avoiding level drain, which honestly would have been better in the end as 99% of BG1 is wand + charm, just need the sandthief ring and a few invisibility potions and scrolls instead then those are plentiful in SoD, paws of the cheetah and damage immunity for other normal areas with no crowd control, edventar's gift for the woods. Plenty of knock scrolls to open what's important (the 2 attribute books in candlekeep and that's it).

    At this point it is pretty clear, staying level 1 + damage immunity is pretty much the only way to do it properly and level drain is pretty much just for classes that can afford the martyr morning star. Still, you have the ambush to deal with and the issue is the first troll wave so i can't see any other classes than blade or a cleric/mage to make it. Rest can be killed easily with OGL, WoF and a PFM to avoid chromatic orbs.

    I might even restart it to see how it goes as i don't have a sense of accomplishement anymore having to rely on a random polymorph glitch to get passed through it and some ridiculous save and rest bugs. The outcome would end up being the same really, with much less hassle. I wouldn't have to buff for traps at all to stay alive. I might actually try that. Wands and charm is easy carry for bg1 honestly.

    alice_ashpoolzaknasStummvonBordwehrHarpagornis
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited May 2021
    Hesperia coasted through to Baldur's Gate with no issues.

    Checked it out and the Arrow of Detonation dupe/glitch works fine in Sorcerous Sundries, so you can leave BG1 with a quiver of 240 if you want. Which I will be doing. Works fine with Arrows of Dispelling too, if you so wish.

    Edit: went and did the loop properly with the arrows too: Bought 240 Detonation arrows and still 200,000GP in the pocket (240 arrows cost about 44,000GP). I hear people out there are still selling plate mail and farming Ankhegs to this day ^-^
    Post edited by alice_ashpool on
    XDarkStrikerXzaknasStummvonBordwehrHarpagornis
  • XDarkStrikerXXDarkStrikerX Member Posts: 102
    edited May 2021
    Crazy how rich a thief class can end up with pickpocket. This actually encourages me to try a blade for the next run. No backstabs but still great with tenser+mislead and can actually level drain using Martyr morningstar for an easy Belhifet. Can't wait to see the numbers you're going to put up with the staff of the ram in BG2. I really wanted to try mage/thief but i have no clue what to do against Belhifet except praying for a polymorph, which would be the best class to do it with due to Detect Illusions. Still, i think that it's only 10% chance to succeed assuming a realistic 60-40 MR max with lower resist putting each shot at 4-6% chance to work during the LR period, assuming that you succeed every shot before he turns back invisible. Contagion apparently doesn't bypass MR anymore so that's a no go.

    One thing i'm wondering is if the Amulet of Whispers could work against Belhifet to deny his invisibility and perhaps even his Gates, this would give a possibility for casters to have a decent RNG chance without relying on 1 hp. Still, he might have vocalize or those could be totally scripted bypassing the spell effect. Will test this later but -5 saves + -4 from GM would give around 55% chance not counting MR to land which is pretty good odds. Not sure if he could also be blinded, that would be 30% chance to work with an illusionist/thief. Having a Bel that stay there would be awesome.

    On another note, i'm done with my previous sorcerer, restarted another neutral good human Sorc that i will post about soon, which is pretty much impossible to kill with greenstone amulet with the only downside of limited invisibility so far. For the Bel kill, here are the screenshots:
    xn45w6zdmaiw.png
    7r5jhpon2fh0.png
    Can't bother playing this character anymore even if i made it. I still can't figure out how i achieved permanent jelly here.

    For the lift for anybody who wants to do it with a level 1 mage, here is the fastest way i managed to do hit. It works very well:
    Wave 1: WoMS, WoPara on the Imp and smash with 2x Dagger+2
    Wave 2: Wand of lightning. Try to aim perfectly horizontal and it will hit a massive 5 times per cast. Remember Clarity potion.
    Wave 3: Clarity + stoneform, wand of lightning.
    WoL is easier to aim than it seems. Aim it left/right and not up/down and it kills surprisingly quickly. 25 charges is usually enough for all waves.

    Should be fine for Bel with my new L1 sorc. Going to plan out the same weapons, purification stone with Spirit Armor + Stone form should allow me to survive. I think the actual save needed for the stun is 1 and -1 for Belhifet sickness so using the silver circlet, 2x stoneform or 1 spirit armor 1 SF should be fine, pretty much the same with purification stone in the end as i will achieve disease immunity and 0 save with ST buffs (also switched Balduran cloak for displacement which i forgot about). This should give me a minimum of 15 hours with the same setup as before if everything goes well, if i lack +3 ammo i can finish him with jelly form with no strength bonuses however and there are more than enough scrolls to push through. Still should be more than enough for the remaining 100-200 damage left after using the two enchanted weapon with throwing daggers +1.

    Edit: Correciton, spirit armor serves no purpose as it's only save vs spell... oh well back to keeping a ton of stone forms.


    Post edited by XDarkStrikerX on
    AerakarStummvonBordwehrzaknasHarpagornis
  • XDarkStrikerXXDarkStrikerX Member Posts: 102
    Rolled Vega, again a level 1 sorc but human and neutral good instead, even if it really won't change that much as i won't use a familiar at all this time except for the extra HP by the end of SoD.

    ab3576mrnfs2.png

    88 total stats, Lv1 spells: Identify, protection from petrification
    Goal here is to still eventually obtain xp cap by the end of SoD to start with 500k xp in BG2
    Now for BG1

    Overall prep up to the bandit camp
    Candlekeep 200 xp, avoided a all combat, forgot Hull longsword but i don't really care
    Marl 900 xp
    Straight to Nashkel, Noober 400 xp, sold Ankheg plate for 4250, got 4548 total from selling other stuff i picked up
    Picked up Heart of the golem +2 from Hentold and the 2 potions from the carnival
    Went back for the diamond, ring of prince +1.
    Sold everything in High Edge, bought Claw for damage immunity, potion case, the 3 invisibility scrolls and a potion of free action.
    Then the most irratating thing ever seems to happen... on my way to get the WoMS, i seem to constantly get harassed by 2-3 gnolls no matter my approach.
    Had to use and invisibility scroll along the potion of freedom to get the wand, didn't get hit at all but the free action made sure i didn't get stuck there just in case.

    WoMs dealt with Algernon, now got 20 charisma.
    Went straight to Mulahey to charm him then fed him to Kobolds, got it 2nd try, reported to Berun.
    Killed Mulahey with 2x WoMS and 9x WoFrost charges.
    Turned in the quest and WoMS Dushai for Edventar's gift and web scroll.
    Bought rep back from 6 to 13
    Rep run: Firebeard 1, Brage 1, not Greywolf 1, Charmed Emerson and Amnian soldier killed Greywolf while i tanked 1, Samuel 1, at the same time a guard killed Tarnesh while i took a super long and had to rest to wake back up, greenstone amulet call.
    Joia ring 1, Farmer Brun 1 for 20.
    Got 25k from selling all my loot, recharged WoMS, went to buy greenstone amulet.
    Went to Shoal and accidently talked to her... seems like it wouldn't kill me and i just fell uncounsious for a bit. Killed her for a bit of xp and her pearl.
    Met Halacan party on my way to get the tome of constitution and tome of paralysis. Tanked them and dispatched of them with WoMS.

    Used 2x greenstone charge for the WoPara, con tome and Relair mistake which i used a bit to move around faster.
    Managed to charm both Meilum and Poe to help against Khark. 2 try with WoPara and he was done, then we finished paralysed Meilum together.
    Went back to kill the Revenant in the valley of tomb and had to defeat the whole map on my arrival bandit camp style. Killed it and got the invisibility potion.
    Greenstone amulet and paralysed Nimbul, same with Neira with a small WoMS help. Finally i sold Relair Mistake, really not fast enough.
    Had more than 20k again so bought Sandthief ring which should have enough charge for most of BG1.
    Recharged WoPara and did more chores to get as much gold as i could without taking unnecessary risks, got charisma tome. Also defeated Zeela's group the same way and killed Neera in FAI for the gem bag.
    Recharged Greentone and OGL before bandit camp.

    Bandit camp and Iron Throne
    Charmed Taurgosz to let him die to skeletons then Britik 1st try using my invisibility scroll inside the tent to clear it, WoPara Raemon and finished Britik with WoMS.

    Went to cloakwood and got Gurze cloak killing the Tasloi with WoF scorcher.

    Charmed Drasus with my invisibility potion and fed him to the guards who i killed. Then charmed Genthore to help killing the mages. They never aggroed so it was simple.
    Reached Davaorn with invisibility potion from Drasus party + 1x sandthief. killed his guards and horrors for a bit more XP with 22 OGL, tanked Davaeorn with his horrors then finished him with 2x WoMS.
    Can confirm, no more AC bracer from him.
    Did Tenya's bowl by landing a crit on her first for 2k xp (500 more than straight bowl) then went shopping in BG.

    Did a few side quests, tasks and overall clear for more xp and gold like Mutamin Garden where i charmed a lesser basilisk to assist Korax to sweep the area then got the Victor by only charming Danek.
    Did Durlag for the extra xp from the Basilisks and the wis tome, killed the horrors with 9x WoF scorcher. Left at 148k xp which is more than enough for the xp cap, now i'm just getting what i need and speed up until the crusader ambush.
    Got all tome except 1x wisdom and strength, got WoP, guard ring, cloak of displacement, fireshield blue scroll, scar jobs done, level cap in xp, a few invisible potions and 1 invisible scroll available, 6 charges of sandthief still time for the Iron throne then Candlekeep.
    Charmed Aasim to help clearing the area while i tanked the assassins, used 1 invisibility scroll.
    yshaw7ex9q4o.png

    Candlekeep, easy buggy palace and Sarevok
    In Candlekeep, greenstone amulet to avoid the ogre mage (probably could have been more careful due to possible chromatic orbs) then used strength scroll for clarity potion in the inn and looted the castle. Still had 40k gold with all scrolls and potion bought for SoD.
    Tuth took care of Rieltar party but died to Bruno who i had to finish myself. Paralysed the watcher to go sell my stuff to the inn before going to the catacomb.
    Got the two attribute books and used a GM scroll + WoPoly for the spiders.
    Now got to figure out on what i'm going to use the third knock (didn't find anything as i forgot the 4th one and didn't care about Ragefast this time).
    Charmed a greater basilisk and dragged Prat party to it.
    Came back with 50k gold and nothing to spend it on so i recharged my wands for 15k total.

    Charmed Larze and made him kill Slythe while invisible then used an oil of fiery burning to activate Krystin. Greenstone + WoMS to assist Larze and waited a good minute offscreen for Larze to finish the job.
    Went to charm the warehouse basilisk for the ambush and brought it to the palace by the sewers which is the next exit straight north. Got pretty unlucky and had to paralyse over 5 flaming fist to get there, 2 of them who followed through the sewers. It wouldn't work as they would follow me forever even out of screen and spawn in the throne room so i had to use an invisibility potion here.
    Decided to not charm any nobleman this time to see if the balisisk can manage it.
    In less than 20 seconds, only an air elemental was left so we had to wait for it to despawn to not waste wand charges. I moved the basilisk away to avoid issues.
    Then something totally weird and awful happened... an hostile flaming fist enforcer got inside for some reason and got petrified by my basilisk for a sweet -10 rep. Reloaded and rested outside then tried again.

    Had the same bug as my last run again. 2 Winski seemed to spawn so 1 is getting away while the other one stays there invincible and lock me there.
    Needed 3 tries to actually get the good outcome where i'm teleported into the thieve guild. One time i got a second Winski that managed to die, but then i didn't get teleported and the thieve guild was still fine so i had no access underground meaning i was softlocked. Really glitchy encounter in 2.6 so far. For NR assuming that Winski RNG is there for you, charm the mage to drag it away so it doesn't confuse your basilisk. The whole fight last about 1 minute max each time.

    Final prep before SoD, still 35k to spend and got plenty of stuff for SoD so i won't do any more quests. Grabbed the last OGL so now i have 3 fully charged and a WoF. Spent the rest into more WoF to either sell or use in SoD so now i have 3.

    Got my stuff from the Beregost house and time for Sarevok. Wasted an invisibility here as i forgot about it while in the maze.
    Skipped the party and Tamoko this time.
    Sarevok party, waited the PFM, 1x GM, 6 fiery burning, 4 explosion, 3 OGL Semaj, +8 Tazok, +7 Angelo, +12 Diarmid.
    Sarevok: GM, 1x WoPara, started throwing Dart of Stunning at half HP just in case while i'm not even sure it worked once and he got finished. I can confirm that my Sarevok has proper ST. I'm also 99% sure that the ST got corrected for LoB in 2.6. They probably kept the same roll up to 25 without giving a ST bonus.
    Sarevok ST on my install
    40utc7vz85iw.png
    Tanky man does it again
    f3n98syumlge.png


    Time for SoD!

    Level 1 playthrough is pretty easy honestly. For a human sorc, Evermemory, hidden stuff + Anhkeg plate = immunity in 2 minutes. No worry about traps, waylaid, damage or anything. The big deal is to not forget Greenstone amulet for mages to not be put to sleep for 15 real minutes (good thing i could rest after Tarnesh). The 2 other downsides that i've experimented so far are:

    - the lack of infinite invisibility but the damage immunity allows you to run through many areas without caring at all. It can get pretty buggy when they chase you however like i experimented three times. Once in valley of tomb, once in High Hedge and once in BG city.
    - Totally useless without wands. For mages, any other mage kit or multiclasses can web or hold to avoid using wand charges or debuff like crazy with Blind+Slow. You actually feel pretty powerful for LoB while a Lv1 sorc is wand,wand,wand,charm,wand and GM from scrolls for better odds.

    In the end, it was easier than my leveled sorc. Hopefully it's going to be worth it in BG2.

    Thanks to NearInfinity, i've located a few more potion merchants that should have stone form potions in SoD. With the Purification stone setup however, i shouldn't need more than 8-10 to be done with SoD.
    AerakarStummvonBordwehrzaknasHarpagornis
  • XDarkStrikerXXDarkStrikerX Member Posts: 102
    edited May 2021
    Now that i'm thinking about it. For Belhifet as a solo caster, if you attempt a NR scenario and can't get lucky enough to finish him before the Fireshield and enchanted weapon, i think that transforming into Jelly right after just to land 1 crit for the slow effect could be beneficial IF it halves his regeneration, then switch back to sling. Gotta take everything that you can really.

    Edit: Uploaded the fight in 2x speed on reddit for anybody who cares, with all credits for the strat to the strategy wizard histamiini of course. https://reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/nkss5j/the_only_way_for_a_solo_sorcerer_to_defeat_sod/
    AerakarStummvonBordwehrzaknasHarpagornis
  • zaknaszaknas Member Posts: 42
    Made a F/M/C, everything went well until coalition camp battle wave 4. Used GM + web + silence on them, used ankhegs on named enemies, blasting them with One lost gift, haste my allies but... I just didn't have enough dps, not even close. That orog boss (or a huge orc? ) resisted most of my fire damage, like 17 out of 20. And crusaders reinforcement kept coming. The best try I had was like killing all but one named boss, then a horde of crusaders blew up my bomb. Tried so many times and got sick of my character...

    Any tips on that wave?

    And I could only buy 18 skull traps scrolls from vendors (probably from high hedge, sorcerer sundries and Belegarm), where can I find more?
    StummvonBordwehrSelerelXDarkStrikerXHarpagornis
  • zaknaszaknas Member Posts: 42
    @XDarkStrikerX Good luck on the cleric/thief and thanks for the advise, it will be very helpful for my future playthroughs. But my FMC won't be able make it due to the sole reason I didn't prepare enough scrolls/potions you mentioned. I tried WoPoly + GM on them, didn't work. WoPara sometimes works. But that named orog and paladin lady never failed a save. I was so low on resources. I didn't even have doom as I used them all in wave 3. I couldn't even rest as the resting npc died after my wave 2 rest. And without item to buffs my FMC he couldn't tank or hit anything.
    XDarkStrikerXStummvonBordwehrHarpagornis
  • zaknaszaknas Member Posts: 42
    edited October 2021
    anyway, during my FMC playthrough, I found some cheese.

    In ducal palace, those doppelgangers are very easily paralyzed by WoPara. Which makes the battle very easy.

    In saravok fight, all the bosses can be turned into a squirrel pretty easily with GM + WoPoly (except for angelo, 20 charges on him only turned once).
    XDarkStrikerXHarpagornis
  • zaknaszaknas Member Posts: 42
    edited October 2021
    Okay encountered something unexpected and it's game breaking.

    I am trying a 1 hp sorcerer, and she is in sod chapter 8, the map with the dwarf lich story. When I tried to finish the chapter the game played a cutscene that a mage blew up the bridge which killed me outright.

    I checked the log, it didn't show there was any damage at all. And my avatar showed my max hp was 2. How do you bypass that?

    Edit: okay found a solution. I used DUHM to raise my hp to 2, then the cutscene did 1 damage to me. Alive, then used WoMS to distract the attackers and hid behind the tent. After a moment another cutscene of caelar played, and I entered chapter 9 :|
    Harpagornis
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited October 2021
    zaknas wrote: »
    anyway, during my FMC playthrough, I found some cheese.

    In ducal palace, those doppelgangers are very easily paralyzed by WoPara. Which makes the battle very easy.

    In saravok fight, all the bosses can be turned into a squirrel pretty easily with GM + WoPoly (except for angelo, 20 charges on him only turned once).

    Not to rain on your parade but it sounds like you have encountered the same critical bug which scuppered my last run - Final Fight everyone's saves set to 20 (with a +19 penalty applied) except Angelo, and the Doppleganger's saves glitched out too. Their saves have glitched out due to some strange interaction with SCS. Ctrl-Q them into your party and see that Sarevok should not have a Save vs paralization of 20!

    You can check my post on the previous page.
    StummvonBordwehrHarpagornis
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited October 2021
    Not sure what would be the average damage of a 4x staff of striking backstab with 25 strength however, assuming you can land your hits during the Champion Strength duration for maximum accuracy and get enough summon items to keep his attention away from you.

    just bring >100 potions of invisibility like Harpagonis and roll for 19-20s with Aule's Staff afterwards o:)

    XDarkStrikerXzaknasHarpagornis
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    For wave 4 you can tank it with potions of heroism and keep the goblet on hand - at least as a full melee. with a FMC its going to be harder.

    But Buffed Skeletons alone should be able to almost deal with the whole thing so long as you're Neutral Evil I think it is. And you off-screen cast some Silence.
    StummvonBordwehrzaknasHarpagornis
  • zaknaszaknas Member Posts: 42
    edited October 2021
    @alice_ashpool yea I think the ducal palace and savavok fight was bugged. It was never this easy even on insane.

    Too bad I made a lawful good FMC, didn't know it has anything to do with the skeletons, but how?
    Harpagornis
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    zaknas wrote: »
    @alice_ashpool yea I think the ducal palace and savavok fight was bugged. It was never this easy even on insane.

    Too bad I made a lawful good FMC, didn't know it has anything to do with the skeletons, but how?
    Yeah it's annoying, I quit my last run since a bug making the two toughest fights trivial kinda took the enjoyment out of it

    For skellies, depends if you have the IWD spell component installed - there's a cleric buff which gives +1 attack and some other stuff to minions of the same alingment as you. But being good hasits benefits, you can use the good ring for Bel without needing helm of Opposite Alignment.
    zaknasHarpagornis
  • XDarkStrikerXXDarkStrikerX Member Posts: 102
    The ST bug happened to me too before my latest run (no write up for that one as it wasn't complete) but i quickly noticed it especially as the AI wasn't responding appropriately for some encounter (those modified/enhanced by SCS). It happened to me when a new small update got installed without me noticing as the file was small enough to be nearly instant. Reinstalling SCS always fixed it for me so far, also upgraded to SCS 34.3 as it apparently fixes Aec'Latec and hopefully the bugged throne encounter with the extra Winski Perorate spawn. Took a good break however as taking 1-2 hours reinstalling the whole thing for both games tired me out.

    Still the best way that i've found to get past the non-bugged Ducal Palace fight with absolute ease was to charm and drag the warehouse Basilisk to the throne room using the sewers, ideally invisible as it bugged a few times on my level 1 sorc run, some guards would follow indefinitely and get insta-killed dropping my reputation by an insane amount (could have probably charmed them too with the nymph cloak). No need to even drag the shaman and mage doppleganger into another room, the basilisk ended the fight in a few seconds every time i tried so far except one, where it got affected by chaos (i think) and it started killing allies.
    StummvonBordwehrzaknasHarpagornis
  • zaknaszaknas Member Posts: 42
    @XDarkStrikerX My install is totally new, but I still got those bugs. I did see SCS complained errors during installation, not sure if its related to the bugs. People suggest installing bgee and scs on drive C to eliminate those errors, but my drive C does not have enough space :(

    @alice_ashpool Now I understand why in histamiini's adventure he made an evil FMC and constantly used skeletons to clear the many dungeons (with blood rage and haste buffs). I didn't install icewind dale spell and my skeleons was never that powerful.
    StummvonBordwehrHarpagornis
  • zaknaszaknas Member Posts: 42
    @XDarkStrikerX My 1 hp sorcerer is now on bel. But I have a problem, bel doesn't want to melee me. I try to keep as close to him as possible hoping he would melee me, but he constantly teleports away and summon minions. In my entire fight, I think he only melee me for like 30 seconds... as my blue fireshield can't do damage to him, I can't do enough dps. In your video I your bel keeps meleeing you. Is there a trick to make him do so?
    XDarkStrikerXStummvonBordwehrHarpagornis
  • XDarkStrikerXXDarkStrikerX Member Posts: 102
    @zaknas You have to make yourself immune to fire to prevent him from teleporting away and using his fire spells. After that, he should only use his melee attacks.
    StummvonBordwehrHarpagornis
  • zaknaszaknas Member Posts: 42
    edited October 2021
    @XDarkStrikerX oh that's smart. It's hard to figure that one out.

    And at last I beat bel with a 1 hp sorcerer. I thought I was losing, my enchanted weapon, fire shield and even potions all ran out. My buffs were wearing off too... Only had void bullets left. Suddenly I saw there were less demons on the screen, only then did I realize bel was actually dead. Even after all demons disappeared their poison/deceases still kept hurting my char, and she kept screaming "ah ah ah". And I checked my save vs death was like +7 at the time. That scene looked really scary, but it turned out I stayed alive after all :D.

    And you guys really are geniuses to conjure up such a method. Everything is so well calculated and so precise.
    StummvonBordwehrXDarkStrikerXGrond0Harpagornis
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