@XDarkStrikerX Yeah now I know a cleric can't beat a cavalier. But I am still very excited , can't wait to see Blackraven start a PoH, or may be I start a PoL myself. Too bad the forum is going down soon so I will have to wait. btw we also have a real example for FMT, on P173
Timed my arrive for Belhifet so that I had -26 Thac0 and 4 apr Martyr's Morningstar and Blazing Glory. Enchanted Weapon, Improved Invisibility, Blur sequencer. Escaped the Dispel, and hit Bel with Strength + Strength sequencer to lower his Thac0. They fight lasted 15 rounds or so, and used the goblet only once.
@jmerry good observation, I do recall all non-bugged ST I saw were positive numbers.
I can confirm the the 15% hp reduction doesn't work on main hand weapons if MMS is used in the offhand, so it is limited to setting a level drained character HP to 1. Also Bel tend to focus on summons rather than the main character, as i tried a few things on my F/I using Myconids, Stone ally and Water elementals which gives me hope for a backstabbing cleric thief one day... The window of opportunity is ridiculously small still as the summons get crushed pretty fast, enough for 2 backstabs at the most if you're lucky. Still if mixed with the regular buff & smash tactic, it could even the odds i think after a few hours of tries, it's not like i never did that before I am pretty unmotivated towards low odds approaches at the moment however especially that i tried more NR than new characters recently, i'm going to find it hard to step away from a class without any fighter or mage abilities in the end due to that for this challenge.
An approach that clerics can take is to attempt the level drain approach for the camp ambush. However i don't think that surviving that last level drain hit would be that simple as i used Stoneskin on my first failed sorcerer run to avoid the damage. This makes any Bard a very good choice in the end, probably better than any thief in the long run with a cheese method available at pretty much any moment during the run and ridiculously long lasting buff spells.
Other great classes that i would like to try for it eventually (probably during the next year) would be Druids. I always liked Fighter/Druids but i'm sure that many dual classed Druid or Fighter kits would be awesome choices in the end. I've had the OG Ranger/Cleric in sight for a while.
Yeah now I know a cleric can't beat a cavalier. But I am still very excited , can't wait to see Blackraven start a PoH, or may be I start a PoL myself. Too bad the forum is going down soon so I will have to wait.
I actually rolled a LG Dwarven Cleric of Helm this morning. She's currently trying to help Reevor with his rat problem in Candlekeep.
I am pretty unmotivated towards low odds approaches at the moment however especially that i tried more NR than new characters recently, i'm going to find it hard to step away from a class without any fighter or mage abilities in the end due to that for this challenge.
@XDarkStrikerX I think you're wise to look for a fighter/caster hybrid for a no-reload attempt at this challenge. These characters are simply much more versatile and powerful overall.
Honestly I'm not sure if I want to take my cleric through the saga alone or with a party. I'm somewhat intrigued by the challenge of creating an optimized party of exclusively single-class characters (in my case NPCs from the game that may or may not be customized through SCS's custimization tool). In LoB-optimized parties without this restriction, the only single classes commonly present are Archer and Skald. The others tend to be Kensai or Berserker duals, Fighter/Mage, Cleric/Ranger or Fighter/Cleric, and the like.
I wonder what an ideal party of single-classes for my Helmite cleric would look like. Candidates might include:
- Archer (Kivan/Corwin/Valygar)
- Dwarven Defender (Kagain/???/Korgan)
- Shadowdancer/Swashbuckler (Alora/Glint/Hexxat, or maybe just Imoen)
- Skald (Garrick/Voghiln/Haer'Dalis)
- Kensai (Rasaad)
- Dragon Disciple (Neera)
- Sorcerer (Dynaheir)
- Barbarian (Minsc or Shar-Teel)
I also consider including a few mods:
- Warden (Kale, one of Skitia's mods, a Halfling warrior who can temporarily boost Thac0 and damage of a comrade in arms, while nerfing his own but receiving some damage resistance in return)
- Militia Officer (a fighter kit by Raduziel which has some defensive abilities and offensive buffs that can be activated)
I have some experience playing old LoB (without the enemy boost to AC) as well the previous form with the saves bug, but almost none playing the latest and hardest version of LoB. It probably explains why I find it hard to think of the best team of single classes.
Anyhow, I might post over at https://tavernrpg.com, where some folks from the Beamdog forums have moved, including @alice_ashpool (who has been active in teh LoB challenge as well).
It's been a long time coming, but I've finally gotten back up to speed with this challenge. Expect Angelo the F/M/T and Felicity the familiar to finish writing up their adventures (he's currently about to finish Chapter 5 of BG2) soon. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share a strategy that I thought of that may - MAY - solve the poverty challenge once and for all.
As far as I know, @Harpagornis has shown that a druid can get all the way to Amkethran in the poverty challenge; @histamiini has also shown that the ravager form can be exceptionally powerful, taking out much of the final battle by itself. The problem with a poverty challenge is that druids have no way of making themselves immune to magic damage for long enough to achieve permanent ravager form (Shield of Lathander doesn't last long enough), which would seem to nix that strategy... unless they get somone else to do it for them! Find a wizard who's capable of casting Protection from Magic Energy, charm them, get them to cast Protection from Magic Energy on you (it can be cast on others), and transform immediately. True, you won't be able to cast druid spells anymore, but you hopefully shouldn't neeed to... and you can still dual into a fighter for the various juicy HLAs.
Vithal, the mage you release from imprisonment in the Underdark, can definitely cast Protection from Magic Energy and doesn't turn hostile on a failed charm attempt. Unfortunately, druids can't use the Freedom spell/scroll to free him, which is a bit of a bummer. I haven't gone through making a comprehensive list of what spells each wizard can cast - I think they change with every playthrough to some extent - but I hope that @jmerry or some other equally knowledgeable soul will be able to help out with this.
P.S. @zaknas, congrats on beating the challenge! Even with all of the combined experience on this thread, completing it is no mean feat, so well done.
SCS enemy spell choices are set when you install the mod. If you keep playing on the same install, they're just as fixed as the vanilla spells.
The possibilities for spells come from the "spellchoices" and "spellchoices_defensive" lists within the "mage" and "priest" folders. Pick your spell system (iwd = with Icewind Dale spells, demivrgvs = Spell Revisions, vanilla = standard), pick the kit, and there it is. It's a fairly easy format to read. An example:
Contents of /mage/spellchoices/vanilla/conjurer.2da as of version 33.something:
And with this, we can determine what spells a level 18 conjurer will have memorized (in the vanilla spell system).
There are 6/6/6/6/6/4/4/3/2 slots available, plus sequencers, contingencies, and precast spells with duration greater than eight hours.
We start with the defensive spells. Shield, 2x Mirror Image, Vocalize, Protection from Normal Missiles, Remove Magic, Spell Thrust, Dimension Door, 2x Stoneskin, precast Stoneskin, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, 2x Breach, Shadow Door, and Death Spell are always there. That's 1/3/3/4/3/1/0/0/0 slots accounted for so far.
Next come the random parts - equally probable among what's listed. Invisibility or nothing. Protection from Fire or Protection from Cold. Spell Trap or Spell Turning. Improved Mantle or Protection from Magic Weapons (weighted). Mantle or Protection from Magic Weapons (weighted). Khelben's Warding Whip or Ruby Ray of Reversal. Teleport Field, Greater Malison, or nothing (weighted). Slow or nothing. Time Stop or nothing. A total of 5-9 spells in this step, filling 0/0-1/1-2/0-1/0/0-2/1-3/0-1/0-2 slots. We're up to 1/3-4/4-5/4-5/3/1-3/1-3/0-1/0-2 slots accounted for.
Sequencers and contingencies come next. I'm guessing at the meanings here; I'd have to read more stuff to get the exact details. An offensive minor sequencer. Either an offensive sequencer and a Remove Magic or a Remove Magic sequencer. Chain contingencies and spell triggers, paired so they can work together. A contingency, either PFMW, Mislead, Spell Deflection, or Spell Shield. Total spell slots used so far: 1/3-4/4-6/4-5/3/1-3/1-3/0-1/0-2
What do we do with the remaining 5/2-3/0-2/1-2/3/1-3/1-3/2-3/0-2 spell slots? We fill them up from the offensive spell list. Each available slot is picked randomly from the possibilities in its row. For example, a level 1 offensive spell slot could be filled with any of Magic Missile, Color Spray, Chromatic Orb, Charm Person, Sleep (with twice the chance), Blindness, or Spook.
Checking my old SCS install on 2.5 ... there is a level 18 conjurer. More than one, actually, but I'll just look at one. GROMG05, Il-Khan Battle Mage. She has memorized:
- Shield, 2x Color Spray, 2x Sleep, Chromatic Orb.
- Invisibility, 2x Mirror Image, Vocalize, Power Word Sleep, Melf's Acid Arrow
- 2x Remove Magic, Protection from Fire, Protection from Normal Missiles, Spell Thrust, Monster Summoning I
- Greater Malison, Dimension Door, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, 2x Stoneskin, Monster Summoning II
- Shadow Door, 2x Breach, Conjure Lesser Earth Elemental, 2x Chaos
- Protection from Magical Weapons, Death Spell, Conjure Fire Elemental, Chain Lightning
- Khelben's Warding Whip, Mantle, 2x Summon Hakeashar
- Symbol Stun, Power Word Blind, Symbol Death
- Spell Trap, Imprisonment
- Minor Sequencer #0 (2x Melf's Acid Arrow)
- Spell Sequencer #23 (Web, 2x Spider Spawn)
- Spell Trigger #17 (PFMW, Shadow Door, Spell Immunity Divination)
- Summon Dark Planetar (innate)
Looking at her script ... PFMW contingency, chain contingency #4 summons an efreet, a djinn, and a hakeashar at the start of hostilities.
Yep, that matches ... wait, there's also the HLA. Memorization there is controlled by the "hla" files, and usage has a very complicated logical structure for the difficulty check. This particular mage isn't special enough to have the item that always allows HLAs, but she's in ToB - so that's either LOB or the fine-tuned "Insane Plus" HLA difficulty. Also, a mage will never use more 9th level spells (including HLAs) than they have slots. In this case, as a level 9 mage, that's two. At sufficiently high difficulty, she'll precast Spell Trap at the start of the battle, summon a planetar at the first opportunity, and never use Imprisonment.
So that's an in-depth look at one mage's spell choices and the rules that built them. Does that help?
A long overdue (and just plain long) update on my WS Archer run, as I'm sure there's at least one person who's been losing sleep over its lack of progress. The overall plan is still to be drained to level 1 and wield Martyr's morningstar to obtain 1HP and activate level 1 immunity. In her last post, I mentioned potential difficulties in surviving the final vampire strike to do this - basically, you need to be able to survive a < 20 HP hit at level 1 - but some combination of Helm of Balduran/Steadfast/Stoneskin/Armour of Faith can always be used in a WS run for any classes that can use morningstars and hence who can use this trick (except kensai... bad luck!).
Wave 1
Having finally reached the dizzying heights of level 1 and 1HP, it's time to tackle the crusader camp attacks. However, these come with their own sets of problems - if you're not buffed to the gills (and in a WS run, you won't be!), the 1st wave will close far too quickly for you to hide behind your troops and kill them with arrows of detonation. Even if you could, hiding and kiting (c.f. shadowdancer) probably won't work since if even a single monster gets through, it'll trigger the rest of the waves to charge at once... which is impossible to survive. For this reason, you can't use your Horror special ability to thin the ranks (a scared enemy may inadvertently flee past you).
There is only one solution... charge into the fray, switch on AI and wait. And wait. And wait. As tempting as it is to use Suncatcher (15% chance chance to deal 1d4 fire damage when struck... and you'll be struck a lot!), do not since its accompanying 15% chance to blind when struck may cause monsters to flee randomly and trigger the remaining waves, whereas you want all attention focussed on you. Instead, dual-wield Martyr's with Herdrin's Short Sword, which has 15% chance of critical hitting (you'll only be hitting on a critical anyway) or just use Martyr's with single weapon style (for extra 5% crit chance). Be sure to check in every so often to make sure that you're attacking opponents other than the trolls or Yarog (who'll regenerate 2HP/round due to his Cornugon's Revenge armour). The AI may just auto-target them in your absence, and they will likely regenerate too quickly for you to take them out this way.
However, if a troll does happen to fall (e.g. from your allies while they're still alive), you'll need to switch to dual-wielding Martyr's with a 1-handed weapon that does fire/acid damage on hit. There are not many options:
Dervish Crescent is particularly recommended due to its 10% chance of Fire Shield: Red on kill, which can safely be used to thin enemy ranks... but a WS cannot use the spectacles of spectacle to summon Nazramu, so I didn't mention it earlier. A WS archer also cannot drink the red potion to achieve 25 Strength and bash open the lock to obtain Burning Earth; the blind albino wyrmling is a tough fight, so Element's Fury is probably the only realistic option. The BG:Wiki is wrong and The Root of the Problem does NOT deal +1 acid damage, so WS clerics are left out to dry here.
Once all enemies other than the 4 trolls and Yarog have been killed (this will take a LONG time), then start kiting them and firing arrows of detonation. You may have to break out from being encircled the instant the last peripheral enemy is killed, so pay attention when they are about to fall and aim to be reasonably central to make this as easy as possible. The arrows will auto-hit and the explosion will kill the trolls even when unconscious. When you're dealing with the last troll, feel free to switch to a more common source of fire/acid damage (e.g. arrow of fire). The only option available to a WS cleric in this case would be bullets of fire; Flame Blade, being a level 2 spell, is not available to a level 1 character, although Sunscorch is available if you've enabled IWD divine spells in SCS. You could also use Suncatcher's Sunfire special ability here, although it's tempting to blast it when surrounded by enemies instead.
Wave 2
Since they don't advance, the second wave is much more manageable. Use a Protection from Magic scroll, hang back (so the mages shoot their ranged weapons at your allies) and pelt them with arrows of detonation. If I was a WS cleric, I guess I'd just charge... yet another way in which clerics are ill-suited to this part of the game!
Wave 3
The third wave is tackled in much the same way as the first, except you can save precious arrows of detonation and just charge straight in (if you used arrows of detonation in the previous wave, your Protection from Magic scroll should still be active... and with SCS being disabled for SoD, the clerics will happily waste all their spells on you before it runs out). I couldn't get the on-crit effect of Martyr's to work on them (maybe because their helmets nullified it!), so definitely dual-wield Herdrin's here. Suncatcher and Horror are still not on here, since you cannot afford to have the last wave inadvertently triggered.
In my game, the third wave took 3 days and 15 hours in-game to defeat, which apparently corresponds to 7.25 hours real-time. Fatigue will set in with your character during this battle, so put on the battle tankard helm to combat this and be sure to use Dosia's rejuvenation after its conclusion if required. For some reason, resting removes the level drain (you were drained by a fledgling vampire, after all), which is fatal, so the aim is to prevent fatigue from accruing during these long battles.
Wave 4
As tempting as it is to try and tackle the final wave by kiting with arrows of detonation, this is nearly impossible. As soon as you switch off Martyr's, you lose your level 1 immunity and this wave, unlike others, has ranged attackers. You can try to tank your AC or switching between Martyr's and your bow, but it is very likely that some crusaders will sneak past you and trigger the barrels. One or two of them can be handled by Andrus et al, but more than that will overwhelm them. Unfortunately, the only realistic path is to charge head on, attracting as much attention as possible, and play the very long game.
To beat this wave, the named enemies all have to perish:
Grimgor
Orleth Blackfinger
Bird Dog
Tyralynn
Kegleg
Lannac
Swift Rabbit
Piercer of Boils
It is best to try and position your charge to end within 1-handed melee range of as many of these opponents as possible. Luckily, unlike other waves, it is feasible to use Suncatcher here since anyone able to strike you will be hemmed in by the swarms of other opponents and unable to flee to anywhere undesirable. Since some enemies (e.g. Piercer of Boils) will use 2-handed weapons that can poke you without you being able to retaliate, this might well be your only source of damage to them for some time. However, contrary to some walkthroughs' proclamations, this wave does not endlessly spawn crusaders... and since you can damage them without them damaging you, victory will eventually be yours.
It took 5 days and 17 hours in-game for me to beat this wave, which apparently corresponds to 10.5 hours real-time. Because Piercer of Boils' Insect Plague can cause fear, which can mess up your positioning, I used another Protection from Magic scroll to stop this from affecting my character (using the battle tankard helm prevents you from equipping Kiel's helm - other characters could possibly use Commander's Chain and/or a Chaotic Commands scroll).
And that's the crusader camp done. Obviously, non-WS characters have far more options (e.g., buffing, summoning allies with items, using potions of explosion to kill downed trolls) and the times taken are excruciating (I left it running overnight on both the last two battles), but it's amazing what a WS can achieve with lots of patience and a tolerance of cheese.
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 ^-^
How do you do this dupe?
The old vendor/bag dupes don't seem to work in 2.6?
edit: nvm just figured it out, he sells in stacks but u can sell him single arrows for and he'll get a stack lol.
Makes my fav class bard even better.
@alice_ashpool For pickpocketing, there is also only one merchant to the far south of the Iron Throne building that will recharge wands. If you don't want to invest into pickpocket at all, stacking 4-5 potions of master thievery will guarantee 100% success (around 220-240 as i remember) at base skill level. This means that you've got 1 ''free'' wand recharge per wand which is pretty insane.
I wonder if you could actually make some decent cash from buying all wands from sorcerous sundries at 20 rep 20 cha, pickpocket them to sell them back fully charged. The only items that i wouldn't recommend doing it is the nymph cloak and durlag's Goblet as they're super cheap to recharge and you'll only be able to recharge it at a fence which are more limited.
I can't find a merchant in BG city south of the iron throne building, just a temple and some commoners houses, is there a prerequisite for finding this merchant?
edit: nvm found it, it's far south of Flaming Fist, not Iron Throne.
My bad sorry about that Victor, i meant the Flaming Fist.
Glad to see a bit of activity on the new forum version, great job with SoD crusader camp AvidGamerFan. I won't be active at all probably until next winter (lot of work, life happens, will probably never get as much free time anymore) but i will keep reading the stories and playthrough from time to time for sure. Have a great year.
Viable Classes/builds: (Possibly any). Completed and verified with a Half-Orc Barbarian. Game v2.6.6. Hard Requirement: Nymph Cloak, 1x Protection from Undead Scroll (both obtainable in BG:EE) Recommended: 1x Oil of Speed, 1x Heroism, 1x Invulnerability, Paws of Cheetah Pros: A workable solution without 100's of One Gift Lost charges. Cons: Relies on heavy power gaming and a cheesy scroll that protects from the undead. Charmed enemies are a bit buggy and tend to walk where they like without a move command (issue a repeated move command with select all to better-manage the positioning).
Phase 1: Preparation
Protagonist:
- (Nymph cloak) Charm: Arkanna, both of her Air Aspects.
- (Nymph cloak) Charm: Every enemy in the Mind Flayer room, except for the Mind Flayer that is immune (kill it instead)
- Walk to the Shadow Aspect door with your army of the charmed.
- Potions, DUHM (if available) - Do not use the protection from undead scroll before Phase 3.
Charmed Enemies:
- Cast useful self-buff spells like Mirror Image on Jhan Redmoons.
This is what my game looked like before proceeding to Phase 2.
Phase 2: Charge In
- Issue a move command with the protagonist right next to where Shadow Aspect stands. Right next to it, within reach of its melee attacks.
- Attack the shadow aspect at least once before it casts Mislead. His usual spell sequence is 'Blur,' 'Darkness 15 radius,' 'Mislead.' This allows for 1 or 2 free hits before Mislead is cast.
Reload conditions: Fail ST against the trap by the door; did not land a Critical Strike against Shadow Aspect before it cast Mislead.
Phase 3: Combat
3.1
- Select all, walk right next to the Mislead Decoy.
- Attack the decoy until it's at ~10% HP. Do not kill it. It's tempting, but do not do it. The Shadow Aspect will just instantly recast Mislead before you can hurt it.
Note: Once the Shadow Aspect has brought down the protagonist to ~20% HP, use up the Protect from Undead scroll and it will shift focus.
3.2
- Select all and walk around the room to create some distance. Shadow Aspect should cast one of its spells like Larloch's Minor drain. Once it does, do not waste any game ticks and go all in on the Mislead Decoy. With the Mislead Decoy down, the original Shadow Aspect should reveal itself to attacks for 0.5 - 0.9 round.
- Hurt the original Shadow Aspect as much as you can in this window of opportunity.
- Once the round is over, it will prioritize casting another Mislead. Go back to 3.1, and repeat these steps until Shadow Aspect dies.
A screenshot of victory:
Note that it's not entirely impossible to do the above without a Protection from Undead Scroll, but it would be very difficult to manage the focus of Shadow Aspect. Expect frustration and 50+ reloads without the scroll.
@hsenpar
Well done - especially since its posible for all classes, and doesnt require much besides the nymph / algernon cloak (which most would rely on anyway)
Solution to 'Shadowy Figure,' the no-magic encounter in CH10 on LOB difficulty.
Viable Classes/builds: (Possibly any). Completed and verified with a Half-Orc Barbarian. Game v2.6.6. Hard Requirement: Stone Ally (x3 charges), 8x Breath of Fire, 5x Potion of Explosion, Paws of Cheetah Recommended: Girdle of Piercing, 10x Potion of Extra Healing, Dart/Rhyte's Last Arrow Pros: Trophy kill. Flex the Vexation sword. Cons: The sword is not good.
Overview:
1. Kill both archers, but neither of the melee guys.
2. Wear down, and eventually kill the Shadowy Figure.
3. Finish up both melee guys with your Dart/Rhyte's Last Arrow (Slow but safe ranged damage).
Killing 3 or more of the companions will prompt Shadowy Figure to leave the area at ~25% HP, saying you "passed the test." With 2 or more alive, he will not do so unless brought down to ~5% HP.
The main difficulty in this fight are the brutal archers who can out-damage your Potions of Extra Healing. The difficulty drops significantly with the archers down. Killing the Shadowy Figure is not difficult and only requires a bit of luck, that is, he may announce that you've "passed the test" and leave before you can kill it. With enough burst damage, and/or a lucky Critical Strike, he will instead add up to a nice trophy kill.
Screenshot of victory (Wielded Vexation as proof):
Phase 1: Engagement
- Walk up to the gang of thugs.
- Use Stone Ally x1: place it right behind the archers.
Note: the Lesser Stone Golem should pick one of the archers as its target. Notwithstanding, issue an attack command manually.
- Rush your protagonist back to where you started the encounter, out of range. Make sure nobody sees or follows you. Every enemy should be occupied by the golem.
- Use up 4x Potion of Explosion from a distance; keep out of visual range to avoid getting focus of the enemies, especially that of the archers that can make short work of you.
Phase 2: Mop Up the Archers
- With the first golem dead/unsummoned, walk back in visual range to use up Stone Ally x2: place it right on top of the remaining archer(s).
- Rush out of range, heal up as needed.
- Walk in range, use Potion of Fire Breath x1 on the remaining archer(s). Try to line them up to damage both, make sure the golem doesn't defy your priorities.
- Rush out of range, heal up as needed.
Phase 3: Mop up the Shadowy Figure
- With the archers down, apply Potions of Fire Breath x2-x8 while avoiding melee damage. Know the timing and cool-downs, circle the enemy.
Note that you can use Shadowy Figure's melee companions to create a Fire Breath handle. The main subject, the Shadowy Figure, only has to be in between the 'handle' and yourself, which is easy to achieve as it keeps following you like a marauding dog. That being noted, let me remind that neither of the remaining 2 melee guys should die before the Shadowy Figure.
- Use up Stone Ally x3 to increase overall burst damage potential that counts near the end, when Shadowy Figure is at ~10% HP.
- Wait around for the Shadowy Figure to emerge, and then place the Potion of Fire Breath's handle directly on him, attack him yourself, and with your golem.
- He should die right then and there, but if unlucky with the damage, he's going to make the announcement of you "passing the test," and he'll leave. Throw a predictively-placed Potion of Explosion in his tracks, and throw a wish in the well that it's going to do enough damage; reload if it didn't.
Phase 4: Addressing the Remnants
- With the archers and the Shadowy Figure no more, just kite/range the remnants to safely formalize the achievement.
Having some difficulties with Wave 1, Coalition Camp Defence with my Barbarian. Will give an update once I figure out what to do.
I'm thinking Nymph Cloak on some defenders by the camp fire, but I play with a rule that I do not re-charge items at the shop (6x Durlag Goblet, 40x Nymph Cloak -- as they originally come). Using Nymph here would burn charges that may be more essential later on.
Good to see progress. The waves are an infamous chokepoint. Many players rely on arrows of detonation foran quick decimation of the enemy - perhaps it can of value to you as well.
@hsenpar I think that Jaheira in SoD wears a copy of this cloak with a few more charges. Even though you can't recruit her, you might consider picking up the cloak from her cold, dead body if your personal tactics allow for that sort of thing .
@hsenpar I think that Jaheira in SoD wears a copy of this cloak with a few more charges. Even though you can't recruit her, you might consider picking up the cloak from her cold, dead body if your personal tactics allow for that sort of thing .
On a boggy morning -- just as Khalid, a romantic with a stutter, contemplated a necklace binding an aquamarine for anniversary gift -- a dead body was discovered. Lord behold, it was that of Jaheira, Khalid's significant other.
Underlying motives for such a barbarous act, however, remain unclear. Perhaps Lieutenant Otilda was right about half-orcs all along.
On a boggy morning -- just as Khalid, a romantic with a stutter, contemplated a necklace binding an aquamarine for anniversary gift -- a dead body was discovered. Lord behold, it was that of Jaheira, Khalid's significant other.
Underlying motives for such a barbarous act, however, remain unclear. Perhaps Lieutenant Otilda was right about half-orcs all along.
Apparently police are scouring social media searching for that motive ...
Managed to hold the waves during Coalition Defence! But it's incredibly difficult with a pure fighter Barbarian, especially the 1st and the 4th wave.
Nymph's Cloak was a nice idea, but the strategy is not entirely useful because one has to be in proximity to Andrus to charm any defenders; a dialogue triggers before an army can be amassed. It is, however, possible to charm one defender with Algrenon's cloak before Andrus starts explaining the situation. Garrold has a Slow spell in its arsenal -- quite useful. A Coalition Warmage, one right behind Garrold, has Improved Invisibility. Other warmages are unaffected by cloak.
After each wave, there's time to Nymph Cloak 1-2 additional defenders. Having completed Dwarves of Dumathoin in CH8 might have saved me from a failed journey because I did not bring any arrows of detonation from the first game.
It's doable with a Barbarian, and that means it's certainly doable with a Dwarven Defender which is strictly superior within the Exp Cap of 500K.
Since BG2 is not a challenge to anyone still playing in 2022, I'll not be posting any BG2 updates. But I might go back to Coalition Camp and make a video of the waves and Belhifet; I could only find a few gameplay videos of late SoD on LoB difficulty, and even fewer of solo challenges.
I get the point about BG2 is getting trivial. But players still play differently, so please post if you come up with something out of the extrodinary. Best of luck
I get the point about BG2 is getting trivial. But players still play differently, so please post if you come up with something out of the extrodinary. Best of luck
Thanks. I'm going for this setup as the core of my build:
- Soul Reaver: https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Soul_Reaver
A powerful weapon, not entirely unknown but often over-looked. The main attraction is the cumulative Thac0 debuff with a long 20-round duration.
- For the offensive HLA's, I'll go for Critical Strikes for guaranteed hits (guaranteed Thac0 drains) instead of Greater Whirlwinds.
- Is there a class/build so powerful that its capable of legitimately soloing Belhifet on LoB difficulty with an additional self-policed rule that stacking Heroism/Power potions is not allowed? What I mean is that 1 sip of Heroism and 1 sip of Power is OK but 2 sips of Heroism not.
Histamiini (who has played this Challenge more than once…) speaks fondly of the cavalier.
The cavalier can wear the best armor, has fear immunity (for dueligs goblet and demon fear) and has a neat damage and thaco bonus that helps a lot. Its my best bet if you want to solo and play by the book.
@hsenpar very well done on your playthrough with your barbarian! Speaking of HLAs, you might want to test out Power Attack. It's pretty devastating and the stun affect some very powerful enemies and just lock them in place. As it last 2 rounds, you can easily cast Critical Strike right after to have up to 10 hits with stun at a Save vs Death -4 penalty. It's also especially good if you use some summons either through spell or items as not only the enemy won't fight back at all but it will also be unable to avoid hits, which means an insane amount of DPS.
For your Belhifet question:
For a character able to defeat Belhifet LoB without stacking Heroism potions, my best guess would be a single class Druid or a Fighter/Druid so you can chain a pretty RNG Magic Resistance + Harm combo but the crusader camp is going to be tough.
A Cleric/Mage or Fighter/Mage/Cleric ''might'' also be able to do it if dual wielding Martyr's Morning Star as it can also buff itself with Champion Strength scrolls and use Enchanted weapon at the same time, not sure if it's better than simply going Single Weapon Style and fishing for crits however. Ideally you would want to fight Belhifet in a corner to reduce the amount of demons around you. You will also want to stack as much AC as possible as the DPS you receive during this fight is insane so i'm not sure if any direct approach without HP buff is possible at all. I still have my F/I save for Belhifet so i might try this approach with him eventually.
Another options which is even more reliant on RNG and perfect execution would be on a Mage/Thief which is something that i only managed to achieve once on Insane due to the scripted Improved Invisibility of Belhifet which is a nightmare (in 2.5, might be easier or even harder on 2.6): 2-3x Lower Resistance on Belhifet, then Greater Malison to reduce his saves, Detect Illusion to dispel his Improved Invincibility then you sometime have a very short window to fish for a lucky Wand of Polymorphing hit. If he barely survive it (as i remember, he does), finish him with Fireshield Blue + Otiluke. One thing i didn't try is if the period where you dispel Belhifet's invisibility is longer if you're not completely immune to fire, as casting fire spells ''might'' give you additional time.
A Blade can abuse the level 1 with 1hp exploit using Martyr's Morningstar which Histamiini did and it completely crush it. You can read about his pretty insane Mindflayer Blade playthrough to see more details about it.
Still, LoB + insane SCS + Ascension is so unfair overall that a form of cheese is going to be needed eventually no matter what so you might want to make a fairly big list of rules for this. The Cataclysm challenge on page 1 was mostly made with this idea as the cheese strats were becoming too efficient even for a difficult challenge like this, well for the right classes at least. I did a few more short segmented runs with a gnome F/I and that character just doesn't care if you don't self-impose some rules, it ends up having an approach to crush everything with ease.
Comments
@jmerry good observation, I do recall all non-bugged ST I saw were positive numbers.
An approach that clerics can take is to attempt the level drain approach for the camp ambush. However i don't think that surviving that last level drain hit would be that simple as i used Stoneskin on my first failed sorcerer run to avoid the damage. This makes any Bard a very good choice in the end, probably better than any thief in the long run with a cheese method available at pretty much any moment during the run and ridiculously long lasting buff spells.
Other great classes that i would like to try for it eventually (probably during the next year) would be Druids. I always liked Fighter/Druids but i'm sure that many dual classed Druid or Fighter kits would be awesome choices in the end. I've had the OG Ranger/Cleric in sight for a while.
See you in a few weeks!
I actually rolled a LG Dwarven Cleric of Helm this morning. She's currently trying to help Reevor with his rat problem in Candlekeep.
@XDarkStrikerX I think you're wise to look for a fighter/caster hybrid for a no-reload attempt at this challenge. These characters are simply much more versatile and powerful overall.
Honestly I'm not sure if I want to take my cleric through the saga alone or with a party. I'm somewhat intrigued by the challenge of creating an optimized party of exclusively single-class characters (in my case NPCs from the game that may or may not be customized through SCS's custimization tool). In LoB-optimized parties without this restriction, the only single classes commonly present are Archer and Skald. The others tend to be Kensai or Berserker duals, Fighter/Mage, Cleric/Ranger or Fighter/Cleric, and the like.
I wonder what an ideal party of single-classes for my Helmite cleric would look like. Candidates might include:
- Archer (Kivan/Corwin/Valygar)
- Dwarven Defender (Kagain/???/Korgan)
- Shadowdancer/Swashbuckler (Alora/Glint/Hexxat, or maybe just Imoen)
- Skald (Garrick/Voghiln/Haer'Dalis)
- Kensai (Rasaad)
- Dragon Disciple (Neera)
- Sorcerer (Dynaheir)
- Barbarian (Minsc or Shar-Teel)
I also consider including a few mods:
- Warden (Kale, one of Skitia's mods, a Halfling warrior who can temporarily boost Thac0 and damage of a comrade in arms, while nerfing his own but receiving some damage resistance in return)
- Militia Officer (a fighter kit by Raduziel which has some defensive abilities and offensive buffs that can be activated)
I have some experience playing old LoB (without the enemy boost to AC) as well the previous form with the saves bug, but almost none playing the latest and hardest version of LoB. It probably explains why I find it hard to think of the best team of single classes.
Anyhow, I might post over at https://tavernrpg.com, where some folks from the Beamdog forums have moved, including @alice_ashpool (who has been active in teh LoB challenge as well).
As far as I know, @Harpagornis has shown that a druid can get all the way to Amkethran in the poverty challenge; @histamiini has also shown that the ravager form can be exceptionally powerful, taking out much of the final battle by itself. The problem with a poverty challenge is that druids have no way of making themselves immune to magic damage for long enough to achieve permanent ravager form (Shield of Lathander doesn't last long enough), which would seem to nix that strategy... unless they get somone else to do it for them! Find a wizard who's capable of casting Protection from Magic Energy, charm them, get them to cast Protection from Magic Energy on you (it can be cast on others), and transform immediately. True, you won't be able to cast druid spells anymore, but you hopefully shouldn't neeed to... and you can still dual into a fighter for the various juicy HLAs.
Vithal, the mage you release from imprisonment in the Underdark, can definitely cast Protection from Magic Energy and doesn't turn hostile on a failed charm attempt. Unfortunately, druids can't use the Freedom spell/scroll to free him, which is a bit of a bummer. I haven't gone through making a comprehensive list of what spells each wizard can cast - I think they change with every playthrough to some extent - but I hope that @jmerry or some other equally knowledgeable soul will be able to help out with this.
P.S. @zaknas, congrats on beating the challenge! Even with all of the combined experience on this thread, completing it is no mean feat, so well done.
SCS enemy spell choices are set when you install the mod. If you keep playing on the same install, they're just as fixed as the vanilla spells.
The possibilities for spells come from the "spellchoices" and "spellchoices_defensive" lists within the "mage" and "priest" folders. Pick your spell system (iwd = with Icewind Dale spells, demivrgvs = Spell Revisions, vanilla = standard), pick the kit, and there it is. It's a fairly easy format to read. An example:
Excerpt of /mage/spellchoices_defensive/vanilla/conjurer.tph:
//////////////////////////////////// levels 18-19 ////////////////////////////////////////// 18 19 BEGIN PUSH spells ~VOCALIZE SHIELD DISPEL_MAGIC STONE_SKIN STONE_SKIN MINOR_GLOBE_OF_INVULNERABILITY BREACH BREACH SPELL_THRUST STONE_SKIN_PRECAST DEATH_SPELL PROTECTION_FROM_NORMAL_MISSILES~ PUSH spells ~MIRROR_IMAGE MIRROR_IMAGE SHADOW_DOOR DIMENSION_DOOR~ PUSH_RANDOM spells (INVISIBILITY null) PUSH_RANDOM spells (PROTECTION_FROM_FIRE PROTECTION_FROM_COLD) PUSH_RANDOM spells (SPELL_TRAP SPELL_TURNING) PUSH_RANDOM spells (IMPROVED_MANTLE IMPROVED_MANTLE PROTECTION_FROM_MAGIC_WEAPONS) PUSH_RANDOM spells (MANTLE MANTLE PROTECTION_FROM_MAGIC_WEAPONS) PUSH_RANDOM spells (WARDING_WHIP RUBY_RAY_OF_REVERSAL) PUSH_RANDOM spells (TELEPORT_FIELD GREATER_MALISON GREATER_MALISON null null null) PUSH_RANDOM spells (SLOW null) PUSH_RANDOM spells (TIME_STOP null) PUSH spells MS_OFFENSIVE PUSH_RANDOM spells (DISPEL_MAGIC+SEQ_O DISPEL_MAGIC+SEQ_O DISPEL_MAGIC+SEQ_D1 DISPEL_MAGIC+SEQ_D2 SEQ_DSP SEQ_DSP) PUSH_RANDOM spells (TRG_D1+CCN_O TRG_D2+CCN_O TRG_O+CCN_D+CCN_MX TRG_AM+CCN_D+CCN_MX TRG_O+CCN_MX TRG_AM+CCN_MX) PUSH_RANDOM spells (CNT_PROTECTION_FROM_MAGIC_WEAPONS CNT_PROTECTION_FROM_MAGIC_WEAPONS CNT_MISLEAD CNT_SPELL_DEFLECTION CNT_SPELL_SHIELD) PATCH_IF iwd_arcane BEGIN PUSH_RANDOM spells (MIND_BLANK_PRECAST null) END ENDAnd with this, we can determine what spells a level 18 conjurer will have memorized (in the vanilla spell system).
There are 6/6/6/6/6/4/4/3/2 slots available, plus sequencers, contingencies, and precast spells with duration greater than eight hours.
We start with the defensive spells. Shield, 2x Mirror Image, Vocalize, Protection from Normal Missiles, Remove Magic, Spell Thrust, Dimension Door, 2x Stoneskin, precast Stoneskin, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, 2x Breach, Shadow Door, and Death Spell are always there. That's 1/3/3/4/3/1/0/0/0 slots accounted for so far.
Next come the random parts - equally probable among what's listed. Invisibility or nothing. Protection from Fire or Protection from Cold. Spell Trap or Spell Turning. Improved Mantle or Protection from Magic Weapons (weighted). Mantle or Protection from Magic Weapons (weighted). Khelben's Warding Whip or Ruby Ray of Reversal. Teleport Field, Greater Malison, or nothing (weighted). Slow or nothing. Time Stop or nothing. A total of 5-9 spells in this step, filling 0/0-1/1-2/0-1/0/0-2/1-3/0-1/0-2 slots. We're up to 1/3-4/4-5/4-5/3/1-3/1-3/0-1/0-2 slots accounted for.
Sequencers and contingencies come next. I'm guessing at the meanings here; I'd have to read more stuff to get the exact details. An offensive minor sequencer. Either an offensive sequencer and a Remove Magic or a Remove Magic sequencer. Chain contingencies and spell triggers, paired so they can work together. A contingency, either PFMW, Mislead, Spell Deflection, or Spell Shield. Total spell slots used so far: 1/3-4/4-6/4-5/3/1-3/1-3/0-1/0-2
What do we do with the remaining 5/2-3/0-2/1-2/3/1-3/1-3/2-3/0-2 spell slots? We fill them up from the offensive spell list. Each available slot is picked randomly from the possibilities in its row. For example, a level 1 offensive spell slot could be filled with any of Magic Missile, Color Spray, Chromatic Orb, Charm Person, Sleep (with twice the chance), Blindness, or Spook.
Checking my old SCS install on 2.5 ... there is a level 18 conjurer. More than one, actually, but I'll just look at one. GROMG05, Il-Khan Battle Mage. She has memorized:
- Shield, 2x Color Spray, 2x Sleep, Chromatic Orb.
- Invisibility, 2x Mirror Image, Vocalize, Power Word Sleep, Melf's Acid Arrow
- 2x Remove Magic, Protection from Fire, Protection from Normal Missiles, Spell Thrust, Monster Summoning I
- Greater Malison, Dimension Door, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, 2x Stoneskin, Monster Summoning II
- Shadow Door, 2x Breach, Conjure Lesser Earth Elemental, 2x Chaos
- Protection from Magical Weapons, Death Spell, Conjure Fire Elemental, Chain Lightning
- Khelben's Warding Whip, Mantle, 2x Summon Hakeashar
- Symbol Stun, Power Word Blind, Symbol Death
- Spell Trap, Imprisonment
- Minor Sequencer #0 (2x Melf's Acid Arrow)
- Spell Sequencer #23 (Web, 2x Spider Spawn)
- Spell Trigger #17 (PFMW, Shadow Door, Spell Immunity Divination)
- Summon Dark Planetar (innate)
Looking at her script ... PFMW contingency, chain contingency #4 summons an efreet, a djinn, and a hakeashar at the start of hostilities.
Yep, that matches ... wait, there's also the HLA. Memorization there is controlled by the "hla" files, and usage has a very complicated logical structure for the difficulty check. This particular mage isn't special enough to have the item that always allows HLAs, but she's in ToB - so that's either LOB or the fine-tuned "Insane Plus" HLA difficulty. Also, a mage will never use more 9th level spells (including HLAs) than they have slots. In this case, as a level 9 mage, that's two. At sufficiently high difficulty, she'll precast Spell Trap at the start of the battle, summon a planetar at the first opportunity, and never use Imprisonment.
So that's an in-depth look at one mage's spell choices and the rules that built them. Does that help?
There is only one solution... charge into the fray, switch on AI and wait. And wait. And wait. As tempting as it is to use Suncatcher (15% chance chance to deal 1d4 fire damage when struck... and you'll be struck a lot!), do not since its accompanying 15% chance to blind when struck may cause monsters to flee randomly and trigger the remaining waves, whereas you want all attention focussed on you. Instead, dual-wield Martyr's with Herdrin's Short Sword, which has 15% chance of critical hitting (you'll only be hitting on a critical anyway) or just use Martyr's with single weapon style (for extra 5% crit chance). Be sure to check in every so often to make sure that you're attacking opponents other than the trolls or Yarog (who'll regenerate 2HP/round due to his Cornugon's Revenge armour). The AI may just auto-target them in your absence, and they will likely regenerate too quickly for you to take them out this way.
However, if a troll does happen to fall (e.g. from your allies while they're still alive), you'll need to switch to dual-wielding Martyr's with a 1-handed weapon that does fire/acid damage on hit. There are not many options:
Once all enemies other than the 4 trolls and Yarog have been killed (this will take a LONG time), then start kiting them and firing arrows of detonation. You may have to break out from being encircled the instant the last peripheral enemy is killed, so pay attention when they are about to fall and aim to be reasonably central to make this as easy as possible. The arrows will auto-hit and the explosion will kill the trolls even when unconscious. When you're dealing with the last troll, feel free to switch to a more common source of fire/acid damage (e.g. arrow of fire). The only option available to a WS cleric in this case would be bullets of fire; Flame Blade, being a level 2 spell, is not available to a level 1 character, although Sunscorch is available if you've enabled IWD divine spells in SCS. You could also use Suncatcher's Sunfire special ability here, although it's tempting to blast it when surrounded by enemies instead.
In my game, the third wave took 3 days and 15 hours in-game to defeat, which apparently corresponds to 7.25 hours real-time. Fatigue will set in with your character during this battle, so put on the battle tankard helm to combat this and be sure to use Dosia's rejuvenation after its conclusion if required. For some reason, resting removes the level drain (you were drained by a fledgling vampire, after all), which is fatal, so the aim is to prevent fatigue from accruing during these long battles.
To beat this wave, the named enemies all have to perish:
It took 5 days and 17 hours in-game for me to beat this wave, which apparently corresponds to 10.5 hours real-time. Because Piercer of Boils' Insect Plague can cause fear, which can mess up your positioning, I used another Protection from Magic scroll to stop this from affecting my character (using the battle tankard helm prevents you from equipping Kiel's helm - other characters could possibly use Commander's Chain and/or a Chaotic Commands scroll).
And that's the crusader camp done. Obviously, non-WS characters have far more options (e.g., buffing, summoning allies with items, using potions of explosion to kill downed trolls) and the times taken are excruciating (I left it running overnight on both the last two battles), but it's amazing what a WS can achieve with lots of patience and a tolerance of cheese.
How do you do this dupe?
The old vendor/bag dupes don't seem to work in 2.6?
edit: nvm just figured it out, he sells in stacks but u can sell him single arrows for and he'll get a stack lol.
Makes my fav class bard even better.
edit:2 hmmmmmmm assassin hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I can't find a merchant in BG city south of the iron throne building, just a temple and some commoners houses, is there a prerequisite for finding this merchant?
edit: nvm found it, it's far south of Flaming Fist, not Iron Throne.
Glad to see a bit of activity on the new forum version, great job with SoD crusader camp AvidGamerFan. I won't be active at all probably until next winter (lot of work, life happens, will probably never get as much free time anymore) but i will keep reading the stories and playthrough from time to time for sure. Have a great year.
Viable Classes/builds: (Possibly any). Completed and verified with a Half-Orc Barbarian. Game v2.6.6.
Hard Requirement: Nymph Cloak, 1x Protection from Undead Scroll (both obtainable in BG:EE)
Recommended: 1x Oil of Speed, 1x Heroism, 1x Invulnerability, Paws of Cheetah
Pros: A workable solution without 100's of One Gift Lost charges.
Cons: Relies on heavy power gaming and a cheesy scroll that protects from the undead. Charmed enemies are a bit buggy and tend to walk where they like without a move command (issue a repeated move command with select all to better-manage the positioning).
Phase 1: Preparation
Protagonist:
- (Nymph cloak) Charm: Arkanna, both of her Air Aspects.
- (Nymph cloak) Charm: Every enemy in the Mind Flayer room, except for the Mind Flayer that is immune (kill it instead)
- Walk to the Shadow Aspect door with your army of the charmed.
- Potions, DUHM (if available)
- Do not use the protection from undead scroll before Phase 3.
Charmed Enemies:
- Cast useful self-buff spells like Mirror Image on Jhan Redmoons.
This is what my game looked like before proceeding to Phase 2.
Phase 2: Charge In
- Issue a move command with the protagonist right next to where Shadow Aspect stands. Right next to it, within reach of its melee attacks.
- Attack the shadow aspect at least once before it casts Mislead. His usual spell sequence is 'Blur,' 'Darkness 15 radius,' 'Mislead.' This allows for 1 or 2 free hits before Mislead is cast.
Reload conditions: Fail ST against the trap by the door; did not land a Critical Strike against Shadow Aspect before it cast Mislead.
Phase 3: Combat
3.1
- Select all, walk right next to the Mislead Decoy.
- Attack the decoy until it's at ~10% HP. Do not kill it. It's tempting, but do not do it. The Shadow Aspect will just instantly recast Mislead before you can hurt it.
Note: Once the Shadow Aspect has brought down the protagonist to ~20% HP, use up the Protect from Undead scroll and it will shift focus.
3.2
- Select all and walk around the room to create some distance. Shadow Aspect should cast one of its spells like Larloch's Minor drain. Once it does, do not waste any game ticks and go all in on the Mislead Decoy. With the Mislead Decoy down, the original Shadow Aspect should reveal itself to attacks for 0.5 - 0.9 round.
- Hurt the original Shadow Aspect as much as you can in this window of opportunity.
- Once the round is over, it will prioritize casting another Mislead. Go back to 3.1, and repeat these steps until Shadow Aspect dies.
A screenshot of victory:
Note that it's not entirely impossible to do the above without a Protection from Undead Scroll, but it would be very difficult to manage the focus of Shadow Aspect. Expect frustration and 50+ reloads without the scroll.
Well done - especially since its posible for all classes, and doesnt require much besides the nymph / algernon cloak (which most would rely on anyway)
Viable Classes/builds: (Possibly any). Completed and verified with a Half-Orc Barbarian. Game v2.6.6.
Hard Requirement: Stone Ally (x3 charges), 8x Breath of Fire, 5x Potion of Explosion, Paws of Cheetah
Recommended: Girdle of Piercing, 10x Potion of Extra Healing, Dart/Rhyte's Last Arrow
Pros: Trophy kill. Flex the Vexation sword.
Cons: The sword is not good.
Overview:
1. Kill both archers, but neither of the melee guys.
2. Wear down, and eventually kill the Shadowy Figure.
3. Finish up both melee guys with your Dart/Rhyte's Last Arrow (Slow but safe ranged damage).
Killing 3 or more of the companions will prompt Shadowy Figure to leave the area at ~25% HP, saying you "passed the test." With 2 or more alive, he will not do so unless brought down to ~5% HP.
The main difficulty in this fight are the brutal archers who can out-damage your Potions of Extra Healing. The difficulty drops significantly with the archers down. Killing the Shadowy Figure is not difficult and only requires a bit of luck, that is, he may announce that you've "passed the test" and leave before you can kill it. With enough burst damage, and/or a lucky Critical Strike, he will instead add up to a nice trophy kill.
Screenshot of victory (Wielded Vexation as proof):
Phase 1: Engagement
- Walk up to the gang of thugs.
- Use Stone Ally x1: place it right behind the archers.
Note: the Lesser Stone Golem should pick one of the archers as its target. Notwithstanding, issue an attack command manually.
- Rush your protagonist back to where you started the encounter, out of range. Make sure nobody sees or follows you. Every enemy should be occupied by the golem.
- Use up 4x Potion of Explosion from a distance; keep out of visual range to avoid getting focus of the enemies, especially that of the archers that can make short work of you.
Phase 2: Mop Up the Archers
- With the first golem dead/unsummoned, walk back in visual range to use up Stone Ally x2: place it right on top of the remaining archer(s).
- Rush out of range, heal up as needed.
- Walk in range, use Potion of Fire Breath x1 on the remaining archer(s). Try to line them up to damage both, make sure the golem doesn't defy your priorities.
- Rush out of range, heal up as needed.
Phase 3: Mop up the Shadowy Figure
- With the archers down, apply Potions of Fire Breath x2-x8 while avoiding melee damage. Know the timing and cool-downs, circle the enemy.
Note that you can use Shadowy Figure's melee companions to create a Fire Breath handle. The main subject, the Shadowy Figure, only has to be in between the 'handle' and yourself, which is easy to achieve as it keeps following you like a marauding dog. That being noted, let me remind that neither of the remaining 2 melee guys should die before the Shadowy Figure.
- Use up Stone Ally x3 to increase overall burst damage potential that counts near the end, when Shadowy Figure is at ~10% HP.
- Wait around for the Shadowy Figure to emerge, and then place the Potion of Fire Breath's handle directly on him, attack him yourself, and with your golem.
- He should die right then and there, but if unlucky with the damage, he's going to make the announcement of you "passing the test," and he'll leave. Throw a predictively-placed Potion of Explosion in his tracks, and throw a wish in the well that it's going to do enough damage; reload if it didn't.
Phase 4: Addressing the Remnants
- With the archers and the Shadowy Figure no more, just kite/range the remnants to safely formalize the achievement.
I'm thinking Nymph Cloak on some defenders by the camp fire, but I play with a rule that I do not re-charge items at the shop (6x Durlag Goblet, 40x Nymph Cloak -- as they originally come). Using Nymph here would burn charges that may be more essential later on.
Good to see progress. The waves are an infamous chokepoint. Many players rely on arrows of detonation foran quick decimation of the enemy - perhaps it can of value to you as well.
Will put in use later. Cheers!
I still miss a like button for posts like these
Best of luck Hsenpar
On a boggy morning -- just as Khalid, a romantic with a stutter, contemplated a necklace binding an aquamarine for anniversary gift -- a dead body was discovered. Lord behold, it was that of Jaheira, Khalid's significant other.
Underlying motives for such a barbarous act, however, remain unclear. Perhaps Lieutenant Otilda was right about half-orcs all along.
Only to be a life to the see the new terrors the story might hurl at the couple… Oh well its just a game.
Apparently police are scouring social media searching for that motive ...
Nymph's Cloak was a nice idea, but the strategy is not entirely useful because one has to be in proximity to Andrus to charm any defenders; a dialogue triggers before an army can be amassed. It is, however, possible to charm one defender with Algrenon's cloak before Andrus starts explaining the situation. Garrold has a Slow spell in its arsenal -- quite useful. A Coalition Warmage, one right behind Garrold, has Improved Invisibility. Other warmages are unaffected by cloak.
After each wave, there's time to Nymph Cloak 1-2 additional defenders. Having completed Dwarves of Dumathoin in CH8 might have saved me from a failed journey because I did not bring any arrows of detonation from the first game.
It's doable with a Barbarian, and that means it's certainly doable with a Dwarven Defender which is strictly superior within the Exp Cap of 500K.
Since BG2 is not a challenge to anyone still playing in 2022, I'll not be posting any BG2 updates. But I might go back to Coalition Camp and make a video of the waves and Belhifet; I could only find a few gameplay videos of late SoD on LoB difficulty, and even fewer of solo challenges.
Well played, to anyone who made it.
I get the point about BG2 is getting trivial. But players still play differently, so please post if you come up with something out of the extrodinary. Best of luck
Thanks. I'm going for this setup as the core of my build:
- Soul Reaver: https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Soul_Reaver
A powerful weapon, not entirely unknown but often over-looked. The main attraction is the cumulative Thac0 debuff with a long 20-round duration.
- For the offensive HLA's, I'll go for Critical Strikes for guaranteed hits (guaranteed Thac0 drains) instead of Greater Whirlwinds.
- Vhailor's Helm: https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Vhailor's_Helm
Pretty much double the rate of Thac0 drains. The simulacrum will still land hits due to Critical Strike HLAs.
At least on paper, many powerful enemies will be reduced to Candlekeep rodents over 2-3 rounds.
- Is there a class/build so powerful that its capable of legitimately soloing Belhifet on LoB difficulty with an additional self-policed rule that stacking Heroism/Power potions is not allowed? What I mean is that 1 sip of Heroism and 1 sip of Power is OK but 2 sips of Heroism not.
Any ideas welcome.
Histamiini (who has played this Challenge more than once…) speaks fondly of the cavalier.
The cavalier can wear the best armor, has fear immunity (for dueligs goblet and demon fear) and has a neat damage and thaco bonus that helps a lot. Its my best bet if you want to solo and play by the book.
For your Belhifet question:
For a character able to defeat Belhifet LoB without stacking Heroism potions, my best guess would be a single class Druid or a Fighter/Druid so you can chain a pretty RNG Magic Resistance + Harm combo but the crusader camp is going to be tough.
A Cleric/Mage or Fighter/Mage/Cleric ''might'' also be able to do it if dual wielding Martyr's Morning Star as it can also buff itself with Champion Strength scrolls and use Enchanted weapon at the same time, not sure if it's better than simply going Single Weapon Style and fishing for crits however. Ideally you would want to fight Belhifet in a corner to reduce the amount of demons around you. You will also want to stack as much AC as possible as the DPS you receive during this fight is insane so i'm not sure if any direct approach without HP buff is possible at all. I still have my F/I save for Belhifet so i might try this approach with him eventually.
Another options which is even more reliant on RNG and perfect execution would be on a Mage/Thief which is something that i only managed to achieve once on Insane due to the scripted Improved Invisibility of Belhifet which is a nightmare (in 2.5, might be easier or even harder on 2.6): 2-3x Lower Resistance on Belhifet, then Greater Malison to reduce his saves, Detect Illusion to dispel his Improved Invincibility then you sometime have a very short window to fish for a lucky Wand of Polymorphing hit. If he barely survive it (as i remember, he does), finish him with Fireshield Blue + Otiluke. One thing i didn't try is if the period where you dispel Belhifet's invisibility is longer if you're not completely immune to fire, as casting fire spells ''might'' give you additional time.
A Blade can abuse the level 1 with 1hp exploit using Martyr's Morningstar which Histamiini did and it completely crush it. You can read about his pretty insane Mindflayer Blade playthrough to see more details about it.
Still, LoB + insane SCS + Ascension is so unfair overall that a form of cheese is going to be needed eventually no matter what so you might want to make a fairly big list of rules for this. The Cataclysm challenge on page 1 was mostly made with this idea as the cheese strats were becoming too efficient even for a difficult challenge like this, well for the right classes at least. I did a few more short segmented runs with a gnome F/I and that character just doesn't care if you don't self-impose some rules, it ends up having an approach to crush everything with ease.
Good luck!