The coalition camp invasion goes cleanly. I once again give Corwin a Protection from Magic scroll, use nearly every consumable buff I've got, and equip some Arrows of Detonation. Dynaheir and Voghiln deploy some Skull Traps for the first two waves, but due to me mishandling the third wave prep, I don't have a chance to cover the field with Webs before dealing with the clerics and paladins.
Thank goodness for Corwin. SoD enemies don't crumple from just one fireball, but taking 6d6 fire damage and over 10 missile damage four times per round is not something any SoD mob can handle.
It's a good thing, too. Let those clerics push past you and reach the barrels to the south, and it's an instant game over.
The last phase of the invasion is a little tougher than normal. Corwin tries to bomb them alone and does big damage, but two of the melee bosses apparently are hasted, and she can't stay out of reach and fire off arrows safely once they close in on her. We bring the party up north to burn down Grimgor and chop up the fighters.
I proceed to the siege of Dragonspear without resting, since I don't often find it necessary to rest and it feels appropriate to move forward quickly.
Soloing Ashatiel in her duel is a lot easier to deal with than the army you have to fight otherwise, but she requires some prep to handle safely. For one thing, she ends the duel instantly if you're invisible, so stealthy shenanigans are not an option for us. Her melee attacks and spells are both scary, so we buff Moth Sibula with a Protection from Magic scroll and a Potion of Absorption among other defenses. She can only harm us by landing a critical hit.
Which, of course, she does.
But spamming Potions of Firebreath pushes her to cast Sanctuary to heal, and one she focuses on healing, we can keep using Potions of Firebreath to burn her down safely.
Now we have to deal with Avernus. Lots of enemies in Avernus use Hold Person and charm spells, so proper buffs are important, but a party like ours with solid damage output can handle it as long as we don't get overconfident.
Normally, I do Thrix's riddle for a free item and to avoid a fight, but since this is a party run, I decide that another batch of enemies is safer than the risk of clicking the wrong dialog option and instantly losing the game.
Here is our party at the endgame, ranging from levels 8 to 11. Fully buffed and stuffed with more expendables than we could ever use in the final battle.
There's only one small hiccup: I accidentally have Moth Sibula use a cursed green scroll instead of a real one. She gets an Intelligence penalty, her Wisdom is set to 3 (which it already is!), and she gets a -2 penalty to luck. Not great, but thankfully she's not our main damage dealer.
Voghiln approaches Belhifet, buffed with a Spell Immunity: Abjuration, cast via scroll, to shrug off Belhifet's opening Dispel Magic. Caelar fights on our side as always, and Dynaheir has plenty of Greater Restoration scrolls to heal her or anyone else. A Cornugon fires off a Lightning Bolt we're not well-defended against as Corwin lands the first hit against the final boss.
Even with Belhifet's absurd 50% resistance to missile damage, Corwin still hits very hard with the Voidstone Arrows. And since we buffed both her and Minsc with a few Champion's Strength scrolls stacked up, their THAC0 is very deeply in the negatives.
We're buffed against Belhifet's fire. We're buffed against his poison attack. We're buffed against Hold Person and charm. And everyone in the party has rock-solid stats and a deep well of healing options. Belhifet is a very sturdy critter, but with all of our prep work, we can deal solid damage and still hold up our defenses.
The devil goes down.
I make sure we have all transferable items in Moth Sibula's inventory before saving the game and proceeding to the credits. We import to BG2, correct Moth Sibula's kit in EEKeeper since my BG1 and BG2 games are different installs, and the game begins anew in Chateau Irenicus.
SoD is ours! But I'm a lot more apprehensive about BG2 than I used to be. I've lost more than one no-reload run to Shadows of Amn, despite SoA being my historical specialty. SCS is more clever than it was in my heyday, and even Kalah is a real threat if you don't take him seriously.
I'm pondering Korgan as a safe option for a party run, since his rage will pave the way through the midgame and his ability to use Soul Reaver will make him a key dragonslayer in ToB. But I'm sketchy about doing his quest too early, as I'm wary of the level drain deeper in the Athkatla graveyard.
I'll also need either Cernd or Jaheira, since I want Fire Seeds for Moth Sibula and her Shatter Spell ability--unless, of course, Shatter Spell doesn't work as well as I think it will. But Jaheira's quest is long and messy and very dangerous, and Cernd will lag behind in ToB since Energy Blades is now an innate ability instead of a level 7 spell, making his level 7 spell slots far less useful.
BG2 has tough decisions. Here's hoping we make some good ones.
Bad news everyone - Melicamp didn't make it. Despite our genuine efforts we're still robbed of the 2000 exp and reputation. To compensate for that, we at least paid a visit to Shoal.
Hitting level 5 means immunity to Sleep (spell). And that means FAI and Tarnesh, especially since we can pair the Sleep immunity with Shield and Resist Fear (via Sorsha's personal item).
We relieve Jaheira of her PoI and check in with Landrin to confirm that her spider issue has been duly resolved.
Sorsha then buys couple of Genius potions from the Temple of Wisdom and continues north to the ankegh lair. At the relatively high cost of 5 Wand of Sleep charges and 4 Wand of Lightning charges, we're able to carve our way towards the treasure mound and retrieve Brun's son's body via Strength spell.
With Ghost Armor and Dire Charm finalizing our collection of readily accessible L1-L3 spell scrolls (including those from High Hedge and the Feldepost's Inn), Sorsha quaffs one Potion of Genius and successfully completes her second scribing session of the run. Afterwards, we stop over at Ulgoth's Beard to buy Aule's Staff (yay!) and the Cloak of Displacement.
Speaking of Aule's, I forgot to mention that Sorsha's third proficiency pip at level 4 went into two-handed weapon style with its speed factor boost. My other characters would typically opt for darts, if able, however Sorsha is not expected to become a dart thrower anytime soon, partly also due to concerns regarding our inventory capacity once we reach Amn (and I believe that the only available Ammo Belt in my current version of the game sits inside the Watchers' Keep). Our fourth pip will go to axes in preparation for early SoA.
Over to Mutamin's gardens. Korax steals the entire show here and we owe him for that.
Thanks to the XP bonanza, Sorsha's able to reach level 7 and L3 spells. Still hungry for more, she travels further east to the Durlag's Tower. First, the battle horrors - we open with a slightly pathetic Skull Trap.
Magic Missiles.
Wand of Lightning.
Strength + MIs + chainmail + Aule's with 0 speed factor.
Wand of Magic Missiles for the finish.
We rest, enter the tower and kite the ghasts at the second floor with our bow, using the two staircases to keep our distance.
Sorsha then uses MSD to foil the traps at the altar and in the corridor leading to the rooftop.
She prepares with Strength + ProPetrification (spell) and tackles the lesser basilisk in melee with Aule while wearing her chainmail.
For the greater basilisks, we had to keep our distance due to their strong melee attacks and on-hit poison. Also, I'm not confident using spells with > 1 casting speed when attacked by their gaze (including for example Blindness at casting speed 2), so Sorsha first tried her hand with couple of Chromatic Orbs. Without success.
Time for some Wand of Fire scorchers.
The second basilisk gets Sorsha to level 8 at 70k XP. She rests, buffs with ProPetrification (spell) and ProFire (spell) and lures the third basilisks into the proximity of the fireball trap...
Chromatic Orb stun + bow to get the kill. We're lucky enough to get the Dispel Magic scroll as a drop (even though Remove Magic would be even more appreciated).
The session is finished by shooting down Meilum at range for his gloves. With that, our core equipment is starting to look promising, although we still got our eyes fixed on various other goodies that we cannot yet afford (most notably Necklace of Missiles, Greenstone Amulet and the bard's special - Greagan's Harp/Captive Audience). We're off to earn some money in the south.
When evaluating our current goals and priorities, Sorsha's stance was clear:
Ok, let's see - there's this bounty that Oublek told us about back in Nashkel, so why not give it a shot. We located Prism just in time before Greywolf's arrival to the scene. And I botched it. I must have messed up the dialogue options (I vaguely recall there might be a slight change in the scripting since some of the more recent version of the game) and Greywolf did not attack at once. He remained blue-circled and we're like fine, at least we can take a look at the potions you've got in your pockets before we engage.
That didn't work. It worked even worse for Prism. Our emergency Chromatic Orb failed to stun Greywolf as well as to turn him hostile before he chunked the poor artist in a single hit.
We sent him running away with a stick, but that's really all we could do. After the failed Anitchickenator, this is the second real tragedy of our run.
Sorsha needed to cheer up a bit, so we took a nice long hike into the mountains. There we've met with Vax and Zal.
They didn't seem to like each other that much.
Also, unlike his now-dead partner, Vax seems to have a xvart problem.
Alas, walking in the mountains always raises one's spirits. And, more often than not, it's better to be there with friends. Right, Sendai?
Thank you for having us.
We'll be on our way.
First, there had been Cain and Abel. Next, there were Caldo and Krumm.
Krumm, having sinned with fratricide, was thrown to the wolfs. It's not precisely a story of biblical proportions, but at least there is a lesson learned - never wear Girdle of Bluntness instead of Girdle of Piercing against an enemy with piercing attacks. No-reloaders know that. Krumm did not. Krumm is dead.
You're welcome Mrs Dryad.
At last, we ran into opponents that at least tried to work together. Hairtooth and Gnarl also died together.
That's it - we're finally in the money. Our shopping list included Necklace of Missiles and Shield Amulet from the Nashkel carnival, 3x Potion of Master Thievery from Durlag's Tower and acid arrows, Greenstone Amulet, Greagan's Harp and L4 scrolls from Ulgoth's Beard. It's not exactly shopping, but we also got our hands on the Ring of Free Action from Dushai, while Hurgan Stoneblade released a diamond and Potion of Fire Giant Strength.
With that, Sorsha was more than ready for the mines.
So, I’ve realized my problem is after completing BG1, which even on insane I can pretty much do with my eyes closed, solo or with a party, I tend to get sloppy in BG2 with the same settings.
I’ve just imported to SoD, which I’m really not familiar with. I’m taking it real slow.
My current group (playing with more than one right now), is to a halfling bounty hunter protagonist (I figure it’s a good idea to have a back line character as your main in a game like this, and I absolutely adore the special traps), and his childhood friends who joined up to help escort him on his trip with Gorion, a human berserker (who’s been studying magical books lately), and a dwarven defender. I’ve played berserker > mages before and I’ve never seen a powerhouse like that, and I tried a dwarven defender in my minimum stat challenge and I think one with optimized stats will really shine.
In BG1, I had the help of Branwen, Edwin (but he left when I accidentally got too high a reputation), Garrick (he replaced Edwin), and Coran.
I’ve just started SoD, and I know I want Edwin and Viconia to help me out, and I’m thinking about trying that goblin shaman character, because I keep reading cool things. I’m not completely sold, because I’ll be short on fighters (with the berserker being a mage for the majority of the game) in this party, which I understand are a huge help in SoD.
When (if) I make it to BG2, Edwin will join when I get my stronghold, and I plan on adding Anomen and maybe Jahiera for the last spot, but I’m not sold on her entry yet.
Bruce duly got his final BGEE level by slicing a spider in half in the Nashkel Mine.
Mulahey was shot down without giving him an opportunity to talk.
Outside the mine the amazons were attacked individually. Bruce failed his initial spell save against Lamalha's final attempt to hold him, but the War Hulk's last ditch defenses kicked in a few rounds later to allow him to shrug off the spell (his save vs death was 4, so had a 10% chance of success with the saving throw vs death being at -15).
While in the area, he cleared the tombs, sliced up a couple of mustard jellies and killed Narcillicus with a single thrown dagger.
Back in Nashkel I was careful to avoid Nimbul's horror, but didn't try too hard to avoid a magic missile. The damage itself was no problem, but the ensuing rage was costly to reputation.
I had been thinking anyway though that perhaps I should be seeking LMD for the next Bhaal power - that was duly obtained and put to good use against Tranzig to disrupt his opening spell (though he would have died anyway to the follow-up critical hit).
At the Bandit Camp, Taurgosz can be hard to hit for many characters - but not for a War Hulk.
Bruce gladly took his full plate as an armor upgrade. Nipping in and out of Tazok's tent split up the opposition for easier disposal.
On the way to the Cloakwood, Bruce stopped off at the FAI to hand in some goods to Landrin and collect the pantaloons. The only fighting going through the Cloakwood was to ensure the guardians of the web traps in the second area were not alive to take advantage if Bruce got stuck.
At the mine, Genthore was annoyed by a thrown dagger and followed Bruce seeking revenge - but didn't get it. It involved lots of resting, but Bhaal horror eventually allowed Bruce to set Kysus and Rezdan up to be daggered.
Bruce then tracked down Drasus - once he was alone, Bruce was always going to win a melee contest.
Working through the mine was no problem, but Bruce took a bit of damage from traps and battle horrors on the bottom level. That prompted him to rest to start at full HPs in case of trouble with Davaeorn. A potion of magic blocking fended off attempts to charm and hold him and he just ran out of sight of some monsters being summoned - Davaeorn foolishly following him round a corner.
Bruce rested to get a second Bhaal horror before flooding the mine.
@semiticgoddess Congrats on making it to SoA already! @jmerry Welcome to what is propably the most specific type of challenge yet attempted here
The Avatars (Enuhal's version) - Update XXV
Time for loose ends - the part of the game where we do everything we left alone in Chapter 3 before moving on to the elven city. I didn't take any risks with the shade lich + elemental lich, using Alesia's traps to instantly take them out. I also travelled to the graveyard, equipping charm protection items before activating sunrays to take down the ambushing vampires:
I decided to clear the upper level of Bodhi's lair at this point as well, with Grond0, who is now also a mace specialist, using an improved-hasted iMoD +2 with great success:
We got pretty swarmed with vampires in Drizzt's room, but were able to clear them out with the help of a deva, energy blades and Corey using his silver sword to cut off additional undead reinforcements from the east - though Alesia got level drained one or two times in the process:
Tanova had no SI:A and got dispelled and destroyed:
Our deva took out the guardian vampire, and we looted the gloves before leaving for now. I also hadn't talked to the shadow thieves or paladins yet, so we needed a) more allies and b) some cold protection spells for this version of Bodhi.
My first big battle was against the Guarded Compound crew. We have HLA-capable enemies here, but we got very lucky on our invisible approach: Enuhal's initial energy blades attack on Sion crit, which, together with Grim Face's energy blade, dealt enough damage to kill Sion outright before his buffs went up:
Alesia disarmed the traps before our party dared move into the room. However, with Sion dead, the cleanup was rather easy:
Using our underdark mind flayer experience, we moved on towards the sewers and the alhoon. We sent in a buffed deva while waiting for mind flayers to teleport to us - some of them did, though Grond0 once again nearly got int-drained to death - he had to drink a potion of genius to be able to safely engage again:
The alhoon of all enemies to encounter at this point was lacking SI:A. We had to dispel him twice because he was able to cast absolute immunity after the initial dispel, but the deva kept him at his position and so we had no trouble moving in and out with our fighters:
Back to Bodhi, now with cold protection spells added to our usual buffs. We still forgot SI:C, though. Once again, a deva did a great job keeping Bodhi busy while we took out the various grimwarders and vampires around here:
It took true sight and a well-placed inquisitor dispel until Grond0 was able to take down the two spellcasting vampires:
Bodhi herself will heal to full again on insane once it seems like she's dead - however, that didn't help her, she was near death again soon enough, and this time, she didn't get any scripted healing:
Moving on to Kangaxx, I used the same strategy I always use in SCS runs. Trap his lich form, triple sun ray immediately when he transforms - this time, only one ray was needed:
When moving to the temple ruins for the shadow dragon battle, I encountered an unexpected githyanki ambush, due to carrying the silver sword. With no buffs and no invisible travelling, this was actually a bit dangerous as Grim Face spawned near to our foes without any protections - but we all got out alive in the end with some quick HLA use:
Now, to face the shadow dragon. We prepared with some additional protection from level drain spells and spread out around the dragon. Alesia opened combat with a spike trap, which turned the dragon hostile:
In the end, this fight didn't prove much of a challenge - the dragon never dispelled us, and it was easy enough to breach the only protection he activated:
Firkraag put up more of a fight. He was able to dispel our fighters, as should be expected. They both immediately drank fire protection potions and started activating their HLAs - Grond0 is already a great tank with Hardiness, resisting a large percentage of all physical damage:
We had to ruby ray + breach the dragon, but only once. He didn't got for a breath weapon attempt, and eventually GWWs and improved hasted attacks did the job:
Corey is happy to pick up Carsomyr, and we move back to the city, doing some limited wish casting for the gong quest and golem encounter before challenging the Twisted Rune. Traps for the lich, an aggressive approach towards the beholder, with the fighter kept busy by an elemental prince and the vampire by a deva:
However, the beholder was able to throw up a well-protected absolute immunity, so we killed the vampire and fighter first. Our dispelling efforts were focused on Layene instead, and we were able to in get through her buffs before she was able to timestop. Corey lost his buffs in the assault, though, but we were able to take down the wizard in the end:
While assaulting Vaxall, Corey got dispelled as well, but the beholder was unable to actually deal damage to both warriors before his AI ran out and he died:
We moved on through the new forest areas, using a quick backstab for the north forest party:
Same for the wyvern cultist mage in the Forest of Tethyr:
There was one more thing to do before entering the elven city: The statues in WKI and the entirety of WKII. The first set of statues was easy enough to take out - the second one includes two high level wizards. One of them was able to dispel both fighters immediately - and Grim Face. I'm sure Grim Face had entropy shield active - maybe it ran out right at this moment? Seems hardly believable... well, in any case, very bad news for uns. Especially since, due to the saving throw penalty on symbol: stun, this meant Corey was vulnerable to the spell and got hit:
I did have a counter for that: Grim Face, though first protecting himself with a stoneskin, moved in to hit Corey with the staff of the magi, which dispelled the stun effect. Meanwhile, I decided on a whim to use Nature's Beatuy as an opener for Enuhal. This turned out to be crucial, because it affected the second wizard currently casting timestop:
As a result, when timestop was activated, the statue just stood around, doing nothing. In the meantime, the physical protections of both statues expired, turning this fight from potentially deadly due to the dispels into a relatively easy victory thanks to nature's beauty:
Which reminds me to use the spell way more.
Well, downstairs to level 2. Power attacks help to stun our first fire giants:
We rest after clearing the libraries, buffing with lightning protection for the air room:
The slime room is quickly dealt with, three of our characters are outright immune to poison anyway. Protection from cold for the ice room, and after some fire elemental luring, Grond0 once again went in for another fire giant kill:
Luckily, Alesia is in the level range where her traps deal additional fire damage, so we prepared 7 of those for the chromatic demon, starting combat once it moved into ice form and bringing it close to death already:
A few FoA attacks, wand of the heavens + two implosions finished the job:
After the Planar Sphere quest, I thought about Ayla's next move. The Unseeing Eye and Bodhi's Lair are best done with UAI. The Planar Prison is sketch and best done late. Where then should level 21 Ayla go?
The answer is obvious. It's in the title of this post, after all. But I'll confess that when I first pondered the issue I had completely forgotten about the Windspear Hills. That's how rusty I am. It's a credit to Ayla that she's suffered me this long.
With the decision made, Ayla marched off to the hills, with me in tow. She is by now in the market for a new operator, however. I'm pretty sure she's jealous of Sorsha. Alas, she'll have to struggle along with me.
Against Plath Rededge, Ayla went RoAC II->buff->Ras->Backstab. This worked nicely. Ras has basically obsoleted the berserker horn but Ayla continues to carry the horn around, at least for now.
Speaking of the berserker horn, can I tell you how disappointed I was with the Bronze Horn upgrade? Ayla may be a guild mistress, but Maheer is the master thief. Total ripoff.
Anyways, Ayla proceeded into Firkraag's Pleasure Palace. Here I was reminded of the most absurd death a character of mine has ever suffered. Long, long ago, back when I wasn't rusty, I attempted a blind solo no reload of Improved Anvil. It went surprisingly well. My character, Alena, an F/M/C, crushed everything in her path, cruising into HLA land and beyond. By the time Alena entered the Pleasure Palace, she was an epic hero indeed. If the Improved Anvil world used an XP cap, Alena would have already hit it. She was at 9 million and change, fully equipped with many of IA's unique items. She was the most powerful character I have ever controlled by far.
After dominating 9 million XP of ludicrously souped up foes, Alena finally met her end in the Pleasure Palace. To who, you ask? A random spawn of vanilla hobgoblins, in the opening cave. A hobgoblin shaman cast Hold Person. Since the threat seemed comical, I didn't take it seriously, lazily chucking a sling bullet to interrupt instead of bringing a counter into play. Alena, a half elf, failed her save. And that was it: Run over- a reminder that even the most powerful characters can fall in the simplest encounters. Sloppiness kills, no matter who you are. It should come as no surprise then that Ayla took down her hobgoblin shaman quick, with Arbane at the ready. Rusty though I may be, she refuses to go out like Alena.
Ayla's early encounters in the palace went smoothly. Things didn't get interesting until she encountered the undead. I usually don't use pro undead in SoA, although I make exceptions for some characters against the Shade Lord and against Firkraag's vampires. Ayla, who doesn't have NPP and can't use Azuredge, atm, qualifies for an exception. Nonetheless, I was inclined to have her slink passed, foregoing the XP, until I saw this: the undead were blocking the way to the chapel key.
For want of a better option, Ayla reached into her scroll case and pulled out a pro undead scroll. The vampires responded by vanishing, a behavior I hadn't seen before. After an attempt at revealing them with Detect Illusions, Ayla summoned Ras to see if they were, in fact, still in the house. Indeed they were.
Finishing them proved tricky, however, even under pro undead. They're fast; they're agile; they use their summons well. They weren't easy kills for Ayla, even if their attacks via summons were meager. David has done a nice job of countering pro undead.
And so began a long and arduous process of clearing the palace of vampires. Since they had spread all over, letting them be wasn't an option. They had to be exterminated. But how? Not with pro undead- that made killing them harder for Ayla. The answer, in the end, was, unsurprisingly, backstabs, traps, and Mr. Efreeti. Opening backstabs got the party started; Traps brought the vamps to badly injured and ushered in bat form; Mr. Efreeti then finished the evasive bats with his targeted spells or, in the alternative, lured out a human form for a backstab. It was a winning formula, albeit difficult to execute- especially when the repawns got involved. Respawns give Ayla grief. The only real threat here was level drain->Domination. Ayla's save v spells is -5 but it swings to +2 when she's level drained. Ayla watched her aura and kept potions of clarity at the ready, in light of that risk.
Once the vampires were gone, the path to the Guardian was clear. Backstab under protection from fire plus potion of fire resistance.
Onto Kaol and the Gang. Starting with this fight I began to feel seriously bad for Ayla. I enjoyed my partial run with Alora back in 2011, and have long planned to build a Halfling unkitted thief for my stable of core characters. Ayla is a worthy holder of that portfolio. Sadly, her run has been underwhelming, on account of my rustiness and the role I've intended her to play. My purpose here is to see a sizable swath of the adventure, to help me re-familiarize myself with the game. In service of that goal, I've gone with a low difficulty setting, Tactical, and allowed Ayla tactics that I typically wouldn't. And so while Ayla is a fine thief, she has the distinction, among my characters, of being the cheesiest fighter in the easiest install. That's regrettable. Ayla deserves better. My intention is to continue as I have, to let Ayla serve her purpose. Maybe someday in the not too distant future I'll give her a chance at a more fitting run. In the interim, she's going to keep munchkining her way through Amn.
Kaol fell to the now de rigueur opening backstab.
The rest of the gang were picked off with backstabs, one by one.
There were some complications, however. Samia cheekily opened the door to the Director, and hung out there with Chak, complicating Ayla's backstab attempts. More importantly, Ferric Ironblade, with his impressive potion stack, proved a worthy foe in the shadows. Apparently it does indeed take a thief to catch a thief- a thief or a troll, if Ayla is any indication. Here we see Ayla retreating after a Ferric backstabs forced her to quaff a PoI. Note Samia and Chak near the Director.
After healing, Ayla lured Chak away, followed by Samia.
This led to a duel with Ferric. Ferric, who has fighter levels, quaffed a potion of cloud giant strength in addition to an oil of speed, giving him the advantage in melee. Ayla's path to an economical victory was to dupe him into a ranged fight, where the Claw of the Kazgaroth + Cloak of Displacement would give her the advantage. Victory. Celebrate good times.
Onto the greater cheese dogs. Two of the three greater cheese dogs were chunkstabbed.
Care to guess where the third went? Who's a clever little puppy-wuppy? Yes! You are! You're such a clever puppy-wuppy!
The golems were killed with fade and thwack tactics, while Firkraag's orcs looked on.
It's good to see Tazok looking all fleshy and familiar. I approve of this EE modification.
Ayla wasn't quite as pleased. After all, he didn't look the way that she remembered. There: that's better.
Chief DigDag fell to Belm, with Ayla's + 1 buckler in the off-hand. That combo will get an upgrade soon, now that UAI isn't far.
As for Conster...Conster was killed by ruthlessly meta-gamey trap placement. I felt guilty when the traps fired. You deserve better, Ayla. I know you could have taken him down in a fair fight. I'll make it up to you someday!
Uninterested in fighting the kobold hordes, Sorsha traveresd through the Nashkel mines under Invisibility until reaching Mulahey's hideout. She prepared for the battle with green ProUndead scroll, Resist Fear (via item), Shield Amulet, Strength, ProEvil, MIs and Greenstone Amulet (to eliminate any residual enchanment school risks on top of our Ring of Free Action) and introduced herself by swinging Aule's at close range.
The fight was on. After crying out "Help, my minions! Help!" Mulahey started a necromancy incantation, indicating Unholy Blight. Sorsha quickly countered with Spook (casting time 1 and carrying a hefty -4 save penalty).
With Mulahey on the run and the kobolds closing in, Sorsha dropped a Stinking Cloud centered at the narrow corridor.
A streak of poor to-hit rolls meant that we're unable to clear any of the kobolds in melee, while the Spook duration of Mulahey was running out. It was time to test our harp (Greagan's).
Good. We check Mulahey's spellbook to confirm there's nothing dangerous left. Our plan was to walk him into the Stinking Cloud hoping that he'd fail his save. And since he's not running ProUndead, he'd become an easy target for his own skeletal minions that are immue to it. But first, we had to carve our way through the kobold frontline.
Mulahey not only he made his saves, but it also became apparent that those skeletons are simply not going to attack their master no matter what. Disappointed as I was with the outcome, I have to admire the SCS scripting here for realism. Very cool. With the Stinking Cloud gone, we decided to blast the archers with Skull Trap to make some space.
Aule's for the remainder of the kobold entourage.
We're at stalemate. Mulahey's skeletons, although harmless to us, clinged to him like bodyguards. His HP were full. Our MIs were gone. And then it occurred to us - after all, we're not here to kill. We're here to investigate. Let's see what we can find out.
Some holy symbol, interesting.
What else? A ring? Nice, but that doesn’t really take us anywhere.
There must be something else!
Nah, this is pointless! Whit that, Sorsha equips Girdle of Bluntness and smacks Mulahey on the head with her staff at which point he turns hostile again. To maximize our speed factor and range advantage, we start running around the cave, trying to land one hit after another every single round. With his skeletons trailing him at every step, it almost felt like some chase-scene from Scooby Doo.
Eventually, by trying hard to protect their master with their very selves at all costs, the skeletons lock him in a corner. Mulahey screams in frustration, knowing that Sorsha's extra range will have the upper hand here, but none of them moves to release him from the deadly prison. Well, that's the pitfalls of necromancy I suppose.
That was fun! Taking advantage of our ProUndead, we also cleared the tombs at the surface and are on our way back to Nashkel.
@Enuhal Excellent work so far in SoA. Jon-Jon's day are numbered, I'm sure.
@Borco I love the way you're playing Sorsha. You and her seem to be a match!
Btw, I like the use of pro undead in the Mulahey fight. I often use a pro undead scroll shortly after for the tombs. It makes sense to read it before Mulahey instead.
Ayla, Halfling Thief: Bodhi's Lair (Or The Monster Mash)
Ayla's jaunt through Bodhi's Lair was a chunkstabbing good time. The initial encounters had to be handled with care, since Ayla was just shy of UAI, but once that first HLA kicked in, Ayla, emboldened by the AoP, took on all comers and prevailed.
Seeking XP, Ayla smushed as many spiders as she could en route to Bodhi's Lair.
Alas, they were not enough. In retrospect, nixing the Crypt King would have been the right call here. Instead Ayla headed into the lair, knowing that Gellal and the clay golem would get her over the top.There's Gellal.
And there's the clay golem. Sorry, Miss Fledgling Vampire, we'll continue this later. I have to pick up an amulet and a few other things.
See, Miss Fledgling Vampire, I promised you I'd be back. Wasn't that fun?
Let the chunkstab party begin. Time for a graveyard smash, a monster mash, if you will.
Wa-ooh!
Wa-ooh!
Wa-Wa-ooh!
And even one for you, Tanova, stoneskinned though you may be.
Yeah. This was a cake-walk, with Tanova's roll against the MoD making it all the easier. Let's just fast forward to Bodhi, shall we?
Since I wasn't sure what to expect from Bodhi Uno in this edition of SCS, I over buffed for this. Ayla took her renewables, along with potion of absorption, potion of invulnerability, oil of speed, potion of stone giant strength, potion of cold resistance and protection from cold. She also used a MI scroll, due to a buffing order error. She wore the Girdle of Bluntness but skipped unenchanted splint. As for weaponry, she went with the Scarlet Ninja To in the main and the Shield of Harmony in the off. For funsies she cast over her ninja to with a Phantom Blade. Let's do this.
Enjoy those traps first, Bodhi.
Damage didn't come until the end, when a fading Bodhi went with Touch of Death. Ayla could have switched over to the BoIB at this stage of the battle, but it hardly seemed necessary.
I don't have a screenshot of Bodhi's dialogue, but suffice to say, Ayla prevailed. Until next time, Bodhilicious!
There's a first for everything, right? The Unseeing Eye quest saw many firsts for Ayla. First time using a Spike Trap. First time using a Time Trap. First time dual wielding with the Scarlet Ninja To. First time facing a beholder. First time murdering a god. Unfortunately I didn't take many screenshots in this session so this post, like a reward from Nalia, will be thin.
Before checking in on the cult, Ayla took care of some unfinished business, like the Crypt King.
And the Cloak of the Sewers rhaksha. Ayla wishes she could wear Jan's armor, like in the good old days, but she may kick down for Easthaven, angling for some rat form fun.
Remember what I said about this post being thin? Right. Well, that starts now. Fast forward to the underground temple. Here we see Ayla, victorious over her first batch of beholders. How did she do it? That's anyone's guess because I didn't take notes or screenshots. As I recall, Ayla started the fight holding the Shield of Balduran and wearing the BoIB, with Mr. Efreeti by her side. The Shield stayed in her hand for a round or two, doing significant damage. Mr Efreeti lobbed a couple fireballs before he was nixed. Ayla finished the remaining beholders with her Wand of the Heavens and Everard. Don't quote me on any of that, though. As I said, I didn't take notes or snap any pics during the fight. We're doing this Nalia style, remember?
Fast forward again, now to the Unseeing Eye. For the record, this fast forward skips little, since Ayla stealthed by the undead and the majority of the beholder lair.
Anyhoo, here we are, in the Unseeing Eye's lair. Ayla's approach here was DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!
Ayla heard a rumor that if you kill the Unseeing Eye too fast you skip a couple death tyrants. She liked the sound of that so she killed him instantly. Time Trap-> Rift Device->Snares + Spike Trap. That'll fix him, right?
Indeed it did. Ayla looks forward to more black and white action. It's classic.
Finally, Gaul and his not so elite guard. They got the Cuisinart, via the Scarlet Ninja To and Belm. It slices.
It dices.
It purees.
And that, my gentle friends, is coverage of the Unseeing Eye quest, Nally-Nalia style. Ayla's next post will be better. I promise. You've worked hard. You deserve it.
Best,
A.
Btw, a quick note on capitalization in my posts. I've gone through a number of changes over the years in respect to what I capitalize. I used to capitalize most, if not all, game items and abilities. Recently I've been taking inspiration from real life. A unique item is capitalized. A non unique item is not. A potion is a mixed beverage, so it is not capitalized, like frozen margarita. A spell is a written work, hence it is capitalized, like Liquid Sky. Halfling is a race, so it is capitalized, as per current academic norms. I've been moderately satisfied with that, but I did recently find a post that answers my long standing questions about capitalization norms in DnD. I'm going to go with this approach in future posts, assuming italicizing things doesn't become a hassle. Of course this isn't important, and everyone should take what ever approach they like. I'm just sharing so that people will understand what motivated the change in my posting norms.
Ayla, Halfling Thief: Athkatla Clean-Up, Part 1 (Or Liches Gots to Learn)
Seeking additional XP and gold before heading off to Spellhold, Ayla decided to get started on her Athkatla clean up. She took care of the easy stuff, the Shade and Elemental Liches, along with the Guarded Compound. Kangaxx will be done later. As for the Twisties, they may be left to their devices. We'll see. In any case, here's how part 1 went.
I do feel guilty about trapping Conster, but I think it makes perfect sense for a thief to trap the frack out of liches. I mean, doesn't this look sketchy as all get out?
If I were opening that coffin in really life I'd totally buff and use at least a days worth of traps. You may reply that you don't open coffins in real life. To that I say: to each their own.
Right. Well, the Shade Lich took a savage stack of traps, as all liches should. Smile for the camera, Ayla!
The Elemental Lich took a full stack, too. I believe it is the best practice to buff before the touch, in case something goes wrong. Against the Elemental Lich Ayla noticed a bug in the process. Ilbratha MI checks magic resistance. Surely it shouldn't.
Another lid lifted, another trap tripped. Liches gots to learn.
I'll tell you who has learned more than enough, thank you very much: Ketta et al. The Guarded Compound kids fought scary smart. They seemed astonishingly aware of their surroundings and did a masterful job of trapping Ayla. Ras saved the day, because that's what Ras does, but Ayla was in a pickle for a minute.
After taking her buffs downstairs, Ayla opened by chunk-stabbing Sion.
She then raced off to a side room, hoping to find shadows and a place to set traps. Ketta's crew wasn't having it. Koshi drank an oil of speed, frustrating Ayla's attempt to hit the shadows. The rest of the crew blocked the door and then encircled Ayla as she tried to slip by, now invisible via a potion of invisibility . Ayla was utterly trapped, and utterly in a jam. What to do? Ayla activated Ras. Ras drew her foes away. Ayla, still invisible, slipped out of her cage. Phew!
Studying her surroundings, Ayla noticed a trap door. She activated it and slipped through. That turned the tide. Ayla now had the space she needed. She set a stack of traps, including a time trap.
Assassination, under oil of speed with Belm in the off-hand, took out Koshi and Stalman.
Switching to the Scarlet Ninja To and Belm fixed the backstab immune Maferan.The other fighter guy died the same way, although he did get one attack in after time resumed. Ayla had the rounds because her time trap tripped twice, as they often do when there are multiple foes around.
Ketta, who had set off the time trap, along with Maferan, was killed by the conventional traps. Ayla recovered four potions of invisibility, netting two on the encounter. Acceptable, if less than ideal.
Spellhold is probably next? Idk. I need to eat dinner first. I'll decide after.
When we left off, my three arcanists had reached 5K experience each, though none of them had yet found any level 2 spell scrolls. And I'm rather thin on level 1 spells known, too. Time to kill some more monsters for random drops. I head back out to the roads south of Beregost, to actually clear them out this time.
There are hobgoblins around, and some of them drop scrolls. Color Spray - scribed. Arwen has a spell now. Second color spray - failed. Protection from Petrification - scribed by Saitama. Basilisk hunting is on the table now.
As I'm heading back to Beregost, with my daily spells nearly exhausted ...
... the ten-bandit ambush comes up. Saitama had a single LMD, and that was it. All I had left was tactics, dipping in and out of melee range to keep the archers from hitting too hard and to deliver melee hits with the +4 bonus. We take hits, but I have a pretty decent HP buffer at this point. All ten bandits fall, and none of the party die.
I forget to adjust my spell memorization after that, so no basilisks yet. Instead, I head southwest toward the gnoll fortress. First, the xvart village. They go down, and so do their bears. I skip Borda, though. He's a bit more dangerous than I want to face at this point. Instead, I just head west.
An ogre mage ambush? Screw that, I'm gone. It doesn't get around to casting a second spell after that Ghost Armor.
Take out a few enemies, including that polar bear, then head south to the fortress itself.
They're low level, like everything else in the area. Color Spray works on them. Not that I have any use for that gauntlet yet; all three of my characters have 18 Dex.
Now, the stash in the cave? That's very useful. In addition to the charisma tome, there are also a pair of level 1 spell scrolls, which I scribe successfully. Arwen has Magic Missile now, and Gabrielle has Burning Hands.
The gnolls are a bit more dangerous. Their weapons are slow, so I try to sneak in the occasional melee hit ...
Ouch. With a better damage roll, that could have been lethal. Lesson learned - stick to the ranged attacks, and have Gabrielle stick to singing and moving.
Many gnolls later, the chieftain goes down.
That took a lot of arrows, a lot of bullets, and a lot of running around. All combat spells have been spent, and all that leaves are sling and bow attacks. I try to have Gabrielle draw attention while the other two attack, but the standard AI loves to switch targets onto whoever's dealing damage. That means the two attackers have to spend a lot of time retreating, too.
Finally, the very last group of gnolls lands a hit on Saitama when I'm not quick enough retreating.
Ouch. Well, at least they're all down. And a few more scrolls can't hurt. Though they don't help either; scribing failed.
Dynaheir is rescued, earning us theoretical access to level 2 spells (we're over 8K XP each by now). If she ever rests, which she doesn't. I head back to Nashkel and drop her off with Minsc, then head to Beregost to rest. And this time, memorize some PfP spells.
With the new spells memorized, we head out to the east. Skip the big wolf pack for now, and head straight to the basilisk zone. Travel is uneventful, and we recruit Korax for the hunt itself.
Saitama stands back, while the two bards get PfP and go on the attack with Korax as their melee support. The first greater basilisk brings another round of levels (6 HP each). Which partially compensates for that one melee hit a lesser basilisk landed on Gabrielle.
As for Mutamin ...
He casts one spell (Mirror Image) and then gets paralyzed. Arwen hits him with a Magic Missile to thin the images, and he goes down quickly after that.
And then, the PfP expired.
That brings the hunt to an end; I finish off the basilisks in this encounter, then head back to town. There's still one or two basilisks on the map, in the east. I'll come back for them, and the map's other encounters, later.
I actually still had one PfP memorized; that was saved for the possible basilisk ambush. Which didn't come up, so I didn't spend it.
Back in civilization, I clear up a few things. Zhurlong. Karlat. Perdue. Tarnesh.
Magic Missile makes mages much more accessible. One missile for the images, normal attacks for the rest.
That clears the way inside, where I can get Jaheira's invisibility potion and return Landrin's stuff.
And then, for the session's last act, I take on that big wolf pack. Buy some more +1 ammo, then head out to the temple.
That doesn't mean taking them on all at once, of course. I pull them in small groups. A worg and two dread wolves. A lone dread wolf. A vampiric wolf.
That level-up rolls maximum HP for Saitama, while the bards get lousy rolls.
The pack isn't done yet, of course. There's a second vampiric wolf, and it comes out with a pair of worgs. I use my last offensive spell (Horror) to remove the worgs so I can focus on taking down the vampiric wolf.
I start the next session with high hopes, planning to take out some threats in town and then clear out more of the southwest.
First, Silke.
Two Magic Missiles and a LMD. The blitz of damage spells disrupts her Mirror Image, and one more hit suffices.
Next, it's Nashkel's turn.
Neira takes the same sort of spell barrage, and that frees up the inn for our use. Over to the carnival for Oopah:
Saitama lingered to cast Sleep - which had no chance of working anyway - and took a critical hit. 28 damage. Good thing I at least switched to melee. And that Oopah hits less hard than other ogres; he's not proficient in his weapon. A higher damage roll ((1d10+6)x2, actual roll (8+6)x2) would have ended the run. A normal ogre (additional +3x2 damage from weapon mastery) would have ended the run. Having the sling equipped (additional +4x2 damage from the melee/ranged modifier) would have ended the run. But I survive, and take down the rampaging ogre.
After some rest and healing, it's Zordral's turn. The initial spell barrage isn't quite fast enough to disrupt his mirror image, and he survives to the second spell. Go for another MM ...
Not fast enough. No Blade song active for fear protection. No saving throws made. There's nothing I can do but wait and hope. Three Melf's Acid Arrows. Five Larloch's Minor Drains. Targets ... basically random, since my party is wandering all over the tent. And while some of those spells target Saitama, most don't.
Instead, Gabrielle takes the brunt, and dies.
Zordral runs out of spells, and starts swinging his staff. He doesn't land any hits, and the Horror expires. We finish him off easily from there.
And that's it. I raise Gabrielle (800 gold), rest up to virtually full health, and end the session. Two close calls due to sloppiness is too many. But at least I survived.
Before hitting the big city, Bruce finished off a few reputation quests not completed earlier. At the ankheg nest he was hoping to get a one-shot kill and managed that against his final opponent. He waddled out of the place, with even his 23 strength feeling burdened under the weight of shells. After helping Charleston Nib, the Doomsayer did reasonably well to get a single hit in - but a lot more than that is required to inconvenience Bruce these days.
In the City a bit more reputation work pushed that up to 20. Bruce also picked up a couple of necklaces of missiles, to give him an alternative method of resolving disputes. That was soon put into action to get the Ring of Energy from the Red Wizards.
Cash was not a problem, but Bruce still couldn't resist hacking down Jardak to get his helm and Ragefast to get a nymph cloak - the combination pushing his charisma to 20 to get minimum shop prices.
Apart from shopping, Bruce still wanted to collect a few other items. The Helm & Cloak of Balduran, Ramazith's ring of protection and the tomes were duly obtained. In doing the poison quest to get the wisdom tome, I was tempted by the idea of a melee fight with Larze, but discretion got the better of me due to the possibility of killing innocents while enraged. Upstairs though, I did take a small risk with Marek. A thrown dagger hit and stunned him with a critical while he was casting lightning bolt and, rather than dodge that as originally intended, Bruce followed in to get the kill in melee. One oddity I don't really like about the game is that effects like paralyzation and hold don't interrupt spells - so the lightning spell completed as soon as the 1 round stun duration ended. However, Bruce was only hit once and able to ignore that damage. I typically deal with Degrodel's guards by dragging them outside, but decided this time to go for a much quicker option after protecting Bruce from fire. It seemed a shame not to make further use of the fire protection, so that tactic was adopted at the Iron Throne as well. I gave them a chance by just using Greenstone protection, so that magic damage (other than fire) would still work - but Bruce maintained his senses for a comfortable victory.
Back at Candlekeep, Bruce was careful with the phase spiders. Poison is another particular danger for War Hulks to beware of as the multiple ticks can easily result in rage - potentially preventing the possibility of curing the poison. He also took on Prat's gang - fireballs doing most of the damage there.
Before returning to Baldur's Gate, Bruce paid another visit to the Lake area to find Drizzt. Rather than nipping in and out, I just let Bruce fight in straight melee. Drizzt had a good go at him, but ultimately his defenses were not quite good enough.
Now it was time for the end game. Slythe was pulled away from Krystin and found wanting in a melee contest. The palace though was a much more daunting obstacle. Bruce's first Bhaal horror scared one of the dopplegangers, but it just switched from Liia to Belt within about half a second. By the time he could have used his second, Liia was about to die and Belt badly wounded. Instead of horror he tried a firebreath potion. That did decent damage and one more of those would potentially have won the battle - but Belt keeled over just as Bruce was about to try it.
The palace can be a real problem for many solo characters, but the situation is particularly bad for a war hulk, whose special abilities are not much use there. I suspect that abusing cloak charms would be needed to give a good chance of success.
Before entering the elven city, I went on an extensive shopping tour for some useful potions or scrolls that I might use in ToB. As I was visiting pretty much every area, I realized that I had forgotten to obtain my third pair of boots of speed, so I quickly killed Renal Bloodscalp:
Finally, time to go into Suldanesselar! Celestial Fury and FoA do a great job stunning and slowing the various golems, mostly tanked by Grond0 with hardiness:
The drow wizard, Raamilat, gets quick visit from Alesia and her staff of striking:
Our fighters keep their buffs until we enter Demin's house, where three rakshasa challenge us - one is killed before its buffs go up, another we dispel with secret words and breach, the third one we wait for his PFMW to run out - since they have cloudkill/deathfog, we do take some damage here:
However, the next big group of rakshasa is much easier to deal with, because they're outside and we have the room to move away and inquisitor dispel them, making for easy kills:
Finally, Grim Face goes on a solo mission, casting triple flaming cloud on the rakshasa group in front of the temple while protected by his own fire immunity:
Nizidramanii'yt is a dragon I usually don't prepare anything special for - he just doesn't seem to use his breath weapon very often. He also didn't cast PFMW, so I basically just had to hack through his large hp pool with HLAs and energy blades:
The party quickly pays a visit to the balor in front of the palace and summons the avatar after that. At the tree, we shamelessly trap Irenicus to death:
That's okay though - we're gonna have a real fight against him soon enough. Good-aligned choices for all the hell trials, we want to stay neutral for Balthazar persuasion purposes. A deva helps out our skeletons for the beholder room:
We add heroism and invulnerability to our buffs for slayer Jon. Two groups of spike traps get carefully placed to the lower left and lower right just in range of the soon-to-spawn balors, and we go after the glabrezus right away:
Maybe I should've split up my fighers more, as both of them lose their buffs right away. I don't want to take too much time rebuffing and drink potions of invulnerability right away, which are enough to keep them safe against any conventionally used spells or vorpal hits. Our wizards start casting ruby rays on the slayer, but he's able to activate timestop - and also renew spell deflection, but we have one more ruby ray queued anyway:
The slayer goes in full HLA mode, casting Comet on Grond0 (who has 0 fire resistance with no buffs), improved alacrity, summon dark planetar - with a few attacks on Grond0 inbetween, but they don't do much thanks to his physical damage resistances + hardiness. Luckily, comet only starts to move in after the end of the timestop and takes quite a while to arrive, so we just throw Grond0 our ring of fire control + ring of fire resistance and he moves away from the party, knowing the comet will be centered on him wherever he goes - meanwhile, the slayer loses his spell deflection again, leaving him only with GOI which doesn't help against our upcoming breach:
Carefully watching my buffs, especially the invulnerability potions on my fighters (required so they can't get vorpaled), I quickly took out the dark planetar:
The slayer did not renew any important physical protections, so we just had to attack with a few HLAs to finish the fight:
I'm sorry to report that Ayla has fallen to a scripted insta-death, one that I was completely unaware of. I could be mistaken, but this may be a first in the NR challenge's history. I, personally, can't recall an instance. If anyone else does let me know.
It happened outside of Spellhold. Upon arriving on the island, Ayla's inventory was completely full, no open slots. I set the Shield of Balduran down on the table in the Vulgar Monkey so I'd have a space to carry the wardstone. After opening the door to Spellhold, I heard the key use sound and thought I had no further need of the wardstone. I headed back to Brynnlaw to pick up Ayla's shield, knowing that a bag of holding was waiting for her. That proved to be a fatal mistake. If you cross the bridge without the wardstone, even in the reverse direction, after opening the door, you are petrified without a save. The screenshot below is not of the original event but, rather, of a subsequent test of the mechanic. Ayla died in that exact same way, just heading in the opposite direction.
Bummer! I was really looking forward to the rest of Ayla's adventure. Oh, well.
I'm not sure what's next for me BG wise, but I'll let you all know when I decide. Best wishes to all the active challengers!
@Alesia_BH : Ah, that's a bummer indeed... Such smooth sailing and then *boom* - a treacherous reef...
In any case, that was an exciting run to follow!
And yes, I know about that way to end your run (if I'm not mistaken Grond0 had the same experience). Personally, I'm always reluctant to throw away 'unnecessary junk' and it piles up in by bagpack (you never know when you might need it...).
I'm looking forward for your decision about what is next!
And yes, I know about that way to end your run (if I'm not mistaken Grond0 had the same experience). Personally, I'm always reluctant to throw away 'unnecessary junk' and it piles up in by bagpack (you never know when you might need it...).
Noted.
I just tried it again. The wardstone actually disappears when you open the door, so opening the door is a point of no return.
I had noticed that the door made the key opening sound, and that's what signaled to me that I no longer needed the wardstone. Its absence in the inventory likely reinforced that belief. Now I know though: don't go back, lol.
I just tried it again. The wardstone actually disappears when you open the door, so opening the door is a point of no return.
I had noticed that the door made the key opening sound, and that's what signaled to me that I no longer needed the wardstone. Its absence in the inventory likely reinforced that belief. Now I know though: don't go back, lol.
Actually, personally I've never entered Spellhold that way (using wardstone). Of course I make sure to get it/and Perth's experience (as an option and on 'completeness' grounds) but then have the Pirate King commit us.
@Alesia_BH Condolences for losing such a likable character in a bad way like that . I'm pretty sure this is not what @Enuhal had in mind when starting that most recent sub-topic in the Lounge, that we should share something new. Nevertheless, Ayla's run has been super enjoyable and insightful; I do hope she's fulfilled her purpose.
You must think it rather odd to dedicate an entire entry to the encounter with Nimbul. And I agree. At the same time, I feel like he's a little underrated and deserves slightly more credit for being a worthy opponent. After all, he's probably the first assassin hunting the Bhaalspawn of any relevance. His timing is perfect - you're just returning from the tiresome crawl through the Nashkel mines, longing for cooked food and a warm bed at the inn. Also, none of the previous assassins dared to strike openly in the streets, so the element of surprise is handled masterfuly.
He's a respectable combatant as well, especially with SCS. His Emotion: Hopelessness can strike down entire parties, his Chromatic Orb sequencers can end runs and he's running robust defenses (Shield, Stoneskin, MIs, MSD) that pair well with his Boots of Avoidance. Probably his only deficiency is the lack of Invisibility + backstab moves, as he seems to prefer to use the throwing axes instead of his short sword +1.
Taking advantage of meta-gaming knowledge (or shall we call it Bhaalspawn intuition?), Sorsha prepared with care - she buffed with Strength, Resist Fear (via item), Shield, MSD, MI and Greenstone Amulet and also called in a group of summons via Wand of Monster Summoning. Not fair, I know.
When the battle started, Nimbul fired off his buffs and Sorsha opened with an unsuccessful Glitterdust.
As expected, Nimbul countered with Emotion: Hopelessnes that removed the majority of our summons from the fray.
With not much to do in between melee attacks, Sorsha started working on his MSD with L1 spell scrolls.
Once both his Stoneskin and MSD were down, Nimbul pulled off the best trick I've ever seen from him. The crowds went totally crazy at that point!
Ok, I can now admit that the main reason for this Nimbul appreciation post was to show you how he'd cooked Rasaad. That monk's got a special place on our list of despised characters, if only because of those annoying unskipable conversations in Trademeet in SoA. I mean, how many times do I have to say that I don't want to hear about Selûne?! Oh wait, there's no such dialogue option there! Gosh, we can have a better conversation with Neeber!
Thank you, Nimbul, for being such a cool villain. Until next time!
@Alesia_BH sorry to see Ayla cut down in her prime. As Serg mentioned I think the same thing has happened to me in the past and I agree it's not a fair mechanic.
You did say that you wondered about doing a run with Ayla using a wider range of tactics - perhaps now's your chance . Alternatively you might want to see what you can do with the War Hulk. That's pretty capable in an unmodded installation, though I suspect you would find you'd need to put even greater reliance on Mr Efreeti if you wanted to get through SCS mage defenses in BG2EE ...
@Borco good to see you're still rocking. I agree that Rasaad needs to be taught a lesson or two in manners and he's clearly going to take a while at the local monastery to live down the ignominy of a sun soul monk dying to burning hands .
Comments
Part 4
The coalition camp invasion goes cleanly. I once again give Corwin a Protection from Magic scroll, use nearly every consumable buff I've got, and equip some Arrows of Detonation. Dynaheir and Voghiln deploy some Skull Traps for the first two waves, but due to me mishandling the third wave prep, I don't have a chance to cover the field with Webs before dealing with the clerics and paladins.
Thank goodness for Corwin. SoD enemies don't crumple from just one fireball, but taking 6d6 fire damage and over 10 missile damage four times per round is not something any SoD mob can handle.
The last phase of the invasion is a little tougher than normal. Corwin tries to bomb them alone and does big damage, but two of the melee bosses apparently are hasted, and she can't stay out of reach and fire off arrows safely once they close in on her. We bring the party up north to burn down Grimgor and chop up the fighters.
Soloing Ashatiel in her duel is a lot easier to deal with than the army you have to fight otherwise, but she requires some prep to handle safely. For one thing, she ends the duel instantly if you're invisible, so stealthy shenanigans are not an option for us. Her melee attacks and spells are both scary, so we buff Moth Sibula with a Protection from Magic scroll and a Potion of Absorption among other defenses. She can only harm us by landing a critical hit.
Which, of course, she does.
Now we have to deal with Avernus. Lots of enemies in Avernus use Hold Person and charm spells, so proper buffs are important, but a party like ours with solid damage output can handle it as long as we don't get overconfident.
Normally, I do Thrix's riddle for a free item and to avoid a fight, but since this is a party run, I decide that another batch of enemies is safer than the risk of clicking the wrong dialog option and instantly losing the game.
Here is our party at the endgame, ranging from levels 8 to 11. Fully buffed and stuffed with more expendables than we could ever use in the final battle.
Voghiln approaches Belhifet, buffed with a Spell Immunity: Abjuration, cast via scroll, to shrug off Belhifet's opening Dispel Magic. Caelar fights on our side as always, and Dynaheir has plenty of Greater Restoration scrolls to heal her or anyone else. A Cornugon fires off a Lightning Bolt we're not well-defended against as Corwin lands the first hit against the final boss.
We're buffed against Belhifet's fire. We're buffed against his poison attack. We're buffed against Hold Person and charm. And everyone in the party has rock-solid stats and a deep well of healing options. Belhifet is a very sturdy critter, but with all of our prep work, we can deal solid damage and still hold up our defenses.
The devil goes down.
SoD is ours! But I'm a lot more apprehensive about BG2 than I used to be. I've lost more than one no-reload run to Shadows of Amn, despite SoA being my historical specialty. SCS is more clever than it was in my heyday, and even Kalah is a real threat if you don't take him seriously.
I'm pondering Korgan as a safe option for a party run, since his rage will pave the way through the midgame and his ability to use Soul Reaver will make him a key dragonslayer in ToB. But I'm sketchy about doing his quest too early, as I'm wary of the level drain deeper in the Athkatla graveyard.
I'll also need either Cernd or Jaheira, since I want Fire Seeds for Moth Sibula and her Shatter Spell ability--unless, of course, Shatter Spell doesn't work as well as I think it will. But Jaheira's quest is long and messy and very dangerous, and Cernd will lag behind in ToB since Energy Blades is now an innate ability instead of a level 7 spell, making his level 7 spell slots far less useful.
BG2 has tough decisions. Here's hoping we make some good ones.
Previous posts: Introduction, 1
Bad news everyone - Melicamp didn't make it. Despite our genuine efforts we're still robbed of the 2000 exp and reputation. To compensate for that, we at least paid a visit to Shoal.
Hitting level 5 means immunity to Sleep (spell). And that means FAI and Tarnesh, especially since we can pair the Sleep immunity with Shield and Resist Fear (via Sorsha's personal item).
We relieve Jaheira of her PoI and check in with Landrin to confirm that her spider issue has been duly resolved.
Sorsha then buys couple of Genius potions from the Temple of Wisdom and continues north to the ankegh lair. At the relatively high cost of 5 Wand of Sleep charges and 4 Wand of Lightning charges, we're able to carve our way towards the treasure mound and retrieve Brun's son's body via Strength spell.
With Ghost Armor and Dire Charm finalizing our collection of readily accessible L1-L3 spell scrolls (including those from High Hedge and the Feldepost's Inn), Sorsha quaffs one Potion of Genius and successfully completes her second scribing session of the run. Afterwards, we stop over at Ulgoth's Beard to buy Aule's Staff (yay!) and the Cloak of Displacement.
Speaking of Aule's, I forgot to mention that Sorsha's third proficiency pip at level 4 went into two-handed weapon style with its speed factor boost. My other characters would typically opt for darts, if able, however Sorsha is not expected to become a dart thrower anytime soon, partly also due to concerns regarding our inventory capacity once we reach Amn (and I believe that the only available Ammo Belt in my current version of the game sits inside the Watchers' Keep). Our fourth pip will go to axes in preparation for early SoA.
Over to Mutamin's gardens. Korax steals the entire show here and we owe him for that.
Thanks to the XP bonanza, Sorsha's able to reach level 7 and L3 spells. Still hungry for more, she travels further east to the Durlag's Tower. First, the battle horrors - we open with a slightly pathetic Skull Trap.
Magic Missiles.
Wand of Lightning.
Strength + MIs + chainmail + Aule's with 0 speed factor.
Wand of Magic Missiles for the finish.
We rest, enter the tower and kite the ghasts at the second floor with our bow, using the two staircases to keep our distance.
Sorsha then uses MSD to foil the traps at the altar and in the corridor leading to the rooftop.
She prepares with Strength + ProPetrification (spell) and tackles the lesser basilisk in melee with Aule while wearing her chainmail.
For the greater basilisks, we had to keep our distance due to their strong melee attacks and on-hit poison. Also, I'm not confident using spells with > 1 casting speed when attacked by their gaze (including for example Blindness at casting speed 2), so Sorsha first tried her hand with couple of Chromatic Orbs. Without success.
Time for some Wand of Fire scorchers.
The second basilisk gets Sorsha to level 8 at 70k XP. She rests, buffs with ProPetrification (spell) and ProFire (spell) and lures the third basilisks into the proximity of the fireball trap...
Chromatic Orb stun + bow to get the kill. We're lucky enough to get the Dispel Magic scroll as a drop (even though Remove Magic would be even more appreciated).
The session is finished by shooting down Meilum at range for his gloves. With that, our core equipment is starting to look promising, although we still got our eyes fixed on various other goodies that we cannot yet afford (most notably Necklace of Missiles, Greenstone Amulet and the bard's special - Greagan's Harp/Captive Audience). We're off to earn some money in the south.
Regards,
B.
Previous posts: Introduction, 1, 2
When evaluating our current goals and priorities, Sorsha's stance was clear:
Ok, let's see - there's this bounty that Oublek told us about back in Nashkel, so why not give it a shot. We located Prism just in time before Greywolf's arrival to the scene. And I botched it. I must have messed up the dialogue options (I vaguely recall there might be a slight change in the scripting since some of the more recent version of the game) and Greywolf did not attack at once. He remained blue-circled and we're like fine, at least we can take a look at the potions you've got in your pockets before we engage.
That didn't work. It worked even worse for Prism. Our emergency Chromatic Orb failed to stun Greywolf as well as to turn him hostile before he chunked the poor artist in a single hit.
We sent him running away with a stick, but that's really all we could do. After the failed Anitchickenator, this is the second real tragedy of our run.
Sorsha needed to cheer up a bit, so we took a nice long hike into the mountains. There we've met with Vax and Zal.
They didn't seem to like each other that much.
Also, unlike his now-dead partner, Vax seems to have a xvart problem.
Alas, walking in the mountains always raises one's spirits. And, more often than not, it's better to be there with friends. Right, Sendai?
Thank you for having us.
We'll be on our way.
First, there had been Cain and Abel. Next, there were Caldo and Krumm.
Krumm, having sinned with fratricide, was thrown to the wolfs. It's not precisely a story of biblical proportions, but at least there is a lesson learned - never wear Girdle of Bluntness instead of Girdle of Piercing against an enemy with piercing attacks. No-reloaders know that. Krumm did not. Krumm is dead.
You're welcome Mrs Dryad.
At last, we ran into opponents that at least tried to work together. Hairtooth and Gnarl also died together.
That's it - we're finally in the money. Our shopping list included Necklace of Missiles and Shield Amulet from the Nashkel carnival, 3x Potion of Master Thievery from Durlag's Tower and acid arrows, Greenstone Amulet, Greagan's Harp and L4 scrolls from Ulgoth's Beard. It's not exactly shopping, but we also got our hands on the Ring of Free Action from Dushai, while Hurgan Stoneblade released a diamond and Potion of Fire Giant Strength.
With that, Sorsha was more than ready for the mines.
Regards,
B.
@Borco Sorsha's off to a great start! Condolences on the failed Anti-chickenator. We feel your pain.
I’ve just imported to SoD, which I’m really not familiar with. I’m taking it real slow.
My current group (playing with more than one right now), is to a halfling bounty hunter protagonist (I figure it’s a good idea to have a back line character as your main in a game like this, and I absolutely adore the special traps), and his childhood friends who joined up to help escort him on his trip with Gorion, a human berserker (who’s been studying magical books lately), and a dwarven defender. I’ve played berserker > mages before and I’ve never seen a powerhouse like that, and I tried a dwarven defender in my minimum stat challenge and I think one with optimized stats will really shine.
In BG1, I had the help of Branwen, Edwin (but he left when I accidentally got too high a reputation), Garrick (he replaced Edwin), and Coran.
I’ve just started SoD, and I know I want Edwin and Viconia to help me out, and I’m thinking about trying that goblin shaman character, because I keep reading cool things. I’m not completely sold, because I’ll be short on fighters (with the berserker being a mage for the majority of the game) in this party, which I understand are a huge help in SoD.
When (if) I make it to BG2, Edwin will join when I get my stronghold, and I plan on adding Anomen and maybe Jahiera for the last spot, but I’m not sold on her entry yet.
Previous updates:
Back in Nashkel I was careful to avoid Nimbul's horror, but didn't try too hard to avoid a magic missile. The damage itself was no problem, but the ensuing rage was costly to reputation.
At the mine, Genthore was annoyed by a thrown dagger and followed Bruce seeking revenge - but didn't get it. It involved lots of resting, but Bhaal horror eventually allowed Bruce to set Kysus and Rezdan up to be daggered.
Working through the mine was no problem, but Bruce took a bit of damage from traps and battle horrors on the bottom level. That prompted him to rest to start at full HPs in case of trouble with Davaeorn. A potion of magic blocking fended off attempts to charm and hold him and he just ran out of sight of some monsters being summoned - Davaeorn foolishly following him round a corner.
War Hulk L8, 146 HPs, 272 kills
@jmerry Welcome to what is propably the most specific type of challenge yet attempted here
The Avatars (Enuhal's version) - Update XXV
Time for loose ends - the part of the game where we do everything we left alone in Chapter 3 before moving on to the elven city. I didn't take any risks with the shade lich + elemental lich, using Alesia's traps to instantly take them out. I also travelled to the graveyard, equipping charm protection items before activating sunrays to take down the ambushing vampires:
My first big battle was against the Guarded Compound crew. We have HLA-capable enemies here, but we got very lucky on our invisible approach: Enuhal's initial energy blades attack on Sion crit, which, together with Grim Face's energy blade, dealt enough damage to kill Sion outright before his buffs went up:
Well, downstairs to level 2. Power attacks help to stun our first fire giants:
After the Planar Sphere quest, I thought about Ayla's next move. The Unseeing Eye and Bodhi's Lair are best done with UAI. The Planar Prison is sketch and best done late. Where then should level 21 Ayla go?
The answer is obvious. It's in the title of this post, after all. But I'll confess that when I first pondered the issue I had completely forgotten about the Windspear Hills. That's how rusty I am. It's a credit to Ayla that she's suffered me this long.
With the decision made, Ayla marched off to the hills, with me in tow. She is by now in the market for a new operator, however. I'm pretty sure she's jealous of Sorsha. Alas, she'll have to struggle along with me.
Against Plath Rededge, Ayla went RoAC II->buff->Ras->Backstab. This worked nicely. Ras has basically obsoleted the berserker horn but Ayla continues to carry the horn around, at least for now.
Speaking of the berserker horn, can I tell you how disappointed I was with the Bronze Horn upgrade? Ayla may be a guild mistress, but Maheer is the master thief. Total ripoff.
Anyways, Ayla proceeded into Firkraag's Pleasure Palace. Here I was reminded of the most absurd death a character of mine has ever suffered. Long, long ago, back when I wasn't rusty, I attempted a blind solo no reload of Improved Anvil. It went surprisingly well. My character, Alena, an F/M/C, crushed everything in her path, cruising into HLA land and beyond. By the time Alena entered the Pleasure Palace, she was an epic hero indeed. If the Improved Anvil world used an XP cap, Alena would have already hit it. She was at 9 million and change, fully equipped with many of IA's unique items. She was the most powerful character I have ever controlled by far.
After dominating 9 million XP of ludicrously souped up foes, Alena finally met her end in the Pleasure Palace. To who, you ask? A random spawn of vanilla hobgoblins, in the opening cave. A hobgoblin shaman cast Hold Person. Since the threat seemed comical, I didn't take it seriously, lazily chucking a sling bullet to interrupt instead of bringing a counter into play. Alena, a half elf, failed her save. And that was it: Run over- a reminder that even the most powerful characters can fall in the simplest encounters. Sloppiness kills, no matter who you are. It should come as no surprise then that Ayla took down her hobgoblin shaman quick, with Arbane at the ready. Rusty though I may be, she refuses to go out like Alena.
Ayla's early encounters in the palace went smoothly. Things didn't get interesting until she encountered the undead. I usually don't use pro undead in SoA, although I make exceptions for some characters against the Shade Lord and against Firkraag's vampires. Ayla, who doesn't have NPP and can't use Azuredge, atm, qualifies for an exception. Nonetheless, I was inclined to have her slink passed, foregoing the XP, until I saw this: the undead were blocking the way to the chapel key.
For want of a better option, Ayla reached into her scroll case and pulled out a pro undead scroll. The vampires responded by vanishing, a behavior I hadn't seen before. After an attempt at revealing them with Detect Illusions, Ayla summoned Ras to see if they were, in fact, still in the house. Indeed they were.
Finishing them proved tricky, however, even under pro undead. They're fast; they're agile; they use their summons well. They weren't easy kills for Ayla, even if their attacks via summons were meager. David has done a nice job of countering pro undead.
And so began a long and arduous process of clearing the palace of vampires. Since they had spread all over, letting them be wasn't an option. They had to be exterminated. But how? Not with pro undead- that made killing them harder for Ayla. The answer, in the end, was, unsurprisingly, backstabs, traps, and Mr. Efreeti. Opening backstabs got the party started; Traps brought the vamps to badly injured and ushered in bat form; Mr. Efreeti then finished the evasive bats with his targeted spells or, in the alternative, lured out a human form for a backstab. It was a winning formula, albeit difficult to execute- especially when the repawns got involved. Respawns give Ayla grief. The only real threat here was level drain->Domination. Ayla's save v spells is -5 but it swings to +2 when she's level drained. Ayla watched her aura and kept potions of clarity at the ready, in light of that risk.
Once the vampires were gone, the path to the Guardian was clear. Backstab under protection from fire plus potion of fire resistance.
Onto Kaol and the Gang. Starting with this fight I began to feel seriously bad for Ayla. I enjoyed my partial run with Alora back in 2011, and have long planned to build a Halfling unkitted thief for my stable of core characters. Ayla is a worthy holder of that portfolio. Sadly, her run has been underwhelming, on account of my rustiness and the role I've intended her to play. My purpose here is to see a sizable swath of the adventure, to help me re-familiarize myself with the game. In service of that goal, I've gone with a low difficulty setting, Tactical, and allowed Ayla tactics that I typically wouldn't. And so while Ayla is a fine thief, she has the distinction, among my characters, of being the cheesiest fighter in the easiest install. That's regrettable. Ayla deserves better. My intention is to continue as I have, to let Ayla serve her purpose. Maybe someday in the not too distant future I'll give her a chance at a more fitting run. In the interim, she's going to keep munchkining her way through Amn.
Kaol fell to the now de rigueur opening backstab.
The rest of the gang were picked off with backstabs, one by one.
There were some complications, however. Samia cheekily opened the door to the Director, and hung out there with Chak, complicating Ayla's backstab attempts. More importantly, Ferric Ironblade, with his impressive potion stack, proved a worthy foe in the shadows. Apparently it does indeed take a thief to catch a thief- a thief or a troll, if Ayla is any indication. Here we see Ayla retreating after a Ferric backstabs forced her to quaff a PoI. Note Samia and Chak near the Director.
After healing, Ayla lured Chak away, followed by Samia.
This led to a duel with Ferric. Ferric, who has fighter levels, quaffed a potion of cloud giant strength in addition to an oil of speed, giving him the advantage in melee. Ayla's path to an economical victory was to dupe him into a ranged fight, where the Claw of the Kazgaroth + Cloak of Displacement would give her the advantage. Victory. Celebrate good times.
Onto the greater cheese dogs. Two of the three greater cheese dogs were chunkstabbed.
Care to guess where the third went? Who's a clever little puppy-wuppy? Yes! You are! You're such a clever puppy-wuppy!
The golems were killed with fade and thwack tactics, while Firkraag's orcs looked on.
It's good to see Tazok looking all fleshy and familiar. I approve of this EE modification.
Ayla wasn't quite as pleased. After all, he didn't look the way that she remembered. There: that's better.
Chief DigDag fell to Belm, with Ayla's + 1 buckler in the off-hand. That combo will get an upgrade soon, now that UAI isn't far.
As for Conster...Conster was killed by ruthlessly meta-gamey trap placement. I felt guilty when the traps fired. You deserve better, Ayla. I know you could have taken him down in a fair fight. I'll make it up to you someday!
Bodhi's Lair is next.
Best,
A.
Previous posts: Introduction, 1, 2, 3
Uninterested in fighting the kobold hordes, Sorsha traveresd through the Nashkel mines under Invisibility until reaching Mulahey's hideout. She prepared for the battle with green ProUndead scroll, Resist Fear (via item), Shield Amulet, Strength, ProEvil, MIs and Greenstone Amulet (to eliminate any residual enchanment school risks on top of our Ring of Free Action) and introduced herself by swinging Aule's at close range.
The fight was on. After crying out "Help, my minions! Help!" Mulahey started a necromancy incantation, indicating Unholy Blight. Sorsha quickly countered with Spook (casting time 1 and carrying a hefty -4 save penalty).
With Mulahey on the run and the kobolds closing in, Sorsha dropped a Stinking Cloud centered at the narrow corridor.
A streak of poor to-hit rolls meant that we're unable to clear any of the kobolds in melee, while the Spook duration of Mulahey was running out. It was time to test our harp (Greagan's).
Good. We check Mulahey's spellbook to confirm there's nothing dangerous left. Our plan was to walk him into the Stinking Cloud hoping that he'd fail his save. And since he's not running ProUndead, he'd become an easy target for his own skeletal minions that are immue to it. But first, we had to carve our way through the kobold frontline.
Mulahey not only he made his saves, but it also became apparent that those skeletons are simply not going to attack their master no matter what. Disappointed as I was with the outcome, I have to admire the SCS scripting here for realism. Very cool. With the Stinking Cloud gone, we decided to blast the archers with Skull Trap to make some space.
Aule's for the remainder of the kobold entourage.
We're at stalemate. Mulahey's skeletons, although harmless to us, clinged to him like bodyguards. His HP were full. Our MIs were gone. And then it occurred to us - after all, we're not here to kill. We're here to investigate. Let's see what we can find out.
Some holy symbol, interesting.
What else? A ring? Nice, but that doesn’t really take us anywhere.
There must be something else!
Nah, this is pointless! Whit that, Sorsha equips Girdle of Bluntness and smacks Mulahey on the head with her staff at which point he turns hostile again. To maximize our speed factor and range advantage, we start running around the cave, trying to land one hit after another every single round. With his skeletons trailing him at every step, it almost felt like some chase-scene from Scooby Doo.
Eventually, by trying hard to protect their master with their very selves at all costs, the skeletons lock him in a corner. Mulahey screams in frustration, knowing that Sorsha's extra range will have the upper hand here, but none of them moves to release him from the deadly prison. Well, that's the pitfalls of necromancy I suppose.
That was fun! Taking advantage of our ProUndead, we also cleared the tombs at the surface and are on our way back to Nashkel.
Regards,
B.
@Borco I love the way you're playing Sorsha. You and her seem to be a match!
Btw, I like the use of pro undead in the Mulahey fight. I often use a pro undead scroll shortly after for the tombs. It makes sense to read it before Mulahey instead.
Ayla's jaunt through Bodhi's Lair was a chunkstabbing good time. The initial encounters had to be handled with care, since Ayla was just shy of UAI, but once that first HLA kicked in, Ayla, emboldened by the AoP, took on all comers and prevailed.
Seeking XP, Ayla smushed as many spiders as she could en route to Bodhi's Lair.
Alas, they were not enough. In retrospect, nixing the Crypt King would have been the right call here. Instead Ayla headed into the lair, knowing that Gellal and the clay golem would get her over the top.There's Gellal.
And there's the clay golem. Sorry, Miss Fledgling Vampire, we'll continue this later. I have to pick up an amulet and a few other things.
See, Miss Fledgling Vampire, I promised you I'd be back. Wasn't that fun?
Let the chunkstab party begin. Time for a graveyard smash, a monster mash, if you will.
Wa-ooh!
Wa-ooh!
Wa-Wa-ooh!
And even one for you, Tanova, stoneskinned though you may be.
Yeah. This was a cake-walk, with Tanova's roll against the MoD making it all the easier. Let's just fast forward to Bodhi, shall we?
Since I wasn't sure what to expect from Bodhi Uno in this edition of SCS, I over buffed for this. Ayla took her renewables, along with potion of absorption, potion of invulnerability, oil of speed, potion of stone giant strength, potion of cold resistance and protection from cold. She also used a MI scroll, due to a buffing order error. She wore the Girdle of Bluntness but skipped unenchanted splint. As for weaponry, she went with the Scarlet Ninja To in the main and the Shield of Harmony in the off. For funsies she cast over her ninja to with a Phantom Blade. Let's do this.
Enjoy those traps first, Bodhi.
Damage didn't come until the end, when a fading Bodhi went with Touch of Death. Ayla could have switched over to the BoIB at this stage of the battle, but it hardly seemed necessary.
I don't have a screenshot of Bodhi's dialogue, but suffice to say, Ayla prevailed. Until next time, Bodhilicious!
Best,
A.
There's a first for everything, right? The Unseeing Eye quest saw many firsts for Ayla. First time using a Spike Trap. First time using a Time Trap. First time dual wielding with the Scarlet Ninja To. First time facing a beholder. First time murdering a god. Unfortunately I didn't take many screenshots in this session so this post, like a reward from Nalia, will be thin.
Before checking in on the cult, Ayla took care of some unfinished business, like the Crypt King.
And the Cloak of the Sewers rhaksha. Ayla wishes she could wear Jan's armor, like in the good old days, but she may kick down for Easthaven, angling for some rat form fun.
Remember what I said about this post being thin? Right. Well, that starts now. Fast forward to the underground temple. Here we see Ayla, victorious over her first batch of beholders. How did she do it? That's anyone's guess because I didn't take notes or screenshots. As I recall, Ayla started the fight holding the Shield of Balduran and wearing the BoIB, with Mr. Efreeti by her side. The Shield stayed in her hand for a round or two, doing significant damage. Mr Efreeti lobbed a couple fireballs before he was nixed. Ayla finished the remaining beholders with her Wand of the Heavens and Everard. Don't quote me on any of that, though. As I said, I didn't take notes or snap any pics during the fight. We're doing this Nalia style, remember?
Fast forward again, now to the Unseeing Eye. For the record, this fast forward skips little, since Ayla stealthed by the undead and the majority of the beholder lair.
Anyhoo, here we are, in the Unseeing Eye's lair. Ayla's approach here was DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!
Ayla heard a rumor that if you kill the Unseeing Eye too fast you skip a couple death tyrants. She liked the sound of that so she killed him instantly. Time Trap-> Rift Device->Snares + Spike Trap. That'll fix him, right?
Indeed it did. Ayla looks forward to more black and white action. It's classic.
Finally, Gaul and his not so elite guard. They got the Cuisinart, via the Scarlet Ninja To and Belm. It slices.
It dices.
It purees.
And that, my gentle friends, is coverage of the Unseeing Eye quest, Nally-Nalia style. Ayla's next post will be better. I promise. You've worked hard. You deserve it.
Best,
A.
Btw, a quick note on capitalization in my posts. I've gone through a number of changes over the years in respect to what I capitalize. I used to capitalize most, if not all, game items and abilities. Recently I've been taking inspiration from real life. A unique item is capitalized. A non unique item is not. A potion is a mixed beverage, so it is not capitalized, like frozen margarita. A spell is a written work, hence it is capitalized, like Liquid Sky. Halfling is a race, so it is capitalized, as per current academic norms. I've been moderately satisfied with that, but I did recently find a post that answers my long standing questions about capitalization norms in DnD. I'm going to go with this approach in future posts, assuming italicizing things doesn't become a hassle. Of course this isn't important, and everyone should take what ever approach they like. I'm just sharing so that people will understand what motivated the change in my posting norms.
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Help:When_to_Italicize_and_Capitalize
Seeking additional XP and gold before heading off to Spellhold, Ayla decided to get started on her Athkatla clean up. She took care of the easy stuff, the Shade and Elemental Liches, along with the Guarded Compound. Kangaxx will be done later. As for the Twisties, they may be left to their devices. We'll see. In any case, here's how part 1 went.
I do feel guilty about trapping Conster, but I think it makes perfect sense for a thief to trap the frack out of liches. I mean, doesn't this look sketchy as all get out?
If I were opening that coffin in really life I'd totally buff and use at least a days worth of traps. You may reply that you don't open coffins in real life. To that I say: to each their own.
Right. Well, the Shade Lich took a savage stack of traps, as all liches should. Smile for the camera, Ayla!
The Elemental Lich took a full stack, too. I believe it is the best practice to buff before the touch, in case something goes wrong. Against the Elemental Lich Ayla noticed a bug in the process. Ilbratha MI checks magic resistance. Surely it shouldn't.
Another lid lifted, another trap tripped. Liches gots to learn.
I'll tell you who has learned more than enough, thank you very much: Ketta et al. The Guarded Compound kids fought scary smart. They seemed astonishingly aware of their surroundings and did a masterful job of trapping Ayla. Ras saved the day, because that's what Ras does, but Ayla was in a pickle for a minute.
After taking her buffs downstairs, Ayla opened by chunk-stabbing Sion.
She then raced off to a side room, hoping to find shadows and a place to set traps. Ketta's crew wasn't having it. Koshi drank an oil of speed, frustrating Ayla's attempt to hit the shadows. The rest of the crew blocked the door and then encircled Ayla as she tried to slip by, now invisible via a potion of invisibility . Ayla was utterly trapped, and utterly in a jam. What to do? Ayla activated Ras. Ras drew her foes away. Ayla, still invisible, slipped out of her cage. Phew!
Studying her surroundings, Ayla noticed a trap door. She activated it and slipped through. That turned the tide. Ayla now had the space she needed. She set a stack of traps, including a time trap.
Assassination, under oil of speed with Belm in the off-hand, took out Koshi and Stalman.
Switching to the Scarlet Ninja To and Belm fixed the backstab immune Maferan.The other fighter guy died the same way, although he did get one attack in after time resumed. Ayla had the rounds because her time trap tripped twice, as they often do when there are multiple foes around.
Ketta, who had set off the time trap, along with Maferan, was killed by the conventional traps. Ayla recovered four potions of invisibility, netting two on the encounter. Acceptable, if less than ideal.
Spellhold is probably next? Idk. I need to eat dinner first. I'll decide after.
Best,
A.
One Punch Man, part 2
Part 1
When we left off, my three arcanists had reached 5K experience each, though none of them had yet found any level 2 spell scrolls. And I'm rather thin on level 1 spells known, too. Time to kill some more monsters for random drops. I head back out to the roads south of Beregost, to actually clear them out this time.
There are hobgoblins around, and some of them drop scrolls. Color Spray - scribed. Arwen has a spell now. Second color spray - failed. Protection from Petrification - scribed by Saitama. Basilisk hunting is on the table now.
As I'm heading back to Beregost, with my daily spells nearly exhausted ...
I forget to adjust my spell memorization after that, so no basilisks yet. Instead, I head southwest toward the gnoll fortress. First, the xvart village. They go down, and so do their bears. I skip Borda, though. He's a bit more dangerous than I want to face at this point. Instead, I just head west.
Take out a few enemies, including that polar bear, then head south to the fortress itself.
Now, the stash in the cave? That's very useful. In addition to the charisma tome, there are also a pair of level 1 spell scrolls, which I scribe successfully. Arwen has Magic Missile now, and Gabrielle has Burning Hands.
The gnolls are a bit more dangerous. Their weapons are slow, so I try to sneak in the occasional melee hit ...
Many gnolls later, the chieftain goes down.
Finally, the very last group of gnolls lands a hit on Saitama when I'm not quick enough retreating.
Dynaheir is rescued, earning us theoretical access to level 2 spells (we're over 8K XP each by now). If she ever rests, which she doesn't. I head back to Nashkel and drop her off with Minsc, then head to Beregost to rest. And this time, memorize some PfP spells.
With the new spells memorized, we head out to the east. Skip the big wolf pack for now, and head straight to the basilisk zone. Travel is uneventful, and we recruit Korax for the hunt itself.
As for Mutamin ...
And then, the PfP expired.
I actually still had one PfP memorized; that was saved for the possible basilisk ambush. Which didn't come up, so I didn't spend it.
Back in civilization, I clear up a few things. Zhurlong. Karlat. Perdue. Tarnesh.
That clears the way inside, where I can get Jaheira's invisibility potion and return Landrin's stuff.
And then, for the session's last act, I take on that big wolf pack. Buy some more +1 ammo, then head out to the temple.
That doesn't mean taking them on all at once, of course. I pull them in small groups. A worg and two dread wolves. A lone dread wolf. A vampiric wolf.
The pack isn't done yet, of course. There's a second vampiric wolf, and it comes out with a pair of worgs. I use my last offensive spell (Horror) to remove the worgs so I can focus on taking down the vampiric wolf.
I start the next session with high hopes, planning to take out some threats in town and then clear out more of the southwest.
First, Silke.
Next, it's Nashkel's turn.
After some rest and healing, it's Zordral's turn. The initial spell barrage isn't quite fast enough to disrupt his mirror image, and he survives to the second spell. Go for another MM ...
Zordral runs out of spells, and starts swinging his staff. He doesn't land any hits, and the Horror expires. We finish him off easily from there.
And that's it. I raise Gabrielle (800 gold), rest up to virtually full health, and end the session. Two close calls due to sloppiness is too many. But at least I survived.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195908/#Comment_1195908
In the City a bit more reputation work pushed that up to 20. Bruce also picked up a couple of necklaces of missiles, to give him an alternative method of resolving disputes. That was soon put into action to get the Ring of Energy from the Red Wizards.
Cash was not a problem, but Bruce still couldn't resist hacking down Jardak to get his helm and Ragefast to get a nymph cloak - the combination pushing his charisma to 20 to get minimum shop prices.
Apart from shopping, Bruce still wanted to collect a few other items. The Helm & Cloak of Balduran, Ramazith's ring of protection and the tomes were duly obtained. In doing the poison quest to get the wisdom tome, I was tempted by the idea of a melee fight with Larze, but discretion got the better of me due to the possibility of killing innocents while enraged. Upstairs though, I did take a small risk with Marek. A thrown dagger hit and stunned him with a critical while he was casting lightning bolt and, rather than dodge that as originally intended, Bruce followed in to get the kill in melee. One oddity I don't really like about the game is that effects like paralyzation and hold don't interrupt spells - so the lightning spell completed as soon as the 1 round stun duration ended. However, Bruce was only hit once and able to ignore that damage. I typically deal with Degrodel's guards by dragging them outside, but decided this time to go for a much quicker option after protecting Bruce from fire. It seemed a shame not to make further use of the fire protection, so that tactic was adopted at the Iron Throne as well. I gave them a chance by just using Greenstone protection, so that magic damage (other than fire) would still work - but Bruce maintained his senses for a comfortable victory.
Back at Candlekeep, Bruce was careful with the phase spiders. Poison is another particular danger for War Hulks to beware of as the multiple ticks can easily result in rage - potentially preventing the possibility of curing the poison. He also took on Prat's gang - fireballs doing most of the damage there.
Before returning to Baldur's Gate, Bruce paid another visit to the Lake area to find Drizzt. Rather than nipping in and out, I just let Bruce fight in straight melee. Drizzt had a good go at him, but ultimately his defenses were not quite good enough.
Before entering the elven city, I went on an extensive shopping tour for some useful potions or scrolls that I might use in ToB. As I was visiting pretty much every area, I realized that I had forgotten to obtain my third pair of boots of speed, so I quickly killed Renal Bloodscalp:
Let's see how far we can go in ToB!
I'm sorry to report that Ayla has fallen to a scripted insta-death, one that I was completely unaware of. I could be mistaken, but this may be a first in the NR challenge's history. I, personally, can't recall an instance. If anyone else does let me know.
It happened outside of Spellhold. Upon arriving on the island, Ayla's inventory was completely full, no open slots. I set the Shield of Balduran down on the table in the Vulgar Monkey so I'd have a space to carry the wardstone. After opening the door to Spellhold, I heard the key use sound and thought I had no further need of the wardstone. I headed back to Brynnlaw to pick up Ayla's shield, knowing that a bag of holding was waiting for her. That proved to be a fatal mistake. If you cross the bridge without the wardstone, even in the reverse direction, after opening the door, you are petrified without a save. The screenshot below is not of the original event but, rather, of a subsequent test of the mechanic. Ayla died in that exact same way, just heading in the opposite direction.
Bummer! I was really looking forward to the rest of Ayla's adventure. Oh, well.
I'm not sure what's next for me BG wise, but I'll let you all know when I decide. Best wishes to all the active challengers!
Best,
A.
In any case, that was an exciting run to follow!
And yes, I know about that way to end your run (if I'm not mistaken Grond0 had the same experience). Personally, I'm always reluctant to throw away 'unnecessary junk' and it piles up in by bagpack (you never know when you might need it...).
I'm looking forward for your decision about what is next!
Noted.
I just tried it again. The wardstone actually disappears when you open the door, so opening the door is a point of no return.
I had noticed that the door made the key opening sound, and that's what signaled to me that I no longer needed the wardstone. Its absence in the inventory likely reinforced that belief. Now I know though: don't go back, lol.
Oh, well...
Actually, personally I've never entered Spellhold that way (using wardstone). Of course I make sure to get it/and Perth's experience (as an option and on 'completeness' grounds) but then have the Pirate King commit us.
Previous posts: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4
Nimbul Appreciation Post:
You must think it rather odd to dedicate an entire entry to the encounter with Nimbul. And I agree. At the same time, I feel like he's a little underrated and deserves slightly more credit for being a worthy opponent. After all, he's probably the first assassin hunting the Bhaalspawn of any relevance. His timing is perfect - you're just returning from the tiresome crawl through the Nashkel mines, longing for cooked food and a warm bed at the inn. Also, none of the previous assassins dared to strike openly in the streets, so the element of surprise is handled masterfuly.
He's a respectable combatant as well, especially with SCS. His Emotion: Hopelessness can strike down entire parties, his Chromatic Orb sequencers can end runs and he's running robust defenses (Shield, Stoneskin, MIs, MSD) that pair well with his Boots of Avoidance. Probably his only deficiency is the lack of Invisibility + backstab moves, as he seems to prefer to use the throwing axes instead of his short sword +1.
Taking advantage of meta-gaming knowledge (or shall we call it Bhaalspawn intuition?), Sorsha prepared with care - she buffed with Strength, Resist Fear (via item), Shield, MSD, MI and Greenstone Amulet and also called in a group of summons via Wand of Monster Summoning. Not fair, I know.
When the battle started, Nimbul fired off his buffs and Sorsha opened with an unsuccessful Glitterdust.
As expected, Nimbul countered with Emotion: Hopelessnes that removed the majority of our summons from the fray.
With not much to do in between melee attacks, Sorsha started working on his MSD with L1 spell scrolls.
Once both his Stoneskin and MSD were down, Nimbul pulled off the best trick I've ever seen from him. The crowds went totally crazy at that point!
Ok, I can now admit that the main reason for this Nimbul appreciation post was to show you how he'd cooked Rasaad. That monk's got a special place on our list of despised characters, if only because of those annoying unskipable conversations in Trademeet in SoA. I mean, how many times do I have to say that I don't want to hear about Selûne?! Oh wait, there's no such dialogue option there! Gosh, we can have a better conversation with Neeber!
Thank you, Nimbul, for being such a cool villain. Until next time!
Regards,
B.
You did say that you wondered about doing a run with Ayla using a wider range of tactics - perhaps now's your chance