Each of the character classes has now had a session. When starting a new run I often go first to Shoal and then the basilisks to make a rapid start. To avoid using the same routine I've varied the routes taken quite a bit, but always aimed to keep risks to a minimum (so not exposing unarmored characters to a bandit ambush for instance).
Progress with each class to date is shown below. I didn't initially set out to have a common finishing position, but the first run ended up at the entrance to Baldur's Gate and all the rest decided that made a good break point as well. Things done up to that point differ quite a bit though, so I'll have to be careful about reviewing progress for each run if I'm to avoid missing important things (like picking up the pantaloons).
I've put a summary of what's been done into the spoilers below, together with screenshots (though I've tried to avoid going too mad with those given the length of the post ):
Fighter/thief 7/8, 82 HPs, 205 kills
Went north to FAI, picking up the belt of piercing on the way. Stealth-shot Tarnesh though it took a long time to hide to do that - so went to get Zhurlong's stealth boots. A few more jobs around Beregost got me to level 2/2 and shooting the golems at High Hedge to level 3/3. With set traps skill now at 100%, Silke became the first victim of those.
I got to thief level 4 shooting down a hobgoblin on the way to Nashkel, where I rested to get Bhaal CLW while setting traps for Neira. Meilum was shot for his bracers before I took a trip through the Cloud Peak Mountains, getting to fighter level 4 there. Back in Beregost I used a potion of master thievery to get Algernon's Cloak - failing with the first 2 attempts, but it was third time lucky just before he went hostile.
I returned Landrin's items and picked up the pantaloons. Bassilus was stealth-shot to provide me with a 5th thief level. Then it was on to the basilisk area, where Korax dealt with those monsters and Mutamin to get me to level 5/6. Traps accounted for Kiran's party.
Now with 2 traps a day, I decided to have a go at Drizzt. I don't kill him in most solo games, but this character has scimitars as a melee proficiency and can also benefit from the high quality stealthing armor. First I went to Ulgoth's Beard to get the Greenstone Amulet, then used that to fend off charms from Drizzt while leading him into a stack of traps. He survived that with 4 HPs left, but a further trap negated his cure spell and one more was one too many. In addition to the equipment upgrade, that took me to fighter level 6.
With reputation lowered, I decided to do the Nashkel Mines. I mainly stealthed through there, but did get my first backstab casualty of the run against a spider. Mulahey was shot down without letting him into talking range. Outside the mine, I rested until dark and then stealth-shot the amazons.
Nimbul unsurprisingly failed to survive a backstab and I picked up Bhaal LMD before going to Beregost - where Tranzig was another backstab victim. At the Bandit Camp I made good early progress through the bandits using backstabs. However, when I failed to hide and one of them appeared unexpectedly I took my first damage of the run (I didn't bother to swap to Nimbul's boots that would have saved me there). A first use of Algernon's Cloak got Taurgosz to switch sides to help finish off the external bandits. Backstabs and traps set outside soon cleared Tazok's tent.
In the Cloakwood I could disarm the web traps, but chose to kill the ettercaps anyway - getting to thief level 7 there. At the mine, Genthore was attacked and pulled away before the others were split up using Bhaal horror. Drasus ran into some traps and the mages were backstabbed. After stealthing through the mine, the battle horrors were backstabbed and Davaeorn's spells blocked by the Greenstone Amulet before he was finished off in melee. After resting to get a second horror, I flooded the mine.
A quick round of reputation quests pushed that up to 20, finishing with the Doomsayer being another backstab victim. As I was nearby, I went on to the Lighthouse area and used more Greenstone protection to melee the sirines - getting to fighter level 7 there. The golems in the pirate cave were shot down, giving me an 8th thief level (final level in BGEE).
Fighter/mage/cleric 6/6/6, 51 HPs, 210 kills
Both mages and clerics have very powerful (in BGEE terms) save or else spells at levels 1 and 2, while sanctuary makes renewing spells easy even at level 1. That meant progress was very easy as I went to Beregost, where work included sleeping & commanding spiders and blinding Silke. Then it was on to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armor - mainly used on the odd dangerous travel route. Neira and Oopah were further blindness victims there.
The high Hedge golems failed to catch some magic bullets, taking me to level 2/2/3. My main melee proficiency was hammers, so next I went to call on Bassilus - a first attempt at blinding him proving successful there. The same fate befell Zargal and his cronies.
A bit more blindness and command persuaded Bjornin to part with a magic shield before I headed for the FAI. The ogre on the way was enough to get me a 3rd mage level. However, with intelligence of only 9, I had not yet learnt anything to make use of that. I picked up the Ring of Wizardry, which allowed me up to 4 attempts at blinding Tarnesh - but only 2 were needed.
The basilisks were next and, after Korax had finished with them, I was up to level 4/4/5. That meant skeletons were available, but they were not needed against Kirian - her companions were all blinded before she was silenced and then blinded.
Meilum was blinded, commanded and then held to get his bracers. Then I visited Arghain with the idea of using his 2-handed sword against blinded battle horrors - forgetting for a moment I was a cleric. Instead, I headed north to the ankheg area and looted their nest - 2 skeletons lasting up until the final ankheg there. Then it was on to Ulgoth's Beard, where I looked at the +3 staff, but couldn't bring myself to pay the 8k gold demanded.
To reduce prices, I did a few reputation tasks on the way through the Cloud Peak Mountains, taking that to 20. I didn't do any shopping yet though, as my charisma needs boosting to provide a benefit. Instead, I went to the Lighthouse area, where skeletons helped beat up the sirines and golems.
Back at Durlag's Tower, blinded battle horrors had the chance to get the occasional critical hit in, but that was no problem. I didn't bother with most of the ghasts inside, but did use sanctuary and skeletons to kill the basilisks on the roof - getting me my final BGEE level at the number of the beast (6/6/6). I gave Riggilo some 'nymph hair' before blinding him. I used the potion of clarity from Candlekeep to get the wisdom tome.
Moving on to the Nashkel Mine I used sanctuary to avoid most conflict there. I was intending to silence Mulahey, but got caught out there. I'd just rested to change spells, while out of sight of him. The rest must have changed positioning just enough though for him to see me and I didn't spot him coming until just too late to move away. I tried a command on him rather than running immediately before his helpers arrived. That worked and my attacks for the round took him down to 7 HPs - but now I'd lost my chance to retreat. Rather than use a potion of invisibility or boost my defenses, I was intending to dropd a potion of explosion at my feet to finish Mulahey off - but before I did so I noticed his morale had broken while still unconscious and I switched back to weapons to kill him.
Silence and a couple of skeletons helped make short work of the amazons and Nimbul also went silently to his grave. I used a charm person scroll to get Algernon to attack Tranzig - allowing me to get his cloak without loss of reputation - before Tranzig was also silenced.
At the Bandit Camp the bandit archers were slept, while Taurgosz was held at the first attempt. Inside Tazok's tent, Venkt and Hakt were blinded out of sight of Raemon. He was then silenced while skeletons quickly killed the commanded Britik.
In the Cloakwood I used skeletons to avoid any danger of triggering the web traps near enemies accidentally. At the mine, Genthore, Kysus and Rezdan were blinded out of sight of Drasus. Skeletons finished those off before distracting Drasus while I blinded him (I'd intended to silence him first, but had forgotten to memorize that). The battle horrors near Davaeorn were blinded before I put on armor to pummel them into submission - neither of them finding the critical hit required. After a rest, Davaeorn was silenced.
After flooding the mine I moved to the entrance to Baldur's Gate. Thus far the only mage spells I know are still sleep and blind, so that's something to remedy next time. I also need to remember to pick up the large number of items I have in storage (including the Pantaloons), waiting for me to learn identify.
Fighter/druid 7/8, 86 HPs, 238 kills
This is a new character, so I was immediately faced with a decision at character creation about what stat to nerf. Due to the need for both charisma and wisdom a druid will often have low strength, but strength is important for a fighter and I didn't want to rely on items to enhance that. Hence I decided to lower wisdom to the minimum possible of 12. In the later stages of the game druid spells become less important anyway, so that won't cost much in the long term.
I decided to allow this character a fast start. Shoal gave me a first level up. I slaughtered Algernon while in Beregost. Even without proficiency, sling bullets made short work of the High Hedge golems to allow me to level up again. By the time I finished with the basilisks I was up to level 5/5. Korax was killed before I used charm to draw away Baerin, Peter and Lindin for disposal - getting to druid level 6 as a result. A charmed bear then tanked Kirian for me.
I grabbed the ogre's belt on the way to the FAI, where Tarnesh found mirrors don't help against call lightning. Then I eventually made my way down to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armor. Meilum & Poe joined me to take on Meilum - allowing me a bit of extra loot there.
The only weapon proficiency I have is daggers, so i went to get a free +2 dagger from Hentold. I did though feel obligated to deal with the Revenant while there. A charmed dog gave me time to cast 2 lots of insects on it before closing in for the kill with my new dagger. The reason for wanting a decent melee weapon was that the next target was the Lighthouse. The potion of clarity allowed me to melee the sirines before more sling bullets accounted for the golems to take me to fighter level 6.
Next I took on Bassilus. He succeeded with both rigid thinking and a hold person, but both times I was out of his sight before the spell arrived and he didn't come to investigate. Zargal and his friends were then enough to get me to druid level 7 - making summons available to me.
In the Nashkel Mine I cut down a few kobolds on the way to find Mulahey. A first use of a nymph helped beat him up without letting him into talking range.
Outside the mine I had the most dangerous moment so far in one of these runs when I got careless and entered Lamalha's sight before I intended. I failed to run away in time to avoid a rigid thinking from Zeela and that led to me being chased across the map by Maneira and Telka. I came uncomfortably close to getting within Narcillicus' sight and was also poisoned by a dart before regaining my senses and hacking down the archers. A pair of nymphs restored some HPs and then went to help deal with the clerics.
In Nashkel, Nimbul died in twin nymph lightning strikes. Tranzig was afflicted by insects and choked out how he wasn't going down without a fight only a fraction of a second before going down.
At the Bandit Camp the external bandits were mainly meleed, but nymphs were generated to hold Taurgosz. They also waited outside Tazok's tent to ambush those following me out.
In the Cloakwood more careless movement saw me poisoned, but it was only a huge spider and didn't do too much damage. At the mine, Genthore was charmed and pulled away for disposal. Kysus was then charmed and died in his own fireball (saving him from a call lightning) - follow up confusions from the 2 nymphs affected both Drasus and Rezdan and they were finished off before they could recover.
Inside, I worked through various guards, putting Bhaal horror to good use to break up the intended ambush. The guard at the bottom was charmed by cloak and helped deal with the battle horrors. A nymph confused Davaeorn, but it took a while to get through his mirrors and he recovered from that - but by then he was out of spells. I didn't have a magical weapon other than my dagger, but thought I would be able to kill the mustard jelly in brown bear shape (which I seem to remember as having slashing damage). However, both that and the black bear now seem to do piercing, so I just avoided the jelly while looting the containers.
After resting to get a second Bhaal horror, I flooded the mine. Before going to the City though I did a quick round of reputation quests to maximise that. Helping Charleston Nib got me to the BGEE level cap with my 7th fighter level. Nymphs helped against the Doomsayer before I got a lift back to Nashkel with Brage to push reputation to 20. Once I've got the Helm of Glory that will allow me to get the best shop prices.
Fighter 8, 100 HPs, 227 kills
This is another new class for my overall challenge, but no real thought was required about where to put attribute points. I did consider for a while what race to take, but ultimately went with my dwarfish favorite. I similarly considered whether to take axes as a weapon (given the character portrait), but decided to go with the power game option of long sword and sling, which should be more useful weapons in the long term.
The last session with the fighter-druid was not very good, so I made an effort this time to tighten up my play. Without the same range of options available, I also didn't bother so much about paying more than minimum shop prices and acquired a few magic items earlier than I would typically do so.
From Candlekeep I travelled straight to Nashkel without doing other tasks. The ankheg armor there gave a decent level of assurance against ambushes, so I pushed on to the mine area to find Greywolf to get a sword upgrade. I hadn't yet acquired a magic sling and needed a 17 to hit him, but it didn't really take too long to finish him off and get my first level. I then took Samuel back to the FAI, getting another level on the way from the belt ogre. I was prepared to duck into the temple to avoid Tarnesh's spells, but he died to my first shot.
Pushing on north, I gave a bowl back to Tenya before buying the Greenstone Amulet as Ulgoth's Beard. My inventory was feeling a bit overloaded, but shooting Neera and finding a book for Firebead helped that. I also got another level for talking down Marl, killed Algernon to get his cloak and bought a +1 sling.
I stopped off at High Hedge to shoot some golems and buy the potion case and a sleep wand. Then it was off to the seaside to melee some sirines using Greenstone protection - getting to level 5 against the first group there. Shooting down the golems in the cave was then just enough for level 6.
The Nashkel Mine was next, where Mulahey was again shot down without being allowed to talk. Outside the mine, the Greenstone Amulet allowed me to take on the amazons as a group. Rather than use another charge for Nimbul, I stayed out of the way while Rasaad and the soldiers killed him.
At the Bandit Camp the archers were meleed, while Taurgosz was shot down. At Tazok's tent I dodged in and out to avoid Venkt's spells while meleeing the opposition - finishing off with a one-shot critical on Venkt. I then rested to get Bhaal horror.
Rather than seek a second horror, I decided to boost reputation now and completed a number of minor quests left previously, getting up to level 7 in the process. I also picked up the pantaloons and charisma tome while doing the rounds.
With reputation now at 20, a few more purchases, before heading to the basilisk area, included a necklace of missiles. Korax did his normal good job on the basilisks and Mutamin. Baerin was then charmed and beaten up. I was prepared to use fireballs on the others, but Korax did a good job by paralyzing Kirian and then did the same to Peter an instant before he died - allowing me to finish things off without any item use. I did though head north-east and fireball the Red Wizards to get the ring of energy.
The Cloakwood was negotiated without incident. At the mine, Genthore was pulled away and disposed of. Kysus was then charmed and fireballed himself. A follow-up necklace fireball killed him and another dealt with Rezdan - Drasus was then over-matched in melee. In the mine I made a first use of the wand of sleep against the ambush, though by this stage that wasn't really necessary. I got chased all the way up to the top of the mine before I was eventually allowed to rest and heal in peace. The Greenstone Amulet then provided a shield against Davaeorn's spells while he was cut down - providing me my final BGEE level.
Wizard slayer 8, 107 HPs, 205 kills
The first 4 character classes in this set of runs all have a decent chance of ultimate success if played well, but the wizard slayer needs not just good play, but also some decent luck - particularly in BGEE, SoD and early SoA. In the later stages of the game it's less dependent on chance, but getting there is a problem and I'll have to work hard to try and keep this character in the running with the others.
From Candlekeep I gave myself a flying start with Shoal and then the basilisks. All went well there, taking me to level 6. A shot from distance pulled Baerin away, but he killed Korax before I could finish him off and I didn't press the attack on the others.
Before going to Nashkel, I went to Firewine Bridge to kill Bentan - he has a PfM scroll, which is the only general magical defense I can use. I also wanted Bhaal LMD as an additional source of damage and one that can be used from full sight range. I had to retreat several times from his charm person spell, but eventually got the kill. While in the area I shot Meilum - mainly for the XP as I can't use his bracers. Greywolf was the next to be shot, to provide me with a decent melee weapon. He did some damage to me though, which takes a while to heal at 1 HP per rest. To address that I went next to the FAI to buy Buckley's Buckler, picking up the ogre's belt on the way to return to Unshey. Tarnesh failed to withstand the hail of darts sent at him.
With HPs up at 79, the ankheg nest seemed relatively unthreatening and that was cleared next. Then I bought some +1 darts to make killing the High Hedge golems easy. Back in Beregost, Silke became the first mage to survive long enough to suffer from wizard slayer spell failure - each hit applying a 25% chance, so guaranteed after 4 quick hits.
The Nashkel Mine was next, with Mulahey shot down before he could get close enough to talk - taking me to level 7. Outside the back door, the amazons were cooperative in allowing me to take them on one at a time - Lamalha was successful with a rigid thinking, but I was already out of sight at the time.
Back in Nashkel, I hit Nimbul 3 times, but he still managed to complete a horror spell - forcing me to run into the local shop to escape that, before emerging to take revenge for the indignity. After learning Bhaal CLW, a bit of stealing in Beregost reduced reputation back down to 9. Tranzig was then another mage to be hit 3 times before attempting a spell - unlike Nimbul, he failed.
At the Bandit Camp I beat up Taurgosz in melee, to inherit his armor and shield. Once the bandit archers were cleared I went into Tazok's tent and successfully poisoned Venkt with 2 darts of wounding. That persuaded me to stay inside and Venkt failed to complete any spells.
In the Cloakwood, my lack of magical protection persuaded me to go after Spider's Bane. That involved dragging enemies out of Centeol's nest one or two at a time, until the big man was left all alone. I realised while doing that I hadn't yet got a green scroll to cure poison - so went to do that. Moving on to the mine, Genthore was pulled away before Bhaal horror sent Drasus fleeing madly - until a stunning dart stopped him. Kysus came to intervene and I was a fraction slow at running from him - a confusion catching up with me just before I got to the edge of the map. However, I saved and returned to deal with Kysus with poison darts before turning again to Drasus - he recovered from the stun, but failed to land a blow in melee. Rezdan's opening spell was mirror image and his casting was shut down before he could start another one.
Inside the mine I worked down to the bottom without trouble. I did well to kill the first battle horror without taking any damage - retreating after each attack, to avoid retaliation when I had the initiative. That continued to work well and the second battle horror also went down without troubling the scorers. I did a straight assault on Davaeorn using +1 darts and managed to hit him 4 times before he attempted a spell at me before closing for the kill. I then rested to get a second Bhaal horror before flooding the mine.
Before going to Baldur's Gate, I travelled round doing reputation quests to maximise that - getting my final BGEE level in the process. I also collected the charisma tome, killed some spiders for Landrin and picked up the pantaloons.
Enchanter 9, 51 HPs, 163 kills
This character was generated almost 5 years ago, in the relatively early stages of the overall long-life challenge. It's only had one attempt though, which partly reflects that I'm generally not that fond of mages. However, given the strong fighter predominance in these 7 characters, a bit of arcane balance doesn't go amiss.
As I sometimes do to help me concentrate, I set out trying to avoid any damage at all to this character. That meant sticking to safe travel routes early on, so I didn't immediately go to Shoal. In Beregost I talked to Marl, found a book for Firebead, killed Neera with LMD and then blinded Silke to get my first level up.
To the south I dealt with Mirianne's ogrillons and Zhurlong's hobgoblins before coming back to sleep some spiders - getting up to level 3 as a result.
At High Hedge I shot the golems and purchased a few spells, including invisibility. Then it was up to the FAI, sleeping an ogre on the way to take me to level 4. The ring of wizardry gave me plenty of opportunities to blind Tarnesh, but I only needed one. While there, I picked up the pantaloons.
In Nashkel I did a few minor bits of work and rested to learn Bhaal CLW - the evil powers are no real help to a mage, so I don't need to worry about managing reputation in this run.
An invisible trip to Firewine Bridge saw Meilum blinded to get his bracers. The same happened to Greywolf to start my trip through the Cloud Peak Mountains, where sleep and blind continued to feature heavily. A blinded Vax provided me with the uplift to level 5.
Further reputation increases culminated with Charleston Nib pushing that to 20. The Doomsayer was blinded there and I did it some minor damage with rarely used burning hands, but critical hits from my non-proficient staff did most of the work from outside its sight range. That took a fair while, so I took the precaution of re-blinding it during the attack.
With friends reducing prices to their minimum, I bought the Dagger of Venom to speed up finishing off helpless enemies. A selection of spell scrolls, the Claw of Kazgaroth and the +3 staff were added, but the Robe of the Good Archmagi will have to wait for more resources to be gathered.
At the basilisk area, Korax as usual led the way to deal with Mutamin and his pets, taking me to level 7. A first use of skull traps then dealt with Kirian and her crew.
Skull traps also dealt with the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower. I was lucky to avoid damage on the wall when a skeleton appeared while I was casting, but missed its shot. Inside the Tower, MSD allowed me to go on and off the roof undamaged (and to grab the tome). My familiar got a rare outing to distract the basilisks while I blinded them - I got to level 8 there.
The Nashkel Mine was traversed without problems - the unavoidable traps there being countered by mirror image combined with luck. Rather than shoot Mulahey, I thought this time I would use skull traps for their intended purpose, rather than as the usual instant damage - Mulahey walking right into the traps there. More skull traps were used on the amazons outside the mine.
Nimbul had no answer to improved invisibility while he was malisoned and emotioned. Tranzig has good saves, but the 11th attempt at blinding him finally got through.
I treated myself to an archmage's robe before moving on to the Bandit Camp. Copious use of sleep there, with the familiar acting as an invisible scout, dealt with the bandit archers. Taurgosz was overcome by emotion. Inside the tent, Hakt, Britik & Venkt were blinded while out of sight of Raemon - a couple of skull traps then killed him. None of my own spells would ensure I avoided damage from the lightning trap, so I used a green scroll in conjunction with Mulahey's boots to get 100% resistance.
I went invisibly through the Cloakwood. At the mine, Genthore, Kysus and Rezdan were blinded. Skull traps then left Drasus and Genthore near death before emotion became their final straw (with both malison and specialist penalty, that was cast with a pretty nasty -6 to saving throw).
I had saved the game there and continued a bit later - by which time I'd forgotten I was supposed to be avoiding damage. That meant I was targeted with 3 shots by one of the guards, but my AC of -7 against missiles proved sufficient to keep me safe. After that, I sneaked down to the bottom and blinded the guard near the door. A potion of magic blocking and invisibility were used to trigger the traps and skull traps then killed the battle horrors and Davaeorn - I got my final BGEE level doing that. For the mustard jelly, I used mirror images + luck and took an oil of speed as well to be able to kill it within the 3 round luck duration. I failed to learn the knock scroll though, so had to leave the best bits of treasure. It's highly unlikely I'll be back, but I didn't flood the mine just in case I did want to do that.
Fighter dualling to cleric 7/0, 84 HPs, 228 kills
The last character in this selection is another new one to my challenge. In general I think the second class for dualled characters should be the predominant one and considered whether I should dual early. However, the major drawback for clerics is their lack of APR and taking a fighter to level 13 seems attractive as a way to help address that. In addition, the low XP required at higher level for clerics means they waste a lot of XP - getting to level 39 at 6,975k and then needing over 1m to get that final level. The 1.25m required for a Level 13 fighter would mean eventually getting to level 38 cleric (which is virtually identical in terms of abilities to level 39). Hence I'll aim to dual at level 13. To give me the best chance of success and help mitigate poor human saves, I'll start off as a berserker.
From Candlekeep I went to find Shoal, gaining a couple of levels for shooting her down. A few tasks in Beregost was enough for another level. I also killed Algernon for his cloak. Further work around Beregost included the High Hedge golems, but I missed out on the XP for Silke after charming her and misjudging how quickly she would die from spider poison. To make up for that I killed part of the Beregost Temple wolf pack to get up to level 5.
Nashkel provided the ankheg armor before Tarnesh was shot down, I went on to the ankheg area and killed Sonner - his flail providing me with a proficient melee weapon. That was used to clear the ankheg nest. Returning Tenya's bowl and killing the nearby ankheg was then enough for level 6.
Next up was the Nashkel Mine. There were no problems going to find Mulahey. Since I had rage, I decided I should allow Mulahey to talk this time. Just in case he got lucky, I made sure I could retreat if necessary - but there was no need to do so and all the enemies were dead before rage even expired. Rage also made short work of the amazons, Nimbul and then Tranzig to open up access to the Bandit Camp. On the way there I picked up the pantaloons.
At the Camp, Taurgosz found himself outmatched before I cleaned up the remaining bandit archers. While not necessary, I decided to change things up a bit and used a potion of firebreath to do most of the work in Tazok's tent.
There were no mistakes in the Cloakwood and I moved swiftly on to the mine. Kysus was charmed and fireballed the group, killing Rezdan. An initial Bhaal horror brought Drasus out to be meleed. Kysus was next and was poisoned by a dart and died before the horror wore off. That just left Genthore, who had no chance one-on-one.
I decided I didn't need another Bhaal horror, so before entering the mine I had a quick tour of the realms doing reputation quests. That tour included a successful restoration of Melicamp to take me to level 7, as well as grabbing the charisma tome. I finished off with a trip to the Lighthouse where Ardrouine pushed reputation to 20 before rage defended against the sirines - a single rage was also enough to smack down the 3 golems in the cave.
Back at the mine I worked down to the bottom, then joined up with a charmed guard to kill the battle horrors and then Davaeorn.
Chastened by our near-death experience with the drow war band guarding the exit from the Underdark, we move on to Ust Natha. Na'ashtar falls to traps and the Phaere rescue mission plays out the same way. Normally I skip out on Qilue, but since the mages in the aboleth's quest are only around level 14 or so, I decide to take it on.
It doesn't go so well. We get Breached three times in a row, and then half the party fails a save against Chaos. Even Korgan is confused; I doubted he would need rage since his buffs and saves were so good. I figured it was best to save the rage for when he really needed it (that 5-round cooldown after the 10-round duration got him disabled in a recent fight), but failing to activate it in time left him vulnerable.
Much like a mage-heavy party can quickly dismantle enemy buffs, a mage-heavy enemy can debuff the party in short order. Thankfully, Moth Sibula made her save, as I've given her a lot of save-boosting items.
We push through and keep attacking, and once the enemy Mantles wear off, all they have to protect them is Stoneskins (Mirror Image is gone thanks to Detect Illusions), and that is a much more finite defense.
After the fight, Haer'Dalis downs some Potions of Master Thievery and robs all of Ust Natha blind, earning us a ton of scrolls and potions and costing us zero money. Traps kill the beholder Phaere wants us to kill, a trap and a backstab slay the Egg Guards, and while I accidentally trigger Taso Kala and have to fight the Ghaunadar priests, Edwin's Horrid Wilting helps clear the field. We escape Ust Natha without further incident.
On the way out of the Underdark, we set a bunch of traps for the Demon Knights and rush at the survivors. The Demon Knights' Symbol spells, fireballs, and level drain attacks are very scary, especially when paired with Remove Magic, but we don't allow the fight to last enough to jeopardize the party's safety.
We now have Soul Reaver, a valuable tool to neutralize ToB's biggest fighters like dragons and the Ravager. ToB is a combat-heavy game, and penalizing enemy THAC0 as dramatically as Soul Reaver can is an excellent way to survive in tanking.
Back in Athkatla, we sell off our many stolen goods, buy pretty much every expendable we can, and then go pay Thaxll'silliyia a visit. We don't have full immunity to his breath weapon (the blindness is especially tough to escape), but our fighters are very efficient, and even Edwin manages to contribute when we get past the dragon's magic resistance.
Firkraag proves much more sturdy, and much more ruthless about who he targets. While Edwin fails to Feeblemind the dragon, Firkraag tramples Korgan and switches gears towards Moth Sibula when we have Korgan flee.
Aerie bails out Korgan with Greater Restoration, however, and we reset the situation. Firkraag hits hard, but our defenses against his breath weapon hold, and his Stoneskins run thin.
Next up is Bodhi! I still don't want to trigger Edwin's questline, so I give him the boot before entering the graveyard, picking Anomen to replace him. Anomen lands another lucky instant kill on Tanova and many other vampires, including Manasseh and Hazzerbazzer, and while the Grimwarders can see through Protection from Undead and deal some surprisingly hefty damage to him, the fight with Bodhi is a lot more manageable after Anomen does so much to clear the field.
With the Elven Holy Water in the blood pool Slowing Bodhi, we can tank her with Haer'Dalis under PFMW and run away whenever she threatens to attack someone else. She deals heavy damage with her Tactics-inspired SCS spells, but not enough to endanger us when we're not taking physical damage or level drain. Her excellent stats and midcombat heal can't keep her alive indefinitely. Not against a fighter-heavy party like ours.
Bodhi is down! Suldanessellar is next. We kick out Anomen and bring back Edwin.
Haer'Dalis tries to tank the golems with Stoneskin and Mirror Image instead of PFMW and probably gets flattened to a pancake, turning the battle into a longer struggle. The fight with the main rakshasa group goes better, as Edwin can wipe the board with two castings of Horrid Wilting.
Ramilaat falls to a Staff of Striking backstab, we rescue Demin with Horrid Wilting and Remove Magic, and we proceed to Nizidramanii'yt. We have HLAs now and can tank dragons a lot better. Notably, Jaheira can attain a staggering 90% resistance to physical damage by casting Hardiness and then equipping the Earth Elemental Token. The black dragon deals a solid chunk of damage with its breath weapon because I fail to protect everyone with Protection from Acid, but much like Bodhi, it can't translate that into any kills with our physical defenses still holding up.
Before we proceed to Irenicus, I want to scrape together every last resource we can grab from SoA. We take on the Guarded Compound, which is a breeze at epic levels. Edwin wrecks the enemies with Time Stop and Horrid Wilting, Moth Sibula removes Sion's illusions, and we burn through Sion's spell protections with a barrage of magic attacks.
I'm a little sketchy about trying to bring down Kangaxx, but his ring is very tempting, since the save bonuses will really do a lot to shore up Moth Sibula's unbuffed defenses. We set some traps for the other liches, but find that only some of our seven traps actually trigger and deal damage. Fortunately, Edwin has Time Stop spells and a whole suite of magic attacks to debuff the liches.
We're ready for Kangaxx! Kangaxx begins with invisibility and so Edwin can't threaten him until Moth Sibula reveals the lich--which takes several seconds due to the typical Detect Illusions delay, giving Kangaxx more time to act.
Haer'Dalis takes a lot of damage from an early Horrid Wilting spell, but Edwin steps forward to get a rapid debuff on Kangaxx: a Khelben's Warding Whip+Ruby Ray+Breach Chain Contingency on enemy sighted, which should wipe out Kangaxx's defenses. But something doesn't work.
Somehow, the Khelben's Warding Whip never actually hit Kangaxx, which means one less layer of spell protections got removed--enough to give Kangaxx more time. Why didn't the Warding Whip fire?
It wasn't in range.
I look up the spell descriptions. To my amazement, there's a small difference between Warding Whip and Ruby Ray that I never knew about, or would even expect to be relevant:
Ruby Ray has a range of 40.
Warding Whip has a range of 30.
Edwin was somewhere in between those two distances when the Chain Contingency fired, and so Warding Whip fizzled. Kangaxx's defenses survive, he casts Time Stop, and he follows up with Improved Alacrity. Then a Dark Planetar.
We're in trouble now. Protecting ourselves from the Dark Planetar takes time and attention away from attacking Kangaxx, buying him even more time to threaten us.
It's time to break out the big guns. Edwin casts Time Stop and launches a volley of Minute Meteors at Kangaxx, whose PFMW is finally gone. Kangaxx's PFMW Contingency triggers after the attacks hit, but Edwin has squeezed in more magic attacks, paving the way for a quick Breach and rendering the lich vulnerable once again.
Kangaxx transforms. Jaheira's Entropy Shield wears off just in time to let Kangaxx dispel both her and Korgan, whose opening rage has also worn off (once again, that cooldown proves worrisome). But our mages still have fresh SI: Abjuration spells protecting them, and Moth Sibula is safely out of sight and retains her buffs. Haer'Dalis and Korgan strike with the Mace of Disruption and Soul Reaver, and Aerie chips in with Energy Blades, prompting Kangaxx to fire off a Spell Trigger with PFMW in it.
Aerie and Haer'Dalis cast Secret Word and Breach to bring down both Spell Deflection and PFMW, but because the two spells hit too close together, the Spell Deflection absorbs the Breach before Secret Word takes it down--leaving Kangaxx's PFMW still intact, and two of our mages now have clouded auras.
Desperate to close things out, Korgan nails Kangaxx with the Ring of the Ram for a big chunk of damage. Aerie casts Breach as soon as she can, Kangaxx loses his PFMW as he gets Improved Alacrity off the ground, and Haer'Dalis and Korgan close in.
Kangaxx goes down! The ring is ours, and now Moth Sibula should be all but immune to disablers so long as she doesn't get hit with Greater Malison.
It's almost time for Irenicus. But there's one more fight I've been contemplating.
The Twisted Rune.
It's an agonizing decision. The Twisted Rune is a vicious fight, probably the hardest in Shadows of Amn with SCS installed, and I don't think I've got any silver bullets prepared. Vaxall has Anti-Magic Ray and excellent mage defenses with his constant-effect aura cleansing. Layenne is an epic-level mage with the Staff of the Magi. Shangalar's a lich. And we even have a fighter and a vampire to deal with, all at once.
It adds up to a truly terrifying ordeal, one with a serious risk of defeat. But the Staff of the Magi is an incredibly useful tool, and will make Sendai in ToB far safer for Moth Sibula. The invisibility it grants won't protect us from everything, but it's a big deal and will protect Moth Sibula from lots of different threats.
I decide to take the gamble. We're tackling the Twisted Rune.
We buff with everything we've got for the Twisted Rune. As usual, I keep our main character secluded in the stairwell to the southwest while the rest of the party hovers around the northeast, with a single distraction, Jaheira, right next to where Shangalar spawns. Like with the other liches before Kangaxx, only some of our traps trigger, and so Shangalar survives the initial damage.
Then Shangalar's buddies spawn. Edwin's triple Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency fires, killing some rats and dealing a lot of damage to Shyressa--helpful, but not a real game changer. Aerie casts True Seeing to reveal Layenne (Moth Sibula, hiding in the stairwell, is not close enough to reach here with Detect Illusions), while Korgan runs to the east with the Mace of Disruption, hoping to land a kill on Shyressa and obviate the need for PFMW on our mages.
Shangalar stops time, summoning two Cornugons and a Fallen Planetar right on top of us. But Edwin casts Time Stop as well, and the durations are enough to make Vaxall's PFMW wear off. Edwin sends a bunch of Minute Meteors at Vaxall, slaying the beholder right after it manages to debuff Haer'Dalis. Meanwhile, Aerie's Energy Blades interrupt a spell from Layenne.
Edwin's magic attacks, cast during Time Stop, hit Shangalar one after another, as we made sure to move Edwin in between each casting so they wouldn't hit all at once and fizzle. Shangalar loses some of his buffs and Layenne falls to Energy Blades, but Haer'Dalis, currently under fire from the Fallen Planetar, fails to cast PFMW to avoid a vorpal strike--Vaxall's Anti-Magic Ray is still disabling his spellcasting.
We pull Haer'Dalis away before he gets killed and he switches to flinging the Firetooth dagger. The battlefield is crowded and chaotic, but Haer'Dalis brings down the Fallen Planetar, and Edwin nails Shangalar with Spellstrike, paving the way for a Breach.
The enemy is broken! We polish off Shangalar, clean up the enemy summons, and snatch the Staff of the Magi for Moth Sibula. It will be an excellent backup option for her in ToB.
While we're in Athkatla, we visit the Crooked Crane lich. Edwin uses Time Stop and magic attacks to debuff the lich, followed by another volley of Minute Meteors, shooting it down safely. After snatching Daystar, I decide to go for the Alhoon next. Edwin again uses Time Stop to get guaranteed attacks, both with minute Meteors and dual-wielding Firetooth and the Bone Blade, but the Alhoon just barely survives, and time resumes.
The Alhoon can't be underestimated. It can cast Improved Haste on itself and attack during Time Stop, which spells instant death for anyone without PFMW. I can't afford to let it get Time Stop off the ground.
Edwin manages to land a hit with the Staff of the Magi, however, getting past Improved Mantle. Korgan rushes in to zap it with the Ring of Energy, and when that fails to kill it, Haer'Dalis joins him, slaying the undead mind flayer with the Ring of the Ram.
Moth Sibula gains a level! She now has Use Any Item, and can equip the Staff of the Magi. Once we've forged Crom Faeyr, we head back to the Underdark to get some Control Circlets. The mind flayer city goes cleanly, as we have LOTS of spellslots for our various buffs, and dozens of Potions of Genius to avoid Intelligence drain. Edwin then uses Time Stop to loot the beholder hive, on the off chance we ever need to use the Greenstone Amulet.
We've done everything we can now. It's time for the end.
Rather than set traps for Irenicus, we opt to give him a shot, just like we did in Spellhold. He has prebuffs this time, but a crucial one is missing: Spell Shield. We immediately hit him with Shatter Spell on a Fire Seed and mob him, switching to nonmagical weapons to get past his PFMW Contingency.
As usual, I unequip all of my rings/cloaks/amulets of protection while the enemy Hakeashars are on the battlefield, as their item charge drain attack can permanently destroy those items if you're playing with PnP-style protection items from the Tweaks mod.
Edwin kills the beholders in Hell using Time Stop and dual-wielding with Firetooth, a powerful combination that simplifies some ToB fights. We go with the good options in Hell, but we attempt to kill the djinni after freeing it. For the first time in a long time, we succeed!
Blackrazor will be excellent in Haer'Dalis' hands, but honestly powergaming is only part of the reason I like to try and grab Blackrazor. Honestly, the sword is just really cool.
We prepare for the final fight of SoA, setting some Special Snares near the bottom of the map to Maze any enemies who chase us as we run away, and finally using a Find Familiar scroll to buff up Moth Sibula's HP. We also use a scroll to give Moth Sibula SI: Abjuration, burning a finite resource to ensure her buffs stay up after the enemy opens with Remove Magic.
Somehow, Jaheira loses her buffs to Remove Magic, despite having an Entropy Shield that's supposed to prevent that from happening.
Apparently, fiends use a special version of Remove Magic, and Entropy Shield does not have an opcode to block that spell. Aerie, too, has lost her dispellable buffs--somehow I forgot to give her SI: Abjuration.
The Slayer, fortunately, is missing a Spell Shield, and because it opens with a conjuration spell instead of an alteration spell, I feel safe moving to debuff it, knowing that a Time Stop is not coming just yet. Edwin fires off a Spellstrike, wiping out all of the Slayer's spell protections, and Aerie follows up with a Breach spell, completely debuffing the Slayer aside from its illusion spells.
A PFMW Contingency prevents us from going further, however, and the enemy demons apply pressure as the Slayer's Fallen Planetar joins the fight. Aerie, shorn of her Stoneskins, nearly dies to a devil's claws before she casts PFMW. Meanwhile, Korgan and Haer'Dalis tank the enemies, and Jaheira scurries away to drink a Potion of Magic Shielding, lest some random disabler take her out.
Edwin brings out a Fallen Planetar of our own and we take down a Balor, but Korgan quickly approaches death as the demons dogpile him. Aerie moves to cast Greater Restoration on herself, but her aura is still fogged. Our Fallen Planetar is also slow to Heal Korgan, who we have to pull away from the enemy.
Our earlier Breach proves to be a solid choice, however, as the Slayer has lost its defenses and is vulnerable to damage--and one of its own summoned efreetis catches the Slayer with a Fireball that manages to get past its magic resistance!
That's an alteration spell the Slayer was casting, either Time Stop or Improved Alacrity. A very valuable thing to disrupt.
Finally our Fallen Planetar Heals Korgan, and Edwin gets a Time Stop off the ground. Switching to Firetooth and the Bone Blade and buffed with Improved Haste, he chops up the enemy Fallen Planetar and then a Balor.
Edwin re-casts Time Stop, finishing off more enemies and working on debuffing the Slayer further. Soon the Slayer is alone, low on defenses and outnumbered. Haer'Dalis finally hits it with Breach, and Aerie follows up with Implosion, rendering the Slayer helpless.
It manages to get one last PFMW off the ground, which we promptly Breach. It's over for the Slayer.
Shadows of Amn is ours! We are all early into epic levels, with every key piece of gear available in Shadows of Amn--aside from the several items we were supposed to get from importing from Siege of Dragonspear, which I don't mind too much. We are in an excellent position to deal with Throne of Bhaal.
I am still apprehensive. Most of the fights in ToB are very safe with the right approach and our party's power level, but I still see game-ending scenarios from Abazigal and Melissan in particular. Abazigal has a bad habit of applying spell failure on our mages, and if we lose our party members, a long-range Maze from Big Blue himself could end the game if Moth Sibula is alone.
Melissan is more worrisome still. Even at the best of times, the fight is a mess of various threats, from damage to debuffs to disablers, and there's a LOT of HP to chew through. Mishandling Melissan and getting hit with her infamous Time Stop+Greater Whirlwind Attack combo could be fatal.
Accordingly, we'll be choosing primarily defensive HLAs and Mimicry choices for Moth Sibula. Notably, while a Trickster can only take a single HLA of each type from each class, the damage resistance bonuses from Shadow Form and Spirit Form, the Shadowdancer and Shaman-exclusive HLAs, stack with both Hardiness and Defensive Stance, making it very possible to give Moth Sibula virtual immunity to damage at instant speed.
Most importantly, though, Moth Sibula has one key tool at her disposal that gives her a profound advantage if the final fight goes horribly wrong:
Easy As Breathing, a Trickster-specific HLA that grants permanent aura cleansing.
Due to her XP penalties and the limited HLAs we can pick, Moth Sibula won't be able to do anything silly like getting guaranteed critical hit backstabs in iron golem form at 10 APR with Kai active, but it means that we don't need to worry about her aura unless we're trying to drink a potion or use a scroll. As long as Moth Sibula remains breathing and stays vigilant, she can respond to any threat with an admittedly finite number of defensive spells like Hardiness.
Alright, I'd like to make an honest effort at actually adding something to the Halls of Heroes. Last time I ran a Conjurer, I got about 1/3 into ToB before losing the save file due to an OS upgrade.. so let's try that one again. However, I'll add a twist: He'll be bringing a friend from Candlekeep, arguably one of the most powerful classes in the game (in the sense that anything fighter/mage-like is powerful): An elven Fighter/Mage/Thief.
Starting: In BG1EE.
Difficulty: Insane with no level-dependent damage increase; maximum HP on level-up enabled.
Mods: Full SCS 34.3.
Protagonist: Aldain, Human Conjurer.
Aldain starts with + in Sling, and has selected Find Familiar, Sleep and Blind for his starting spells. Excellent roll, though it really doesn't matter that much for a Conjurer (I prefer the convenience of high Charisma over Strength).
Amarande starts with ++ in Short Sword and Two-Weapon Style, and has selected Sleep and Identify for his starting spells. Also a really good roll, though it'll take some time before Amarande starts becoming a serious front-line presence (owing to, even with maximum rolls enabled, the severe HP problem a F/M/T without a familiar struggles with for a long time).
Amarande's thiefly escapades during BG1EE will consists of getting his Pickpocket high enough to comfortably be able to steal anything and everything (from stores, since with high enough PP you can't fail that check... I'm 99.9% sure, at least) during BG2EE. Once that's done, he'll go for Set Traps followed by Detect Illusions, and if there's anything left over it goes to Move Silently/Hide in Shadows: We'll be bringing Imoen for all of BG2EE, so there's no need for the utility skills (and if she AND her immediate replacement Jan both end up chunked, we'll be relying on the oodles of thiefly potions Amarande will be stealing from stores, I guess).
Off we go. Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 1
Next update here
We breeze through Candlekeep, stealing what little we can get with no risk (the Potion of Clarity and the 60ish gold + Flamedance ring from the Noble's room being the pick of the litter). Once outside, we bring Imoen, Xzar and Montaron for safety in numbers. I've no moratorium on easter eggs this run, so in addition to the 300 gold from Firebead, we help ourselves to a diamond, RoP +1 and the Ring of Wizardry (which Amarande will be using most of the time, owing to how many things we want to identify. Yes, I still refrain from using unidentified items). Tarnesh manages to take down Xzar, but that's it.
Xzar gets an inpromptu burial behind the Temple of Wisdom, whilst Montaron and Imoen are left to the tender cares of the FAI: They are replaced by Khalid and Jaheira. We immediately head east, helping out and (temporarily) recruiting Viconia; the plate mail goes to Khalid, since he will be our principal tank.
We swing by the FAI, wipe out the Hobgoblins, rest, and head north. Viconia swipes the entirety of the Ankheg treasure (minus Farmer Brun's son, we'll come back for him when we've got our full party assembled) under Sanctuary: The Wand of Fire will be very useful to us. We head further north, not speaking with Tenya, but clearing the Ankheg to the north of her shack. We end up needing all three of Viconia's memorized Command to bring it down safely, but down it goes.
Amarande grabs the shell; we'll store it in Beregost shortly, to be turned into plate later. We trek yet further north: In Ulgoth's Beard, we drop off Viconia at the inn, and buy 30 Arrows +2. Together with the Scroll of Stone to Flesh from the Temple of Wisdom, that's most of our early gold gone, but it's for a good cause. We head back south: We'll pick up Kivan at High Hedge (to ultimately be replaced by Coran), then it's off to Nashkel for Branwen. We'll grab some experience though not overly much, and then rush through the Mines and the Camp so we can get at Coran.
Of course, not having a Cleric in Beregost means no Command, a fact which does not escape the notice of Jaheira when the Thayvian Wizard drops a downright mean Flame Arrow in her lap.
We're saving as much experience as possible, but since we're already having inventory issues I wanted to at least grab the gem bag. Jaheira survived at least, as does Neera after volunteering everything she was carrying for our use. We do clear out the very minor areas between Beregost and Nashkel, because I don't want to have to come back here. Once at the Carnival, we recruit Branwen, and since she came with spells memorized, we talk to Noober and deal with Neira before resting.
We also helped ourselves to a Wand of Lightning in Beregost, and a few low-level scrolls as well as an additional Potion of Invisibility from the Nashkel mansion. Alright! We trigger Dorn's ambush without incident (the two bandits nearly always go for my protagonist, but Aldain was running Armor and the Girdle of Piercing so they failed to do anything before he moved out of LoS). Greywolf fails his save against Command and drops, yielding Khalid's first, last and best weapon for the rest of BG1EE.
We're on a timer (Kivan) so I'd rather not rest unnecessarily: We press on into the Mines, even though half the party are still level 1. It requires some careful juggling to keep in particular Khalid alive (tanking with 13 HP isn't easy), but a few applications of the Wand of Fire lets us pull through. I'm being more generous than usual with consumables: I always end up with 2 full inventories of wands and potions anyway, so let's just use them to make the early levels easier instead. We can even deal with the Kobold Chieftain and his Shaman using strictly the Wand of Fire: A Fireball clears out their underlings, whilst a Scorcher and Command spell the end of the big guys.
We enter Mulahey's lair, but proceed no further than having Branwen raid his chest (for the spell scrolls) under Sanctuary. We'll be back, but we do want to be higher level than this before proceeding to the Bandit Camp, and for that matter activating the Bounty Hunters. We take the scenic route out, i.e. via the Valley of Tombs: The revenant is left alone, but we raid the other two tombs (again utilizing Sanctuary for the one with triple Ghasts, as we're saving experience). Wand of Monster Summoning will be a very welcome panic button. Swinging back by Nashkel we clear Oopah (who drops a scroll of Blur.. not bad) and Vitiare.
OK! The plan now is to finish the Beregost circuit, including Bassilus (but excluding the Wolf Pack, as they're purely experience, no money or items). The money gained will be put towards bribing our reputation up, since we're using 1/4 reputation gain from SCS (and in my experience, this typically means it takes a VERY long time, if ever, before you hit 20 reputation). Since we want to do some shopping before the end of the game, we'll aim for 20 reputation as fast as possible.
Apparently, others have actually seen Jemby pre-buff with MSD, but fortunately she's content with Shield and MI in my installation. Thus, a single Command spells her end, and a simultaneous Sleep from Aldain ensures Zekar cannot interfere, leaving only a hapless melee goon to contend with.
We clear the Half-Ogres using a second Sleep, and drive north. Zorgal and his cronies all succumb to Sleep, but we leave Bassilus alone for a moment: There's experience to be had in Beregost, and I'd feel more comfortable with a slightly larger HP buffer before we tackle a level 11 (I think?) Cleric. Here we find a use for the +2 arrows previously purchased (the handful of Arrows of Fire we got from the Mines wouldn't have been enough, I think), as Thalantyr's Flesh Golems have no response to ranged attacks. This nets Khalid level 3, and he is now very likely to survive even a heavy hit; Amarande also gets his first level, though it just leads to a slight increase in PP and a handful of hitpoints, but still.
Feeling slightly more secure, we go after Bassilus. As he sometimes does, he leads with a summon, but fortunately it's Animate Dead, not Aerial Servant. An initial Fireball from the Wand of Fire clears nearly all the undead Bassilus starts with, and since Animate Dead has such a long casting time (and Bassilus didn't pre-buff with Protection from Fire), a Scorcher (combined with a hit from the Wand of Frost from the Nashkel mines; we do have two arcane casters in the party) is actually enough to bring him down. We gleefully loot the body and take off, leaving the very slow Skeleton Warrior ineffectually chasing after us.
Alright, NOW we can do some reputation quests, since we hand in Bassilus' holy symbol and promptly buy reputation up to 17. Melicamp survives but doesn't give reputation. In fact, NONE of the Beregost quests do. Meh. We take our frustrations out on Silke, who without pre-buffs (she doesn't fire any...) simply cannot contend with a party.
We finish all the little stuff in Beregost, and Amarande manages to swipe Algernon's Cloak on the first try (Jaheira with Charm Person or Mammal was on hand to afford us a second try if necessary). We make a brief foray to the FAI, where Joia finally sees fit to grant us a single reputation point. Well, it's not so bad: The Cloakwood Mines are 1 point guaranteed, so we only need to get lucky once more before we can shop to our heart's content. Before that, however, we head to Ulgoth's Beard again: Amarande successfully relieves Dushai of a Web scroll (nice), Potion of Power (really nice), and Ring of Freedom of Action (stupendous). That will come in very handy, and naturally goes to Khalid.
Since Aldain hit level 3, we use the Red potion to allow for perfect scribing: About 2000 gold is spent on essential scrolls from High Hedge (Invisibility, Skull Trap, MI, MSD etc.). We've finished the circuit we set out for, and so it's time to make a beeline for Coran: Mulahey, of course, stands no chance at this point (we don't even have to use a Fireball charge for his cronies, opting instead to just fight on two fronts at the same time).
Back in Nashkel, a charmed Oublek (much to his dismay) leads the charge against Nimbul, granting us 2700 gold and the emeralds we previously handed in. We swiftly avenge the poor fellow.
We're now always traveling invisibly (both Aldain and Amarande, as the latter still has atrocious HP), in anticipation of the Amazon ambush and their backstabs. Tranzig drops to a backstab of our own and swift follow-up:
As we make our way toward the Bandit Camp, no ambushes occur. Osmadi and Corsone are both taken down without either getting a spell off, with a Brown Bear courtesy of Kivan's Charm Animal acting as spell decoy.
Finally we arrive at the Bandit Camp. We keep pre-buffing very light: Just Shield on Aldain and Remove Fear. Amarande heads north, backstabs a bandit archer, then actually finds a safe use for the Wand of Lightning: He harasses his pursuers with it as he retreats south towards the party, killing quite a few enemies on the way. The battle proper goes well: Double Web and Entangle ensures the enemies stay in one place, and we did pick up The One Gift Lost (from a merchant that you can't steal from, boo!) at the Carnival. With two sources of bombardment, the gaggle of bandits stand no real chance: Venkt manages an Ice Lance at Khalid, but that's about it.
Khalid also ends up tanking the lightning trap in the main tent (Amarande's measly 25 Find Traps being insufficient to even spot it). With the Cloakwood open, we swiftly pick up Coran, leaving Kivan to guard the bridge. All that's left is to raid the Wyvern lair, and we have our final party assembled!
There's no longer any need to be stingy with what experience we pick up where, so we clear the Spider Woods (apart from Centeol's lair) and the Shadow Druids (apart from the Shadow Archdruid.. we will take him out, in a little while) as we pass through. There is a slight scare as Izefia is less than a second away from completing an Alteration spell aimed at Aldain (presumably Call Lightning), but an emergency Scorcher takes him down just before it completes. Another scare is Takiyah successfully calling in a Nymph which starts an Enchantment spell (Confusion, I'm sure). Good thing Nymphs are quite fragile, or that could've ended badly.
Transitioning to the Wyvern area, we finally find the Amazons. The fight goes (almost) perfectly: Amarande ends up taking a surprisingly weak backstab since Invisibility Purge by Branwen is slow to cast, but other than that the worst thing that happens is a Hold Person at Khalid, who is immune owing to his ring.
The Wyvern cave presents no obstacle at this point: On the way back we clear out Centeol, but Khalid takes a real beating due to a silly mistake on my part. He had the Belt of Antipode equipped so Centeol wouldn't use her Wand of Frost, but that meant his Protection from Fire spell from Branwen only set his Fire resistance to 0: Meaning the Scorcher by invisible Amarande dealt some serious damage to Khalid as well as all the spiders.
Still, everyone lived. Back in Beregost, Officer Vai affords us another reputation point, and Kheldath coughs up 2000 gold for a Wyvern head. Lookin' good, lookin' real good! We have our party fixed, we have some levels, we have some gear. I'll probably do a quick run of the areas west of Nashkel next (Jaheira needs the Gauntlets of Dexterity, and a magical club wouldn't hurt either), but once that's done there's nothing preventing us from pressing on and unlocking Baldur's Gate. This seems a good spot to call it quits for now.
Aldain is now a level 5 Human Conjurer.
Amarande is now a level 3/3/4 Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief.
His first pip went into Bastard Sword (Jhor the Bleeder/Foebane/Short Sword of Mask in the main-hand depending on what he's doing, Kundane in the off-hand will be his preferred weapon setup). I'm still debating what he should go for once he's got ++ Bastard Sword and +++ Two-Weapon Style: There's enough pips left to achieve specialization in one more weapon towards the end of ToB. I'd like a level-drain immunity weapon for the fight at the Throne, and there are only three of those you are guaranteed to be able to get (and the mace is kind of spoken for by Minsc, who I'll be bringing along for BG2EE). Leaning towards Long Sword since it's a shame Angurvadal gets so little use, but War Hammer would also be good for the save-or-die against undead (and it's much easier to get). We'll see.
So far, all of his points have gone into PP, which is sitting pretty at 150. Is Bernard the most difficult merchant to steal from at 128, I wonder? If so 230 PP should be plenty.
Trio 51 Update - Planar Prison, Planar Sphere, Windspear Hills
Corecleric XX - halfling priest of Lothander, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Mirazi - human mage (Grond0)
Betson - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
The Trio found themselves in the Planar Prison. Grond0 tried to cloudkill the umber hulks but none of them died. We also got the Wyvern attacking us, and Mirazi was hurt to near death. The next part went smoothly. Taking down the Master of Thralls was no problem with some Ariel Servants helping us. Also the Warden got sileneced and then taken down by Corecleric's sling. However, Gate70 went to the right and caused a bunch of dangerous summons to appear right on Corecleric! Corecleric ran for his life, healed and sent in some summons - luckily the party was able whittle down these enemies - whew!
Next up was the Planar Sphere. We did OK against the halflings, but Richard go to near death because his dart was equipped when a sword spider attacked him - whoops! For the next batch of halflings who like to throw petrify, Mirazi used skull traps to good effect. Some golems were then mopped up.
Time for the necromancer, who we used a skeleton warrior to distract him. We then worked to get the demon heart - that worked pretty well, though Betson got hurt pretty bad by the demon. For Tolgerias, Betson was protected by anti-mage buffs and also Mirazi managed to confuse both mages which made it easy. The next room of trolls and mepthits in the cold room were no problem.
We came unstuck in the engine room though as golems killed Betson. So the party had to rest so Corecleric could raise Betson. The engine was finally fixed. Quest complete!
Next up - Windspear Hills. Gate70 took quite a beating from the knights but nothing a little rest couldn't fix up. On to Firkraag's lair...we used protection from fire (green scroll) and the fire resistance ring on Corecleric to tank the genies...true sight was used for the hidden elemental...some skeletons were pre-laid for Samia's gang. Mirazi opened with a sunfire that hurt Samia's gang quite a bit.
The golems and orgs hurt Corecleric quite a bit and Betson once again bit the dust...with the summons of animal summons, Corecleric and Mirazi cleared the enemies and brought back Betson.
Tazok and his minions were no match for for the party. Time to deal with Conster to free the girl - Mirazi got nearly killed by Conster's chain lightning but she held on to a sliver of life...
Time for Firkraag with the cleric magic resistance, Firkraag was fair game for the cleric's and mage's magic. Betson got the kill shot. We ran out of time so saved here.
Throne of Bhaal begins, opening with Illasera! Traps kill her mage buddy, PFMW and the Reflex block her attacks, and we stomp her so thoroughly we have no good screenshots of the fight.
Sarevok joins the party, and Aerie is now out. As crucial as she was to many of our SoA encounters, I place a LOT of value on fighter levels in ToB, and Aerie just doesn't scale that much in the final chapter of the saga. Especially with the beefier enemies in Ascension, damage output is incredibly important. Sarevok will be wielding the Soul Reaver for us, but when we eventually convert him to Chaotic Good, we'll still have a solid Soul Reaver user in the form of Korgan.
For the first Pocket Plane trial, I use some Wand of Cloudkill charges to clear the first few waves of enemies, then activate our shorter-term buffs as the drow start to run thin. When Irenicus, the enemy Sarevok, and Bodhi spawn in, we immediately hit Jon-bon with Shatter Spell via Fire Seed.
The dude just can't get his buffs up in this run. He still gets Time Stop off the ground (Moth Sibula's Detect Illusions didn't hit him in time), but he wastes much of his time and we see no meaningful spells come out of him. Moth Sibula hits him with the Staff of the Magi when he tries to raise some defenses, prompting a short chase where we run Bodhi in circles and keep whacking her brother with a stick.
We mishandle it and Bodhi smacks Moth Sibula with 5 level drains, one for each finger, and Irenicus cleverly uses PW: Kill on our Sarevok just as his HP dipped below 60.
We patch Moth Sibula up with a Lesser Restoration scroll, beat up Bodhi until she turns into a bat, and spend some time removing the buffs that Irenicus keeps bringing out. Eventually he goes with a PFMW Spell Trigger without Stoneskin, leaving him wide open to Haer'Dalis' nonmagical katana.
When the battle is over, Moth Sibula gains another level, and takes Easy as Breathing as her second HLA. She now has permanent aura cleansing! Since she is level 25 now, she gains another use of Mimicry, and trades it for a casting of an Inquisitor's Dispel Magic. Inquisitors are nerfed in my install, casting DM at 1.5x their level, but since Moth Sibula is a thief (albeit a little behind due to the Trickster XP penalties), she'll have a nearly 100% chance of removing buffs with Dispel Magic, as long as the targets don't have SI: Abjuration.
Next up is Saradush! We've got enough levels and gear to trivialize most of the fights (though fights always warrant careful prep first), but Gromnir is a bit messy in Ascension. Two mages, a bunch of fighters (one of whom I think is a Wizard Slayer!), and a medusa with a petrification attack all add up to a complicated fight.
We send Korgan ahead to tank, and allow Karun the Black to cast his Time Stop uncontested since we know from experience that thwarting him is challenging and not always necessary. Instead, we wait until he's out of Time Stop and is visible without PFMW before Moth Sibula simplify whacks him with the Staff of the Magi. Edwin does a bit of crowd control to simplify the fight.
Haer'Dalis focuses on the medusa before she has a chance to petrify anyone, and we take a moment to pin down Gromnir, who is sturdy but not super threatening in most of my runs.
We proceed to the fire giant's lair, getting an unpleasant surprise when we fail to buff properly heading inside. The Burning Men hit us with Keening and send Korgan, Jaheira, and Edwin all running, drawing the attention of other enemies. We have Resist Fear prepped on Haer'Dalis, though, and recover the party after a bit of hassle.
The first area of Yaga-Shura's lair is slow and punishing, so rather than fight anything, I just have Moth Sibula loot all of the wardstones and run around under Protection from Undead and invisibility, dodging a bunch of fights along the way.
I think Brimstone is also avoidable, but I've always fought him and the other fire giants on the second level. There's a lot of melee pressure here, but Haer'Dalis has PFMW and is very safe. Sarevok takes a lot of damage, though. Edwin casts Improved Alacrity to spam his many spells, including a Power Word: Blind on Moth Sibula, who takes advantage of the blindness and her natural aura cleansing to set a bunch of snares midcombat.
I fail to properly defend Sarevok and only draw him away on the brink of death, and the enemy just barely manages to kill him. I resurrect him for a bit of extra crossbow damage, and our sturdier critters tough out the rest of the fight.
Sarevok might be able to apply heavy THAC0 penalties with the Soul Reaver, but since he can only hit one target per attack, he can't cripple a whole bunch of enemies at once--at least, not very quickly.
I go to Nyalee, defeating the skeletons with the Staff of the Magi and Haer'Dalis' Remove Magic spell, but somehow we don't have both hearts; only one of them. I hike back to the Marching Mountains to get the other heart.
It's nowhere in sight. I scour the area, even getting into a sticky fight with Imix, but the only heart that seems to exist in my save is the one individual heart in my inventory. I actually have to use the console to spawn it just to proceed in the main questline.
Nyalee blinds the entire party, but we have enough magic attacks to debuff her and the THAC0 penalties aren't enough to cripple us. The witch goes down.
We use some Heal and Neutralize Poison spells to cure the blindness, then move on to Yaga-Shura himself. I do my normal approach, hiding the party and prepping long-term buffs, then hitting Yaga-Shura once and retreating into the shadows until he returns.
Then something weird happens. Yaga-Shura seems to have no damage resistances.
He dies in seconds. He's not supposed to do that in Ascension; he's supposed to have ludicrous damage resistances that decrease over time.
I look it up in Near Infinity and Yaga-Shura is apparently a vanilla critter right now; he has no Ascension changes. I panic for a moment, wondering how much of the game has been done with a vanilla install (and if I'll have to redo the whole game just to complete an Ascension run), but after reviewing our past fights, I realize that the problem is only Yaga-Shura. I reinstall my mods and finally return to the fight.
Yaga-Shura has his resistances! We're good.
A lot of stuff starts happening at once. Moth Sibula has mages to debuff with the SotM and Detect Illusions, Edwin has mobs to bomb, and our fighters have the giant himself to bring down.
It's an absolute swarm of threats. We lose some buffs and for a moment chug along just fine, despite Edwin and Jaheira suffering spell failure from one of Yaga-Shura's special abilities. To my surprise, Jaheira actuallys get stunned! Apparently one of the enemies activated Power Attack and took advantage of her lack of Chaotic Commands.
Jaheira loses half of her HP, but the rest of the party manages to slay the giant before the enemy can finish her off.
We go for the next Pocket Plane trial before Amkethran, using Remove Magic to debuff Semaj and trampling Moth Sibula's doppelganger through sheer force of fighter levels.
Draconis, easily the most boringly-named dragon in the saga, opens with a suite of buffs that immediately die to Shatter Spell. Spell Shield is a bad thing to have missing when the other side has Spellstrike or Shatter Spell.
He casts Mantle when he loses his buffs, but the SotM removes it right afterwards. After a lot of beating, he switches to dragon form, enclosing Haer'Dalis in his circle and pinning our bard in place. It's a well-known EE bug, but since it's not super dangerous in this case, we just roll with it rather than using CTRL-J to resolve it. The dragon goes down quickly anyway.
Unlike Brimstone, Draconis has no allies to distract us, and that makes all the difference.
Inside Abazigal's lair, things are not so simple. The lizard man battle is nearly always a nightmare in my runs, with multiple enemies casting both Time Stop and Insect Plague and PFMW and Nature's Beauty. Edwin gets Time Stop off the ground and follows up with a stream of spells under Improved Alacrity, but unfortunately can't simply kill the lizard man shamans during Time Stop; they're invisible and unlike Moth Sibula he has no DI to reveal them.
Once they are visible, however, Edwin can recast Time Stop and do some work on them, dual-wielding daggers for the shamans and burning up his Energy Blades on the other fighters. He adds some magic attacks during Time Stop, and manages to debuff one of the mages he fails to kill with his daggers.
After that, all we need to do is focus our attention on the shaman and it crumples in short order. This was by far the simplest fight I've had with those shamans since an SCS or Ascension update made them as scary as they are now, and Edwin enjoys exclusive responsibility for our success. His ability to spam Time Stop is critical in a fight like this one.
Anadramatis goes smoothly as well. We have tons of damage output, lots of tanking ability, and Edwin always ready with a Spellstrike and Breach. On the way out, we run past the demons that spawn in the lizard man area, clean up some kuo-toa, and head back to Amkethran for some rope.
Now we have to deal with the quadruple dragon ambush.
My luck has held up pretty well to date to keep the whole team alive through BGEE. So long as I keep things simple and concentrate well in SoD, most of the characters should have a very high chance of success there as well. The wizard slayer is again by far the weakest link, but I'll be hoping for a bit of good fortune to keep him going.
Fighter/thief 8/10, 101 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 280 kills
I noted at the start of the session I'd not yet got the Ring of Energy and went to do that with the help of a couple of potion fireballs and a backstab once Denak was alone. Then it was back to the City.
I wasn't really worried about XP or cash, so most of the work done was to get equipment - the tomes, Helm & Cloak of Balduran, +2 ring, Helm of Glory, nymph cloak, necklaces of missiles. I managed to trip the trap on the Helm (hope I don't do that with a maze trap), but otherwise there were no particular problems. The basilisk in the city was wounded by a couple of traps set round the corner of a crate before being finished with a backstab - saving me the cost of a potion there.
I noted during the fight with Degrodel's guards that I had not got the crushing girdle. So, once Marek's poison had been dealt with, I had a quick trip to the Cloud Peaks to double-check that Krumm had already been killed. I can't remember if I lost that or perhaps sold it to save inventory space.
The final battle for now in the City was at the Iron Throne. Naaman was charmed and used a scorcher on the others - who swiftly took revenge. Necklace fireballs killed the other casters before the fighters were scimitared.
Back in Candlekeep I looted the tombs before sneaking past Prat's gang - I couldn't resist though using a green scroll to kill the basilisks.
I wasn't interested in fighting Krystin, so just used a stealth shot to dispel Slythe before beating him up.
At the palace I charmed the Flaming Fist guards before buffing with potions and showing myself. A couple of traps did a bit of damage to start with and an opening use of the wand of sleep put one of the dopplegangers on the floor. The others fell quickly, with Belt and Liia both comfortably surviving.
After fighting through the maze, I bypassed Rahvin's group on the way to the old temple. A stealth shot dispelled Sarevok and stealthing towards him prompted his dialogue and Semaj to teleport out. For safety I used a PfM scroll while shooting him down. After a bit more shooting weakened Sarevok, a single backstab was sufficient to lay him low.
As a postscript, I belatedly remembered I had intended to go to Durlag's Tower after Candlekeep. The loss of a wisdom tome makes no real difference to this character, but let's hope I can do better about completing all intended work with the others ...
Fighter/mage/cleric 7/8/8, 85 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar, 5 from helm), 295 kills
A friends scroll was used to buy and learn lots of spells - and I realised doing that I'd not yet summoned a familiar. I spent a while sorting out inventory, including going back to collect all the unidentified items stored in Beregost during my travels.
Various encounters in the City were done to improve my equipment. Reviewing that, I noted I'd not yet got the Ring of Energy and went to remedy that. The final action was invading the Iron Throne. All 4 casters were blinded initially and web and a couple of skull traps were thrown in. Skeletons failed to kill Zhalimar once the web ended, so I withdrew into sanctuary and changed into armor to finish the job myself.
Back at Candlekeep I looted the tombs, using a green scroll to top lightning protection from boots up. Prat was the only one to survive some webs and he died fighting against a follow-up attack by skeletons.
I learnt a few more spells before searching out Slythe. This time I let him talk, but he failed to survive a command thanks to some summoned skeletons. They managed to disrupt all Krystin's intended spells as well.
At the palace there was no need for any use of charm with this character. Potions, buffed skeletons and a chaos cast from scroll gave the dopplegangers no chance.
There were no problems in the maze and I bypassed Rahvin on the way to the temple. Sarevok and Semaj were pulled out there. Webs and skeletons did some damage, before I used potions of magic protection to tank Semaj's spells while shooting him down. An oil of speed allowed me to run Sarevok round while magic missiles and the odd sling shot took toll of him.
Fighter/druid 8/10, 107 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 344 kills
I made a mistake early on in the City while looking for another necklace of missiles - I had to save against a horror from Ithmeera when a servant blocked the stairs. On the plus side, I got some bonus items from Lothander when 3 nymphs blocked him in and used their cause wounds spells on him. After holding Larze they were back on the cause against Marek.
I killed Ramazith with a combination of poison darts and insects, but the mustard jellies on the floor above looked like being a problem given I was only armed with daggers and darts. I therefore took a break and went shopping in Ulgoth's Beard - getting a staff among other things. I added the Dagger of Venom in Beregost, a few potions and scrolls and a wand of sleep.
The remaining encounters in the City were soon complete, finishing off with the Iron Throne. The casters were pulled between floors to waste their spells, normally with a nymph waiting to help out. Zhalimar was meleed on my own.
In Candlekeep, I used a clerical protection from lightning scroll along with cloud giant strength and DUHM to loot the tombs. Prat and his gang were affected by nymph confusion. Prat was stunned several times by Bor - I then gave him a taste of his own medicine once the others were dead.
Before returning to Baldur's Gate I had a few outstanding things to do. First was Durlag's Tower, where darts of stunning meant I only needed a single potion to deal with the basilisks on the roof. Nymphs used confusion on the Red Wizards to get the Ring of Energy and I also picked up the pantaloons from the FAI.
Finally back in the City, I nearly ran into some guards, but veered away in time and went to find Slythe. I didn't bother with Krystin, so just attacked with stunning darts - the second of those taking effect.
I was short of real time at this point, but was trying to finish the session and made a significant mistake at the Coronation - forgetting to summon nymphs. However, I used potion buffs and had charmed a few guards and was lucky that all the dopplegangers attacked me or the charmed guards - meaning the dukes survived almost untouched.
After traversing the maze, I bypassed Rahvin. At the temple I pulled Sarevok out with a potshot before using a potion of invisibility to strand him. The 3 nymphs had a go at Semaj, but he saved against everything and teleported away towards the dais. Moving towards him would be likely to bring the others into the contest, so I just attacked Sarevok. He was run round for a while before I closed in for the kill.
Fighter 9, 113 HPs, 349 kills
There was a mistake collecting items with this character as well when I killed Jalantha before completing the conversation with her. That meant I would need to kill the priest if I wanted to get the wisdom tome - but that was of no real use to me, so I just abandoned it. I thought my reputation might be in trouble against Marek. I'd charmed a couple of people as distractions and they both got confused from Marek's opening spell. However, he killed them with a lightning bolt before they could attack anyone else.
With other intended encounters complete, I went to the Iron Throne. When 4 enemies followed me between levels, I thought it might be fun to charm Zhalimar to set them against each other. He switched sides again fairly quickly though and I had to kill all the enemies myself.
In Candlekeep I looted the tombs, but decided discretion was the better part of valor and left Prat and his gang untouched.
I'd not yet been to Durlag's Tower, so paid that a visit and retrieved the tome using a PfM scroll before returning to the City. I had a bit less cash than I'd expected so fought Krystin as well as Slythe - the latter being meleed before the former was dispelled with an arrow and shot down.
At the palace I charmed the Flaming Fist and buffed up before starting the fight. Two of the dopplegangers went after Liia and three for Belt, which was enough to potentially cause problems. I tried the Wand of Sleep twice - the first failed to affect anything, but the second put one of the dopplegangers on the floor - though that one was the one not attacking the dukes, so didn't really affect things. Belt was badly wounded and I thought Liia was going to die, but I found a vicious critical to finish her last surviving attacker just in time.
After going through the maze, I used necklace fireballs on Rahvin. He chased me before those could kill him, but fortunately he didn't fire off either of the exploding arrows he carries.
In the temple I decided to take on all the opposition this time, so opened with a fireball. I ran Sarevok around inside a web trap that spawned, but he refused to get stuck. I therefore dumped him with an invisibility potion and went to tackle the others. Angelo fired off 3 exploding arrows before being finished off with a Semaj lightning bolt. I shot the others, then ran Sarevok round for a while before deciding on LMD as a fitting end for him.
With so many types of equipment being unusable, there were fewer items to collect in the City for this character. I still did the poison quest to get the tome (even though that was of no real use), with Marek being successfully disrupted with a LMD before being filled with poison darts. Just for kicks I killed the basilisk with an old favorite - Bhaal horror followed up with stunning darts.
At the Iron Throne I moved between levels to split up the opposition, though I still took a fair amount of damage dealing with them.
Rather than report immediately to Duke Eltan, I decided it was time for a seaside break. I used 4 exploding arrows on each group of sirines to ensure they suffered from spell failure. The golems were then shot down to get me the constitution tome - allowing me to regenerate without the use of Buckley's Buckler.
Then it was off to Candlekeep. I had no way to get the tomes there, but using DUHM I could break into the tomb containing a PfM scroll. After killing a few dopplegangers I ran quickly past an oblivious Prat and used a PfP scroll to deal with the basilisks. I've not been to Durlag's Tower, but decided not to do that - a PfM scroll is too high a price to pay for a pretty useless wisdom tome.
Back in Baldur's Gate, I revisited Ramazith's Tower - DUHM now allowing me to loot his locked container, containing another PfM scroll. I also spoke twice to Tamoko as, unlike other classes, she actually has something useful for wizard slayers.
Going to find Slythe, I shot at him with dispelling arrows - the 3rd of those connecting. He was then easily enough killed with darts.
Over the years I've had many attempts at the coronation fight with wizard slayers and don't have a clear favorite technique. Dispelling arrows can work well, as can stunning darts. In this case my THAC0 is 2 better with darts, so I decided to stick with those (darts also allow you to use a shield to reduce damage taken). Bhaal horror is the only other option available and having 2 of those definitely improves chances, but still to not much more than even money. I showed myself a little away from the dukes, to make it easy to distinguish quickly which dopplegangers were trying to attack me - 2 of them did so, which is very good (if they all pile in on the dukes the chance of success in the fight is much more limited). My first horror affected 1 other doppleganger, which was a better than average outcome. My second dart then stunned a doppleganger and suddenly prospects were looking rosy. A second horror failed to do anything though and 2 or 3 more darts had no effect up until Liia died - to put the dopplegangers back in the running. Luckily though, one of the dopplegangers that killed Liia turned to attack me, while the other suffered morale failure from Belt's attacks - so none of them were attacking Belt. That allowed me to switch to my sword and the dopplegangers were soon disposed of. Neither Belt nor I took a lot of damage there, making that ultimately one of the easier coronation fights I've had with this class.
In the Undercity I would have liked Rahvin's 2 exploding arrows, but without area attacks I had no real chance of getting them so just left him alone. I attacked Tamoko and nipped inside the temple when she started casting at me. This encounter is a favorite for producing duplicates and that happened this time, but I talked the second copy down before killing the original to get her +1 plate armor. With so few attacking options for wizard slayers, I was keen to get the 8 exploding arrows Angelo has and decided to resort to cheese - repeatedly activating the lightning trap, using green scroll protection on myself. Semaj was the first to snuff it, with Tazok following soon after. Angelo is by far the hardest to hit, but when he is hit he takes a lot more damage than Sarevok (who has 90% resistance). That means that nearly always Angelo will die first. I'd seen him get hit 3 times and 1 more would have probably killed him. Unfortunately, the game seemed to decide I'd had my share of luck for this run and this time Sarevok died first - meaning I missed out on Angelo's arrows.
Enchanter 10, 56 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 244 kills
After playing with all the fighter types, I reminded myself at the start of the session of the different approach needed and that I was still trying to avoid any damage during the run. While collecting equipment I, as usual, couldn't resist attacking the basilisk and 3 malisoned skull traps were enough to deal with that. I didn't yet invest in any summons, but area disabling effects were ways to avoid being attacked - for instance glitterdust allowed a proper blind to be placed on Marek.
I tried learning some more spells, but still leaving the chances for that random. That proved a bit costly with quite a few failures, including two more knock spells. I can use the strength spell or DUHM to open the more important locks, but that still means I'll miss out on more loot than I'd anticipated. To help address that shortfall, I went to the ankheg nest and robbed that using invisibility.
Still avoiding using summons, I used the mirrors + luck combination to ensure that the transforming dopplegangers in the Seven Suns didn't get a hit in. At the Iron Throne 10 blindness spells took effect on Alai, Naaman and Diyab. Improved invisibility provided back-up protection as skull traps were sent in. Chaos then affected Zhalimar and Gardush - the latter killed the former before I finished things off.
Before reporting to Duke Eltan, I still had a couple more places to travel. The first was the Lighthouse area, where I charmed Arkushule to help me out against the sirines. MGoI was another spell I'd totally failed to learn, so I used invisibility on the hold trap and MSD on the charm one while shooting the golems. I also went to the Red Wizard area to skull trap them and take the Ring of Energy.
Finally it was time to return to Candlekeep. I managed to learn the MGoI spell in the secret library, so used that to defend against the non-physical traps, along with mirror image/luck for the spike ones. I used the violet potion to break open the coffins with the tomes in. Prat survived skull traps and disappeared. I tracked him down near some spiders though and used their web trap to hold him for the kill.
After a few final purchases, I went to find Slythe. I charmed and set up the door guard to be attacked by him, thinking I could then use spells from out of sight. Slythe caught me out a bit though by one-shotting the guard and I was retreating back to go invisible when I noticed that my dart of stunning had taken effect on him.
At the palace I charmed a few guards and buffed up before sending in the devastating chaos to confuse all the dopplegangers. They were duly finished off, with Liia remaining untouched and Belt only slightly wounded.
I used invisibility to avoid enemies with distance attacks in the maze and MGoI against traps. I didn't bother with Rahvin, but moved on to the temple. A shot from distance pulled Sarevok out. Semaj also teleported out, but annoyingly remained invisible even after his tattoo of power fired at me when I showed myself while using a potion of magic blocking. I happened to have a monster summoning I scroll in my case, so used that to identify where Semaj was and then started to fireball him with my wand. Unfortunately he'd teleported by that time just close enough to the dais to bring Tazok and Angelo into the fight. Malison + emotion did well to drop Semaj and Angelo, though not Tazok. Skull traps then finished off the casters. I added luck to mirrors and moved forward a bit so that Tazok would attack me - allowing me to blind him and finish him off. I had a second malison memorized so used that for Sarevok to give blind a chance on him - and it worked first time. A few slingshots later and Sarevok was ready for the LMD finish.
I was lucky with the save or else effects in that final battle, but overall it's a decent effort to get through BGEE without taking any damage - particularly with not relying on the use of summons. I've got plenty of experience of trying to avoid damage in BGEE, but continuing like that in SoD (where I've never completed a run undamaged) may be asking too much - but I'll have a go.
Fighter dualling to cleric 9/0, 117 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 370 kills
I was about to write that "at this stage this character plays the same way as the regular fighter already done", but looking at it that's not true. I set it up as a berserker initially, which makes it much more melee focused. Of course there are a few enemies where a bit more discretion is required - like the basilisk that gave me my final BGEE level.
With no charisma bonus available for shopping, I did a bit more work in the City than with the other characters - like Desreta and Vay-ya. Just for the hell of it, I even took on Larze in a straight melee fight en route to smacking down Marek. Degrodel's guards were killed pretty quickly on the way to getting the Cloak of Balduran, but the damage I took also pointed up my lack of the slashing girdle.
At the Iron Throne I made the contest straight up melee, though I did use a PfM scroll to prevent the enemies from breaking my rules by using spell damage.
Before reporting in to Duke Eltan, I decided to complete a few other jobs. First up were the basilisks. Korax took no damage against them, so I kept him on to help with Kirian's mob as well - he duly paralysed Kirian and Peter while I beat up the others. Next, a couple of fireballs left Denak with no chance to defend his Ring of Energy. Finally, I went to Durlag's Tower, mainly to get the tome there. I did though use a PfP scroll and a single rage to kill the 4 basilisks on the roof (along with a couple of intruding gnolls). I also 'helped' Kirinhale before, to my surprise, successfully killing her as she tried to teleport away.
Back at Candlekeep, I looted the tombs without trouble. I decided to take on Prat and invested a magic blocking potion and a few fireballs in doing so.
After a final inventory review and bit of shopping, I went to find Slythe. I let him talk before beating him up, so I'd get the opportunity to take down Krystin as well.
At the palace the odds were very heavily in my favor after charming a few guards. The dopplegangers' chances then became astronomically small when the wand of sleep somehow persuaded 5 of them to lay down on the job.
This character doesn't have a great need for exploding arrows. Thus, I left Rahvin alone in the Undercity and just tackled Sarevok and Semaj in the temple. A PfM scroll meant Semaj was no threat and I added some potion buffs to beat up Sarevok.
The session started at Boareskyr Bridge. We knew we couldn't afford to use area damage with vulnerable barrels around, but it was essential to interrupt the mage before he could open a fire portal. Fortunately he was vulnerable to fire and a potion of firebreath cut off his opening spell - Gulpo then chewed through his mirrors before he could try again.
We arrived at the Coalition Camp and reported in. A bit of shopping with the genie from the Spectacles followed before we collected the Bwoosh and poison and set out again. There was nothing of interest to us in Dead Man's Pass and we initially set out just to get through it - but without using up an invisibility potion. That proved difficult though as many SoD enemies can hit fairly easily even through plate armor and there are a lot of them there. We eventually managed to find the other side of the map to run away badly wounded - with at least 4 groups of enemies chasing us.
We stopped briefly at Dragonspear to rescue Skie, but didn't investigate the castle surrounds.
Instead, we went to the Underground River area where a charmed bear helped kill some myconids and spiders. That opened a route to the cyclops and it was killed pretty quickly. The 2 mages that appeared there were both stunned by darts before they could do anything significant, which provided a sense of false confidence. That's because the guards there can be a bit of a handful by themselves and Byrd soon had to throw Gulpo an invisibility potion to allow him to survive.
Byrd used his boots of speed to get away himself and faded into the shadows, where he was looking in his inventory for a regeneration potion for Gulpo when became aware his companion was going to need something a bit stronger ...
Regrettably Gulpo had stood on one of the traps that litter that area. Byrd killed a few of the guards wandering around to ensure we wouldn't be interrupted and then used one of the two raise dead scrolls he had fortunately purchased in Baldur's Gate. After healing up we went after the remaining guards. There was still some hard fighting there and we had to retreat again a couple of times, but eventually the guards camp was empty of enemies. It was not, however, empty of potential enemies as Gulpo had his greedy eye on the 2-handed sword Rigah was swishing around menacingly. A sneak attack on him killed his mage companion, but he was proving a handful and Gulpo had once more to beat a retreat. That prompted Byrd to resort to more firebreath potions and about 4 of those eventually did the job.
In the underground we didn't attempt any of the side quests, but just made straight for the Warrens to poison the food and water. That was done invisibly and we waited for Hephernaan to appear to show ourselves in order to get the lift down reopened.
Back at the Coalition Camp we were advised an invasion was imminent. Byrd checked his supplies and found he had large numbers of exploding arrows and we decided to put those to use. That made dealing with the first 3 invasion attempts short and sweet (at least for us). In the 4th wave, Grimgor survived a number of arrows and disappeared into sanctuary. However, with his companions all dead he posed no real threat and Gulpo soon cut him down to size.
Back at Dragonspear Byrd short-circuited the major battle by challenging Ashatiel to a duel - which was effectively decided by the first dart he threw.
Inside the castle we followed Hephernaan into hell. We just ran through the opening area and then beat up various devils to amuse Thrix. He didn't seem interested in acknowledging our victory though and Byrd wondered if the bone fiend was still invisibly present on the battlefield, but not attacking after being stunned earlier. That hypothesis was confirmed as being true a few seconds later and Thrix duly let us go on our way.
After resting and buffing up we got on the Hellevator. The enemies on that were no challenge, but when we reached the top we expected a sterner test from Belhifet. Caelar had agreed to join us, though she was left to fight her own battle, but she was useful in occupying Belhifet's attention while Gulpo chopped him from behind. Rigah's +3 sword not only does decent basic damage, but on a critical it does bonus cold damage and has a chance of slowing the opponent - which happened to Belhifet, explaining why he went down more quickly than expected.
Unfortunately I neglected to save the game here and that meant the battle was voided when the game crashed on exit from hell. The second time around Belhifet went down pretty quickly again, though this time he was attacking Gulpo some of the time and got a few meaty blows through on him.
After running through the epilogue safely, we saved the game and moved onto BG2EE. We took plenty of damage in the opening dungeon and that took rather longer to fix than we've been used to as Gulpo no longer has Buckley's Buckler to allow regeneration. However, progress was easy enough. Towards the end of the dungeon, Gulpo enquired tactfully whether Byrd might want to consider using the divine spells he now had available. That prompt not only sped up the healing process, but also reminded Byrd that, as a Beastmaster he could summon animals much earlier than other rangers. A wolf summoned to help out against Ulvaryl proved helpful when it got the final chomp in before she could flap away.
In Athkatla we sorted out inventory and restored the circus to normal operation before reporting in to Gaelan Bayle. Rather than working in the Copper Coronet, Gulpo then suggested we seek out some decent armor for him. Officer Dirth looked like a good target for that and his armor showed its value by allowing him to kill several bears that had been summoned to help the assault, before Gulpo cut him down.
The final action in the session was a trip to Watcher's Keep to get the potion case and everlasting +1 arrows. Gulpo's rage lasted long enough to deal with one group of undead there and he was happy to attempt a second group if vampiric wraiths were present in the main room (while Byrd took the precaution of cowering behind a locked door to avoid getting targeted). However, only mephits were present.
We had no +3 weapons yet, so left the golems and the statues for another day.
Beast master 10, 103 HPs, 44 kills (+401 from BGEE/SoD)
Berserker 10 124 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 81 kills (+321 from BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths
The quadruple dragon ambush begins poorly. First, when Moth Sibula approaches the enemies, the whole party gets relocated right next to the dragons, triggering a triple Pierce Shield Chain Contingency from Edwin that I wanted to save for the green or red dragons. Plus, because the area is apparently being revealed a la Farsight due to a script, the dragons are within Moth Sibula's field of vision even after Edwin blinds her, preventing her from using the blind thief trick and her aura cleansing to spam traps.
Fortunately, Haer'Dalis tanked the enemies' opening Remove Magic spells before the party got brought over, which means Korgan and Sarevok retain their Protection from Acid buffs from Edwin. They still take a lot of melee damage (Sarevok can cripple one dragon's THAC0, but not both) before we bring down the first of the dragons.
The second falls soon after, and the green dragon joins the fight. I belatedly remember to use a Protection from Poison scroll to protect Haer'Dalis, but I decide to rely on Korgan and Sarevok's HP pools to protect them. The green dragon wipes out a huge chunk of their HP as a result, but fortunately Sarevok should still be able to cripple the dragon with Soul Reaver.
The green dragon fails to do much more damage before collapsing, and the red dragon shows up. Edwin casts Improved Alacrity to help debuff the dragon and we move in for the kill, but the red dragon fights back very hard, nearly killing Korgan in the process. But we pull Korgan aside safely, and sheer force of damage output brings down the dragon before it can threaten us further.
The quadruple dragon ambush ends with zero deaths on our side, and we get to proceed to Abazigal's lair.
There's not much left before Big Blue. The Tyrant Golems are the real remaining threat, which I normally neutralize during Time Stop, since the only thing worse than a beholder is a beholder golem with ~90% damage resistance. Edwin struggles to deal enough damage, even with dual-wielding daggers under Improved Haste, so I give up and send in our fighters when Time Stop proves insufficient. A lucky vorpal strike from our planetar helps close things out.
I failed to properly buff the party, however, since I expected Edwin to be able to handle things on his own. Notably, Jaheira got hit with a Flesh to Stone spell, and while she made her save, her save vs. spell is at 2, which means there was a 5% chance of her dying to it--very dicey for a no-reload run, even on a party member I can replace.
Then the game crashes, which has been happening a LOT in ToB, and we have to do the fight all over again. But we survive the process, outsource a job to Bondari, forge the Big Metal Unit (though I might not use any of the gear in this run), and continue to Big Blue.
For the first time ever, I burn a Spell Immunity scroll on Moth Sibula to give her SI: Abjuration. I've been hoarding them for Melissan, but Abazigal is scary enough that I want all of her buffs well-protected. We send Edwin over to tank the smaller enemies with PFMW, but Abazigal and Tamah are both uninterested and ignore him in favor of our fighters. Tamah goes after Sarevok, who continues to be our enemies' favorite punching bag due to his mediocre AC, lower resistances than Korgan, and lack of mage buffs.
We end up having to send Sarevok out west for his own safety. Edwin bombs the enemy with Horrid Wilting, but the salamanders are sturdier than I expected. Abazigal keeps swinging at Jaheira, but a combination of Hardiness, Armor of Faith, and the Earth Elemental form give her total immunity.
By now we're almost done killing off the drakes, but our progress feels very slow. The enemy is dealing an awful lot of damage even with Abazigal wasting his time on Jaheira. In order for us to bring down Tamah without losing one of our fighters, we have to bring both Korgan and Sarevok aside for healing and tank Tamah with Haer'Dalis instead. I don't like how fast Abazigal is attacking and want to be able to kite him, so Moth Sibula pulls out some Arrows of Dispelling to dispel his haste.
She manages to hit Tamah with an Arrow of Dispelling as well despite the purple dragon's AC. I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with the situation now, but Abazigal's dragon form could still be a big problem. Edwin casts Improved Alacrity, bombs the salamanders again, and finally casts Wish.
Edwin's Wisdom is too low for him to safely Wish-rest via Project Image clones, but a Potion of Insight before combat will give him good odds. We get lucky and land a Wish-rest on the first try!
Tamah disappears and I'm not sure when she'll show up again, so I decide to bite the bullet and focus our energy on Abazigal. At first, Korgan and Sarevok just attack with ranged weapons while Jaheira and Haer'Dalis tank him, but after our Fallen Planetar and another big potion heal them up, we close in on Abazigal, who currently has no Hardiness or armor to defend him.
Abazigal transforms, and it doesn't look good. Haer'Dalis is pinned inside his circule, and while that's the best party member for us to get pinned under a dragon, Abazigal hits hard and fast, and kills our Fallen Planetar before I even realize it's in danger. Edwin fires off a double Pierce Magic+Breach Spell Trigger, but because all three spells hit at the same time, the Breach fails to debuff Abazigal; only the Pierce Magic spells actually hit him. Plus, Tamah has returned, right behind Moth Sibula.
Moth Sibula takes just enough time to Breach Abazigal via scroll before she activates Hardiness and runs away from the dragon. Jaheira and Sarevok head east to deal with Tamah, while Abazigal and Haer'Dalis are locked together.
Moth Sibula summons a clone via Shadow Twin, which immediately uses the SotM to cast Spell Trap and follow up with rage and Defensive Stance to bulk it up. Haer'Dalis deploys a Breach scroll against Abazigal to remove his PFMW Contingency, and Edwin re-casts Improved Alacrity so he can spam Wish and squeeze some extra value out of his many spell slots (there's no particular anti-dragon setup for him; just his normal spells).
Tamah disappears once again. Rather than hunt her down, we bring everyone in a circle around Abazigal to read him a bedtime story.
Before we can put Big Blue to sleep, Tamah reappears, disrupting one of Edwin's spells with a Wing Buffet. Abazigal fires off his breath weapon, and by now our fighters have lost their Protection from Electricity buffs.
Edwin restores those buffs with the help of Improved Alacrity, and we once again draw everyone but Haer'Dalis (who is still pinned in place) over to Tamah to finish her off.
Tamah goes down, leaving Abazigal alone. We close in for the kill. Abazigal has taken many hits from Haer'Dalis' main hand weapon, the Answerer, and so his AC is sky-high and his magic resistance around zero. His PFMW spells, too, have long since been dispelled.
Abazigal falls! The fight had some close calls, but it ended much faster than my past runs, which involved a lot more kiting--and also had a version of Ascension that accidentally spawned two copies of Tamah, a challenge I don't have to worry about with an updated Ascension.
We complete the next Pocket Plane trial, learn Dark Taint, and Sarevok's last Ascension dialog triggers, switching him from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Good. He can no longer use the Soul Reaver, which we hand over to Korgan instead. To take its place, Haer'Dalis gives the Answerer to Sarevok and Korgan gives him Crom Faeyr for the off hand slot. It's not as optimal as before, but not having Sarevok switch sides at the Throne of Bhaal is a very important boon.
Sendai is next on our list. I'm not super worried about the drow, since Moth Sibula can fall back on the SotM if something bizarre and catastrophic happens, but it will still take a lot of preparation before each fight to actually clear out her enclave. From there, all we need to do is a quick conversation with Balthazar after downing a Potion of Insight, trample the Ravager, and finally organize our resources towards the Throne.
I'm getting nervous, as I always do during the late game in ToB. We have a lot of work to do before the final battle, which is a lot of time and a lot of suspense for what is easily the hardest and most complex fight in the entire saga.
Most of Sendai's enclave is the same: buff up, brute force, and repeat. Odamaron can be more complex, however, given that it's three different mages at once. Moth Sibula reveals Odamaron with Detect Illusions and then tries to debuff him with Shatter Spell via Fire Seed. It fails, unfortunately, presumably due to a Spell Shield on the lich, but since we have two copies of Moth Sibula due to Shadow Twin and we also have Edwin under Improved Alacrity to remove the lich's buffs, Odamaron finds himself short of a PFMW spell.
Odamaron soon dies, but his apprentices, another lich and a vampire, remain. Edwin turns his attention to the vampire, who somehow clings to life after taking over 100 damage from Dragon's Breath.
Then the apprentice lich finally spawns, with a fresh suite of buffs protecting him. But even fully buffed SCS mages seldom have a defense against Death Fog.
A few more spell attacks, and the fight is ours!
Ogremoch isn't too complicated, as we have plenty of Breach spells and lots of damage output, rendering the elemental's neverending Stoneskin spells moot. Diaytha, meanwhile, is a potentially sticky fight that becomes very simple with Edwin's dual daggers and Time Stop.
Edwin doesn't kill everyone with Time Stop (though he could, if we rested and returned to the fight), but our fighters are enough to break the enemy after Edwin is done.
Moth Sibula kills Captain Egeissag without trouble thanks to her ability to become temporarily immune to damage (Defensive Stance does stack with Spirit Form!), Edwin bombs the mind flayers with Dragon's Breath and their thralls with Horrid Wilting, and Moth Sibula gains another level and another HLA:
Favored of the Spirits, which gives her immunity to death magic for 1 hour and gives her an instant-casting, automatic Heal when she's low on HP. Moth Sibula doesn't usually tank, but every layer of defense against stuff going wrong in the final battle could make the difference between success and failure.
Now we have to deal with Sendai's many statues. The first, a simple cleric, fails to cast Divine Protection and we cut it down quickly. But the second, a mage, gets Time Stop off the ground before Moth Sibula can reveal it. Fortunately, our planetar had the foresight to cast Insect Plague on it, and the lingering damage keeps going even through Time Stop.
More drow spawn, more statues come to life, and Edwin's first attempt at a Wish-rest only nets us 25 in each ability score for 4 rounds. At first, I feel like we have a handle on things, but then a mage Sendai statue chastises us for our incomplete buffs.
Rather than spend a round drinking a potion that won't be enough to heal him, Edwin tries to cast Wish again. But Sendai stops time once again and sends a Fallen Planetar of her own at us.
We are immensely lucky today, however, because our Fallen Planetar immediately lands a vorpal strike on it!
In the midst of all this chaos is a ton of micromanagement that my memory and screenshots fail to fully capture, but Edwin manages a Wish-rest and uses his restored Improved Alacrity to bomb the drow. We prioritize attacking Sendai clones, but when those clones have defenses we can't easily break through, we settle for killing the other drow.
The last false Sendai ends up alone and loses its defenses to our spell attacks, prompting the real Sendai to finally reveal herself.
Edwin casts Time Stop, but Moth Sibula fails to reveal Sendai before Edwin's spell goes off, and so Edwin loses the opportunity to spam spell attacks at Sendai. Instead, Sendai launches a Symbol, Stun spell that disables Sarevok and a Remove Magic that wipes our lesser buffs.
Even a level 30 Sendai, however, can't easily dispel the buffs that Haer'Dalis cast for us, so a few of our defenses remain.
Moth Sibula tries to hit Sendai with Shatter Spell, but she misses her first attack and Sendai casts Time Stop before she can try again, and so Shatter Spell wears off before we can make use of it. When that fails, we just bonk her with the Staff of the Magi instead. She casts Improved Mantle to hold us off, but that's no good against the staff.
Sendai goes down! We return to Amkethran, sneak through town and backstab the guard captain to get inside the gate, and drink a Potion of Insight to make sure we've got the stats to persuade Balthazar to join us.
After killing Cyric's followers with traps, we approach the Ravager. We have a Moth Sibula clone use Hand of Murder to deal magical damage to the Ravager and we blind Moth Sibula so she can spam her traps next to the beast, but it's our fighters that do the real work. Once Korgan gets a few hits in with Soul Reaver, the Ravager has a less than 50% chance to hit us.
Moth Sibula gains another level, taking Shadow Form as her last HLA, and thanks to her being snippy with the Solar, she gets the 25% physical damage resistance bonuses from killing the Ravager in Ascension. With 3 castings of Defensive Stance and a single use each of Hardiness, Shadow Form, and Spirit Form, plus constant effect aura cleansing, she'll be able to tank a Time Stop from Melissan even if we mishandle Focus. Plus, her subzero saving throws should protect her from the various disablers in the fight.
Assuming Melissan's save-penalizing melee attack doesn't end up rendering us vulnerable to her stunning attacks. But ideally we should be able to prevent things from spiraling out of control, as long as the rest of the party stays alive and functioning.
Here we are at the end of the game, after spending the entire saga building up our party for this one fight.
Taking a leaf out of @Enuhal's book, I use a Time Stop scroll on Moth Sibula to deal with the first two Fallen Solars. I fail to realize that the Fallen Solars require +4 weapons to hit, so unfortunately Moth Sibula's current dual-wielding setup won't work, but Balthazar can pick up the slack.
A second Time Stop helps polish off a Fallen Solar, and when Irenicus' weapon immunities wear off during Time Stop, we use the time to chop him up, too. When time unfreezes, a Fallen Solar's arrow hits Jaheira and removes all of her buffs--either Entropy Shield somehow ran out due to Time Stop and cut scene delays, or the Fallen Solars' arrows can bypass Entropy Shield due to a bug.
I'm really hoping it's the former, because there will be more Fallen Solars coming in with Melissan later on.
We use more Time Stop scrolls to deal with the energy pools. We've been saving them up for a long time, and I want to be in absolute peak condition for the Five.
The first energy pool goes cleanly, but our Time Stop scrolls eventually run thin. We lose some minor buffs during the second energy pool fight, and then the third fight goes sour.
Korgan's rage cooldown once again becomes relevant, as I foolishly relied on his saves to protect him. Our dwarf gets charmed.
To my immense relief, the charm is dispellable, and an Arrow of Dispelling from Moth Sibula cures Korgan. To my dismay, though, Korgan's unbuffed saving throw vs. death is a zero, and a Balor one-shots him seconds later--a 5% chance, assuming the save penalty is -2.
I don't know if the vorpal strike is still a chunking in the latest update of SCS or Ascension, but I've been playing with Gore off and that might be why Korgan is still in the party.
We bring him back with the Rod of Resurrection, finish cleaning up the area, and begin our prep for the Five. We burn a lot of potions and scrolls, notably giving Moth Sibula SI: Abjuration, and manage to get a couple of Wish-rests off of Edwin. The Wish-rest was not a huge gamble; we were ready to restore Edwin's level 9 spell slots with Spell Trap and a Black Blade of Disaster scroll, since BBoD's on-hit effect is a level 9 effect.
We still have both of the Protection from Magic scrolls we bought back in Shadows of Amn. We hit Abazigal with one of them, but Sendai is invisible and we can't target her just yet. Abazigal is still able to use spell sequencers, but hopefully that's the only magic he'll be able to use in this fight.
Sarevok tries to pester Abazigal with the Answerer and Crom Faeyr, but Sarevok's general squishiness comes into play once more, and Abazigal sends him running away with just a few hits of his sword. Chastised and wounded, Sarevok heads over to Illasera, hoping to draw her attention and her dispelling arrows away from the rest of the group.
Meanwhile, Moth Sibula manages to reveal Sendai after several agonizing seconds of uncertainty, and we wait for Korgan to hit Sendai with our second and final Protection from Magic scroll.
It has been one round. The first few seconds of combat are so important.
Our Fallen Planetar Heals Sarevok, and Korgan hurries over to the east to work on Abazigal, intending to cripple him with Soul Reaver. But Korgan's Hardiness spell abruptly runs out, and Abazigal nearly kills our dwarf mere seconds into the fight.
Apparently we mis-timed his pre-combat Hardiness spell, just like his rage--a factor of not knowing when Edwin was going to land a Wish-rest.
We pull Korgan away so he can deal some damage to the otherwise-nonthreatening Sendai to the west, while Moth Sibula and our fighters try to spread around our combat damage so that none of the Five ends up dying fast. Yaga-Shura attacks Edwin despite his PFMW, and so none of us bother trying to wound Yaga-Shura just yet.
As Edwin gets Wish off the ground, fishing for whatever value it can give us, Jaheira loses all of her buffs at once. It seems that her Entropy Shield once again ran out just in time for an enemy to debuff her.
Jaheira can still tank physical damage just fine, but losing immunity to disablers could be very nasty.
We keep trying to spread out damage, but there's one form of damage we cannot stop once it's started: the Insect Plague from our Fallen Planetar. To my amazement, it actually kills Abazigal early.
Melissan will be here in seconds. We bring Illasera to Near Death and Edwin lands a Wish-rest, putting us in a good position for the next phase. Sendai goes down as well, robbing us of a potential knockdown on Melissan.
The moment she arrives, Melissan teleports away, triggering two of Haer'Dalis' pre-set traps, which deal a pathetic amount of damage to the still-immortal demigod.
I don't hear the ominous "praeses" from Melissan, but that does not convince me of our safety. I examine Melissan closely and see the faint blue-white ball indicating a Transmutation spell--Time Stop is coming.
Moth Sibula, aura always clear these days, activates Focus, while the rest of the party activates its own buffs, both PFMW and Hardiness. But the Time Stop does not come--instead, Gromnir dies to the insect damage from our now-dead Fallen Planetar, triggering Feedback and knocking Melissan down for a fraction of a round.
I can't tell if the Time Stop has been disrupted or cancelled or if it's still going to come out, but right now Melissan is still far away. Moth Sibula casts PFMW via scroll to protect her buffs from the twin Fallen Solars and we gang up on Yaga-Shura. The giant falls, and Melissan loses another 100 HP.
The Five are down! Melissan teleports over to finally join the fight, and our fighters start taking massive damage, Hardiness and all. Sarevok approaches death, and I decide to pull him away.
But a slow-moving wing buffet effect from Melissan prevents Sarevok from running away. He's stuck. All we can do is pray that he survives long enough to drink a potion and then scurry away.
He does not.
I don't like this. We can bring him back with the Rod of Resurrection, but he's going to be unarmored and unbuffed when he returns, and we still have two Fallen Solars to deal with. This time, we have to kill them properly; we can't rely on Time Stop scrolls to do the heavy lifting for us.
We focus fire on the Fallen Solars, and one of them flees to the north, taking 149 magic damage from Haer'Dalis' remaining traps--not enough to kill the thing, but progress is progress. The second Fallen Solar teleports away as well. Jaheira sticks with Melissan, as her 90% damage resistance and slow movement rate in Earth Elemental form make her well-suited for tanking and very poor at chasing down moving targets.
A few steps away, Edwin, under a fresh Improved Alacrity, starts emptying his spellbook, restoring a few minor buffs on himself, casting Wish, and assailing Melissan with magic attacks. A Breach is on the way!
Melissan casts Divine Mantle in response, preventing Jaheira from doing any damage to her, but that's fine. Wasting her aura is valuable on its own merits; we still need to bring down the Fallen Solars before Melissan herself.
Edwin lands a mass Resurrection via Wish, a minor blessing that at least spares us the time spent using the Rod of Resurrection. Edwin fires off more magic attacks, penalizing Melissan's MR with Pierce Shield and again removing her Divine Mantle with Breach, while Sarevok goes to collect his gear. Meanwhile, the rest of the party finally brings down a Fallen Solar.
Edwin keeps burning spells, casting Improved Haste while his Improved Alacrity still holds. For a moment, I feel like we're doing well.
Then Melissan finally finishes gating in her demons, and things go south.
Not only do we have Cambions with Whirlwind Attack joining the fight; we also have a Succubus on the field now, and it manages to charm Korgan--a move I did not expect to see twice today.
We bust out Helms of Charm Protection for Jaheira and Sarevok, but we need a dispel before Korgan will be back on our side, and we have so many other things to do right now. Edwin bombs the enemies, who thankfully are not all immune to Dragon's Breath, and Sarevok rejoins the fight, unarmored but otherwise fully equipped.
We chase a wounded Fallen Solar right into another of Haer'Dalis' traps, finishing it off! But all is not well. One of the enemies has hit Jaheira with level drain, which means big saving throw penalties, and Sarevok is even more fragile than normal without his armor. We are taking a lot of damage here.
Edwin lands a Wish-rest! Moth Sibula casts Enrage and Shadow Form to bolster her defenses and switches to the Arrow of Dispelling, finally curing Korgan.
The Fallen Planetar he was trying to kill seconds ago casts Heal on our berserker and we give him a Helm of Charm Protection while he waits to cast his own Enrage.
Haer'Dalis loses a PFMW spell to a Nabassu's Death Gaze, which managed to deal 2 acid damage to our bard--a minor setback, but an important reminder for future no-reload runs that immunity to acid damage could save an otherwise fatal run by preventing disruption.
Jaheira finally casts Restoration on herself via scroll, while Edwin is still waiting to finish casting Improved Alacrity. Moth Sibula hits Melissan with Unleash, but finds that the massive damage it would deal to a normal creature is reduced to scratch damage against Melissan.
Melissan gates in more demons and kills our most recent Fallen Planetar while we struggle to clear the field. Sarevok is injured and can barely contribute anything with the Army Scythe, but Haer'Dalis gets PFMW back on board and Edwin finally casts Improved Alacrity. Edwin's spellbook is optimized for utility rather than bombing, but he still can squeeze some firepower out of his many spell slots. Better still, Korgan Slows Melissan with the FoA+4.
Edwin casts Wish once more, and we land another Wish-rest! Our Fallen Planetar brings down a Marilith, and I watch the party's HP steadily inch back up.
The battlefield begins to go empty, and as we narrow our attention to the surviving demons, they go down even faster. Melissan teleports away, right next to Sarevok, and Moth Sibula chases her down with her own teleportation spell.
Melissan hits Moth Sibula with Spellstrike, but the one Spell Shield scroll we had with us was already active on Moth Sibula, and it soaks up the Spellstrike as it falls. Moth Sibula still has most of her buffs.
The last Nabassu falls, and Melissan is alone. We haul the party up to the northwest to deal with her. I'm still wary about another Time Stop, however--I don't know how long before Melissan can try to cast it again.
We crowd around Melissan, who has been taking penalties to her AC and MR from the Answerer, wielded by Moth Sibula since her regular mainstay, Firetooth, won't work. Without her MR or Spell Trap, Melissan is helpless against our magic, though Edwin again is more about utility than damage output.
Our fighters are quickly overpowering her, but I still want to squeeze as much damage in as I can. Moth Sibula's Shadow Twin clone, freshly blinded by Edwin, spams traps, adding to the party's already-massive damage output.
Finally, the Solar intervenes! The fight is over! We opt for a well-earned rest, as I always do these days.
One Trickster party run of SCS and Ascension on Insane mode, complete.
It's a welcome relief, but our victory has not left me any less afraid of Ascension Melissan. I picked the most ruthlessly-efficient party I could put together, marshaled every resource we could get our hands on, aside from the BMU and the SoD items that never got imported, and heavily micromanaged every stage of the fight, all while knowing that Moth Sibula had the gear and the aura cleansing for a protracted kiting match even if the rest of the party got wiped out.
And I still felt inches away from death, up until the very end.
Ascension Melissan has SO many different threats, even with Protection from Magic scrolls on Sendai (whom I've seen cast Heal before!) and Abazigal. Charms from both the Succubi and Alu-Fiends, Whirlwind Attacks from Cambions and backstabbing Babaus, vorpal strikes from Balors and acid damage from Nabassu Death Gaze, and that's just the energy pools.
Even with the Fallen Solars' spellcasting being bugged, they were very hard to bring down, and a Mordenkainen's Disjunction could have burned through our precious Spell Shields and left Moth Sibula, Haer'Dalis, or Edwin defenseless if I didn't respond quickly. The Five have a massive collective HP pool, and Abazigal for one can absolutely massacre anyone without PFMW or truly heroic damage resistances.
And there's always Melissan. Waiting to cast Time Stop.
But we made it, despite a charm and a death and some debuffs along the way. I was so worried about this fight. I haven't fought Melissan in several years, and I'm glad this one went well.
The Trickster kit is very fun. It's got weird stuff in it, and I love weird stuff in my games.
...either Entropy Shield somehow ran out due to Time Stop and cut scene delays, or the Fallen Solars' arrows can bypass Entropy Shield due to a bug.
Entropy Shield does its missile immunity based on a long list of specific projectiles to be immune to. Fallen Solar bows use the Arrow_Flaming projectile. This is not an exotic choice; it's third on the list of projectiles that you get immunity to. The spell absolutely should work against those bows, so it looks like the spell must have expired on you.
SoD is a much more linear game than BGEE and is absolutely stuffed with potions. That means that, though there's no shortage of dangerous enemies in it, you either don't need to fight them or you are able to protect yourself against them. So long as you take a modicum of care, it's therefore quite an easy game to complete safely, but any break in concentration can easily be fatal. I didn't play particularly well in these sessions and could easily have lost a couple of the runs - and did lose the wizard slayer. That was always a possibility with that character, but I contributed to my own downfall there. I'll have to improve in BG2EE if I'm to avoid the overall set of runs falling into ruin ...
Fighter/thief 9/11, 97 HPs, 0 kills (+436 in BGEE/SoD)
PfU, stealth and fireballs allowed an easy ride through the opening dungeon. Korlasz was dispelled by an arrow and a couple of pre-laid traps immediately made her surrender. Firebreath ensured she would not get away though.
In Baldur's Gate I picked up the Spectacles of Spectacle and the tankard helmet. I didn't bother with any other quests, but did kill a few NPCs for their equipment. I forgot to buy anything from the mage store though, missing out on some more exploding arrows among other things.
At the Coastway Crossing I approached in stealth, but that failed during the cutscene, so I used an invisibility potion to avoid fighting until Caelar arrived. I ignored the orc and troll ambush area while moving on to the Forest of Wyrms. There, I stealthed into the old temple and used fireballs from out of sight to kill Ziatar. I couldn't remember if traps could taret the Neothelid underground, so tried that - but nothing happened until they were wasted on a magical sword. I used an invisibility potion to escape the swords and went to find Akanna. A single firebreath potion killed her and I ran away with the Wardstone before the Neothelid could appear and block me in the room. After stealthing back out to the dragon cave, it only took 2 thrown daggers to find a vulnerable spot in Morentherene's armor.
Another dragon was calling for help in an ambush area on the way to Boareskyr Bridge. I helped kill the hill giants attacking it, but didn't let it get away. Arriving at the encampment, I got access by letting the guards know I had rescued Keherrem. Traps were laid for Vichand to ensure he died before he could rouse the camp against me - but he was one-shotted anyway by a critical backstab. Inside the fort, Jegg made a shield from the dragon scales and some +3 arrows from the residue after the magical defenses of the fort were re-established. I rested until daytime, in order to be able to access the potion seller on the roof without a Greater Feyr appearing. Then I surrendered the fort. That just left the mage guarding the bridge as an obstacle. He's not easy to damage with weapons, but a firebreath potion interrupted his attempt to create a fire portal - and the second tick of the potion killed him for good measure.
The yawning pit ambush area appeared on the way to the Coalition Camp, but I didn't bother with that. In the camp I used the Spectacles to summon Nazramu and took advantage of the high prices he buys at. Then I reported in to General Stonehand and collected the Bwoosh and poison.
I stealthed through Dead Man's Pass to get to Dragonspear Castle, where I rescued Skie. Then it was off to the Underground River area, where I beat up a few myconids to take their Bloom-Sac. The Gargantuan Spider was one-shotted with a critical backstab. The cyclops was stunned by dart and I quickly finished it off (and pocketed the Seal of Caelar), using dual-wielded scimitars, before the rest of the guards could get going. I retreated and stealthed before running past the guards to get to the underground entrance. I just placed the Bwoosh there, before persuading Turin to let me into the Warrens. I used invisibility before taking the lift up and poisoned the food and water. However, the lift doesn't operate to go down again until Hephernaan has had his dialogue - which means you need to be seen. Annoyingly, Belben was standing in the doorway blocking access to the lift, which complicated my exit. A backstab and 2 firebreath potions were needed before I cleared the way and was able to leave. I got to the tunnel exit before the alarm had spread there, though I was anyway in stealth - and could just run past the guards still milling around outside.
I ignored the dead magic zone on the way back to the Coalition Camp. The easiest way there to defeat the invading waves is using exploding arrows and I duly did that - getting to the XP cap in the process.
On to the Castle, where I challenged Ashatiel to single combat. He has a potion of magic shielding, but doesn't use it immediately and is a sucker for stunning darts. After following Hephernaan and Caelar into hell, I ran through the first area before taking on various devils for Thrix. Since I still had plenty I used exploding arrows there - those are not as devastating to things with fire resistance, but the area missile damage is still pretty good against groups of enemies (particularly where some of those are invisible).
After resting, I rebuffed and took the Hellevator. The enemies on that were no threat and I used final short-term potion buffs just before reaching the top. Fully buffed, I could hit Belhifet much more easily than he could hit me and he collapsed well before I would have needed to worry about boosting HPs with potions of power.
I completed the epilogue and then imported the character to Jon's dungeon.
Fighter/mage/cleric 9/10/9, 90 HPs, 0 kills (+451 in BGEE/SoD)
In the opening SoD dungeon, PfU and fireballs took me through to Korlasz. She failed to save against silence and was cut down mercilessly.
The Spectacles and tankard helmet were retrieved in Baldur's Gate before heading for the Coastway Crossing. I used sanctuary to avoid conflict at the bridge before moving on through the Troll Claw Woods to the Forest of Wyrms. In the old temple, a couple of webs held Ziatar still while attacks rained in. I buffed up to run past the Neothelid and used a couple of firebreath potions to kill Akanna before the Neothelid arrived there. While my buffs were still up, I used various forms of fire damage to kill Morentherene.
On the way to Boareskyr Bridge another dragon called for help. I started to provide that when the dragon got low on hits, but a mis-click allowed the remaining hill giant to get an unanticipated attack in - that proved fatal, so the dragon was unable to tell me where its treasure was buried.
At the crusader encampment, I thought Vichand wouldn't survive when he was commanded unconscious, but his buffs went off very quickly before skeletons could attack him. However, once he started casting a spell, a firebreath potion helped hasten him on his way. I then surrendered the fort before another firebreath potion helped deal with the mage on the bridge.
On the way to the Coalition Camp I came across some orcs and trolls and went to grab the Firefly sling. At the Camp, Nazramu provided a few goodies and I picked up the Bwoosh and poison. I then ignored a yawning pit and went invisibly through Dead Man's Pass on the way to rescue Skie at Dragonspear.
At the Underground River skeletons ensured that a cyclops commanded to die duly did so. While the guards were occupied with the skeletons I ran past and into the tunnel entrance - though I had to immediately sanctuary back out again in order to pick up the Seal of Caelar. I placed the Bwoosh and put a firebreath potion into the firepit to distract the guards while I nipped into the Warrens. I poisoned the food and water invisibly before showing myself to reopen the elevator, then running away under sanctuary.
Back at the Coalition Camp, I was not able to use exploding arrows as the quickest method of dealing with invaders. However, firebreath potions offer a decent alternative - particularly with a skeleton placed among enemies to try and keep them together at the start of each contest. Stoneskin and plate armor provide good protection from being hit while running around enemies. The mage wave dispelled me, so I had Dosia use her rejuvenation power in order to put stoneskins back on and the remaining waves were easy enough.
At the Castle I didn't have the easy option of stunning darts for Ashatiel. However, the Wand of the Heavens could do decent damage even through MGoI and sanctuary and Ashatiel was kept too busy trying to recover HPs to take advantage of breaching my stoneskins.
Inside the Castle I followed Caelar into hell, where some skeletons helped resolve Thrix's challenge - gaining me a +3 staff. After resting and buffing up, I took the Hellevator. Once the 3rd group of enemies was dead, I used 6 Champions Strength scrolls. While that disables my own spell use, it allows almost automatic hits on Belhifet. Even if he survived the duration of those scrolls, I had stoneskin and blue fire shield scrolls that could have killed him in a different way. However, I didn't expect him to survive and therefore didn't try and keep Caelar alive. Once she died I ran round, slinging the void bullets at Belhifet and it didn't take too long to finish him off. Aun Argent then stood in for Caelar in sending me back and sealing the portal to hell.
There were no problems with the epilogue and I duly arrived in Jon's dungeon ready for new adventures.
Fighter/druid 9/12, 105 HPs, 0 kills (+516 in BGEE/SoD)
I followed the usual sequence of intimidating Porios into surrendering, using PfU on several groups of undead, then fireballing the warriors with a bit of support from the Flaming Fist when they attacked. That took me to Korlasz where 3 nymphs attempted to land cause wounds spells - but all failed. However, a couple of blasts from the ring of energy made Korlasz surrender - though this time she successfully got away.
In the City I picked up the Spectacles and tankard helmet. The latter meant having to tackle Korlasz again, but that wasn't a problem thanks to a nymph hold monster spell.
A first use of Pixie Dust allowed me to avoid conflict at the Coast Way Crossing bridge. That was also used to run through the Troll Claw Woods. On the subsequent journey I found the orcs and trolls ambush area and fought through that with the help of a first fire elemental summons.
Arriving at the Forest of Wyrms, a first use of iron skins allowed me to avoid damage from the spike trap on the way into the old temple. Ziatar was firebombed from the shadows before I buffed up to run past the Neothelid. Akanna died to a single firebreath potion there, but I then made a major mistake. Rather than leaving the temple area immediately, I noted that I had various things to identify and rested to refresh the Glasses of Identification. I was slow to realize that the Neothelid was sneaking up on me in the morning and had to save against domination (with nearly 30% chance of failure) before running away. As daggers are my principal weapon, it was no surprise that a single throw was sufficient to account for Morentherene on the way out.
On the way to Boareskyr Bridge another green dragon received my help against a couple of hill giants, but had the misfortune to be caught in a lightning storm immediately afterwards. That also got me to the XP cap and provided my final SoD level.
At Boareskyr, there was more lightning for Vichand, before I helped re-establish the fort's magical defenses. Firebreath then once more proved the bane of the mage on the bridge.
At the Coalition Camp I did a bit of shopping and picked up the Bwoosh and poison. Then it was on to the Underground River where a charmed bear helped beat up some myconids. It seemed poetic justice to stun the Gargantuan Spider before 5 call lightnings proved one too many for the cyclops. I remembered to pick up the Seal this time and went invisibly to the underground entrance while the guards were busy with the nymphs. Inside, I placed the Bwoosh and poisoned the food and water before leaving invisibly.
Back at the Camp firebreath was again the main method of repelling the invaders. In the last group, Grimgor's fire resistance, high HPs and lots of cure potential kept him going well after the others. Eventually though he displayed an Achilles heel when going down to a vicious call lightning.
At the Castle, Ashatiel did slightly better than usual against stunning darts - saving against the effect 3 times and dodging one before the 5th dart struck home.
Moving on to hell, an elemental and nymphs spent most of their time running in terror as I cleaned up Thrix's summons. After resting, it was Hellevator time, finishing that ride with multiple use of Champions Strength scrolls. This character has no proficiency in slings though, so was limited to 2 APR. As a result of the lower damage potential than the FMC, I did try and keep Caelar alive - switching to the tankard helmet after using a restoration scroll in order to avoid the fatigue penalty. Belhifet did indeed last rather longer, but he was already near death when the Champions Strength scrolls ran out and I didn't bother using any more of those, but just waited until a final few normal hits finished him off.
As with other characters, this one was imported into SoA and levelled up there with the excess XP earned in SoD.
Fighter 10, 113 HPs, 0 kills (+535 in BGEE/SoD)
There's still an awfully long way to go with this group of runs and I can't afford to give the game opportunities as I did with the fighter/druid. Hence I tried to concentrate hard with the fighter to avoid leaving anything to chance.
There were no problems in the opening dungeon and Korlasz duly surrendered. By the time she did that though she'd been hit with a dispelling arrow - which meant a firebreath potion could finish her off before she got away.
The tankard helmet and Spectacles were collected in Baldur's Gate before I moved on to the Coast Way Crossing. Although this character had no natural ability to disappear, there are huge numbers of invisibility potions in the game - so I used one of those to avoid conflict at the bridge. Another of those provided passage through Troll Claw Woods and on into the old temple in the Forest of Wyrms. It took an unusually long time to kill Ziatar there, but 15 fireballs eventually did the trick. An invisibility potion let me back past Ziatar's guards without alerting them and I buffed up to run past the Neothelid. A firebreath potion didn't kill Akanna, but a follow-up fireball didn't care about her invisibility and finished her off. Another invisibility returned me to the dragon's cave where Morentherene once more proved a soft target for a thrown dagger.
The young green dragon got away this time after showing me its treasure location and I moved on to Boareskyr Bridge. I decided there that firebreath potions were not a sufficiently guaranteed way to kill Vichand before he could call for help - hence I just intimidated him into giving up the scroll. I initially mis-clicked on the conversation options with Khalid and thought I might have to fight a battle there, but fortunately the game provided the opportunity to change your mind and I duly arranged surrender. I would have used firebreath on the mage on the bridge, but successfully shot him with a dispelling arrow on the way in. Without his buffs he's much easier to hit and I just continued the attack with missiles before meleeing the guards. That took me to the XP cap and a final SoD level.
On the way to the Coalition Camp I stopped off at the orcs and trolls ambush area to collect the Firefly sling. Some shopping with Nazramu followed and I collected the Bwoosh and poison. Given the large numbers of enemies in Dead Man's Pass, I opted for another invisibility potion on the way to Dragonspear to rescue Skie.
At the Underground River I buffed up to beat up some myconids and spiders. The Bloom-Sac allowed me to summon three myconids to take advantage once the cyclops was stunned. That took longer than expected though and the myconids were not able to help in finishing it off, but a bit of running round allowed me to do that and grab the Seal. I ran on to the entrance, still keeping ahead of a confusion projectile (my spell save of -5 at the time was proof against that anyway), but took an invisibility potion before I went in to try and ensure that no-one would follow and block the entrance. I quickly placed the Bwoosh and used the poison and then left - invisibly once more.
Back at Camp, exploding arrows made short work of the invasion waves.
On to the Castle, where Ashatiel lost out to the third stunning dart thrown. Inside, I followed Caelar and beat up the devils summoned by Thrix in order to persuade him to give me a +3 long sword. After resting, the Hellevator provided a bit of light exercise on the way to Belhifet. As this character was perfectly capable of beating Belhifet up one-on-one, I didn't bother trying to save Caelar. However, Belhifet tried to attack me, allowing Caelar to survive anyway. I think the die rolls rather exaggerated my advantage as Belhifet died without having managed to hit me even once.
Although that was done as a single session, I saved the game immediately after killing Belhifet rather than completing the epilogue straight away. That meant I lost all the surplus XP earned by other characters when importing to SoA, though that shouldn't be a problem of course.
Wizard slayer died at level 9 to hobgoblin command, while approaching the old temple in the Forest of Wyrms.
While taking a basic fighter through is no problem, the wizard slayer's inability to boost saves using potions or bypass encounters using invisibility makes that a far sterner challenge.
The starting dungeon is not too bad though. Bhaal horror can open a route to Porios and intimidating him makes the first group of enemies surrender. Downstairs, the undead groups are helpless against PfU, while the Flaming Fist can help take on the enemies after that. Dispelling arrows make Korlasz vulnerable and it doesn't take much damage to make her surrender - this time she didn't quite make her escape after that.
In the City, the Spectacles of Spectacle don't count as a helmet, so are of no use to me. However, the tankard helmet could potentially be useful and I grabbed that before heading out.
None of the other characters went to the Coast Way Forest, but the wizard slayer wanted to do so for a several reasons. First is to get the returning acid dart, as darts are his main missile weapon. In addition the regeneration ioun stone is important as, without invisibility or potions, healing is a much more chancy business for the wizard slayer. Finally, the sunfire from Isabella's shield could potnentially be useful, though past experience suggests it probably won't see any action. After the vampire arrived in the area, a well-timed dispelling arrow was shot at Ikros before his buffs fired and arrived afterwards - dispelling them and making him easy to finish off with darts. Isabella was then meleed to prevent her from attacking Tsolak.
I picked up the other items for Takos and returned those, convincing him to give me the shield back as well as the dart. At the bridge I couldn't hide in invisibility, leaving me pretty vulnerable to magical attack. I decided that justified using exploding arrows to discourage the casters and I managed to survive until Caelar arrived, though I was badly wounded.
In Troll Claw Woods, I ran back to the camp as soon as I came across hobgoblins on the road - ensuring their priest wouldn't cast at me. Moving on to the Forest of Wyrms I cleared various enemies from the path as I came across them, in order to preserve a means of retreat. Entering through the dragon caves I came across a group of hobgoblins and immediately retreated to the exit point and used Bhaal horror. That affected a number of them, but the shaman behind them used remove fear and they came forward again. I was happy to be in melee in that position though and killed a couple of them before the shaman appeared. I wasn't certain if his remove fear would have included him as it was presumably being targeted at those affected previously, so tried another Bhaal horror on him. That bounced and I expected him to respond with a hold person, but was caught out when he used a command instead. That doesn't give the same visual warning as other spells, so I didn't have the chance to retreat and the multiple hobgoblins around ensured I would never wake again.
I don't think there was a perfect solution to that encounter at that stage (exploding arrows could have dealt with it easily, but there aren't enough of those to use for every encounter). However, I realised on writing up my notes that I'd confronted the same problem before and decided the best solution was to avoid that encounter at this point. The ambush area with the yawning pit has a long sword that gives a +4 bonus to spell saves to wizard slayers. While getting that has its own dangers, I think it is on balance the best option prior to going to the old temple in the Forest of Wyrms. I should therefore have just kept travelling between areas until I got the chance to get that sword ...
Enchanter 12, 54 HPs, 0 kills (+405 in BGEE/SoD)
Losing the wizard slayer was pretty demotivating and I considered trying another separate run with that, but eventually decided I should continue with this group challenge. The specific aim for the enchanter of avoiding any damage being taken is a significant challenge in itself. That's particularly so in SoD, where I don't know the game as well.
In the opening dungeon I could go to find Porios invisibly and get him to surrender his troops. Downstairs, I knew there was a spike trap on the way to the first group of undead, but couldn't remember if it did some elemental damage in addition. Mirror image and luck protected against the latter and I added cold protection just in case. Wand scorchers killed those undead and fireballs the next group (I didn't want to go too far towards them due to the presence of another trap there. On the way to the next undead group I triggered another trap that I hadn't remembered, but that bounced off my defenses. The last group before Korlasz was affected by chaos before area damage kicked in. My mirrors were dispelled by the trap near the door to Korlasz, but not before they'd done the job of protecting me from damage. A couple of skull traps persuaded Korlasz to surrender her troops and got me to level 11.
In the palace, I used invisibility to ensure none of the assassins targeted me. In the City I shopped for more scrolls and picked up the Spectacles, as well as killing a few NPCs for their equipment. I don't normally kill Viconia, but was tempted to do so this time by the ioun stone she has that gives a +1 bonus to saves. I learnt a number of new spells, including stoneskin - which should reduce the chances of taking damage from the odd stray arrow.
At the Coast Way Crossing I used invisibility to avoid conflict at the bridge. Invisibility also took me through the Troll Claw Woods and into the old temple in the Forest of Wyrms - stoneskin deflecting the trap on that route. MGoI did the job against a couple more traps on the way to find Ziatar. He just survived my available skull traps, but a wand fireball finished him off.
I buffed for the Neothelid before running past and targeting Akanna with a skull trap. She survived that and a follow-up scorcher and I lost track of her in sanctuary. At that point the Neothelid dimension walked in as well, so I ran back the other way to avoid the possibility of getting trapped in the room. By the time it caught up to me, my MGoI had expired. I didn't think that should stop me going back to Akanna though as a magic shielding potion was still buffing my saves. However, I'd forgotten about the possibility of an Unholy Blight - and took my first damage of the run.
On the way out I threw 20 daggers at Morentherene, but missed the lot. As I was no longer trying to protect an undamaged status though, I pressed the attack and a few scorchers soon did the job.
At Boareskyr Bridge I intimidated Vichand into giving me the scroll, before surrendering the fort. A couple of firebreath potions then cleared the bridge.
I did some shopping at the Coalition Camp before going to rescue Skie. Then it was off to the Underground River. I no longer had to worry about the various traps scattered across the area, but with traps in mind I did set a couple of my own for the myconids that have the Bloom-Sac. An initial attempt to stun the cyclops failed. I feebleminded one of the mages, but took a lot of damage from a backfired attempt to use a scorcher on the other one - though that did finish the cyclops off for me.
Underground, I placed the Bwoosh and applied the poison before leaving. That was slightly more difficult than I expected as an invisible thief was found to be blocking the entrance to the lift. However, after I'd gone invisible myself and retreated slightly, he moved out of the way.
Back at the Camp, wand scorchers were used on the first wave, firebreath potions (which bypass magical protections) on the mages in the second wave and wands again for the 3rd and 4th waves.
At the Castle it took 5 darts to deal with Ashatiel - though at the cost of my stoneskins.
Inside, I followed Caelar into hell. I rested in the second area there and then forgot to buff my saves before confronting the first group of devils - having to save against horror there. It took a while of running round Thrix's support team, but I was eventually awarded a staff for doing that. That was used on the Hellevator, though I had no proficiency in it, so it took rather longer to clear the enemies than for fighter types - the staff also produced several sunfires during that - pity none of those did any good against the devils ...
Without good attacks, unable to use fire shield and having not picked up lower resistance, I had poor options of my own against Belhifet, so concentrated on keeping Caelar going. She was regularly distracted by gated devils, so it was a far harder fight than the others had and I'd used 15 of my 20 restoration scrolls by the end.
Fighter dualling to cleric 11/0, 129 HPs, 0 kills (+588 in BGEE/SoD)
There were no problems in the dungeon and Korlasz surrendered after being tickled by the ring of energy. She got away there, so I had to fight her again when doing the quest to get the tankard helmet.
As usual I avoided conflict in the opening areas on the way to the Forest of Wyrms. I felt obligated though to kill the shaman there, to take revenge for my wizard slayer. Ziatar was killed as usual with fireballs from out of sight, but I decided this time to attack the Neothelid rather than just run past. It cooperated unusually well with that plan - surfacing quickly, even before summoning a magical sword. That took me to the XP cap. I'd used a potion of absorption to improve my armor class against crushing attacks and took advantage of that by meleeing Akanna's aerial servants before finishing her off. On the way out I shot down Morentherene.
After killing another dragon that asked for help from the wrong person, I arrived at Boareskyr Bridge. I decided to risk killing Vichand this time. That took 3 firebreath potions, but that didn't take quite long enough for the rest of the camp to notice. I took the scroll to the fort and then arranged its surrender. That just left the need for a couple more firebreath potions to be used to open up the bridge.
After shopping at the Coalition Camp, I picked up the Bwoosh and poison before rescuing Skie. At the Underground River I was a bit impatient in tackling the cyclops and let too many guards attack me at once - taking me low on HPs before I retreated and finally killed it. I placed the Bwoosh and poison before leaving invisibly.
Back at Camp, exploding arrows were once more the order of the day.
On to the Castle, where Ashatiel was stunned by the 4th dart thrown. Thrix's devils were shot with more exploding arrows and I rested, then buffed for the Hellevator. That just left Belhifet. Since I was a fighter and had access to the tankard helmet to offset fatigue, I wasn't too worried about trying to save Caelar. She duly bit the dust, but I was able to run round and use sling shots to finish Belhifet off easily enough.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 2
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Alright: We were just preparing to do the western Nashkel circuit for some essential (Bracers of Dexterity) loot, but since we're in Beregost, we swing by the temple and wipe out the local wolf pack first for some quick experience. Web, Magic Missile, Skull Trap.. it's no contest.
Once rested, we take off for Nashkel... and finally get the second ambush! This is a lot less threatening than the Amazons I find: The worst that can happen is either a Hold Person from Drakar, or a Sleep from Halacan if your party is really low level. Halacan is himself low level, so succumbs easily to Command, and Drakar can just be interrupted normally.
Yep, that contest was decided in the first round of combat. Aramande got a bit too self-confident and took a real mean succession of hits bringing him to 3 HP (at this stage you'll notice he only has 30 HP to start with...), but everyone lived.
Whilst in Nashkel, we bring down Zordral: Like Halacan, his most threatening move is Sleep, which isn't an issue any longer. We also steal the handful of Arrows of Piercing available here (the merchants at the carnival, minus the one with actually useful magical gear, along with Winthrop are the only merchants I've found so far you can actually steal from).
We alleviate our disappoint by successfully pickpocketing Borda of all his items before he wanders off, though a Web scroll is about the best of the lot.
Neville, Ogre Berserkers and their Hobgoblin Elite cronies, Gibberlings, Gnolls... at this point nothing in these areas poses much of a threat. Aldain gets the Charisma tome, which I guess doesn't really matter at this point (it's marginally useful for ToB since he'll gain another +1 Charisma from the Hell trials and thus always have 20 Charisma for shops... I tend to forget to cast Friends).
We finish the entire circuit, including the Doomsayer, who literally does not survive two rounds against our buffed party.
Alright, we move on to the Cloakwood Mines. Our strategy for dealing with Drasus is as ingenious as it is simple: Kill Drasus.
So how did we do that? Khalid inched forward until Drasus spotted him and gave his speech, then slowly retreated towards the rest of the party. Drasus followed. Meanwhile, two Skeleton Warriors moved towards the remaining enemies from the south, occupying them whilst we clobbered Drasus. Then it just came down to carefully managing Rezdan and Kysus using summons and potions: We burned a single Potion of Magic Protection when Khalid had a Domination inbound (probably unnecessary), but otherwise the whole thing went rather well. With their MGoI eventually wearing off, Rezdan and Kysus were quite vulnerable to Spike Growth. So was Khalid, to be fair, but he has a lot more hitpoints than they do.
We descend into the Mines. As is customary, a charmed Cook triggers Hareishan's pre-buffs: She went with MSD rather than MGoI. However, she rolls really good saves, so it takes a while to bomb her down, but down she (eventually) goes.
The next major encounter is Natasha. We charm one of her Hobgoblin Elite guards and have him soak up a few Magic Missiles, but then things almost turn ugly.
So how did this happen? Aldain nipped off to the south and charmed a guard using Algernon's Cloak to use as additional Natasha fodder. However, the initial charm failed, so I lead the guard towards us to cast Charm Person when he was closer to where he needed to be. Of course, Natasha and the guard are both human.. so improved calls for help means Natasha now came running.
Yep, that's an Invocation spell she was working on: Best case scenario, Sunfire (best case because Aldain might have survived that), worst case scenario, Lightning Bolt. We're REALLY lucky Coran managed an interrupt there. Fortunately, with all of our frontliners in comfortable range, Natasha never got to try another spell.
Shaking off the shock, we deal with the Ogre Mage easily (he seems to only have a single third level slot which he typically spends on PfNM or Ghost Armor), as well as Davaeorn's personal guard, then retreat and rest up. This version of SCS makes the Davaeorn fight really easy, since he doesn't react to you fighting either his Battle Horrors or the guards that periodically spawn: The spawn timer starts when Davaeorn talks to you (and he talks to anyone that spots him, even if they're invisible), and the Battle Horrors immediately move in to attack as well.
So, we just park ourselves at the entrance, kill the Battle Horrors before the guards start marching in, and after clearing five waves of guards, no more help is coming. We have enough Invisibility/Sanctuary/characters with stealth to just sneak straight past Davaeorn (essential since if you try and hide out in the guard's room, Davaeorn might spot you when he teleports around), and send a charmed Stephan in to do the heavy lifting.
OK, so Stephan isn't terribly effective. We switch to Skeleton Warriors, and once those drop, a few charges from the Wand of Monster Summoning. Davaeorn doesn't have infinite spells, and soon succumbs.
Great! We flood the mines, and hike back. We get a Wyvern ambush on our way back to civilization, but that's not an issue at this point. Baldur's Gate is open and we want to buy some scrolls, but we swing by Ulcaster's first to pick up the Ice Lance scroll SCS places there. The Wolf of Ulcaster really can't take the amount of damage we're dishing out by now, though it manages to dispel our initial Remove Fear (which we promptly restore, to protect against its Horror howl). Jaheira held off the additional enemies this time, leaving the Skeleton Warriors running around the room to intercept the Ghouls spawned.
Off to the Gate! I want to clear all the outdoor areas, but as said, we want some more spells available first, and Khalid desperately needs the Hands of Takkok. Desreta can do real damage with her backstabs, but is predictable in that she will always (like all SCS thieves) target the weakest party member. Vay-ya just gets to contend with some Skeleton Warriors and has little recourse.
We swing by Sorcerous Sundries, though don't overdo it on the scrolls: Only overall useful spells make the cut, so we end up spending a scant few thousand gold. Still, our options are greatly expanded now since we also scribed all the scrolls we've been hoarding (of course under Potions of Genius for guaranteed scribing).
So: The plan is to sweep the coast clean. Towards this end, Mutamin gets a visit: He's quite adept at dodging Korax, but a throng of Skeleton Warriors manage to catch up.
The rest of the area is uneventful: Basilisks are helpless against PfP, and Kirian et al succumb to Web and simple ranged fire.
Next up is Durlag's, or at least the easier parts (upper levels, the Warder level minus fighting the Warders themselves).
Really not much to report here. We now have access to Haste, which coupled with our fighter-heavy party means we can just bludgeon through any of the tougher fights, like the triple Greater Dopplegangers. Since we're quite high level, we also have sufficient spell slots to just drown the Ghost in summons, and he expires without having accomplished anything.
Even without a Cleric (and thus readily available Animate Dead), I find you can just spam him with Animal Summoning I and it's more than enough: Most of his spells just aren't that lethal, at least not once he's burned through his L5/L6 slots, though a Potion of Absorption would probably be good for the fighter sent in to deliver the final blow in expectation of a Lightning Bolt.
Kirinhale is overwhelmed by Khalid, Amarande and Coran, and accomplishes nothing but temporarily draining Coran.
We proceed to the Warder level, where there's some good experience on offer, though after talking to three of the four Warders we opt to leave for the moment.
There's two areas on the western coast we've yet to clear, so we do just that. Sirines can't deal with Improved Invisibility at all, so Khalid just chops them down on his lonesome (we have two L4 arcane slots so it's enough for both groups). The Constitution tome goes to Amarande, netting him 5 HP. Not much, but he has so very little to begin with, so every HP counts.
Against Shoal, we buff Khalid with everything we can think of: Save vs Breath Weapon at -4 means he's guaranteed to survive Shoal's kiss. Droth appears and drops almost instantly. I suspect he's an Enchanter in my install, as I've never seen him pre-buff with Shield (a major weakness).
We finish by clearing the Ogre tribe to the south and a few Sirines to the west, Skeleton Warriors doing the deed for the latter.
That's the western coast cleared. We move east, finishing exploring the Valley of Tombs: The revenant is hopelessly outmatched by now, as is Narcillicus.
Following this, Samuel is rescued (and we snag the Ring of Fire Resistance and the scroll of PfM). The Red Wizards get a visit, and for once, things ALMOST go off without a hitch: Denak (the greatest threat) led by summoning an Earth Elemental. This gave Aldain time to get off a Spell Thrust, after which Denak was fair game.
Then Diana had to go and ruin everything by tossing a Lightning Bolt at (an immune...) Skeleton Warrior. Of course this bounced and zapped Aldain for 26 HP. I suppose it's possible it could've ended things with a really bad damage roll, but it seems unlikely (I don't think Diana is even level 8? And Aldain had 48 HP at the time).
Diana continues being a thorn in our side, as she gets off a well-placed Confusion moments before she drops: Fortunately it only affected our melee fighters, and although they rough each other up a bit as a result, no one dies.
There's just too many mages at once in that fight to allow for handling it safely, unless you're willing to just burn Wand of Summoning charges, I guess. Anyway, we lived.
All that remains is Firewine Bridge (Meilum stands no chance, and Amarande relieves Bentan of his PfM scroll). We delve into the dungeon proper, where Amarande also filches a second Dead Shot +2 from a Ghostly Knight. Not that we need it, but it's one of precious few things worth pickpocketing in BG1EE. We make our way through the maze, relieving Lendarn of his scrolls: He actually has an impressive selection, with Fireball, Lightning Bolt and Cloudkill.
Our last action in the area is polishing off Jenkal and stealing the paltry belongings found in Gullykin. That's it, all outdoor areas cleared. We indulge in some shopping: Shadow Armour, two Robes of the Archmagi (good for Aldain, neutral for Amarande), Dagger of Venom for Jaheira (it doesn't matter, she's just not that great regardless of weapon), and Aule's Staff +3 for Aldain (this REALLY doesn't matter, it's just for style).
This was rather a long update already, so I'll cut it short here. The party is currently resting at Ulgoth's Beard: Next on the agenda will likely be to clear Baldur's Gate. We'll then delve into Durlag's, do the Ice Dungeon, and finally Balduran's Isle: I want to import the Chain Mail +3, and we'll have two fighters with proficiency in Bastard Sword and Dagger respectively, so it should go OK.
Then all that remains is powering through the Candlekeep Catacombs and tackling the end game. With a party like this, it shouldn't be a problem.
Aldain is now a level 7 Human Conjurer.
Amarande is now a level 5/5/6 Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief.
Trio 51 Update - Bodhi's Lair, Kangaxx, Spellhold
Corecleric XX - hafling priest of Lothander (Corey_Russell)
Mirazi - human mage (Grond0)
Betson - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
So the party needed to leave Firkraag's Lair to sell. There were a lot of enemies defeated here on the way out, including a golem that was still around. We ran into some hobgoblins, which Mirazi slaughtered with a skull trap - but he also dropped Corecleric for 1/2 of his life Apparently this was because Betson got hit by a skull trap by Mirazi earlier, so he thought it was only fair that Corecleric got hit. Hmm...
In any case, after selling we forged some dragon armor. We still had a lot of money, so paid a stop to the Copper Coronet and got the fairhaven flail, Everaad's sling, and also a Ninjo-to for Betson. Betson began dual wielding this new weapon and the daystar, a very potent combo.
Next up, we worked on Bodhi's lair. This was pretty smooth with Corecleric popping most of the undead. Problem though? No stakes to make Bodhi appear. Luckily Grond0 remembered there are stakes in the bridge district, sitting on a table in fact. Bodhi died very fast, aerial servants doing massive damage.
Time to get the main quest going, we went on Saemon's ship. More undead for Corecleric to pop. Betson got some anti-mage buffs and Betson attacked. However, the buffs weren't needed as Betson's poison interrupted his key spells and died quick. Corecleric popped some more undead and then Corecleric sacrificed some DEX and defeated Bhaal.
The first area was almost very smooth, but one problem. Mirazi fought some Yuan-tis with Corecleric's skeleton warrior acting as a distraction. The yuan-ti mage seemed to shadow door to Betson who was trying to do the quest to answer all the questions of the statue. A lightning bolt from taht mage almost chunked MIrazi. Corecleric took a ton of damage himself, but Mirazi got the last word and killed the pesky yuan-ti mage.
In the second area, more undead to pop including a lich!!! Some umber hulks were engaged, and Mirazi got to use his new death spell. There was one hitch however - the kobold shamans managed to do big damage to MIrazi with yet another lightning bolt - she appears to be a human lightning rod? Fortunately, by this point, the entire party has regeneration items.
Next area, the trolls were defeated simply enough. The trapped paintings were no problem for Corecleric's buffs. We defeated the enemies hidden by the walls with the help of summons. Bodhi was defeated simply enough, and somehow Corecleric managed to not change to the slayer. Mirazi's skull trap failed to kill the gauth so Corecleric did the job. The next few areaas of spellhold were unremarkable and we just made it out of the maze, and it was time to save.
I rolled a staggering 94 on an elven Diviner and was feeling super hopeful about the run. It's one of the best rolls I've ever gotten without the autoroller.
She just died straight out of Candlekeep. A random kobold wandered onto the road, which I've never seen before in the place it showed up, and it immediately landed a critical hit, killing our character at 6 HP.
I'm not even sure that's supposed to be possible. I thought level 1 characters with less than 14 HP couldn't be killed with a single hit.
I just lost another run in BG1, the 3rd in the same day. The first was failing to drink a second Potion of Magic Blocking against Davaeorn and then failing a save against Web when I didn't have the Ring of Free Action equipped. The second was the critical hit from that kobold. The third was entering the bandit tent without a Potion of Invisibility, after accidentally entering the camp without talking our way in, and just barely failing to disrupt a Remove Magic spell with the Wand of Fire.
We lost our ample buffs, had a fogged aura, and then the bandits blocked the way to the exit. I just barely escaped and drank a Potion of Healing, but because I'd entered the camp without a conversation with Tazok, the camp was hostile, and our character was shot down right outside the tent.
The only reason we didn't have a Potion of Invisibility on hand was because we had drank one to escape a bad situation during a bounty hunter ambush. We were doing quests after Tranzig, having triggered the first bounty hunter ambush already, and forgot that Maneira and company were still hunting for us. I arrived without Invisibility due to having mis-timed the travel time during an area transition, and with a fogged aura due to not expecting anything more dangerous than some ordinary bandits in an ambush.
That last one was actually six mistakes over the course of the past several hours. Failing to deliberately trigger the second bounty hunter ambush, failing to enter that fight under invisibility, failing to do so with a clear aura, entering the bandit camp without talking our way in, failing to go find a replacement Potion of Invisibility for the tent, and being too slow to deploy the Wand of Fire when the enemy mage was casting Remove Magic.
My enthusiasm for solo Diviner runs has worn out, I think. Losing three in one day is a lot for me, especially considering how much fun I was having with the first one, how amazing that second one's stat roll was, and how quickly I'd tried to speed through the game and regain my lost progress with the third.
I might wander away from BG for a bit. A full saga run was a lot by itself, and losing several runs immediately after is discouraging.
I thought level 1 characters with less than 14 HP couldn't be killed with a single hit.
That protection exists ... but choosing the "No difficulty-based extra damage" option disables it. Don't you just love undocumented features?
Isn't there also still a bug - that reducing a character to 0 HPs is possible? It certainly used to be the case that the protection wouldn't save you if you took damage exactly equal to your HPs, though it would kick in if damage were higher.
OK. Test parameters: mod DAGGSHIT (Carbos/Shank weapon) do deal exactly 4 damage. Create a level 1 mage with neutral CON and minimum DEX. Difficulty Core, turn off that option. Get hit.
And Shank gets the kill with a non-critical 4-point hit.
Try again with 6 CON (3 HP) instead ... no death. "testy: takes 2 piercing damage from Shank (2 damage resisted)".
Confirmed, in 2.6. A hit for exactly as many points of damage as you have HP will kill a level 1 character. A hit for more than that won't.
A short and not too sweet session today saw us taking a cautious approach - until we didn't ...
Starting outside Watcher's Keep, we decided to leave the statues alone, given our very limited ability to hit things requiring +3 weapons. Instead we headed to Trademeet to look at the availability of clubs for Byrd. Blackblood was tempting, but the 13k gold being demanded seemed just too much, so we gave that a miss. Byrd did produce some animal summons to soak up the petrification spells of the genies and they were duly executed.
Back in Athkatla Gulpo picked up the berserk warrior, while Byrd tripped a few traps in the skinner house. Once more we opted not to risk conflict though with the rune assassins and their supporters. Instead we went to the temple district and dived into the sewers. The rakshasa there provided Gulpo with a new cloak - the troll form from that greatly speeding up the process of healing. We opened up access to the lich, before dealing with Mekrath and his support team.
The original intention was to leave the sewers at that point and do a few reputation tasks to improve shop prices. However, all this walking away from conflict had clearly taken a toll and we decided to see if we could get a quick kill on Gaius. That involved Byrd sneaking in to attack with some animal summons, with the efreeti aiming a follow-up attack. Byrd was always intending to run away and hide, whether the attack on Gaius was successful or not. He did indeed try and do that, but failed to get far enough to hide. His positioning against Gaius wasn't the best, resulting in him, rather than summons, getting targeted by most of the enemies. Byrd was hit several times as he ran, but that didn't appear to be too serious. However, the damage taken was just sufficient to allow a vicious flame strike from Zorl to be fatal .
Comments
Previous updates
Progress with each class to date is shown below. I didn't initially set out to have a common finishing position, but the first run ended up at the entrance to Baldur's Gate and all the rest decided that made a good break point as well. Things done up to that point differ quite a bit though, so I'll have to be careful about reviewing progress for each run if I'm to avoid missing important things (like picking up the pantaloons).
I've put a summary of what's been done into the spoilers below, together with screenshots (though I've tried to avoid going too mad with those given the length of the post
Fighter/thief 7/8, 82 HPs, 205 kills
I got to thief level 4 shooting down a hobgoblin on the way to Nashkel, where I rested to get Bhaal CLW while setting traps for Neira. Meilum was shot for his bracers before I took a trip through the Cloud Peak Mountains, getting to fighter level 4 there. Back in Beregost I used a potion of master thievery to get Algernon's Cloak - failing with the first 2 attempts, but it was third time lucky just before he went hostile.
I returned Landrin's items and picked up the pantaloons. Bassilus was stealth-shot to provide me with a 5th thief level. Then it was on to the basilisk area, where Korax dealt with those monsters and Mutamin to get me to level 5/6. Traps accounted for Kiran's party.
Now with 2 traps a day, I decided to have a go at Drizzt. I don't kill him in most solo games, but this character has scimitars as a melee proficiency and can also benefit from the high quality stealthing armor. First I went to Ulgoth's Beard to get the Greenstone Amulet, then used that to fend off charms from Drizzt while leading him into a stack of traps. He survived that with 4 HPs left, but a further trap negated his cure spell and one more was one too many. In addition to the equipment upgrade, that took me to fighter level 6.
With reputation lowered, I decided to do the Nashkel Mines. I mainly stealthed through there, but did get my first backstab casualty of the run against a spider. Mulahey was shot down without letting him into talking range. Outside the mine, I rested until dark and then stealth-shot the amazons.
Nimbul unsurprisingly failed to survive a backstab and I picked up Bhaal LMD before going to Beregost - where Tranzig was another backstab victim. At the Bandit Camp I made good early progress through the bandits using backstabs. However, when I failed to hide and one of them appeared unexpectedly I took my first damage of the run (I didn't bother to swap to Nimbul's boots that would have saved me there). A first use of Algernon's Cloak got Taurgosz to switch sides to help finish off the external bandits. Backstabs and traps set outside soon cleared Tazok's tent.
In the Cloakwood I could disarm the web traps, but chose to kill the ettercaps anyway - getting to thief level 7 there. At the mine, Genthore was attacked and pulled away before the others were split up using Bhaal horror. Drasus ran into some traps and the mages were backstabbed. After stealthing through the mine, the battle horrors were backstabbed and Davaeorn's spells blocked by the Greenstone Amulet before he was finished off in melee. After resting to get a second horror, I flooded the mine.
A quick round of reputation quests pushed that up to 20, finishing with the Doomsayer being another backstab victim. As I was nearby, I went on to the Lighthouse area and used more Greenstone protection to melee the sirines - getting to fighter level 7 there. The golems in the pirate cave were shot down, giving me an 8th thief level (final level in BGEE).
Fighter/mage/cleric 6/6/6, 51 HPs, 210 kills
The high Hedge golems failed to catch some magic bullets, taking me to level 2/2/3. My main melee proficiency was hammers, so next I went to call on Bassilus - a first attempt at blinding him proving successful there. The same fate befell Zargal and his cronies.
A bit more blindness and command persuaded Bjornin to part with a magic shield before I headed for the FAI. The ogre on the way was enough to get me a 3rd mage level. However, with intelligence of only 9, I had not yet learnt anything to make use of that. I picked up the Ring of Wizardry, which allowed me up to 4 attempts at blinding Tarnesh - but only 2 were needed.
The basilisks were next and, after Korax had finished with them, I was up to level 4/4/5. That meant skeletons were available, but they were not needed against Kirian - her companions were all blinded before she was silenced and then blinded.
Meilum was blinded, commanded and then held to get his bracers. Then I visited Arghain with the idea of using his 2-handed sword against blinded battle horrors - forgetting for a moment I was a cleric. Instead, I headed north to the ankheg area and looted their nest - 2 skeletons lasting up until the final ankheg there. Then it was on to Ulgoth's Beard, where I looked at the +3 staff, but couldn't bring myself to pay the 8k gold demanded.
To reduce prices, I did a few reputation tasks on the way through the Cloud Peak Mountains, taking that to 20. I didn't do any shopping yet though, as my charisma needs boosting to provide a benefit. Instead, I went to the Lighthouse area, where skeletons helped beat up the sirines and golems.
Back at Durlag's Tower, blinded battle horrors had the chance to get the occasional critical hit in, but that was no problem. I didn't bother with most of the ghasts inside, but did use sanctuary and skeletons to kill the basilisks on the roof - getting me my final BGEE level at the number of the beast (6/6/6). I gave Riggilo some 'nymph hair' before blinding him. I used the potion of clarity from Candlekeep to get the wisdom tome.
Moving on to the Nashkel Mine I used sanctuary to avoid most conflict there. I was intending to silence Mulahey, but got caught out there. I'd just rested to change spells, while out of sight of him. The rest must have changed positioning just enough though for him to see me and I didn't spot him coming until just too late to move away. I tried a command on him rather than running immediately before his helpers arrived. That worked and my attacks for the round took him down to 7 HPs - but now I'd lost my chance to retreat. Rather than use a potion of invisibility or boost my defenses, I was intending to dropd a potion of explosion at my feet to finish Mulahey off - but before I did so I noticed his morale had broken while still unconscious and I switched back to weapons to kill him.
Silence and a couple of skeletons helped make short work of the amazons and Nimbul also went silently to his grave. I used a charm person scroll to get Algernon to attack Tranzig - allowing me to get his cloak without loss of reputation - before Tranzig was also silenced.
At the Bandit Camp the bandit archers were slept, while Taurgosz was held at the first attempt. Inside Tazok's tent, Venkt and Hakt were blinded out of sight of Raemon. He was then silenced while skeletons quickly killed the commanded Britik.
In the Cloakwood I used skeletons to avoid any danger of triggering the web traps near enemies accidentally. At the mine, Genthore, Kysus and Rezdan were blinded out of sight of Drasus. Skeletons finished those off before distracting Drasus while I blinded him (I'd intended to silence him first, but had forgotten to memorize that). The battle horrors near Davaeorn were blinded before I put on armor to pummel them into submission - neither of them finding the critical hit required. After a rest, Davaeorn was silenced.
After flooding the mine I moved to the entrance to Baldur's Gate. Thus far the only mage spells I know are still sleep and blind, so that's something to remedy next time. I also need to remember to pick up the large number of items I have in storage (including the Pantaloons), waiting for me to learn identify.
Fighter/druid 7/8, 86 HPs, 238 kills
I decided to allow this character a fast start. Shoal gave me a first level up. I slaughtered Algernon while in Beregost. Even without proficiency, sling bullets made short work of the High Hedge golems to allow me to level up again. By the time I finished with the basilisks I was up to level 5/5. Korax was killed before I used charm to draw away Baerin, Peter and Lindin for disposal - getting to druid level 6 as a result. A charmed bear then tanked Kirian for me.
I grabbed the ogre's belt on the way to the FAI, where Tarnesh found mirrors don't help against call lightning. Then I eventually made my way down to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armor. Meilum & Poe joined me to take on Meilum - allowing me a bit of extra loot there.
The only weapon proficiency I have is daggers, so i went to get a free +2 dagger from Hentold. I did though feel obligated to deal with the Revenant while there. A charmed dog gave me time to cast 2 lots of insects on it before closing in for the kill with my new dagger. The reason for wanting a decent melee weapon was that the next target was the Lighthouse. The potion of clarity allowed me to melee the sirines before more sling bullets accounted for the golems to take me to fighter level 6.
Next I took on Bassilus. He succeeded with both rigid thinking and a hold person, but both times I was out of his sight before the spell arrived and he didn't come to investigate. Zargal and his friends were then enough to get me to druid level 7 - making summons available to me.
In the Nashkel Mine I cut down a few kobolds on the way to find Mulahey. A first use of a nymph helped beat him up without letting him into talking range.
Outside the mine I had the most dangerous moment so far in one of these runs when I got careless and entered Lamalha's sight before I intended. I failed to run away in time to avoid a rigid thinking from Zeela and that led to me being chased across the map by Maneira and Telka. I came uncomfortably close to getting within Narcillicus' sight and was also poisoned by a dart before regaining my senses and hacking down the archers. A pair of nymphs restored some HPs and then went to help deal with the clerics.
In Nashkel, Nimbul died in twin nymph lightning strikes. Tranzig was afflicted by insects and choked out how he wasn't going down without a fight only a fraction of a second before going down.
At the Bandit Camp the external bandits were mainly meleed, but nymphs were generated to hold Taurgosz. They also waited outside Tazok's tent to ambush those following me out.
In the Cloakwood more careless movement saw me poisoned, but it was only a huge spider and didn't do too much damage. At the mine, Genthore was charmed and pulled away for disposal. Kysus was then charmed and died in his own fireball (saving him from a call lightning) - follow up confusions from the 2 nymphs affected both Drasus and Rezdan and they were finished off before they could recover.
Inside, I worked through various guards, putting Bhaal horror to good use to break up the intended ambush. The guard at the bottom was charmed by cloak and helped deal with the battle horrors. A nymph confused Davaeorn, but it took a while to get through his mirrors and he recovered from that - but by then he was out of spells. I didn't have a magical weapon other than my dagger, but thought I would be able to kill the mustard jelly in brown bear shape (which I seem to remember as having slashing damage). However, both that and the black bear now seem to do piercing, so I just avoided the jelly while looting the containers.
After resting to get a second Bhaal horror, I flooded the mine. Before going to the City though I did a quick round of reputation quests to maximise that. Helping Charleston Nib got me to the BGEE level cap with my 7th fighter level. Nymphs helped against the Doomsayer before I got a lift back to Nashkel with Brage to push reputation to 20. Once I've got the Helm of Glory that will allow me to get the best shop prices.
Fighter 8, 100 HPs, 227 kills
The last session with the fighter-druid was not very good, so I made an effort this time to tighten up my play. Without the same range of options available, I also didn't bother so much about paying more than minimum shop prices and acquired a few magic items earlier than I would typically do so.
From Candlekeep I travelled straight to Nashkel without doing other tasks. The ankheg armor there gave a decent level of assurance against ambushes, so I pushed on to the mine area to find Greywolf to get a sword upgrade. I hadn't yet acquired a magic sling and needed a 17 to hit him, but it didn't really take too long to finish him off and get my first level. I then took Samuel back to the FAI, getting another level on the way from the belt ogre. I was prepared to duck into the temple to avoid Tarnesh's spells, but he died to my first shot.
Pushing on north, I gave a bowl back to Tenya before buying the Greenstone Amulet as Ulgoth's Beard. My inventory was feeling a bit overloaded, but shooting Neera and finding a book for Firebead helped that. I also got another level for talking down Marl, killed Algernon to get his cloak and bought a +1 sling.
I stopped off at High Hedge to shoot some golems and buy the potion case and a sleep wand. Then it was off to the seaside to melee some sirines using Greenstone protection - getting to level 5 against the first group there. Shooting down the golems in the cave was then just enough for level 6.
The Nashkel Mine was next, where Mulahey was again shot down without being allowed to talk. Outside the mine, the Greenstone Amulet allowed me to take on the amazons as a group. Rather than use another charge for Nimbul, I stayed out of the way while Rasaad and the soldiers killed him.
At the Bandit Camp the archers were meleed, while Taurgosz was shot down. At Tazok's tent I dodged in and out to avoid Venkt's spells while meleeing the opposition - finishing off with a one-shot critical on Venkt. I then rested to get Bhaal horror.
Rather than seek a second horror, I decided to boost reputation now and completed a number of minor quests left previously, getting up to level 7 in the process. I also picked up the pantaloons and charisma tome while doing the rounds.
With reputation now at 20, a few more purchases, before heading to the basilisk area, included a necklace of missiles. Korax did his normal good job on the basilisks and Mutamin. Baerin was then charmed and beaten up. I was prepared to use fireballs on the others, but Korax did a good job by paralyzing Kirian and then did the same to Peter an instant before he died - allowing me to finish things off without any item use. I did though head north-east and fireball the Red Wizards to get the ring of energy.
The Cloakwood was negotiated without incident. At the mine, Genthore was pulled away and disposed of. Kysus was then charmed and fireballed himself. A follow-up necklace fireball killed him and another dealt with Rezdan - Drasus was then over-matched in melee. In the mine I made a first use of the wand of sleep against the ambush, though by this stage that wasn't really necessary. I got chased all the way up to the top of the mine before I was eventually allowed to rest and heal in peace. The Greenstone Amulet then provided a shield against Davaeorn's spells while he was cut down - providing me my final BGEE level.
Wizard slayer 8, 107 HPs, 205 kills
From Candlekeep I gave myself a flying start with Shoal and then the basilisks. All went well there, taking me to level 6. A shot from distance pulled Baerin away, but he killed Korax before I could finish him off and I didn't press the attack on the others.
Before going to Nashkel, I went to Firewine Bridge to kill Bentan - he has a PfM scroll, which is the only general magical defense I can use. I also wanted Bhaal LMD as an additional source of damage and one that can be used from full sight range. I had to retreat several times from his charm person spell, but eventually got the kill. While in the area I shot Meilum - mainly for the XP as I can't use his bracers. Greywolf was the next to be shot, to provide me with a decent melee weapon. He did some damage to me though, which takes a while to heal at 1 HP per rest. To address that I went next to the FAI to buy Buckley's Buckler, picking up the ogre's belt on the way to return to Unshey. Tarnesh failed to withstand the hail of darts sent at him.
With HPs up at 79, the ankheg nest seemed relatively unthreatening and that was cleared next. Then I bought some +1 darts to make killing the High Hedge golems easy. Back in Beregost, Silke became the first mage to survive long enough to suffer from wizard slayer spell failure - each hit applying a 25% chance, so guaranteed after 4 quick hits.
The Nashkel Mine was next, with Mulahey shot down before he could get close enough to talk - taking me to level 7. Outside the back door, the amazons were cooperative in allowing me to take them on one at a time - Lamalha was successful with a rigid thinking, but I was already out of sight at the time.
Back in Nashkel, I hit Nimbul 3 times, but he still managed to complete a horror spell - forcing me to run into the local shop to escape that, before emerging to take revenge for the indignity. After learning Bhaal CLW, a bit of stealing in Beregost reduced reputation back down to 9. Tranzig was then another mage to be hit 3 times before attempting a spell - unlike Nimbul, he failed.
At the Bandit Camp I beat up Taurgosz in melee, to inherit his armor and shield. Once the bandit archers were cleared I went into Tazok's tent and successfully poisoned Venkt with 2 darts of wounding. That persuaded me to stay inside and Venkt failed to complete any spells.
In the Cloakwood, my lack of magical protection persuaded me to go after Spider's Bane. That involved dragging enemies out of Centeol's nest one or two at a time, until the big man was left all alone. I realised while doing that I hadn't yet got a green scroll to cure poison - so went to do that. Moving on to the mine, Genthore was pulled away before Bhaal horror sent Drasus fleeing madly - until a stunning dart stopped him. Kysus came to intervene and I was a fraction slow at running from him - a confusion catching up with me just before I got to the edge of the map. However, I saved and returned to deal with Kysus with poison darts before turning again to Drasus - he recovered from the stun, but failed to land a blow in melee. Rezdan's opening spell was mirror image and his casting was shut down before he could start another one.
Inside the mine I worked down to the bottom without trouble. I did well to kill the first battle horror without taking any damage - retreating after each attack, to avoid retaliation when I had the initiative. That continued to work well and the second battle horror also went down without troubling the scorers. I did a straight assault on Davaeorn using +1 darts and managed to hit him 4 times before he attempted a spell at me before closing for the kill. I then rested to get a second Bhaal horror before flooding the mine.
Before going to Baldur's Gate, I travelled round doing reputation quests to maximise that - getting my final BGEE level in the process. I also collected the charisma tome, killed some spiders for Landrin and picked up the pantaloons.
Enchanter 9, 51 HPs, 163 kills
As I sometimes do to help me concentrate, I set out trying to avoid any damage at all to this character. That meant sticking to safe travel routes early on, so I didn't immediately go to Shoal. In Beregost I talked to Marl, found a book for Firebead, killed Neera with LMD and then blinded Silke to get my first level up.
To the south I dealt with Mirianne's ogrillons and Zhurlong's hobgoblins before coming back to sleep some spiders - getting up to level 3 as a result.
At High Hedge I shot the golems and purchased a few spells, including invisibility. Then it was up to the FAI, sleeping an ogre on the way to take me to level 4. The ring of wizardry gave me plenty of opportunities to blind Tarnesh, but I only needed one. While there, I picked up the pantaloons.
In Nashkel I did a few minor bits of work and rested to learn Bhaal CLW - the evil powers are no real help to a mage, so I don't need to worry about managing reputation in this run.
An invisible trip to Firewine Bridge saw Meilum blinded to get his bracers. The same happened to Greywolf to start my trip through the Cloud Peak Mountains, where sleep and blind continued to feature heavily. A blinded Vax provided me with the uplift to level 5.
Further reputation increases culminated with Charleston Nib pushing that to 20. The Doomsayer was blinded there and I did it some minor damage with rarely used burning hands, but critical hits from my non-proficient staff did most of the work from outside its sight range. That took a fair while, so I took the precaution of re-blinding it during the attack.
With friends reducing prices to their minimum, I bought the Dagger of Venom to speed up finishing off helpless enemies. A selection of spell scrolls, the Claw of Kazgaroth and the +3 staff were added, but the Robe of the Good Archmagi will have to wait for more resources to be gathered.
At the basilisk area, Korax as usual led the way to deal with Mutamin and his pets, taking me to level 7. A first use of skull traps then dealt with Kirian and her crew.
Skull traps also dealt with the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower. I was lucky to avoid damage on the wall when a skeleton appeared while I was casting, but missed its shot. Inside the Tower, MSD allowed me to go on and off the roof undamaged (and to grab the tome). My familiar got a rare outing to distract the basilisks while I blinded them - I got to level 8 there.
The Nashkel Mine was traversed without problems - the unavoidable traps there being countered by mirror image combined with luck. Rather than shoot Mulahey, I thought this time I would use skull traps for their intended purpose, rather than as the usual instant damage - Mulahey walking right into the traps there. More skull traps were used on the amazons outside the mine.
Nimbul had no answer to improved invisibility while he was malisoned and emotioned. Tranzig has good saves, but the 11th attempt at blinding him finally got through.
I treated myself to an archmage's robe before moving on to the Bandit Camp. Copious use of sleep there, with the familiar acting as an invisible scout, dealt with the bandit archers. Taurgosz was overcome by emotion. Inside the tent, Hakt, Britik & Venkt were blinded while out of sight of Raemon - a couple of skull traps then killed him. None of my own spells would ensure I avoided damage from the lightning trap, so I used a green scroll in conjunction with Mulahey's boots to get 100% resistance.
I went invisibly through the Cloakwood. At the mine, Genthore, Kysus and Rezdan were blinded. Skull traps then left Drasus and Genthore near death before emotion became their final straw (with both malison and specialist penalty, that was cast with a pretty nasty -6 to saving throw).
I had saved the game there and continued a bit later - by which time I'd forgotten I was supposed to be avoiding damage. That meant I was targeted with 3 shots by one of the guards, but my AC of -7 against missiles proved sufficient to keep me safe. After that, I sneaked down to the bottom and blinded the guard near the door. A potion of magic blocking and invisibility were used to trigger the traps and skull traps then killed the battle horrors and Davaeorn - I got my final BGEE level doing that. For the mustard jelly, I used mirror images + luck and took an oil of speed as well to be able to kill it within the 3 round luck duration. I failed to learn the knock scroll though, so had to leave the best bits of treasure. It's highly unlikely I'll be back, but I didn't flood the mine just in case I did want to do that.
Fighter dualling to cleric 7/0, 84 HPs, 228 kills
From Candlekeep I went to find Shoal, gaining a couple of levels for shooting her down. A few tasks in Beregost was enough for another level. I also killed Algernon for his cloak. Further work around Beregost included the High Hedge golems, but I missed out on the XP for Silke after charming her and misjudging how quickly she would die from spider poison. To make up for that I killed part of the Beregost Temple wolf pack to get up to level 5.
Nashkel provided the ankheg armor before Tarnesh was shot down, I went on to the ankheg area and killed Sonner - his flail providing me with a proficient melee weapon. That was used to clear the ankheg nest. Returning Tenya's bowl and killing the nearby ankheg was then enough for level 6.
Next up was the Nashkel Mine. There were no problems going to find Mulahey. Since I had rage, I decided I should allow Mulahey to talk this time. Just in case he got lucky, I made sure I could retreat if necessary - but there was no need to do so and all the enemies were dead before rage even expired. Rage also made short work of the amazons, Nimbul and then Tranzig to open up access to the Bandit Camp. On the way there I picked up the pantaloons.
At the Camp, Taurgosz found himself outmatched before I cleaned up the remaining bandit archers. While not necessary, I decided to change things up a bit and used a potion of firebreath to do most of the work in Tazok's tent.
There were no mistakes in the Cloakwood and I moved swiftly on to the mine. Kysus was charmed and fireballed the group, killing Rezdan. An initial Bhaal horror brought Drasus out to be meleed. Kysus was next and was poisoned by a dart and died before the horror wore off. That just left Genthore, who had no chance one-on-one.
I decided I didn't need another Bhaal horror, so before entering the mine I had a quick tour of the realms doing reputation quests. That tour included a successful restoration of Melicamp to take me to level 7, as well as grabbing the charisma tome. I finished off with a trip to the Lighthouse where Ardrouine pushed reputation to 20 before rage defended against the sirines - a single rage was also enough to smack down the 3 golems in the cave.
Back at the mine I worked down to the bottom, then joined up with a charmed guard to kill the battle horrors and then Davaeorn.
Part 8
Chastened by our near-death experience with the drow war band guarding the exit from the Underdark, we move on to Ust Natha. Na'ashtar falls to traps and the Phaere rescue mission plays out the same way. Normally I skip out on Qilue, but since the mages in the aboleth's quest are only around level 14 or so, I decide to take it on.
It doesn't go so well. We get Breached three times in a row, and then half the party fails a save against Chaos. Even Korgan is confused; I doubted he would need rage since his buffs and saves were so good. I figured it was best to save the rage for when he really needed it (that 5-round cooldown after the 10-round duration got him disabled in a recent fight), but failing to activate it in time left him vulnerable.
We push through and keep attacking, and once the enemy Mantles wear off, all they have to protect them is Stoneskins (Mirror Image is gone thanks to Detect Illusions), and that is a much more finite defense.
On the way out of the Underdark, we set a bunch of traps for the Demon Knights and rush at the survivors. The Demon Knights' Symbol spells, fireballs, and level drain attacks are very scary, especially when paired with Remove Magic, but we don't allow the fight to last enough to jeopardize the party's safety.
Back in Athkatla, we sell off our many stolen goods, buy pretty much every expendable we can, and then go pay Thaxll'silliyia a visit. We don't have full immunity to his breath weapon (the blindness is especially tough to escape), but our fighters are very efficient, and even Edwin manages to contribute when we get past the dragon's magic resistance.
Haer'Dalis tries to tank the golems with Stoneskin and Mirror Image instead of PFMW and probably gets flattened to a pancake, turning the battle into a longer struggle. The fight with the main rakshasa group goes better, as Edwin can wipe the board with two castings of Horrid Wilting.
Haer'Dalis takes a lot of damage from an early Horrid Wilting spell, but Edwin steps forward to get a rapid debuff on Kangaxx: a Khelben's Warding Whip+Ruby Ray+Breach Chain Contingency on enemy sighted, which should wipe out Kangaxx's defenses. But something doesn't work.
It wasn't in range.
I look up the spell descriptions. To my amazement, there's a small difference between Warding Whip and Ruby Ray that I never knew about, or would even expect to be relevant:
Ruby Ray has a range of 40.
Warding Whip has a range of 30.
Edwin was somewhere in between those two distances when the Chain Contingency fired, and so Warding Whip fizzled. Kangaxx's defenses survive, he casts Time Stop, and he follows up with Improved Alacrity. Then a Dark Planetar.
It's time to break out the big guns. Edwin casts Time Stop and launches a volley of Minute Meteors at Kangaxx, whose PFMW is finally gone. Kangaxx's PFMW Contingency triggers after the attacks hit, but Edwin has squeezed in more magic attacks, paving the way for a quick Breach and rendering the lich vulnerable once again.
Desperate to close things out, Korgan nails Kangaxx with the Ring of the Ram for a big chunk of damage. Aerie casts Breach as soon as she can, Kangaxx loses his PFMW as he gets Improved Alacrity off the ground, and Haer'Dalis and Korgan close in.
It's almost time for Irenicus. But there's one more fight I've been contemplating.
The Twisted Rune.
It's an agonizing decision. The Twisted Rune is a vicious fight, probably the hardest in Shadows of Amn with SCS installed, and I don't think I've got any silver bullets prepared. Vaxall has Anti-Magic Ray and excellent mage defenses with his constant-effect aura cleansing. Layenne is an epic-level mage with the Staff of the Magi. Shangalar's a lich. And we even have a fighter and a vampire to deal with, all at once.
It adds up to a truly terrifying ordeal, one with a serious risk of defeat. But the Staff of the Magi is an incredibly useful tool, and will make Sendai in ToB far safer for Moth Sibula. The invisibility it grants won't protect us from everything, but it's a big deal and will protect Moth Sibula from lots of different threats.
I decide to take the gamble. We're tackling the Twisted Rune.
Part 9
We buff with everything we've got for the Twisted Rune. As usual, I keep our main character secluded in the stairwell to the southwest while the rest of the party hovers around the northeast, with a single distraction, Jaheira, right next to where Shangalar spawns. Like with the other liches before Kangaxx, only some of our traps trigger, and so Shangalar survives the initial damage.
While we're in Athkatla, we visit the Crooked Crane lich. Edwin uses Time Stop and magic attacks to debuff the lich, followed by another volley of Minute Meteors, shooting it down safely. After snatching Daystar, I decide to go for the Alhoon next. Edwin again uses Time Stop to get guaranteed attacks, both with minute Meteors and dual-wielding Firetooth and the Bone Blade, but the Alhoon just barely survives, and time resumes.
Edwin manages to land a hit with the Staff of the Magi, however, getting past Improved Mantle. Korgan rushes in to zap it with the Ring of Energy, and when that fails to kill it, Haer'Dalis joins him, slaying the undead mind flayer with the Ring of the Ram.
We've done everything we can now. It's time for the end.
Rather than set traps for Irenicus, we opt to give him a shot, just like we did in Spellhold. He has prebuffs this time, but a crucial one is missing: Spell Shield. We immediately hit him with Shatter Spell on a Fire Seed and mob him, switching to nonmagical weapons to get past his PFMW Contingency.
Edwin kills the beholders in Hell using Time Stop and dual-wielding with Firetooth, a powerful combination that simplifies some ToB fights. We go with the good options in Hell, but we attempt to kill the djinni after freeing it. For the first time in a long time, we succeed!
We prepare for the final fight of SoA, setting some Special Snares near the bottom of the map to Maze any enemies who chase us as we run away, and finally using a Find Familiar scroll to buff up Moth Sibula's HP. We also use a scroll to give Moth Sibula SI: Abjuration, burning a finite resource to ensure her buffs stay up after the enemy opens with Remove Magic.
Somehow, Jaheira loses her buffs to Remove Magic, despite having an Entropy Shield that's supposed to prevent that from happening.
The Slayer, fortunately, is missing a Spell Shield, and because it opens with a conjuration spell instead of an alteration spell, I feel safe moving to debuff it, knowing that a Time Stop is not coming just yet. Edwin fires off a Spellstrike, wiping out all of the Slayer's spell protections, and Aerie follows up with a Breach spell, completely debuffing the Slayer aside from its illusion spells.
Our earlier Breach proves to be a solid choice, however, as the Slayer has lost its defenses and is vulnerable to damage--and one of its own summoned efreetis catches the Slayer with a Fireball that manages to get past its magic resistance!
Finally our Fallen Planetar Heals Korgan, and Edwin gets a Time Stop off the ground. Switching to Firetooth and the Bone Blade and buffed with Improved Haste, he chops up the enemy Fallen Planetar and then a Balor.
I am still apprehensive. Most of the fights in ToB are very safe with the right approach and our party's power level, but I still see game-ending scenarios from Abazigal and Melissan in particular. Abazigal has a bad habit of applying spell failure on our mages, and if we lose our party members, a long-range Maze from Big Blue himself could end the game if Moth Sibula is alone.
Melissan is more worrisome still. Even at the best of times, the fight is a mess of various threats, from damage to debuffs to disablers, and there's a LOT of HP to chew through. Mishandling Melissan and getting hit with her infamous Time Stop+Greater Whirlwind Attack combo could be fatal.
Accordingly, we'll be choosing primarily defensive HLAs and Mimicry choices for Moth Sibula. Notably, while a Trickster can only take a single HLA of each type from each class, the damage resistance bonuses from Shadow Form and Spirit Form, the Shadowdancer and Shaman-exclusive HLAs, stack with both Hardiness and Defensive Stance, making it very possible to give Moth Sibula virtual immunity to damage at instant speed.
Most importantly, though, Moth Sibula has one key tool at her disposal that gives her a profound advantage if the final fight goes horribly wrong:
Easy As Breathing, a Trickster-specific HLA that grants permanent aura cleansing.
Due to her XP penalties and the limited HLAs we can pick, Moth Sibula won't be able to do anything silly like getting guaranteed critical hit backstabs in iron golem form at 10 APR with Kai active, but it means that we don't need to worry about her aura unless we're trying to drink a potion or use a scroll. As long as Moth Sibula remains breathing and stays vigilant, she can respond to any threat with an admittedly finite number of defensive spells like Hardiness.
All we have to do is avoid any stupid mistakes.
Congrats on finishing SoA, @semiticgoddess !
Starting: In BG1EE.
Difficulty: Insane with no level-dependent damage increase; maximum HP on level-up enabled.
Mods: Full SCS 34.3.
Protagonist: Aldain, Human Conjurer.
Protagonist's buddy: Amarande, Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief.
Amarande's thiefly escapades during BG1EE will consists of getting his Pickpocket high enough to comfortably be able to steal anything and everything (from stores, since with high enough PP you can't fail that check... I'm 99.9% sure, at least) during BG2EE. Once that's done, he'll go for Set Traps followed by Detect Illusions, and if there's anything left over it goes to Move Silently/Hide in Shadows: We'll be bringing Imoen for all of BG2EE, so there's no need for the utility skills (and if she AND her immediate replacement Jan both end up chunked, we'll be relying on the oodles of thiefly potions Amarande will be stealing from stores, I guess).
Off we go.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 1
Next update here
Xzar gets an inpromptu burial behind the Temple of Wisdom, whilst Montaron and Imoen are left to the tender cares of the FAI: They are replaced by Khalid and Jaheira. We immediately head east, helping out and (temporarily) recruiting Viconia; the plate mail goes to Khalid, since he will be our principal tank.
We swing by the FAI, wipe out the Hobgoblins, rest, and head north. Viconia swipes the entirety of the Ankheg treasure (minus Farmer Brun's son, we'll come back for him when we've got our full party assembled) under Sanctuary: The Wand of Fire will be very useful to us. We head further north, not speaking with Tenya, but clearing the Ankheg to the north of her shack. We end up needing all three of Viconia's memorized Command to bring it down safely, but down it goes.
Amarande grabs the shell; we'll store it in Beregost shortly, to be turned into plate later. We trek yet further north: In Ulgoth's Beard, we drop off Viconia at the inn, and buy 30 Arrows +2. Together with the Scroll of Stone to Flesh from the Temple of Wisdom, that's most of our early gold gone, but it's for a good cause. We head back south: We'll pick up Kivan at High Hedge (to ultimately be replaced by Coran), then it's off to Nashkel for Branwen. We'll grab some experience though not overly much, and then rush through the Mines and the Camp so we can get at Coran.
Of course, not having a Cleric in Beregost means no Command, a fact which does not escape the notice of Jaheira when the Thayvian Wizard drops a downright mean Flame Arrow in her lap.
We're saving as much experience as possible, but since we're already having inventory issues I wanted to at least grab the gem bag. Jaheira survived at least, as does Neera after volunteering everything she was carrying for our use. We do clear out the very minor areas between Beregost and Nashkel, because I don't want to have to come back here. Once at the Carnival, we recruit Branwen, and since she came with spells memorized, we talk to Noober and deal with Neira before resting.
We also helped ourselves to a Wand of Lightning in Beregost, and a few low-level scrolls as well as an additional Potion of Invisibility from the Nashkel mansion. Alright! We trigger Dorn's ambush without incident (the two bandits nearly always go for my protagonist, but Aldain was running Armor and the Girdle of Piercing so they failed to do anything before he moved out of LoS). Greywolf fails his save against Command and drops, yielding Khalid's first, last and best weapon for the rest of BG1EE.
We're on a timer (Kivan) so I'd rather not rest unnecessarily: We press on into the Mines, even though half the party are still level 1. It requires some careful juggling to keep in particular Khalid alive (tanking with 13 HP isn't easy), but a few applications of the Wand of Fire lets us pull through. I'm being more generous than usual with consumables: I always end up with 2 full inventories of wands and potions anyway, so let's just use them to make the early levels easier instead. We can even deal with the Kobold Chieftain and his Shaman using strictly the Wand of Fire: A Fireball clears out their underlings, whilst a Scorcher and Command spell the end of the big guys.
We enter Mulahey's lair, but proceed no further than having Branwen raid his chest (for the spell scrolls) under Sanctuary. We'll be back, but we do want to be higher level than this before proceeding to the Bandit Camp, and for that matter activating the Bounty Hunters. We take the scenic route out, i.e. via the Valley of Tombs: The revenant is left alone, but we raid the other two tombs (again utilizing Sanctuary for the one with triple Ghasts, as we're saving experience). Wand of Monster Summoning will be a very welcome panic button. Swinging back by Nashkel we clear Oopah (who drops a scroll of Blur.. not bad) and Vitiare.
OK! The plan now is to finish the Beregost circuit, including Bassilus (but excluding the Wolf Pack, as they're purely experience, no money or items). The money gained will be put towards bribing our reputation up, since we're using 1/4 reputation gain from SCS (and in my experience, this typically means it takes a VERY long time, if ever, before you hit 20 reputation). Since we want to do some shopping before the end of the game, we'll aim for 20 reputation as fast as possible.
Apparently, others have actually seen Jemby pre-buff with MSD, but fortunately she's content with Shield and MI in my installation. Thus, a single Command spells her end, and a simultaneous Sleep from Aldain ensures Zekar cannot interfere, leaving only a hapless melee goon to contend with.
We clear the Half-Ogres using a second Sleep, and drive north. Zorgal and his cronies all succumb to Sleep, but we leave Bassilus alone for a moment: There's experience to be had in Beregost, and I'd feel more comfortable with a slightly larger HP buffer before we tackle a level 11 (I think?) Cleric. Here we find a use for the +2 arrows previously purchased (the handful of Arrows of Fire we got from the Mines wouldn't have been enough, I think), as Thalantyr's Flesh Golems have no response to ranged attacks. This nets Khalid level 3, and he is now very likely to survive even a heavy hit; Amarande also gets his first level, though it just leads to a slight increase in PP and a handful of hitpoints, but still.
Feeling slightly more secure, we go after Bassilus. As he sometimes does, he leads with a summon, but fortunately it's Animate Dead, not Aerial Servant. An initial Fireball from the Wand of Fire clears nearly all the undead Bassilus starts with, and since Animate Dead has such a long casting time (and Bassilus didn't pre-buff with Protection from Fire), a Scorcher (combined with a hit from the Wand of Frost from the Nashkel mines; we do have two arcane casters in the party) is actually enough to bring him down. We gleefully loot the body and take off, leaving the very slow Skeleton Warrior ineffectually chasing after us.
Alright, NOW we can do some reputation quests, since we hand in Bassilus' holy symbol and promptly buy reputation up to 17. Melicamp survives but doesn't give reputation. In fact, NONE of the Beregost quests do. Meh. We take our frustrations out on Silke, who without pre-buffs (she doesn't fire any...) simply cannot contend with a party.
We finish all the little stuff in Beregost, and Amarande manages to swipe Algernon's Cloak on the first try (Jaheira with Charm Person or Mammal was on hand to afford us a second try if necessary). We make a brief foray to the FAI, where Joia finally sees fit to grant us a single reputation point. Well, it's not so bad: The Cloakwood Mines are 1 point guaranteed, so we only need to get lucky once more before we can shop to our heart's content. Before that, however, we head to Ulgoth's Beard again: Amarande successfully relieves Dushai of a Web scroll (nice), Potion of Power (really nice), and Ring of Freedom of Action (stupendous). That will come in very handy, and naturally goes to Khalid.
Since Aldain hit level 3, we use the Red potion to allow for perfect scribing: About 2000 gold is spent on essential scrolls from High Hedge (Invisibility, Skull Trap, MI, MSD etc.). We've finished the circuit we set out for, and so it's time to make a beeline for Coran: Mulahey, of course, stands no chance at this point (we don't even have to use a Fireball charge for his cronies, opting instead to just fight on two fronts at the same time).
Back in Nashkel, a charmed Oublek (much to his dismay) leads the charge against Nimbul, granting us 2700 gold and the emeralds we previously handed in. We swiftly avenge the poor fellow.
We're now always traveling invisibly (both Aldain and Amarande, as the latter still has atrocious HP), in anticipation of the Amazon ambush and their backstabs. Tranzig drops to a backstab of our own and swift follow-up:
As we make our way toward the Bandit Camp, no ambushes occur. Osmadi and Corsone are both taken down without either getting a spell off, with a Brown Bear courtesy of Kivan's Charm Animal acting as spell decoy.
Finally we arrive at the Bandit Camp. We keep pre-buffing very light: Just Shield on Aldain and Remove Fear. Amarande heads north, backstabs a bandit archer, then actually finds a safe use for the Wand of Lightning: He harasses his pursuers with it as he retreats south towards the party, killing quite a few enemies on the way. The battle proper goes well: Double Web and Entangle ensures the enemies stay in one place, and we did pick up The One Gift Lost (from a merchant that you can't steal from, boo!) at the Carnival. With two sources of bombardment, the gaggle of bandits stand no real chance: Venkt manages an Ice Lance at Khalid, but that's about it.
Khalid also ends up tanking the lightning trap in the main tent (Amarande's measly 25 Find Traps being insufficient to even spot it). With the Cloakwood open, we swiftly pick up Coran, leaving Kivan to guard the bridge. All that's left is to raid the Wyvern lair, and we have our final party assembled!
There's no longer any need to be stingy with what experience we pick up where, so we clear the Spider Woods (apart from Centeol's lair) and the Shadow Druids (apart from the Shadow Archdruid.. we will take him out, in a little while) as we pass through. There is a slight scare as Izefia is less than a second away from completing an Alteration spell aimed at Aldain (presumably Call Lightning), but an emergency Scorcher takes him down just before it completes. Another scare is Takiyah successfully calling in a Nymph which starts an Enchantment spell (Confusion, I'm sure). Good thing Nymphs are quite fragile, or that could've ended badly.
Transitioning to the Wyvern area, we finally find the Amazons. The fight goes (almost) perfectly: Amarande ends up taking a surprisingly weak backstab since Invisibility Purge by Branwen is slow to cast, but other than that the worst thing that happens is a Hold Person at Khalid, who is immune owing to his ring.
The Wyvern cave presents no obstacle at this point: On the way back we clear out Centeol, but Khalid takes a real beating due to a silly mistake on my part. He had the Belt of Antipode equipped so Centeol wouldn't use her Wand of Frost, but that meant his Protection from Fire spell from Branwen only set his Fire resistance to 0: Meaning the Scorcher by invisible Amarande dealt some serious damage to Khalid as well as all the spiders.
Still, everyone lived. Back in Beregost, Officer Vai affords us another reputation point, and Kheldath coughs up 2000 gold for a Wyvern head. Lookin' good, lookin' real good! We have our party fixed, we have some levels, we have some gear. I'll probably do a quick run of the areas west of Nashkel next (Jaheira needs the Gauntlets of Dexterity, and a magical club wouldn't hurt either), but once that's done there's nothing preventing us from pressing on and unlocking Baldur's Gate. This seems a good spot to call it quits for now.
Aldain is now a level 5 Human Conjurer.
Amarande is now a level 3/3/4 Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief.
So far, all of his points have gone into PP, which is sitting pretty at 150. Is Bernard the most difficult merchant to steal from at 128, I wonder? If so 230 PP should be plenty.
Corecleric XX - halfling priest of Lothander, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Mirazi - human mage (Grond0)
Betson - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
The Trio found themselves in the Planar Prison. Grond0 tried to cloudkill the umber hulks but none of them died. We also got the Wyvern attacking us, and Mirazi was hurt to near death. The next part went smoothly. Taking down the Master of Thralls was no problem with some Ariel Servants helping us. Also the Warden got sileneced and then taken down by Corecleric's sling. However, Gate70 went to the right and caused a bunch of dangerous summons to appear right on Corecleric! Corecleric ran for his life, healed and sent in some summons - luckily the party was able whittle down these enemies - whew!
Next up was the Planar Sphere. We did OK against the halflings, but Richard go to near death because his dart was equipped when a sword spider attacked him - whoops! For the next batch of halflings who like to throw petrify, Mirazi used skull traps to good effect. Some golems were then mopped up.
Time for the necromancer, who we used a skeleton warrior to distract him. We then worked to get the demon heart - that worked pretty well, though Betson got hurt pretty bad by the demon. For Tolgerias, Betson was protected by anti-mage buffs and also Mirazi managed to confuse both mages which made it easy. The next room of trolls and mepthits in the cold room were no problem.
We came unstuck in the engine room though as golems killed Betson. So the party had to rest so Corecleric could raise Betson. The engine was finally fixed. Quest complete!
Next up - Windspear Hills. Gate70 took quite a beating from the knights but nothing a little rest couldn't fix up. On to Firkraag's lair...we used protection from fire (green scroll) and the fire resistance ring on Corecleric to tank the genies...true sight was used for the hidden elemental...some skeletons were pre-laid for Samia's gang. Mirazi opened with a sunfire that hurt Samia's gang quite a bit.
The golems and orgs hurt Corecleric quite a bit and Betson once again bit the dust...with the summons of animal summons, Corecleric and Mirazi cleared the enemies and brought back Betson.
Tazok and his minions were no match for for the party. Time to deal with Conster to free the girl - Mirazi got nearly killed by Conster's chain lightning but she held on to a sliver of life...
Time for Firkraag with the cleric magic resistance, Firkraag was fair game for the cleric's and mage's magic. Betson got the kill shot. We ran out of time so saved here.
Part 9
Throne of Bhaal begins, opening with Illasera! Traps kill her mage buddy, PFMW and the Reflex block her attacks, and we stomp her so thoroughly we have no good screenshots of the fight.
Sarevok joins the party, and Aerie is now out. As crucial as she was to many of our SoA encounters, I place a LOT of value on fighter levels in ToB, and Aerie just doesn't scale that much in the final chapter of the saga. Especially with the beefier enemies in Ascension, damage output is incredibly important. Sarevok will be wielding the Soul Reaver for us, but when we eventually convert him to Chaotic Good, we'll still have a solid Soul Reaver user in the form of Korgan.
For the first Pocket Plane trial, I use some Wand of Cloudkill charges to clear the first few waves of enemies, then activate our shorter-term buffs as the drow start to run thin. When Irenicus, the enemy Sarevok, and Bodhi spawn in, we immediately hit Jon-bon with Shatter Spell via Fire Seed.
We mishandle it and Bodhi smacks Moth Sibula with 5 level drains, one for each finger, and Irenicus cleverly uses PW: Kill on our Sarevok just as his HP dipped below 60.
Next up is Saradush! We've got enough levels and gear to trivialize most of the fights (though fights always warrant careful prep first), but Gromnir is a bit messy in Ascension. Two mages, a bunch of fighters (one of whom I think is a Wizard Slayer!), and a medusa with a petrification attack all add up to a complicated fight.
We send Korgan ahead to tank, and allow Karun the Black to cast his Time Stop uncontested since we know from experience that thwarting him is challenging and not always necessary. Instead, we wait until he's out of Time Stop and is visible without PFMW before Moth Sibula simplify whacks him with the Staff of the Magi. Edwin does a bit of crowd control to simplify the fight.
The first area of Yaga-Shura's lair is slow and punishing, so rather than fight anything, I just have Moth Sibula loot all of the wardstones and run around under Protection from Undead and invisibility, dodging a bunch of fights along the way.
I go to Nyalee, defeating the skeletons with the Staff of the Magi and Haer'Dalis' Remove Magic spell, but somehow we don't have both hearts; only one of them. I hike back to the Marching Mountains to get the other heart.
It's nowhere in sight. I scour the area, even getting into a sticky fight with Imix, but the only heart that seems to exist in my save is the one individual heart in my inventory. I actually have to use the console to spawn it just to proceed in the main questline.
Nyalee blinds the entire party, but we have enough magic attacks to debuff her and the THAC0 penalties aren't enough to cripple us. The witch goes down.
Then something weird happens. Yaga-Shura seems to have no damage resistances.
I look it up in Near Infinity and Yaga-Shura is apparently a vanilla critter right now; he has no Ascension changes. I panic for a moment, wondering how much of the game has been done with a vanilla install (and if I'll have to redo the whole game just to complete an Ascension run), but after reviewing our past fights, I realize that the problem is only Yaga-Shura. I reinstall my mods and finally return to the fight.
Yaga-Shura has his resistances! We're good.
Draconis, easily the most boringly-named dragon in the saga, opens with a suite of buffs that immediately die to Shatter Spell. Spell Shield is a bad thing to have missing when the other side has Spellstrike or Shatter Spell.
Inside Abazigal's lair, things are not so simple. The lizard man battle is nearly always a nightmare in my runs, with multiple enemies casting both Time Stop and Insect Plague and PFMW and Nature's Beauty. Edwin gets Time Stop off the ground and follows up with a stream of spells under Improved Alacrity, but unfortunately can't simply kill the lizard man shamans during Time Stop; they're invisible and unlike Moth Sibula he has no DI to reveal them.
Anadramatis goes smoothly as well. We have tons of damage output, lots of tanking ability, and Edwin always ready with a Spellstrike and Breach. On the way out, we run past the demons that spawn in the lizard man area, clean up some kuo-toa, and head back to Amkethran for some rope.
Now we have to deal with the quadruple dragon ambush.
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Fighter/thief 8/10, 101 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 280 kills
I wasn't really worried about XP or cash, so most of the work done was to get equipment - the tomes, Helm & Cloak of Balduran, +2 ring, Helm of Glory, nymph cloak, necklaces of missiles. I managed to trip the trap on the Helm (hope I don't do that with a maze trap), but otherwise there were no particular problems. The basilisk in the city was wounded by a couple of traps set round the corner of a crate before being finished with a backstab - saving me the cost of a potion there.
I noted during the fight with Degrodel's guards that I had not got the crushing girdle. So, once Marek's poison had been dealt with, I had a quick trip to the Cloud Peaks to double-check that Krumm had already been killed. I can't remember if I lost that or perhaps sold it to save inventory space.
The final battle for now in the City was at the Iron Throne. Naaman was charmed and used a scorcher on the others - who swiftly took revenge. Necklace fireballs killed the other casters before the fighters were scimitared.
Back in Candlekeep I looted the tombs before sneaking past Prat's gang - I couldn't resist though using a green scroll to kill the basilisks.
I wasn't interested in fighting Krystin, so just used a stealth shot to dispel Slythe before beating him up.
At the palace I charmed the Flaming Fist guards before buffing with potions and showing myself. A couple of traps did a bit of damage to start with and an opening use of the wand of sleep put one of the dopplegangers on the floor. The others fell quickly, with Belt and Liia both comfortably surviving.
After fighting through the maze, I bypassed Rahvin's group on the way to the old temple. A stealth shot dispelled Sarevok and stealthing towards him prompted his dialogue and Semaj to teleport out. For safety I used a PfM scroll while shooting him down. After a bit more shooting weakened Sarevok, a single backstab was sufficient to lay him low.
As a postscript, I belatedly remembered I had intended to go to Durlag's Tower after Candlekeep. The loss of a wisdom tome makes no real difference to this character, but let's hope I can do better about completing all intended work with the others ...
Fighter/mage/cleric 7/8/8, 85 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar, 5 from helm), 295 kills
Various encounters in the City were done to improve my equipment. Reviewing that, I noted I'd not yet got the Ring of Energy and went to remedy that. The final action was invading the Iron Throne. All 4 casters were blinded initially and web and a couple of skull traps were thrown in. Skeletons failed to kill Zhalimar once the web ended, so I withdrew into sanctuary and changed into armor to finish the job myself.
Back at Candlekeep I looted the tombs, using a green scroll to top lightning protection from boots up. Prat was the only one to survive some webs and he died fighting against a follow-up attack by skeletons.
I learnt a few more spells before searching out Slythe. This time I let him talk, but he failed to survive a command thanks to some summoned skeletons. They managed to disrupt all Krystin's intended spells as well.
At the palace there was no need for any use of charm with this character. Potions, buffed skeletons and a chaos cast from scroll gave the dopplegangers no chance.
There were no problems in the maze and I bypassed Rahvin on the way to the temple. Sarevok and Semaj were pulled out there. Webs and skeletons did some damage, before I used potions of magic protection to tank Semaj's spells while shooting him down. An oil of speed allowed me to run Sarevok round while magic missiles and the odd sling shot took toll of him.
Fighter/druid 8/10, 107 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 344 kills
I killed Ramazith with a combination of poison darts and insects, but the mustard jellies on the floor above looked like being a problem given I was only armed with daggers and darts. I therefore took a break and went shopping in Ulgoth's Beard - getting a staff among other things. I added the Dagger of Venom in Beregost, a few potions and scrolls and a wand of sleep.
The remaining encounters in the City were soon complete, finishing off with the Iron Throne. The casters were pulled between floors to waste their spells, normally with a nymph waiting to help out. Zhalimar was meleed on my own.
In Candlekeep, I used a clerical protection from lightning scroll along with cloud giant strength and DUHM to loot the tombs. Prat and his gang were affected by nymph confusion. Prat was stunned several times by Bor - I then gave him a taste of his own medicine once the others were dead.
Before returning to Baldur's Gate I had a few outstanding things to do. First was Durlag's Tower, where darts of stunning meant I only needed a single potion to deal with the basilisks on the roof. Nymphs used confusion on the Red Wizards to get the Ring of Energy and I also picked up the pantaloons from the FAI.
Finally back in the City, I nearly ran into some guards, but veered away in time and went to find Slythe. I didn't bother with Krystin, so just attacked with stunning darts - the second of those taking effect.
I was short of real time at this point, but was trying to finish the session and made a significant mistake at the Coronation - forgetting to summon nymphs. However, I used potion buffs and had charmed a few guards and was lucky that all the dopplegangers attacked me or the charmed guards - meaning the dukes survived almost untouched.
After traversing the maze, I bypassed Rahvin. At the temple I pulled Sarevok out with a potshot before using a potion of invisibility to strand him. The 3 nymphs had a go at Semaj, but he saved against everything and teleported away towards the dais. Moving towards him would be likely to bring the others into the contest, so I just attacked Sarevok. He was run round for a while before I closed in for the kill.
Fighter 9, 113 HPs, 349 kills
With other intended encounters complete, I went to the Iron Throne. When 4 enemies followed me between levels, I thought it might be fun to charm Zhalimar to set them against each other. He switched sides again fairly quickly though and I had to kill all the enemies myself.
In Candlekeep I looted the tombs, but decided discretion was the better part of valor and left Prat and his gang untouched.
I'd not yet been to Durlag's Tower, so paid that a visit and retrieved the tome using a PfM scroll before returning to the City. I had a bit less cash than I'd expected so fought Krystin as well as Slythe - the latter being meleed before the former was dispelled with an arrow and shot down.
At the palace I charmed the Flaming Fist and buffed up before starting the fight. Two of the dopplegangers went after Liia and three for Belt, which was enough to potentially cause problems. I tried the Wand of Sleep twice - the first failed to affect anything, but the second put one of the dopplegangers on the floor - though that one was the one not attacking the dukes, so didn't really affect things. Belt was badly wounded and I thought Liia was going to die, but I found a vicious critical to finish her last surviving attacker just in time.
After going through the maze, I used necklace fireballs on Rahvin. He chased me before those could kill him, but fortunately he didn't fire off either of the exploding arrows he carries.
In the temple I decided to take on all the opposition this time, so opened with a fireball. I ran Sarevok around inside a web trap that spawned, but he refused to get stuck. I therefore dumped him with an invisibility potion and went to tackle the others. Angelo fired off 3 exploding arrows before being finished off with a Semaj lightning bolt. I shot the others, then ran Sarevok round for a while before deciding on LMD as a fitting end for him.
Wizard slayer 9, 120 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 299 kills
At the Iron Throne I moved between levels to split up the opposition, though I still took a fair amount of damage dealing with them.
Rather than report immediately to Duke Eltan, I decided it was time for a seaside break. I used 4 exploding arrows on each group of sirines to ensure they suffered from spell failure. The golems were then shot down to get me the constitution tome - allowing me to regenerate without the use of Buckley's Buckler.
Then it was off to Candlekeep. I had no way to get the tomes there, but using DUHM I could break into the tomb containing a PfM scroll. After killing a few dopplegangers I ran quickly past an oblivious Prat and used a PfP scroll to deal with the basilisks. I've not been to Durlag's Tower, but decided not to do that - a PfM scroll is too high a price to pay for a pretty useless wisdom tome.
Back in Baldur's Gate, I revisited Ramazith's Tower - DUHM now allowing me to loot his locked container, containing another PfM scroll. I also spoke twice to Tamoko as, unlike other classes, she actually has something useful for wizard slayers.
Going to find Slythe, I shot at him with dispelling arrows - the 3rd of those connecting. He was then easily enough killed with darts.
Over the years I've had many attempts at the coronation fight with wizard slayers and don't have a clear favorite technique. Dispelling arrows can work well, as can stunning darts. In this case my THAC0 is 2 better with darts, so I decided to stick with those (darts also allow you to use a shield to reduce damage taken). Bhaal horror is the only other option available and having 2 of those definitely improves chances, but still to not much more than even money. I showed myself a little away from the dukes, to make it easy to distinguish quickly which dopplegangers were trying to attack me - 2 of them did so, which is very good (if they all pile in on the dukes the chance of success in the fight is much more limited). My first horror affected 1 other doppleganger, which was a better than average outcome. My second dart then stunned a doppleganger and suddenly prospects were looking rosy. A second horror failed to do anything though and 2 or 3 more darts had no effect up until Liia died - to put the dopplegangers back in the running. Luckily though, one of the dopplegangers that killed Liia turned to attack me, while the other suffered morale failure from Belt's attacks - so none of them were attacking Belt. That allowed me to switch to my sword and the dopplegangers were soon disposed of. Neither Belt nor I took a lot of damage there, making that ultimately one of the easier coronation fights I've had with this class.
In the Undercity I would have liked Rahvin's 2 exploding arrows, but without area attacks I had no real chance of getting them so just left him alone. I attacked Tamoko and nipped inside the temple when she started casting at me. This encounter is a favorite for producing duplicates and that happened this time, but I talked the second copy down before killing the original to get her +1 plate armor. With so few attacking options for wizard slayers, I was keen to get the 8 exploding arrows Angelo has and decided to resort to cheese - repeatedly activating the lightning trap, using green scroll protection on myself. Semaj was the first to snuff it, with Tazok following soon after. Angelo is by far the hardest to hit, but when he is hit he takes a lot more damage than Sarevok (who has 90% resistance). That means that nearly always Angelo will die first. I'd seen him get hit 3 times and 1 more would have probably killed him. Unfortunately, the game seemed to decide I'd had my share of luck for this run and this time Sarevok died first - meaning I missed out on Angelo's arrows.
Enchanter 10, 56 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 244 kills
I tried learning some more spells, but still leaving the chances for that random. That proved a bit costly with quite a few failures, including two more knock spells. I can use the strength spell or DUHM to open the more important locks, but that still means I'll miss out on more loot than I'd anticipated. To help address that shortfall, I went to the ankheg nest and robbed that using invisibility.
Still avoiding using summons, I used the mirrors + luck combination to ensure that the transforming dopplegangers in the Seven Suns didn't get a hit in. At the Iron Throne 10 blindness spells took effect on Alai, Naaman and Diyab. Improved invisibility provided back-up protection as skull traps were sent in. Chaos then affected Zhalimar and Gardush - the latter killed the former before I finished things off.
Before reporting to Duke Eltan, I still had a couple more places to travel. The first was the Lighthouse area, where I charmed Arkushule to help me out against the sirines. MGoI was another spell I'd totally failed to learn, so I used invisibility on the hold trap and MSD on the charm one while shooting the golems. I also went to the Red Wizard area to skull trap them and take the Ring of Energy.
Finally it was time to return to Candlekeep. I managed to learn the MGoI spell in the secret library, so used that to defend against the non-physical traps, along with mirror image/luck for the spike ones. I used the violet potion to break open the coffins with the tomes in. Prat survived skull traps and disappeared. I tracked him down near some spiders though and used their web trap to hold him for the kill.
After a few final purchases, I went to find Slythe. I charmed and set up the door guard to be attacked by him, thinking I could then use spells from out of sight. Slythe caught me out a bit though by one-shotting the guard and I was retreating back to go invisible when I noticed that my dart of stunning had taken effect on him.
At the palace I charmed a few guards and buffed up before sending in the devastating chaos to confuse all the dopplegangers. They were duly finished off, with Liia remaining untouched and Belt only slightly wounded.
I used invisibility to avoid enemies with distance attacks in the maze and MGoI against traps. I didn't bother with Rahvin, but moved on to the temple. A shot from distance pulled Sarevok out. Semaj also teleported out, but annoyingly remained invisible even after his tattoo of power fired at me when I showed myself while using a potion of magic blocking. I happened to have a monster summoning I scroll in my case, so used that to identify where Semaj was and then started to fireball him with my wand. Unfortunately he'd teleported by that time just close enough to the dais to bring Tazok and Angelo into the fight. Malison + emotion did well to drop Semaj and Angelo, though not Tazok. Skull traps then finished off the casters. I added luck to mirrors and moved forward a bit so that Tazok would attack me - allowing me to blind him and finish him off. I had a second malison memorized so used that for Sarevok to give blind a chance on him - and it worked first time. A few slingshots later and Sarevok was ready for the LMD finish.
I was lucky with the save or else effects in that final battle, but overall it's a decent effort to get through BGEE without taking any damage - particularly with not relying on the use of summons. I've got plenty of experience of trying to avoid damage in BGEE, but continuing like that in SoD (where I've never completed a run undamaged) may be asking too much - but I'll have a go.
Fighter dualling to cleric 9/0, 117 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 370 kills
With no charisma bonus available for shopping, I did a bit more work in the City than with the other characters - like Desreta and Vay-ya. Just for the hell of it, I even took on Larze in a straight melee fight en route to smacking down Marek. Degrodel's guards were killed pretty quickly on the way to getting the Cloak of Balduran, but the damage I took also pointed up my lack of the slashing girdle.
At the Iron Throne I made the contest straight up melee, though I did use a PfM scroll to prevent the enemies from breaking my rules by using spell damage.
Before reporting in to Duke Eltan, I decided to complete a few other jobs. First up were the basilisks. Korax took no damage against them, so I kept him on to help with Kirian's mob as well - he duly paralysed Kirian and Peter while I beat up the others. Next, a couple of fireballs left Denak with no chance to defend his Ring of Energy. Finally, I went to Durlag's Tower, mainly to get the tome there. I did though use a PfP scroll and a single rage to kill the 4 basilisks on the roof (along with a couple of intruding gnolls). I also 'helped' Kirinhale before, to my surprise, successfully killing her as she tried to teleport away.
Back at Candlekeep, I looted the tombs without trouble. I decided to take on Prat and invested a magic blocking potion and a few fireballs in doing so.
After a final inventory review and bit of shopping, I went to find Slythe. I let him talk before beating him up, so I'd get the opportunity to take down Krystin as well.
At the palace the odds were very heavily in my favor after charming a few guards. The dopplegangers' chances then became astronomically small when the wand of sleep somehow persuaded 5 of them to lay down on the job.
This character doesn't have a great need for exploding arrows. Thus, I left Rahvin alone in the Undercity and just tackled Sarevok and Semaj in the temple. A PfM scroll meant Semaj was no threat and I added some potion buffs to beat up Sarevok.
Byrd (male half-elf beast master, Grond0); Gulpo (male dwarf berserker, Gate70)
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After running through the epilogue safely, we saved the game and moved onto BG2EE. We took plenty of damage in the opening dungeon and that took rather longer to fix than we've been used to as Gulpo no longer has Buckley's Buckler to allow regeneration. However, progress was easy enough. Towards the end of the dungeon, Gulpo enquired tactfully whether Byrd might want to consider using the divine spells he now had available. That prompt not only sped up the healing process, but also reminded Byrd that, as a Beastmaster he could summon animals much earlier than other rangers. A wolf summoned to help out against Ulvaryl proved helpful when it got the final chomp in before she could flap away.
Beast master 10, 103 HPs, 44 kills (+401 from BGEE/SoD)
Berserker 10 124 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 81 kills (+321 from BGEE/SoD), 3 deaths
Part 10
The quadruple dragon ambush begins poorly. First, when Moth Sibula approaches the enemies, the whole party gets relocated right next to the dragons, triggering a triple Pierce Shield Chain Contingency from Edwin that I wanted to save for the green or red dragons. Plus, because the area is apparently being revealed a la Farsight due to a script, the dragons are within Moth Sibula's field of vision even after Edwin blinds her, preventing her from using the blind thief trick and her aura cleansing to spam traps.
There's not much left before Big Blue. The Tyrant Golems are the real remaining threat, which I normally neutralize during Time Stop, since the only thing worse than a beholder is a beholder golem with ~90% damage resistance. Edwin struggles to deal enough damage, even with dual-wielding daggers under Improved Haste, so I give up and send in our fighters when Time Stop proves insufficient. A lucky vorpal strike from our planetar helps close things out.
Then the game crashes, which has been happening a LOT in ToB, and we have to do the fight all over again. But we survive the process, outsource a job to Bondari, forge the Big Metal Unit (though I might not use any of the gear in this run), and continue to Big Blue.
For the first time ever, I burn a Spell Immunity scroll on Moth Sibula to give her SI: Abjuration. I've been hoarding them for Melissan, but Abazigal is scary enough that I want all of her buffs well-protected. We send Edwin over to tank the smaller enemies with PFMW, but Abazigal and Tamah are both uninterested and ignore him in favor of our fighters. Tamah goes after Sarevok, who continues to be our enemies' favorite punching bag due to his mediocre AC, lower resistances than Korgan, and lack of mage buffs.
Tamah disappears and I'm not sure when she'll show up again, so I decide to bite the bullet and focus our energy on Abazigal. At first, Korgan and Sarevok just attack with ranged weapons while Jaheira and Haer'Dalis tank him, but after our Fallen Planetar and another big potion heal them up, we close in on Abazigal, who currently has no Hardiness or armor to defend him.
Tamah disappears once again. Rather than hunt her down, we bring everyone in a circle around Abazigal to read him a bedtime story.
We complete the next Pocket Plane trial, learn Dark Taint, and Sarevok's last Ascension dialog triggers, switching him from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Good. He can no longer use the Soul Reaver, which we hand over to Korgan instead. To take its place, Haer'Dalis gives the Answerer to Sarevok and Korgan gives him Crom Faeyr for the off hand slot. It's not as optimal as before, but not having Sarevok switch sides at the Throne of Bhaal is a very important boon.
Sendai is next on our list. I'm not super worried about the drow, since Moth Sibula can fall back on the SotM if something bizarre and catastrophic happens, but it will still take a lot of preparation before each fight to actually clear out her enclave. From there, all we need to do is a quick conversation with Balthazar after downing a Potion of Insight, trample the Ravager, and finally organize our resources towards the Throne.
I'm getting nervous, as I always do during the late game in ToB. We have a lot of work to do before the final battle, which is a lot of time and a lot of suspense for what is easily the hardest and most complex fight in the entire saga.
Part 11
Most of Sendai's enclave is the same: buff up, brute force, and repeat. Odamaron can be more complex, however, given that it's three different mages at once. Moth Sibula reveals Odamaron with Detect Illusions and then tries to debuff him with Shatter Spell via Fire Seed. It fails, unfortunately, presumably due to a Spell Shield on the lich, but since we have two copies of Moth Sibula due to Shadow Twin and we also have Edwin under Improved Alacrity to remove the lich's buffs, Odamaron finds himself short of a PFMW spell.
Ogremoch isn't too complicated, as we have plenty of Breach spells and lots of damage output, rendering the elemental's neverending Stoneskin spells moot. Diaytha, meanwhile, is a potentially sticky fight that becomes very simple with Edwin's dual daggers and Time Stop.
Favored of the Spirits, which gives her immunity to death magic for 1 hour and gives her an instant-casting, automatic Heal when she's low on HP. Moth Sibula doesn't usually tank, but every layer of defense against stuff going wrong in the final battle could make the difference between success and failure.
Now we have to deal with Sendai's many statues. The first, a simple cleric, fails to cast Divine Protection and we cut it down quickly. But the second, a mage, gets Time Stop off the ground before Moth Sibula can reveal it. Fortunately, our planetar had the foresight to cast Insect Plague on it, and the lingering damage keeps going even through Time Stop.
Edwin casts Time Stop, but Moth Sibula fails to reveal Sendai before Edwin's spell goes off, and so Edwin loses the opportunity to spam spell attacks at Sendai. Instead, Sendai launches a Symbol, Stun spell that disables Sarevok and a Remove Magic that wipes our lesser buffs.
Moth Sibula tries to hit Sendai with Shatter Spell, but she misses her first attack and Sendai casts Time Stop before she can try again, and so Shatter Spell wears off before we can make use of it. When that fails, we just bonk her with the Staff of the Magi instead. She casts Improved Mantle to hold us off, but that's no good against the staff.
After killing Cyric's followers with traps, we approach the Ravager. We have a Moth Sibula clone use Hand of Murder to deal magical damage to the Ravager and we blind Moth Sibula so she can spam her traps next to the beast, but it's our fighters that do the real work. Once Korgan gets a few hits in with Soul Reaver, the Ravager has a less than 50% chance to hit us.
Assuming Melissan's save-penalizing melee attack doesn't end up rendering us vulnerable to her stunning attacks. But ideally we should be able to prevent things from spiraling out of control, as long as the rest of the party stays alive and functioning.
Here we are at the end of the game, after spending the entire saga building up our party for this one fight.
And I am still terrified.
Part 12
We enter the Throne of Bhaal.
Taking a leaf out of @Enuhal's book, I use a Time Stop scroll on Moth Sibula to deal with the first two Fallen Solars. I fail to realize that the Fallen Solars require +4 weapons to hit, so unfortunately Moth Sibula's current dual-wielding setup won't work, but Balthazar can pick up the slack.
We use more Time Stop scrolls to deal with the energy pools. We've been saving them up for a long time, and I want to be in absolute peak condition for the Five.
Korgan's rage cooldown once again becomes relevant, as I foolishly relied on his saves to protect him. Our dwarf gets charmed.
We bring him back with the Rod of Resurrection, finish cleaning up the area, and begin our prep for the Five. We burn a lot of potions and scrolls, notably giving Moth Sibula SI: Abjuration, and manage to get a couple of Wish-rests off of Edwin. The Wish-rest was not a huge gamble; we were ready to restore Edwin's level 9 spell slots with Spell Trap and a Black Blade of Disaster scroll, since BBoD's on-hit effect is a level 9 effect.
We still have both of the Protection from Magic scrolls we bought back in Shadows of Amn. We hit Abazigal with one of them, but Sendai is invisible and we can't target her just yet. Abazigal is still able to use spell sequencers, but hopefully that's the only magic he'll be able to use in this fight.
Meanwhile, Moth Sibula manages to reveal Sendai after several agonizing seconds of uncertainty, and we wait for Korgan to hit Sendai with our second and final Protection from Magic scroll.
Our Fallen Planetar Heals Sarevok, and Korgan hurries over to the east to work on Abazigal, intending to cripple him with Soul Reaver. But Korgan's Hardiness spell abruptly runs out, and Abazigal nearly kills our dwarf mere seconds into the fight.
We pull Korgan away so he can deal some damage to the otherwise-nonthreatening Sendai to the west, while Moth Sibula and our fighters try to spread around our combat damage so that none of the Five ends up dying fast. Yaga-Shura attacks Edwin despite his PFMW, and so none of us bother trying to wound Yaga-Shura just yet.
As Edwin gets Wish off the ground, fishing for whatever value it can give us, Jaheira loses all of her buffs at once. It seems that her Entropy Shield once again ran out just in time for an enemy to debuff her.
We keep trying to spread out damage, but there's one form of damage we cannot stop once it's started: the Insect Plague from our Fallen Planetar. To my amazement, it actually kills Abazigal early.
The moment she arrives, Melissan teleports away, triggering two of Haer'Dalis' pre-set traps, which deal a pathetic amount of damage to the still-immortal demigod.
Moth Sibula, aura always clear these days, activates Focus, while the rest of the party activates its own buffs, both PFMW and Hardiness. But the Time Stop does not come--instead, Gromnir dies to the insect damage from our now-dead Fallen Planetar, triggering Feedback and knocking Melissan down for a fraction of a round.
He does not.
We focus fire on the Fallen Solars, and one of them flees to the north, taking 149 magic damage from Haer'Dalis' remaining traps--not enough to kill the thing, but progress is progress. The second Fallen Solar teleports away as well. Jaheira sticks with Melissan, as her 90% damage resistance and slow movement rate in Earth Elemental form make her well-suited for tanking and very poor at chasing down moving targets.
A few steps away, Edwin, under a fresh Improved Alacrity, starts emptying his spellbook, restoring a few minor buffs on himself, casting Wish, and assailing Melissan with magic attacks. A Breach is on the way!
Edwin lands a mass Resurrection via Wish, a minor blessing that at least spares us the time spent using the Rod of Resurrection. Edwin fires off more magic attacks, penalizing Melissan's MR with Pierce Shield and again removing her Divine Mantle with Breach, while Sarevok goes to collect his gear. Meanwhile, the rest of the party finally brings down a Fallen Solar.
Then Melissan finally finishes gating in her demons, and things go south.
We bust out Helms of Charm Protection for Jaheira and Sarevok, but we need a dispel before Korgan will be back on our side, and we have so many other things to do right now. Edwin bombs the enemies, who thankfully are not all immune to Dragon's Breath, and Sarevok rejoins the fight, unarmored but otherwise fully equipped.
Haer'Dalis loses a PFMW spell to a Nabassu's Death Gaze, which managed to deal 2 acid damage to our bard--a minor setback, but an important reminder for future no-reload runs that immunity to acid damage could save an otherwise fatal run by preventing disruption.
The last Nabassu falls, and Melissan is alone. We haul the party up to the northwest to deal with her. I'm still wary about another Time Stop, however--I don't know how long before Melissan can try to cast it again.
We crowd around Melissan, who has been taking penalties to her AC and MR from the Answerer, wielded by Moth Sibula since her regular mainstay, Firetooth, won't work. Without her MR or Spell Trap, Melissan is helpless against our magic, though Edwin again is more about utility than damage output.
It's a welcome relief, but our victory has not left me any less afraid of Ascension Melissan. I picked the most ruthlessly-efficient party I could put together, marshaled every resource we could get our hands on, aside from the BMU and the SoD items that never got imported, and heavily micromanaged every stage of the fight, all while knowing that Moth Sibula had the gear and the aura cleansing for a protracted kiting match even if the rest of the party got wiped out.
And I still felt inches away from death, up until the very end.
Ascension Melissan has SO many different threats, even with Protection from Magic scrolls on Sendai (whom I've seen cast Heal before!) and Abazigal. Charms from both the Succubi and Alu-Fiends, Whirlwind Attacks from Cambions and backstabbing Babaus, vorpal strikes from Balors and acid damage from Nabassu Death Gaze, and that's just the energy pools.
Even with the Fallen Solars' spellcasting being bugged, they were very hard to bring down, and a Mordenkainen's Disjunction could have burned through our precious Spell Shields and left Moth Sibula, Haer'Dalis, or Edwin defenseless if I didn't respond quickly. The Five have a massive collective HP pool, and Abazigal for one can absolutely massacre anyone without PFMW or truly heroic damage resistances.
And there's always Melissan. Waiting to cast Time Stop.
But we made it, despite a charm and a death and some debuffs along the way. I was so worried about this fight. I haven't fought Melissan in several years, and I'm glad this one went well.
The Trickster kit is very fun. It's got weird stuff in it, and I love weird stuff in my games.
Moth Sibula the Trickster: @semiticgoddess
Notable mods: SCS v32, Ascension, Artisan's Kitpack, CDTweaks
Difficulty: Insane (extra damage disabled)
Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195788/#Comment_1195788
End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1196956/#Comment_1196956
Anyway, congrats on the victory.
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1196696/#Comment_1196696
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1196830/#Comment_1196830
SoD is a much more linear game than BGEE and is absolutely stuffed with potions. That means that, though there's no shortage of dangerous enemies in it, you either don't need to fight them or you are able to protect yourself against them. So long as you take a modicum of care, it's therefore quite an easy game to complete safely, but any break in concentration can easily be fatal. I didn't play particularly well in these sessions and could easily have lost a couple of the runs - and did lose the wizard slayer. That was always a possibility with that character, but I contributed to my own downfall there. I'll have to improve in BG2EE if I'm to avoid the overall set of runs falling into ruin ...
Fighter/thief 9/11, 97 HPs, 0 kills (+436 in BGEE/SoD)
In Baldur's Gate I picked up the Spectacles of Spectacle and the tankard helmet. I didn't bother with any other quests, but did kill a few NPCs for their equipment. I forgot to buy anything from the mage store though, missing out on some more exploding arrows among other things.
At the Coastway Crossing I approached in stealth, but that failed during the cutscene, so I used an invisibility potion to avoid fighting until Caelar arrived. I ignored the orc and troll ambush area while moving on to the Forest of Wyrms. There, I stealthed into the old temple and used fireballs from out of sight to kill Ziatar. I couldn't remember if traps could taret the Neothelid underground, so tried that - but nothing happened until they were wasted on a magical sword. I used an invisibility potion to escape the swords and went to find Akanna. A single firebreath potion killed her and I ran away with the Wardstone before the Neothelid could appear and block me in the room. After stealthing back out to the dragon cave, it only took 2 thrown daggers to find a vulnerable spot in Morentherene's armor.
Another dragon was calling for help in an ambush area on the way to Boareskyr Bridge. I helped kill the hill giants attacking it, but didn't let it get away. Arriving at the encampment, I got access by letting the guards know I had rescued Keherrem. Traps were laid for Vichand to ensure he died before he could rouse the camp against me - but he was one-shotted anyway by a critical backstab. Inside the fort, Jegg made a shield from the dragon scales and some +3 arrows from the residue after the magical defenses of the fort were re-established. I rested until daytime, in order to be able to access the potion seller on the roof without a Greater Feyr appearing. Then I surrendered the fort. That just left the mage guarding the bridge as an obstacle. He's not easy to damage with weapons, but a firebreath potion interrupted his attempt to create a fire portal - and the second tick of the potion killed him for good measure.
The yawning pit ambush area appeared on the way to the Coalition Camp, but I didn't bother with that. In the camp I used the Spectacles to summon Nazramu and took advantage of the high prices he buys at. Then I reported in to General Stonehand and collected the Bwoosh and poison.
I stealthed through Dead Man's Pass to get to Dragonspear Castle, where I rescued Skie. Then it was off to the Underground River area, where I beat up a few myconids to take their Bloom-Sac. The Gargantuan Spider was one-shotted with a critical backstab. The cyclops was stunned by dart and I quickly finished it off (and pocketed the Seal of Caelar), using dual-wielded scimitars, before the rest of the guards could get going. I retreated and stealthed before running past the guards to get to the underground entrance. I just placed the Bwoosh there, before persuading Turin to let me into the Warrens. I used invisibility before taking the lift up and poisoned the food and water. However, the lift doesn't operate to go down again until Hephernaan has had his dialogue - which means you need to be seen. Annoyingly, Belben was standing in the doorway blocking access to the lift, which complicated my exit. A backstab and 2 firebreath potions were needed before I cleared the way and was able to leave. I got to the tunnel exit before the alarm had spread there, though I was anyway in stealth - and could just run past the guards still milling around outside.
I ignored the dead magic zone on the way back to the Coalition Camp. The easiest way there to defeat the invading waves is using exploding arrows and I duly did that - getting to the XP cap in the process.
On to the Castle, where I challenged Ashatiel to single combat. He has a potion of magic shielding, but doesn't use it immediately and is a sucker for stunning darts. After following Hephernaan and Caelar into hell, I ran through the first area before taking on various devils for Thrix. Since I still had plenty I used exploding arrows there - those are not as devastating to things with fire resistance, but the area missile damage is still pretty good against groups of enemies (particularly where some of those are invisible).
After resting, I rebuffed and took the Hellevator. The enemies on that were no threat and I used final short-term potion buffs just before reaching the top. Fully buffed, I could hit Belhifet much more easily than he could hit me and he collapsed well before I would have needed to worry about boosting HPs with potions of power.
I completed the epilogue and then imported the character to Jon's dungeon.
Fighter/mage/cleric 9/10/9, 90 HPs, 0 kills (+451 in BGEE/SoD)
The Spectacles and tankard helmet were retrieved in Baldur's Gate before heading for the Coastway Crossing. I used sanctuary to avoid conflict at the bridge before moving on through the Troll Claw Woods to the Forest of Wyrms. In the old temple, a couple of webs held Ziatar still while attacks rained in. I buffed up to run past the Neothelid and used a couple of firebreath potions to kill Akanna before the Neothelid arrived there. While my buffs were still up, I used various forms of fire damage to kill Morentherene.
On the way to Boareskyr Bridge another dragon called for help. I started to provide that when the dragon got low on hits, but a mis-click allowed the remaining hill giant to get an unanticipated attack in - that proved fatal, so the dragon was unable to tell me where its treasure was buried.
At the crusader encampment, I thought Vichand wouldn't survive when he was commanded unconscious, but his buffs went off very quickly before skeletons could attack him. However, once he started casting a spell, a firebreath potion helped hasten him on his way. I then surrendered the fort before another firebreath potion helped deal with the mage on the bridge.
On the way to the Coalition Camp I came across some orcs and trolls and went to grab the Firefly sling. At the Camp, Nazramu provided a few goodies and I picked up the Bwoosh and poison. I then ignored a yawning pit and went invisibly through Dead Man's Pass on the way to rescue Skie at Dragonspear.
At the Underground River skeletons ensured that a cyclops commanded to die duly did so. While the guards were occupied with the skeletons I ran past and into the tunnel entrance - though I had to immediately sanctuary back out again in order to pick up the Seal of Caelar. I placed the Bwoosh and put a firebreath potion into the firepit to distract the guards while I nipped into the Warrens. I poisoned the food and water invisibly before showing myself to reopen the elevator, then running away under sanctuary.
Back at the Coalition Camp, I was not able to use exploding arrows as the quickest method of dealing with invaders. However, firebreath potions offer a decent alternative - particularly with a skeleton placed among enemies to try and keep them together at the start of each contest. Stoneskin and plate armor provide good protection from being hit while running around enemies. The mage wave dispelled me, so I had Dosia use her rejuvenation power in order to put stoneskins back on and the remaining waves were easy enough.
At the Castle I didn't have the easy option of stunning darts for Ashatiel. However, the Wand of the Heavens could do decent damage even through MGoI and sanctuary and Ashatiel was kept too busy trying to recover HPs to take advantage of breaching my stoneskins.
Inside the Castle I followed Caelar into hell, where some skeletons helped resolve Thrix's challenge - gaining me a +3 staff. After resting and buffing up, I took the Hellevator. Once the 3rd group of enemies was dead, I used 6 Champions Strength scrolls. While that disables my own spell use, it allows almost automatic hits on Belhifet. Even if he survived the duration of those scrolls, I had stoneskin and blue fire shield scrolls that could have killed him in a different way. However, I didn't expect him to survive and therefore didn't try and keep Caelar alive. Once she died I ran round, slinging the void bullets at Belhifet and it didn't take too long to finish him off. Aun Argent then stood in for Caelar in sending me back and sealing the portal to hell.
There were no problems with the epilogue and I duly arrived in Jon's dungeon ready for new adventures.
Fighter/druid 9/12, 105 HPs, 0 kills (+516 in BGEE/SoD)
In the City I picked up the Spectacles and tankard helmet. The latter meant having to tackle Korlasz again, but that wasn't a problem thanks to a nymph hold monster spell.
A first use of Pixie Dust allowed me to avoid conflict at the Coast Way Crossing bridge. That was also used to run through the Troll Claw Woods. On the subsequent journey I found the orcs and trolls ambush area and fought through that with the help of a first fire elemental summons.
Arriving at the Forest of Wyrms, a first use of iron skins allowed me to avoid damage from the spike trap on the way into the old temple. Ziatar was firebombed from the shadows before I buffed up to run past the Neothelid. Akanna died to a single firebreath potion there, but I then made a major mistake. Rather than leaving the temple area immediately, I noted that I had various things to identify and rested to refresh the Glasses of Identification. I was slow to realize that the Neothelid was sneaking up on me in the morning and had to save against domination (with nearly 30% chance of failure) before running away. As daggers are my principal weapon, it was no surprise that a single throw was sufficient to account for Morentherene on the way out.
On the way to Boareskyr Bridge another green dragon received my help against a couple of hill giants, but had the misfortune to be caught in a lightning storm immediately afterwards. That also got me to the XP cap and provided my final SoD level.
At Boareskyr, there was more lightning for Vichand, before I helped re-establish the fort's magical defenses. Firebreath then once more proved the bane of the mage on the bridge.
At the Coalition Camp I did a bit of shopping and picked up the Bwoosh and poison. Then it was on to the Underground River where a charmed bear helped beat up some myconids. It seemed poetic justice to stun the Gargantuan Spider before 5 call lightnings proved one too many for the cyclops. I remembered to pick up the Seal this time and went invisibly to the underground entrance while the guards were busy with the nymphs. Inside, I placed the Bwoosh and poisoned the food and water before leaving invisibly.
Back at the Camp firebreath was again the main method of repelling the invaders. In the last group, Grimgor's fire resistance, high HPs and lots of cure potential kept him going well after the others. Eventually though he displayed an Achilles heel when going down to a vicious call lightning.
At the Castle, Ashatiel did slightly better than usual against stunning darts - saving against the effect 3 times and dodging one before the 5th dart struck home.
Moving on to hell, an elemental and nymphs spent most of their time running in terror as I cleaned up Thrix's summons. After resting, it was Hellevator time, finishing that ride with multiple use of Champions Strength scrolls. This character has no proficiency in slings though, so was limited to 2 APR. As a result of the lower damage potential than the FMC, I did try and keep Caelar alive - switching to the tankard helmet after using a restoration scroll in order to avoid the fatigue penalty. Belhifet did indeed last rather longer, but he was already near death when the Champions Strength scrolls ran out and I didn't bother using any more of those, but just waited until a final few normal hits finished him off.
As with other characters, this one was imported into SoA and levelled up there with the excess XP earned in SoD.
Fighter 10, 113 HPs, 0 kills (+535 in BGEE/SoD)
There were no problems in the opening dungeon and Korlasz duly surrendered. By the time she did that though she'd been hit with a dispelling arrow - which meant a firebreath potion could finish her off before she got away.
The tankard helmet and Spectacles were collected in Baldur's Gate before I moved on to the Coast Way Crossing. Although this character had no natural ability to disappear, there are huge numbers of invisibility potions in the game - so I used one of those to avoid conflict at the bridge. Another of those provided passage through Troll Claw Woods and on into the old temple in the Forest of Wyrms. It took an unusually long time to kill Ziatar there, but 15 fireballs eventually did the trick. An invisibility potion let me back past Ziatar's guards without alerting them and I buffed up to run past the Neothelid. A firebreath potion didn't kill Akanna, but a follow-up fireball didn't care about her invisibility and finished her off. Another invisibility returned me to the dragon's cave where Morentherene once more proved a soft target for a thrown dagger.
The young green dragon got away this time after showing me its treasure location and I moved on to Boareskyr Bridge. I decided there that firebreath potions were not a sufficiently guaranteed way to kill Vichand before he could call for help - hence I just intimidated him into giving up the scroll. I initially mis-clicked on the conversation options with Khalid and thought I might have to fight a battle there, but fortunately the game provided the opportunity to change your mind and I duly arranged surrender. I would have used firebreath on the mage on the bridge, but successfully shot him with a dispelling arrow on the way in. Without his buffs he's much easier to hit and I just continued the attack with missiles before meleeing the guards. That took me to the XP cap and a final SoD level.
On the way to the Coalition Camp I stopped off at the orcs and trolls ambush area to collect the Firefly sling. Some shopping with Nazramu followed and I collected the Bwoosh and poison. Given the large numbers of enemies in Dead Man's Pass, I opted for another invisibility potion on the way to Dragonspear to rescue Skie.
At the Underground River I buffed up to beat up some myconids and spiders. The Bloom-Sac allowed me to summon three myconids to take advantage once the cyclops was stunned. That took longer than expected though and the myconids were not able to help in finishing it off, but a bit of running round allowed me to do that and grab the Seal. I ran on to the entrance, still keeping ahead of a confusion projectile (my spell save of -5 at the time was proof against that anyway), but took an invisibility potion before I went in to try and ensure that no-one would follow and block the entrance. I quickly placed the Bwoosh and used the poison and then left - invisibly once more.
Back at Camp, exploding arrows made short work of the invasion waves.
On to the Castle, where Ashatiel lost out to the third stunning dart thrown. Inside, I followed Caelar and beat up the devils summoned by Thrix in order to persuade him to give me a +3 long sword. After resting, the Hellevator provided a bit of light exercise on the way to Belhifet. As this character was perfectly capable of beating Belhifet up one-on-one, I didn't bother trying to save Caelar. However, Belhifet tried to attack me, allowing Caelar to survive anyway. I think the die rolls rather exaggerated my advantage as Belhifet died without having managed to hit me even once.
Although that was done as a single session, I saved the game immediately after killing Belhifet rather than completing the epilogue straight away. That meant I lost all the surplus XP earned by other characters when importing to SoA, though that shouldn't be a problem of course.
Wizard slayer died at level 9 to hobgoblin command, while approaching the old temple in the Forest of Wyrms.
The starting dungeon is not too bad though. Bhaal horror can open a route to Porios and intimidating him makes the first group of enemies surrender. Downstairs, the undead groups are helpless against PfU, while the Flaming Fist can help take on the enemies after that. Dispelling arrows make Korlasz vulnerable and it doesn't take much damage to make her surrender - this time she didn't quite make her escape after that.
In the City, the Spectacles of Spectacle don't count as a helmet, so are of no use to me. However, the tankard helmet could potentially be useful and I grabbed that before heading out.
None of the other characters went to the Coast Way Forest, but the wizard slayer wanted to do so for a several reasons. First is to get the returning acid dart, as darts are his main missile weapon. In addition the regeneration ioun stone is important as, without invisibility or potions, healing is a much more chancy business for the wizard slayer. Finally, the sunfire from Isabella's shield could potnentially be useful, though past experience suggests it probably won't see any action. After the vampire arrived in the area, a well-timed dispelling arrow was shot at Ikros before his buffs fired and arrived afterwards - dispelling them and making him easy to finish off with darts. Isabella was then meleed to prevent her from attacking Tsolak.
I picked up the other items for Takos and returned those, convincing him to give me the shield back as well as the dart. At the bridge I couldn't hide in invisibility, leaving me pretty vulnerable to magical attack. I decided that justified using exploding arrows to discourage the casters and I managed to survive until Caelar arrived, though I was badly wounded.
In Troll Claw Woods, I ran back to the camp as soon as I came across hobgoblins on the road - ensuring their priest wouldn't cast at me. Moving on to the Forest of Wyrms I cleared various enemies from the path as I came across them, in order to preserve a means of retreat. Entering through the dragon caves I came across a group of hobgoblins and immediately retreated to the exit point and used Bhaal horror. That affected a number of them, but the shaman behind them used remove fear and they came forward again. I was happy to be in melee in that position though and killed a couple of them before the shaman appeared. I wasn't certain if his remove fear would have included him as it was presumably being targeted at those affected previously, so tried another Bhaal horror on him. That bounced and I expected him to respond with a hold person, but was caught out when he used a command instead. That doesn't give the same visual warning as other spells, so I didn't have the chance to retreat and the multiple hobgoblins around ensured I would never wake again.
I don't think there was a perfect solution to that encounter at that stage (exploding arrows could have dealt with it easily, but there aren't enough of those to use for every encounter). However, I realised on writing up my notes that I'd confronted the same problem before and decided the best solution was to avoid that encounter at this point. The ambush area with the yawning pit has a long sword that gives a +4 bonus to spell saves to wizard slayers. While getting that has its own dangers, I think it is on balance the best option prior to going to the old temple in the Forest of Wyrms. I should therefore have just kept travelling between areas until I got the chance to get that sword ...
Enchanter 12, 54 HPs, 0 kills (+405 in BGEE/SoD)
In the opening dungeon I could go to find Porios invisibly and get him to surrender his troops. Downstairs, I knew there was a spike trap on the way to the first group of undead, but couldn't remember if it did some elemental damage in addition. Mirror image and luck protected against the latter and I added cold protection just in case. Wand scorchers killed those undead and fireballs the next group (I didn't want to go too far towards them due to the presence of another trap there. On the way to the next undead group I triggered another trap that I hadn't remembered, but that bounced off my defenses. The last group before Korlasz was affected by chaos before area damage kicked in. My mirrors were dispelled by the trap near the door to Korlasz, but not before they'd done the job of protecting me from damage. A couple of skull traps persuaded Korlasz to surrender her troops and got me to level 11.
In the palace, I used invisibility to ensure none of the assassins targeted me. In the City I shopped for more scrolls and picked up the Spectacles, as well as killing a few NPCs for their equipment. I don't normally kill Viconia, but was tempted to do so this time by the ioun stone she has that gives a +1 bonus to saves. I learnt a number of new spells, including stoneskin - which should reduce the chances of taking damage from the odd stray arrow.
At the Coast Way Crossing I used invisibility to avoid conflict at the bridge. Invisibility also took me through the Troll Claw Woods and into the old temple in the Forest of Wyrms - stoneskin deflecting the trap on that route. MGoI did the job against a couple more traps on the way to find Ziatar. He just survived my available skull traps, but a wand fireball finished him off.
I buffed for the Neothelid before running past and targeting Akanna with a skull trap. She survived that and a follow-up scorcher and I lost track of her in sanctuary. At that point the Neothelid dimension walked in as well, so I ran back the other way to avoid the possibility of getting trapped in the room. By the time it caught up to me, my MGoI had expired. I didn't think that should stop me going back to Akanna though as a magic shielding potion was still buffing my saves. However, I'd forgotten about the possibility of an Unholy Blight - and took my first damage of the run.
On the way out I threw 20 daggers at Morentherene, but missed the lot. As I was no longer trying to protect an undamaged status though, I pressed the attack and a few scorchers soon did the job.
At Boareskyr Bridge I intimidated Vichand into giving me the scroll, before surrendering the fort. A couple of firebreath potions then cleared the bridge.
I did some shopping at the Coalition Camp before going to rescue Skie. Then it was off to the Underground River. I no longer had to worry about the various traps scattered across the area, but with traps in mind I did set a couple of my own for the myconids that have the Bloom-Sac. An initial attempt to stun the cyclops failed. I feebleminded one of the mages, but took a lot of damage from a backfired attempt to use a scorcher on the other one - though that did finish the cyclops off for me.
Underground, I placed the Bwoosh and applied the poison before leaving. That was slightly more difficult than I expected as an invisible thief was found to be blocking the entrance to the lift. However, after I'd gone invisible myself and retreated slightly, he moved out of the way.
Back at the Camp, wand scorchers were used on the first wave, firebreath potions (which bypass magical protections) on the mages in the second wave and wands again for the 3rd and 4th waves.
At the Castle it took 5 darts to deal with Ashatiel - though at the cost of my stoneskins.
Inside, I followed Caelar into hell. I rested in the second area there and then forgot to buff my saves before confronting the first group of devils - having to save against horror there. It took a while of running round Thrix's support team, but I was eventually awarded a staff for doing that. That was used on the Hellevator, though I had no proficiency in it, so it took rather longer to clear the enemies than for fighter types - the staff also produced several sunfires during that - pity none of those did any good against the devils ...
Without good attacks, unable to use fire shield and having not picked up lower resistance, I had poor options of my own against Belhifet, so concentrated on keeping Caelar going. She was regularly distracted by gated devils, so it was a far harder fight than the others had and I'd used 15 of my 20 restoration scrolls by the end.
Fighter dualling to cleric 11/0, 129 HPs, 0 kills (+588 in BGEE/SoD)
As usual I avoided conflict in the opening areas on the way to the Forest of Wyrms. I felt obligated though to kill the shaman there, to take revenge for my wizard slayer. Ziatar was killed as usual with fireballs from out of sight, but I decided this time to attack the Neothelid rather than just run past. It cooperated unusually well with that plan - surfacing quickly, even before summoning a magical sword. That took me to the XP cap. I'd used a potion of absorption to improve my armor class against crushing attacks and took advantage of that by meleeing Akanna's aerial servants before finishing her off. On the way out I shot down Morentherene.
After killing another dragon that asked for help from the wrong person, I arrived at Boareskyr Bridge. I decided to risk killing Vichand this time. That took 3 firebreath potions, but that didn't take quite long enough for the rest of the camp to notice. I took the scroll to the fort and then arranged its surrender. That just left the need for a couple more firebreath potions to be used to open up the bridge.
After shopping at the Coalition Camp, I picked up the Bwoosh and poison before rescuing Skie. At the Underground River I was a bit impatient in tackling the cyclops and let too many guards attack me at once - taking me low on HPs before I retreated and finally killed it. I placed the Bwoosh and poison before leaving invisibly.
Back at Camp, exploding arrows were once more the order of the day.
On to the Castle, where Ashatiel was stunned by the 4th dart thrown. Thrix's devils were shot with more exploding arrows and I rested, then buffed for the Hellevator. That just left Belhifet. Since I was a fighter and had access to the tankard helmet to offset fatigue, I wasn't too worried about trying to save Caelar. She duly bit the dust, but I was able to run round and use sling shots to finish Belhifet off easily enough.
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Once rested, we take off for Nashkel... and finally get the second ambush! This is a lot less threatening than the Amazons I find: The worst that can happen is either a Hold Person from Drakar, or a Sleep from Halacan if your party is really low level. Halacan is himself low level, so succumbs easily to Command, and Drakar can just be interrupted normally.
Yep, that contest was decided in the first round of combat. Aramande got a bit too self-confident and took a real mean succession of hits bringing him to 3 HP (at this stage you'll notice he only has 30 HP to start with...), but everyone lived.
Whilst in Nashkel, we bring down Zordral: Like Halacan, his most threatening move is Sleep, which isn't an issue any longer. We also steal the handful of Arrows of Piercing available here (the merchants at the carnival, minus the one with actually useful magical gear, along with Winthrop are the only merchants I've found so far you can actually steal from).
We alleviate our disappoint by successfully pickpocketing Borda of all his items before he wanders off, though a Web scroll is about the best of the lot.
Neville, Ogre Berserkers and their Hobgoblin Elite cronies, Gibberlings, Gnolls... at this point nothing in these areas poses much of a threat. Aldain gets the Charisma tome, which I guess doesn't really matter at this point (it's marginally useful for ToB since he'll gain another +1 Charisma from the Hell trials and thus always have 20 Charisma for shops... I tend to forget to cast Friends).
We finish the entire circuit, including the Doomsayer, who literally does not survive two rounds against our buffed party.
Alright, we move on to the Cloakwood Mines. Our strategy for dealing with Drasus is as ingenious as it is simple: Kill Drasus.
So how did we do that? Khalid inched forward until Drasus spotted him and gave his speech, then slowly retreated towards the rest of the party. Drasus followed. Meanwhile, two Skeleton Warriors moved towards the remaining enemies from the south, occupying them whilst we clobbered Drasus. Then it just came down to carefully managing Rezdan and Kysus using summons and potions: We burned a single Potion of Magic Protection when Khalid had a Domination inbound (probably unnecessary), but otherwise the whole thing went rather well. With their MGoI eventually wearing off, Rezdan and Kysus were quite vulnerable to Spike Growth. So was Khalid, to be fair, but he has a lot more hitpoints than they do.
We descend into the Mines. As is customary, a charmed Cook triggers Hareishan's pre-buffs: She went with MSD rather than MGoI. However, she rolls really good saves, so it takes a while to bomb her down, but down she (eventually) goes.
The next major encounter is Natasha. We charm one of her Hobgoblin Elite guards and have him soak up a few Magic Missiles, but then things almost turn ugly.
So how did this happen? Aldain nipped off to the south and charmed a guard using Algernon's Cloak to use as additional Natasha fodder. However, the initial charm failed, so I lead the guard towards us to cast Charm Person when he was closer to where he needed to be. Of course, Natasha and the guard are both human.. so improved calls for help means Natasha now came running.
Yep, that's an Invocation spell she was working on: Best case scenario, Sunfire (best case because Aldain might have survived that), worst case scenario, Lightning Bolt. We're REALLY lucky Coran managed an interrupt there. Fortunately, with all of our frontliners in comfortable range, Natasha never got to try another spell.
Shaking off the shock, we deal with the Ogre Mage easily (he seems to only have a single third level slot which he typically spends on PfNM or Ghost Armor), as well as Davaeorn's personal guard, then retreat and rest up. This version of SCS makes the Davaeorn fight really easy, since he doesn't react to you fighting either his Battle Horrors or the guards that periodically spawn: The spawn timer starts when Davaeorn talks to you (and he talks to anyone that spots him, even if they're invisible), and the Battle Horrors immediately move in to attack as well.
So, we just park ourselves at the entrance, kill the Battle Horrors before the guards start marching in, and after clearing five waves of guards, no more help is coming. We have enough Invisibility/Sanctuary/characters with stealth to just sneak straight past Davaeorn (essential since if you try and hide out in the guard's room, Davaeorn might spot you when he teleports around), and send a charmed Stephan in to do the heavy lifting.
OK, so Stephan isn't terribly effective. We switch to Skeleton Warriors, and once those drop, a few charges from the Wand of Monster Summoning. Davaeorn doesn't have infinite spells, and soon succumbs.
Great! We flood the mines, and hike back. We get a Wyvern ambush on our way back to civilization, but that's not an issue at this point. Baldur's Gate is open and we want to buy some scrolls, but we swing by Ulcaster's first to pick up the Ice Lance scroll SCS places there. The Wolf of Ulcaster really can't take the amount of damage we're dishing out by now, though it manages to dispel our initial Remove Fear (which we promptly restore, to protect against its Horror howl). Jaheira held off the additional enemies this time, leaving the Skeleton Warriors running around the room to intercept the Ghouls spawned.
Off to the Gate! I want to clear all the outdoor areas, but as said, we want some more spells available first, and Khalid desperately needs the Hands of Takkok. Desreta can do real damage with her backstabs, but is predictable in that she will always (like all SCS thieves) target the weakest party member. Vay-ya just gets to contend with some Skeleton Warriors and has little recourse.
We swing by Sorcerous Sundries, though don't overdo it on the scrolls: Only overall useful spells make the cut, so we end up spending a scant few thousand gold. Still, our options are greatly expanded now since we also scribed all the scrolls we've been hoarding (of course under Potions of Genius for guaranteed scribing).
So: The plan is to sweep the coast clean. Towards this end, Mutamin gets a visit: He's quite adept at dodging Korax, but a throng of Skeleton Warriors manage to catch up.
The rest of the area is uneventful: Basilisks are helpless against PfP, and Kirian et al succumb to Web and simple ranged fire.
Next up is Durlag's, or at least the easier parts (upper levels, the Warder level minus fighting the Warders themselves).
Really not much to report here. We now have access to Haste, which coupled with our fighter-heavy party means we can just bludgeon through any of the tougher fights, like the triple Greater Dopplegangers. Since we're quite high level, we also have sufficient spell slots to just drown the Ghost in summons, and he expires without having accomplished anything.
Even without a Cleric (and thus readily available Animate Dead), I find you can just spam him with Animal Summoning I and it's more than enough: Most of his spells just aren't that lethal, at least not once he's burned through his L5/L6 slots, though a Potion of Absorption would probably be good for the fighter sent in to deliver the final blow in expectation of a Lightning Bolt.
Kirinhale is overwhelmed by Khalid, Amarande and Coran, and accomplishes nothing but temporarily draining Coran.
We proceed to the Warder level, where there's some good experience on offer, though after talking to three of the four Warders we opt to leave for the moment.
There's two areas on the western coast we've yet to clear, so we do just that. Sirines can't deal with Improved Invisibility at all, so Khalid just chops them down on his lonesome (we have two L4 arcane slots so it's enough for both groups). The Constitution tome goes to Amarande, netting him 5 HP. Not much, but he has so very little to begin with, so every HP counts.
Against Shoal, we buff Khalid with everything we can think of: Save vs Breath Weapon at -4 means he's guaranteed to survive Shoal's kiss. Droth appears and drops almost instantly. I suspect he's an Enchanter in my install, as I've never seen him pre-buff with Shield (a major weakness).
We finish by clearing the Ogre tribe to the south and a few Sirines to the west, Skeleton Warriors doing the deed for the latter.
That's the western coast cleared. We move east, finishing exploring the Valley of Tombs: The revenant is hopelessly outmatched by now, as is Narcillicus.
Following this, Samuel is rescued (and we snag the Ring of Fire Resistance and the scroll of PfM). The Red Wizards get a visit, and for once, things ALMOST go off without a hitch: Denak (the greatest threat) led by summoning an Earth Elemental. This gave Aldain time to get off a Spell Thrust, after which Denak was fair game.
Then Diana had to go and ruin everything by tossing a Lightning Bolt at (an immune...) Skeleton Warrior. Of course this bounced and zapped Aldain for 26 HP. I suppose it's possible it could've ended things with a really bad damage roll, but it seems unlikely (I don't think Diana is even level 8? And Aldain had 48 HP at the time).
Diana continues being a thorn in our side, as she gets off a well-placed Confusion moments before she drops: Fortunately it only affected our melee fighters, and although they rough each other up a bit as a result, no one dies.
There's just too many mages at once in that fight to allow for handling it safely, unless you're willing to just burn Wand of Summoning charges, I guess. Anyway, we lived.
All that remains is Firewine Bridge (Meilum stands no chance, and Amarande relieves Bentan of his PfM scroll). We delve into the dungeon proper, where Amarande also filches a second Dead Shot +2 from a Ghostly Knight. Not that we need it, but it's one of precious few things worth pickpocketing in BG1EE. We make our way through the maze, relieving Lendarn of his scrolls: He actually has an impressive selection, with Fireball, Lightning Bolt and Cloudkill.
Our last action in the area is polishing off Jenkal and stealing the paltry belongings found in Gullykin. That's it, all outdoor areas cleared. We indulge in some shopping: Shadow Armour, two Robes of the Archmagi (good for Aldain, neutral for Amarande), Dagger of Venom for Jaheira (it doesn't matter, she's just not that great regardless of weapon), and Aule's Staff +3 for Aldain (this REALLY doesn't matter, it's just for style).
This was rather a long update already, so I'll cut it short here. The party is currently resting at Ulgoth's Beard: Next on the agenda will likely be to clear Baldur's Gate. We'll then delve into Durlag's, do the Ice Dungeon, and finally Balduran's Isle: I want to import the Chain Mail +3, and we'll have two fighters with proficiency in Bastard Sword and Dagger respectively, so it should go OK.
Then all that remains is powering through the Candlekeep Catacombs and tackling the end game. With a party like this, it shouldn't be a problem.
Aldain is now a level 7 Human Conjurer.
Amarande is now a level 5/5/6 Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief.
Corecleric XX - hafling priest of Lothander (Corey_Russell)
Mirazi - human mage (Grond0)
Betson - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
So the party needed to leave Firkraag's Lair to sell. There were a lot of enemies defeated here on the way out, including a golem that was still around. We ran into some hobgoblins, which Mirazi slaughtered with a skull trap - but he also dropped Corecleric for 1/2 of his life
In any case, after selling we forged some dragon armor. We still had a lot of money, so paid a stop to the Copper Coronet and got the fairhaven flail, Everaad's sling, and also a Ninjo-to for Betson. Betson began dual wielding this new weapon and the daystar, a very potent combo.
Next up, we worked on Bodhi's lair. This was pretty smooth with Corecleric popping most of the undead. Problem though? No stakes to make Bodhi appear. Luckily Grond0 remembered there are stakes in the bridge district, sitting on a table in fact. Bodhi died very fast, aerial servants doing massive damage.
Time to get the main quest going, we went on Saemon's ship. More undead for Corecleric to pop. Betson got some anti-mage buffs and Betson attacked. However, the buffs weren't needed as Betson's poison interrupted his key spells and died quick. Corecleric popped some more undead and then Corecleric sacrificed some DEX and defeated Bhaal.
The first area was almost very smooth, but one problem. Mirazi fought some Yuan-tis with Corecleric's skeleton warrior acting as a distraction. The yuan-ti mage seemed to shadow door to Betson who was trying to do the quest to answer all the questions of the statue. A lightning bolt from taht mage almost chunked MIrazi. Corecleric took a ton of damage himself, but Mirazi got the last word and killed the pesky yuan-ti mage.
In the second area, more undead to pop including a lich!!! Some umber hulks were engaged, and Mirazi got to use his new death spell. There was one hitch however - the kobold shamans managed to do big damage to MIrazi with yet another lightning bolt - she appears to be a human lightning rod? Fortunately, by this point, the entire party has regeneration items.
Next area, the trolls were defeated simply enough. The trapped paintings were no problem for Corecleric's buffs. We defeated the enemies hidden by the walls with the help of summons. Bodhi was defeated simply enough, and somehow Corecleric managed to not change to the slayer. Mirazi's skull trap failed to kill the gauth so Corecleric did the job. The next few areaas of spellhold were unremarkable and we just made it out of the maze, and it was time to save.
Irenicus will be next session.
She just died straight out of Candlekeep. A random kobold wandered onto the road, which I've never seen before in the place it showed up, and it immediately landed a critical hit, killing our character at 6 HP.
I'm not even sure that's supposed to be possible. I thought level 1 characters with less than 14 HP couldn't be killed with a single hit.
We lost our ample buffs, had a fogged aura, and then the bandits blocked the way to the exit. I just barely escaped and drank a Potion of Healing, but because I'd entered the camp without a conversation with Tazok, the camp was hostile, and our character was shot down right outside the tent.
The only reason we didn't have a Potion of Invisibility on hand was because we had drank one to escape a bad situation during a bounty hunter ambush. We were doing quests after Tranzig, having triggered the first bounty hunter ambush already, and forgot that Maneira and company were still hunting for us. I arrived without Invisibility due to having mis-timed the travel time during an area transition, and with a fogged aura due to not expecting anything more dangerous than some ordinary bandits in an ambush.
That last one was actually six mistakes over the course of the past several hours. Failing to deliberately trigger the second bounty hunter ambush, failing to enter that fight under invisibility, failing to do so with a clear aura, entering the bandit camp without talking our way in, failing to go find a replacement Potion of Invisibility for the tent, and being too slow to deploy the Wand of Fire when the enemy mage was casting Remove Magic.
My enthusiasm for solo Diviner runs has worn out, I think. Losing three in one day is a lot for me, especially considering how much fun I was having with the first one, how amazing that second one's stat roll was, and how quickly I'd tried to speed through the game and regain my lost progress with the third.
I might wander away from BG for a bit. A full saga run was a lot by itself, and losing several runs immediately after is discouraging.
Isn't there also still a bug - that reducing a character to 0 HPs is possible? It certainly used to be the case that the protection wouldn't save you if you took damage exactly equal to your HPs, though it would kick in if damage were higher.
OK. Test parameters: mod DAGGSHIT (Carbos/Shank weapon) do deal exactly 4 damage. Create a level 1 mage with neutral CON and minimum DEX. Difficulty Core, turn off that option. Get hit.
Try again with 6 CON (3 HP) instead ... no death. "testy: takes 2 piercing damage from Shank (2 damage resisted)".
Confirmed, in 2.6. A hit for exactly as many points of damage as you have HP will kill a level 1 character. A hit for more than that won't.
Byrd (male half-elf beast master, Grond0); Gulpo (male dwarf berserker, Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195376/#Comment_1195376
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195837/#Comment_1195837
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1196420/#Comment_1196420
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1196857/#Comment_1196857
Starting outside Watcher's Keep, we decided to leave the statues alone, given our very limited ability to hit things requiring +3 weapons. Instead we headed to Trademeet to look at the availability of clubs for Byrd. Blackblood was tempting, but the 13k gold being demanded seemed just too much, so we gave that a miss. Byrd did produce some animal summons to soak up the petrification spells of the genies and they were duly executed.
Back in Athkatla Gulpo picked up the berserk warrior, while Byrd tripped a few traps in the skinner house. Once more we opted not to risk conflict though with the rune assassins and their supporters. Instead we went to the temple district and dived into the sewers. The rakshasa there provided Gulpo with a new cloak - the troll form from that greatly speeding up the process of healing. We opened up access to the lich, before dealing with Mekrath and his support team.
The original intention was to leave the sewers at that point and do a few reputation tasks to improve shop prices. However, all this walking away from conflict had clearly taken a toll and we decided to see if we could get a quick kill on Gaius. That involved Byrd sneaking in to attack with some animal summons, with the efreeti aiming a follow-up attack. Byrd was always intending to run away and hide, whether the attack on Gaius was successful or not. He did indeed try and do that, but failed to get far enough to hide. His positioning against Gaius wasn't the best, resulting in him, rather than summons, getting targeted by most of the enemies. Byrd was hit several times as he ran, but that didn't appear to be too serious. However, the damage taken was just sufficient to allow a vicious flame strike from Zorl to be fatal
What's the farthest you've made it as a trio?