Eleanor Cobham, Necromancer, Update 17 - Final Update
All right, let's bring this to an end. We buff up, adding full protections against ice, stuff like storm giant strength, invulnerability and another round of pierce magic spell triggers for Eleanors 3*ADHW CC. As we enter combat, the spell triggers are immediately deployed, now we just have to wait for the AHDWs to fire:
However, with all of their buffs, our fighters simply deal too much damage - Mel has to flee even before the ADHWs are able to hit her (though at least we get to see them in the combat log in the moment of her retreat):
All right - we didn't get dispelled, so all our buffs are still running. We immediately move to the first pool and clear it without any issues. While Eleanor gets ready to activate it, Jaheira calls in an elemental prince (we get lucky, and two of them appear). Time for round two. Jaheira has to be a bit carefuly, as she's lost her ironskins while fighting at the pool:
Jaheira retreats for a bit, the others finish the job in quick fashion - our foe retreats yet again:
I haven't been hesitant using traps in this run (see, for example, WK level 5), so why do the second Amelyssan battle at all? Well, the reason is that Jan just doesn't have enough spike traps for that - only 7 in total, which guarantees 2 (or rather 1,9) victories against the final boss, not it's not enough for three reliable ones. I've picked up the bonus wizard spells as HLAs early on, and I gained fewer levels than I would've expected in total.
We still have our buffs, and this includes full protection against frost damage, so the second pool is rather easy to clear:
This is where we use our first 4 spike traps - Mel's third incarnation is her most dangerous one. We also add in one normal trap for extra safety. She appears and has to retreat immediately, just as expected - no teleporting away, no slayer shadows. Now, Jan equips some one-handed weapons for dual-wielding and casts timestop via limited wish, with 3 more timestop scrolls at the ready, and goes after the fallen solar (with improved haste, at 4 APR):
That was the crucial target here, the others aren't too much of a threat and quickly cleared out by the party:
We place our final 3 spike traps and 4 normal traps. This is likely to be enough for Mel, but I've seen 3 spike traps not do the job before, so we do call in a few summons and renew some buffs just in case. We also try to go for a wish-rest, but fail to get one with 2 uses of the spell (I forgot I also had a third use via spellscroll) - still, this preparation is looking bad for Mel:
And indeed, the traps do the job - we are able to get in a few melee hits as well right before the battle ends, but they were propably not needed. Victory is ours.
Finally, we have all classes and kits represented in the Hall of Heroes. Congrats to everyone in the no-reload community for this achievement, which took at least 16 years to get to
Well done @Enuhal, you've shown amazing skill and perseverance. If you still feel a need for more BG, how about trying to get a solo victory with a druid? That's the only class that I'm not confident has the ability to beat Mel ...
Great job!
I have tried a few times myself, but I always slipped up somehow or got stuck with life and never continued the run necause I forget what each fight will do once I get there. You all have amazing skill and knowledge of the game and encounters.
@Grond0 I have tried the solo druid run a few times (with a totemic druid), though it's been a while, and I was able to get to Mel in the best of these runs, but while eventually I found a way to beat her with an exploit and many reloads, I didn't find even the slightest chance to do it reliably and without reloading with my set of tactics/game knowledge. Some have suggested that it might actually be easier with Ascension instead of the vanilla final battle, even though usually Ascension is a lot harder. However, I am not a very experienced or skilled solo player - there are others who are more likely to potentially find a way. Currently, I don't see one for myself, so I would expect the best case scenario of another attempt to be the same - get to Mel (if I can get past Draconis, Abazigal and The Ravager, who were some other potentially big hurdles - Draconis was very tough and took a long time until I finally found an approch that worked (involving double energy blades with a helm-simulacrum), and for both Abazigal and The Ravager, I didn't feel like my methods were reliable, and there was a certain amount of luck involved) and die there.
I am not sure when I will start another run and what it might be - though without the need to get any missing kits into the hall, it's likely to be some kind of modded challenge run with some significant restrictions. I really miss the Hard Times mod, which isn't available for the EE. I think I would prefer to do something that heavily increases the challenge for the BG1 part of the game - Item Randomizer, Hard Times, SCS, maybe with a randomized or otherwise restricted party would've been a really tough early game experience.
@Grond0 I have tried the solo druid run a few times (with a totemic druid), though it's been a while, and I was able to get to Mel in the best of these runs, but while eventually I found a way to beat her with an exploit and many reloads, I didn't find even the slightest chance to do it reliably and without reloading with my set of tactics/game knowledge. Some have suggested that it might actually be easier with Ascension instead of the vanilla final battle, even though usually Ascension is a lot harder. However, I am not a very experienced or skilled solo player - there are others who are more likely to potentially find a way. Currently, I don't see one for myself, so I would expect the best case scenario of another attempt to be the same - get to Mel (if I can get past Draconis, Abazigal and The Ravager, who were some other potentially big hurdles - Draconis was very tough and took a long time until I finally found an approch that worked (involving double energy blades with a helm-simulacrum), and for both Abazigal and The Ravager, I didn't feel like my methods were reliable, and there was a certain amount of luck involved) and die there.
There's a pillar you can hide behind against Draconis (at least in the unmodded game), making that encounter pretty safe and easy. Similarly, you can keep away from Abazigal by retreating into an alcove - that only leaves his ranged maze attack as a real threat, so you just need to protect against that with something not affected by dispel magic. The Ravager can be killed by sling while running round and round avoiding the bone blades - that's tedious, but reliable, if you're careful. I don't though have any similarly even semi-reliable strategies for Mel. Fighters and cleric types can use the reflection shield to good effect, bards and thieves have the easiest time with use of scrolls and traps, mages and sorcerers have multiple options, while monks can use their great AC to win a missile battle. Druids though, while they have resources giving them a decent chance of taking down a couple of Mel's incarnations, need some sort of edge to give them a realistic chance of final victory - I'm just not sure where that edge is ...
We had a few problems with connectivity early on, but were able to dispose of Sendai's last few statues without much difficulty. Sendai herself initially looked easy enough as well, but she managed to evade attempts to disable her with insects and Nature's Beauty and successfully touched Kerb with Harm. He withdrew and attempted to avoid the various summons in the arena, but was hit and killed by one of those just before the missile fire from Deja and Corezerk finished off Sendai.
We inadvertently teleported away to the enclave entrance before Kerb could be resurrected and had to make our way back there. In doing that we found the game appeared to have created there a full bag of holding with lots of goodies inside - which makes a change from MP glitches removing our items . Kerb resisted the temptation though to make use of most of the ill-gotten gains (like a second Helm of Balduran).
At Abazigal's Lair, Kerb went to confront Draconis in human shape. He and Corezerk were handicapped by not being able to see the enemy, but Deja was able to target him and eventually did enough damage to bring out the dragon form. It duly chased the berserkers round and did plenty of damage to them. That though gave Deja the opportunity to use the Resist Magic spell on it to reduce its magic resistance and his ironskins then allowed him to stick around long enough to cast a successful Nature's Beauty - and a blinded dragon is essentially a dead dragon.
Unfortunately, I attempted to go back to the Pocket Plane to rest without saving the game - and when the transition bugged out that meant having to fight Draconis again. While the intention in the fight was similar, this time a summoned deva was caught in the dragon's death field when transitioning form and then Deja got caught by a draconic dispel magic and lost his ironskins. As a result he quickly got taken down to dangerously low HPs and was unable to stay close to Draconis in an attempt to blind him. The delay that caused gave the dragon time to chase down the berserkers and an acid breath attack chunked Corezerk.
Corezerk's ghost wailed that he wanted revenge and, even though they didn't much feel like continuing the fight, the others did manage to take revenge on Draconis - but that only constituted a minor delay to the end of the run ...
You understand @Grond0 that it's the principle of the thing - we shouldn't let our enemy profit by our deaths, and if we abandoned the run as soon as I got chunked, then probably yet other adventurers would have fallen to the dragon.
I've got a couple of existing runs in Amn, but as usual I've been suffering from restartitis and decided to begin another. I've played quite a bit with characters not allowed to use ranged weapons, but don't remember disallowing all melee weapons and thought I would try that with an archer. In this run I will not be allowed to even equip any melee weapons, thus ruling out some passive benefits as well as their attacking potential and improved defenses.
After leaving Candlekeep, I shot down some gnolls at High Hedge on the way to Beregost. There, I shot Neera for her gem bag, Algernon for his cloak and Karlat before returning a sword to Perdue. After finding a book for Firebead and calming down Marl that was just enough to get me to level 2 - getting a maximum 14 HPs there.
I initially bought 10 +1 bolts thinking that might be enough to kill the High Hedge golems. However, it took 7 of them to kill the first golem so I went back to Beregost to get some more. Of course Sod's Law then meant that the original 3 remaining proved enough to kill the other golem - gaining me 13 more HPs for another level.
A trip to Nashkel allowed me to learn Bhaal CLW before returning to Beregost to hand in Mirianne's letter and Zhurlong's boots - the latter getting me to level 4 with 11 more HPs.
Some spiders were dragged out of their house for easy disposal before I went up to the FAI, collecting an ogre's belt on the way. I've forgotten the pantaloons a few times in recent runs, so collected them early this time.
I decided to go for an early (by my standards) trip to the Nashkel Mine. Stealth was used to avoid bothering with kobolds, but I killed the odd higher XP enemy on the way. The ghoul was a nice demonstration of the power of switching weapons. I was using a heavy crossbow, which had an APR of 1.5 - that meant the ghoul would probably be able to reach me before I could fire twice. Rather than running round (particularly with lots of kobolds near by), I switched to darts immediately after firing the first bolt. Their higher APR meant they could still attack in the initial round after the bolt and I was able to throw 3 of those before the ghoul reached me - the third of those proving fatal.
Inside Mulahey's cave, I didn't want to risk giving numerous opponents the advantage of attacking me in melee - so intended to shoot down Mulahey without allowing him close enough to talk. However, attacking him initially from stealth (rather than allowing his 'follow' script to activate on seeing me) triggered his conversation anyway and I was badly hurt just getting out of the cave again.
After coming back in under stealth, Mulahey's army all moved to join him - making it easy enough for me to pick them off one at a time. Once Mulahey was alone darts successfully interrupted all his spells without requiring me to retreat.
Outside the mine, it didn't take too long for stealth shots to account for the Amazons.
I cleared a couple of the tombs, but didn't have any weapons that could hurt the Revenant at the moment. Similarly, I couldn't deal with mustard jellies, so just shot Narcillicus without talking to him - that took me to level 5, with 13 more HPs.
Back in Nashkel I reported in to the mayor before stealth-shooting Nimbul. In Beregost, Tranzig got the same treatment in order to open up access to the Bandit Camp.
Before going to the Bandit Camp, I decided to power-up a bit more. At Firewine Bridge I sneaked through to find Meilum and shot him down for his bracers. Then it was on to the basilisk area where following Korax round accounted for the basilisks and Mutamin - gaining a level and 11 more HPs. Korax did well to paralyze Kirian's mob as well before being the final victim of the area.
I purchased a PfP scroll at the Carnival and some bolts of lightning at High Hedge before heading for Durlag's Tower. While mundane bolts can't hurt battle horrors, they do hit them and any elemental damage therefore still takes effect. It took 64 bolts to kill 3 battle horrors and a doom guard. That was expensive, but left me close to level 7 - and the basilisks quickly provided the necessary boost. The 10 extra HPs was on the low side, but the extra 0.5 APR was the real attraction. While there, I freed Kirinhale and shot down Riggilo. I also sacrificed the potion of clarity picked up in Candlekeep to get the tome - even though that's of no real use to me.
Finally at the Bandit Camp, the archers there proved no match for the real thing. In the tent, Venkt was poisoned by one of the darts taken from the Amazons. However, he still managed to cast horror when I ran out of the tent and failed to immediately hide and followed that up with a successful acid arrow before dying of poison. Mulahey's boots made it harder for Raemon and Hakt to hit me, but they were lucky with their attack rolls - getting at least 4 criticals in a short space of time. Even though Britik never managed to get an attack in that was still enough to prove fatal before I recovered my senses.
Trio 71 following the end of Trio 70
Tar (Gate70)
Omen (Grond0)
Coreheal VII (Corey_Russell)
Grond0 briefly considered cheating a specific class or kit to avoid a long run of druids and mages, reluctantly deciding to return to his spreadsheet. He'd rather fancied a Dwarven Defender so was disappointed to see Excel throw out a Dwarven Defender
Meanwhile our unannounced decisions showed sign of consistency again.
- Grond0 and I were both dwarves
- Corey_Russell and I both have enquiring fingers with thiefly properties
---
As we raced around Candlekeep Coreheal suggested he should focus on traps/locks, leaving Tar free to concentrate on stealth. A splendid idea although setting snares will be the primary leadership responsibility, along with picking on easy targets such as the 5 rats in Reevor's warehouse
We hunted down Shoal the nereid, netting Tar her first level-up, then returned to High Hedge where a trio of gnolls found their luck had ended. Tar went to purchase the potion case while a flind turned up to attack the others. Tar can't remember much of this but thinks Omen took a hit or two and ran, while the flind turned towards Coreheal and used the illusionary spell (multiplayer lag) to arrive and hit while the cleric / thief was unaware and still had his sling equipped
We finished off the flind and dragged the body of Coreheal through Beregost (take a good gawp everyone, nothing to see here) and to the temple. 100gp later all was good other than Coreheal only having splint armour and us having lost his extra studded leather armour. Being a stoic little gnome he might have mentioned that he appeared to be the squishy one this time. Hold onto that thought
Back to Beregost where Tar tested out snares. A 50% success rate with no self-inflicted damage saw her confidently take on Silke. Coreheal threw a cautionary "one trap won't be enough" call while Tar expected it to prevent her casting a spell and giving time for us to get closing attacks in. No such need, as the trap proved decisive after an unexpected backstab landed
Omen levelled up from this, meaning we felt Karlat's time had come, and indeed it had. Tar tried a backstab but ultimately Karlat panicked himself into a corner and a variety of objects were duly flung at him. Down he went and we celebrated by realising Perdue's sword had vanished out of Omen's backpack. Never mind
Flush with success we went to relieve Neera of her gembag and her life but she valiantly fought back by dodging and asking for help. Tar decided we could handle whatever trouble was incoming and that turned out to be a mage and his two guards. The mage managed to kill Coreheal (Melf's acid arrow I believe) but Omen was on form and killed both guards, while Tar used the shadows to hunt the mage twice, and deliver a brace of bullets
The temple were still raising Coreheal for 100gp so we took advantage of that
Tar decided the agenda for the remainder of the day would be
- South via ogrillions and Zhurlongs boots. Intended for Coreheal but he graciously suggested Tar take them
- Continuing south to Nashkel for Omen to pick up ankheg armour and Noober to inspect our weapons
- To the Carnival for a rest and our first Bhaalspawn power (cure light wounds)
- Across to help Hulrik's cow from xvarts
- A wandering mystery tour finally getting us to Brage; returning him to Nashkel
- As we had left Neera alive previously we decided Neira should be eliminated
- Picking up Samuel and returning him to the Friendly Arm Inn. No rests but I did an extra journey south of the inn and back but he survived
- Picking up the girdle of piercing. While ultimately due for Tar, she suggested Coreheal take it for the time being
We then headed for the ankheg nest, but Tar asked how we were doing for time (no watch today) and it turned out we were 1 minute over our session end so Omen can wait until next week for an acid bath
@Grond0@Gate70 If you guys notice the screenshot, I still am wearing chain mail as Grond0 sold his splint mail rather than give it to me. What does a guy have to do get some hand-me-downs? There is only one splint mail in Candlekeep so couldn't get one there.
Also Grond0 for your archer with issues with Mulahey's minions can't you use something like a potion of explosion/necklace of missiles on yourself to wipe those out or were you not allowing use of items that run?
@Grond0@Gate70 If you guys notice the screenshot, I still am wearing chain mail as Grond0 sold his splint mail rather than give it to me. What does a guy have to do get some hand-me-downs? There is only one splint mail in Candlekeep so couldn't get one there.
If you really want to front up to the ankhegs next time you can have the ankheg armor ...
Also Grond0 for your archer with issues with Mulahey's minions can't you use something like a potion of explosion/necklace of missiles on yourself to wipe those out or were you not allowing use of items that run?
That was relatively early on and I didn't have anything like that. I did know LMD, so could have used that, though there would have been a small chance of interruption. A hit with darts would be an automatic kill on kobolds though and with 4 APR I expected to get past the single kobold blocking me a bit quicker than I actually did.
Comments
All right, let's bring this to an end. We buff up, adding full protections against ice, stuff like storm giant strength, invulnerability and another round of pierce magic spell triggers for Eleanors 3*ADHW CC. As we enter combat, the spell triggers are immediately deployed, now we just have to wait for the AHDWs to fire:
We still have our buffs, and this includes full protection against frost damage, so the second pool is rather easy to clear:
Finally, we have all classes and kits represented in the Hall of Heroes. Congrats to everyone in the no-reload community for this achievement, which took at least 16 years to get to
I have tried a few times myself, but I always slipped up somehow or got stuck with life and never continued the run necause I forget what each fight will do once I get there. You all have amazing skill and knowledge of the game and encounters.
Congratulations on a great run!
@Grond0 I have tried the solo druid run a few times (with a totemic druid), though it's been a while, and I was able to get to Mel in the best of these runs, but while eventually I found a way to beat her with an exploit and many reloads, I didn't find even the slightest chance to do it reliably and without reloading with my set of tactics/game knowledge. Some have suggested that it might actually be easier with Ascension instead of the vanilla final battle, even though usually Ascension is a lot harder. However, I am not a very experienced or skilled solo player - there are others who are more likely to potentially find a way. Currently, I don't see one for myself, so I would expect the best case scenario of another attempt to be the same - get to Mel (if I can get past Draconis, Abazigal and The Ravager, who were some other potentially big hurdles - Draconis was very tough and took a long time until I finally found an approch that worked (involving double energy blades with a helm-simulacrum), and for both Abazigal and The Ravager, I didn't feel like my methods were reliable, and there was a certain amount of luck involved) and die there.
I am not sure when I will start another run and what it might be - though without the need to get any missing kits into the hall, it's likely to be some kind of modded challenge run with some significant restrictions. I really miss the Hard Times mod, which isn't available for the EE. I think I would prefer to do something that heavily increases the challenge for the BG1 part of the game - Item Randomizer, Hard Times, SCS, maybe with a randomized or otherwise restricted party would've been a really tough early game experience.
There's a pillar you can hide behind against Draconis (at least in the unmodded game), making that encounter pretty safe and easy. Similarly, you can keep away from Abazigal by retreating into an alcove - that only leaves his ranged maze attack as a real threat, so you just need to protect against that with something not affected by dispel magic. The Ravager can be killed by sling while running round and round avoiding the bone blades - that's tedious, but reliable, if you're careful. I don't though have any similarly even semi-reliable strategies for Mel. Fighters and cleric types can use the reflection shield to good effect, bards and thieves have the easiest time with use of scrolls and traps, mages and sorcerers have multiple options, while monks can use their great AC to win a missile battle. Druids though, while they have resources giving them a decent chance of taking down a couple of Mel's incarnations, need some sort of edge to give them a realistic chance of final victory - I'm just not sure where that edge is ...
Deja - human totemic druid (Grond0)
Kerb - dwarf berserker (Gate70)
Corezerk V - dwarf berserker (Corey_Russell)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1215878/#Comment_1215878
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1216120/#Comment_1216120
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1216315/#Comment_1216315
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1216501/#Comment_1216501
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1216656/#Comment_1216656
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1216824/#Comment_1216824
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1216979/#Comment_1216979
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1217113/#Comment_1217113
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1217244/#Comment_1217244
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1217402/#Comment_1217402
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1217542/#Comment_1217542
We had a few problems with connectivity early on, but were able to dispose of Sendai's last few statues without much difficulty. Sendai herself initially looked easy enough as well, but she managed to evade attempts to disable her with insects and Nature's Beauty and successfully touched Kerb with Harm. He withdrew and attempted to avoid the various summons in the arena, but was hit and killed by one of those just before the missile fire from Deja and Corezerk finished off Sendai.
We inadvertently teleported away to the enclave entrance before Kerb could be resurrected and had to make our way back there. In doing that we found the game appeared to have created there a full bag of holding with lots of goodies inside - which makes a change from MP glitches removing our items
At Abazigal's Lair, Kerb went to confront Draconis in human shape. He and Corezerk were handicapped by not being able to see the enemy, but Deja was able to target him and eventually did enough damage to bring out the dragon form. It duly chased the berserkers round and did plenty of damage to them. That though gave Deja the opportunity to use the Resist Magic spell on it to reduce its magic resistance and his ironskins then allowed him to stick around long enough to cast a successful Nature's Beauty - and a blinded dragon is essentially a dead dragon.
Unfortunately, I attempted to go back to the Pocket Plane to rest without saving the game - and when the transition bugged out that meant having to fight Draconis again. While the intention in the fight was similar, this time a summoned deva was caught in the dragon's death field when transitioning form and then Deja got caught by a draconic dispel magic and lost his ironskins. As a result he quickly got taken down to dangerously low HPs and was unable to stay close to Draconis in an attempt to blind him. The delay that caused gave the dragon time to chase down the berserkers and an acid breath attack chunked Corezerk.
Corezerk's ghost wailed that he wanted revenge and, even though they didn't much feel like continuing the fight, the others did manage to take revenge on Draconis - but that only constituted a minor delay to the end of the run ...
I've got a couple of existing runs in Amn, but as usual I've been suffering from restartitis and decided to begin another. I've played quite a bit with characters not allowed to use ranged weapons, but don't remember disallowing all melee weapons and thought I would try that with an archer. In this run I will not be allowed to even equip any melee weapons, thus ruling out some passive benefits as well as their attacking potential and improved defenses.
After leaving Candlekeep, I shot down some gnolls at High Hedge on the way to Beregost. There, I shot Neera for her gem bag, Algernon for his cloak and Karlat before returning a sword to Perdue. After finding a book for Firebead and calming down Marl that was just enough to get me to level 2 - getting a maximum 14 HPs there.
A trip to Nashkel allowed me to learn Bhaal CLW before returning to Beregost to hand in Mirianne's letter and Zhurlong's boots - the latter getting me to level 4 with 11 more HPs.
I decided to go for an early (by my standards) trip to the Nashkel Mine. Stealth was used to avoid bothering with kobolds, but I killed the odd higher XP enemy on the way. The ghoul was a nice demonstration of the power of switching weapons. I was using a heavy crossbow, which had an APR of 1.5 - that meant the ghoul would probably be able to reach me before I could fire twice. Rather than running round (particularly with lots of kobolds near by), I switched to darts immediately after firing the first bolt. Their higher APR meant they could still attack in the initial round after the bolt and I was able to throw 3 of those before the ghoul reached me - the third of those proving fatal.
Outside the mine, it didn't take too long for stealth shots to account for the Amazons.
Back in Nashkel I reported in to the mayor before stealth-shooting Nimbul. In Beregost, Tranzig got the same treatment in order to open up access to the Bandit Camp.
Archer L5, 65 HPs, 79 kills
Previous updates
Before going to the Bandit Camp, I decided to power-up a bit more. At Firewine Bridge I sneaked through to find Meilum and shot him down for his bracers. Then it was on to the basilisk area where following Korax round accounted for the basilisks and Mutamin - gaining a level and 11 more HPs. Korax did well to paralyze Kirian's mob as well before being the final victim of the area.
I purchased a PfP scroll at the Carnival and some bolts of lightning at High Hedge before heading for Durlag's Tower. While mundane bolts can't hurt battle horrors, they do hit them and any elemental damage therefore still takes effect. It took 64 bolts to kill 3 battle horrors and a doom guard. That was expensive, but left me close to level 7 - and the basilisks quickly provided the necessary boost. The 10 extra HPs was on the low side, but the extra 0.5 APR was the real attraction. While there, I freed Kirinhale and shot down Riggilo. I also sacrificed the potion of clarity picked up in Candlekeep to get the tome - even though that's of no real use to me.
Finally at the Bandit Camp, the archers there proved no match for the real thing. In the tent, Venkt was poisoned by one of the darts taken from the Amazons. However, he still managed to cast horror when I ran out of the tent and failed to immediately hide and followed that up with a successful acid arrow before dying of poison. Mulahey's boots made it harder for Raemon and Hakt to hit me, but they were lucky with their attack rolls - getting at least 4 criticals in a short space of time. Even though Britik never managed to get an attack in that was still enough to prove fatal before I recovered my senses.
Tar (Gate70)
Omen (Grond0)
Coreheal VII (Corey_Russell)
Grond0 briefly considered cheating a specific class or kit to avoid a long run of druids and mages, reluctantly deciding to return to his spreadsheet. He'd rather fancied a Dwarven Defender so was disappointed to see Excel throw out a Dwarven Defender
Meanwhile our unannounced decisions showed sign of consistency again.
- Grond0 and I were both dwarves
- Corey_Russell and I both have enquiring fingers with thiefly properties
---
As we raced around Candlekeep Coreheal suggested he should focus on traps/locks, leaving Tar free to concentrate on stealth. A splendid idea although setting snares will be the primary leadership responsibility, along with picking on easy targets such as the 5 rats in Reevor's warehouse
We hunted down Shoal the nereid, netting Tar her first level-up, then returned to High Hedge where a trio of gnolls found their luck had ended. Tar went to purchase the potion case while a flind turned up to attack the others. Tar can't remember much of this but thinks Omen took a hit or two and ran, while the flind turned towards Coreheal and used the illusionary spell (multiplayer lag) to arrive and hit while the cleric / thief was unaware and still had his sling equipped
We finished off the flind and dragged the body of Coreheal through Beregost (take a good gawp everyone, nothing to see here) and to the temple. 100gp later all was good other than Coreheal only having splint armour and us having lost his extra studded leather armour. Being a stoic little gnome he might have mentioned that he appeared to be the squishy one this time. Hold onto that thought
Back to Beregost where Tar tested out snares. A 50% success rate with no self-inflicted damage saw her confidently take on Silke. Coreheal threw a cautionary "one trap won't be enough" call while Tar expected it to prevent her casting a spell and giving time for us to get closing attacks in. No such need, as the trap proved decisive after an unexpected backstab landed
Flush with success we went to relieve Neera of her gembag and her life but she valiantly fought back by dodging and asking for help. Tar decided we could handle whatever trouble was incoming and that turned out to be a mage and his two guards. The mage managed to kill Coreheal (Melf's acid arrow I believe) but Omen was on form and killed both guards, while Tar used the shadows to hunt the mage twice, and deliver a brace of bullets
The temple were still raising Coreheal for 100gp so we took advantage of that
Tar decided the agenda for the remainder of the day would be
- South via ogrillions and Zhurlongs boots. Intended for Coreheal but he graciously suggested Tar take them
- Continuing south to Nashkel for Omen to pick up ankheg armour and Noober to inspect our weapons
- To the Carnival for a rest and our first Bhaalspawn power (cure light wounds)
- Across to help Hulrik's cow from xvarts
- A wandering mystery tour finally getting us to Brage; returning him to Nashkel
- As we had left Neera alive previously we decided Neira should be eliminated
- Picking up Samuel and returning him to the Friendly Arm Inn. No rests but I did an extra journey south of the inn and back but he survived
- Picking up the girdle of piercing. While ultimately due for Tar, she suggested Coreheal take it for the time being
We then headed for the ankheg nest, but Tar asked how we were doing for time (no watch today) and it turned out we were 1 minute over our session end so Omen can wait until next week for an acid bath
Here's how we ended the session
Also Grond0 for your archer with issues with Mulahey's minions can't you use something like a potion of explosion/necklace of missiles on yourself to wipe those out or were you not allowing use of items that run?
That was relatively early on and I didn't have anything like that. I did know LMD, so could have used that, though there would have been a small chance of interruption. A hit with darts would be an automatic kill on kobolds though and with 4 APR I expected to get past the single kobold blocking me a bit quicker than I actually did.