Jeanluc III the dwarven fighter/cleric: Update 6
Traveling with: Tcos (dwarven berserker), Jaheira, Mazzy, Yoshimo, Wewa (human wild mage)
We will soon go to Brynnlaw but first a final encounter with Firkraag. Our fear got dispelled then quite a few party members were running in fear. Also, our most powerful fighter Tcos forgot to use her enrage, and we really missed her hitting power. Our 6 snares and 5 summons weren't enough and one by one the party was killed. Then Firkraag near death and Jeanluc III were all that's left. To try to speed up the kill I had Jeanluc III switch to dual wielding two +2 hammers and miraculously Jeanluc prevailed with 12 HP to spare! Luckily there's a rod of resurrection to get his people back in business and no chunkings either. It's hard to get a fight closer than this.
EDIT:
Hmm apparently I spoke too soon. I discovered despite the fact the RoR "resurrrected" Tcos, and despite the fact I can even use her inventory, her figurine does NOT exist and also no body in the inventory screen. I think she got "chunked". So I did lose a character after all. Going to replace her with Keldorn. Will keep at it.
Tough fight @Corey_Russell. It doesn't look like a chunking though - when that happens the character's picture at the side of the screen should disappear. Did you try saving and reloading?
Tough fight @Corey_Russell. It doesn't look like a chunking though - when that happens the character's picture at the side of the screen should disappear. Did you try saving and reloading?
Yes. Remember there is NO Figurine and no body showing in inventory screen - she is chunked.
MORE INFO:
So I did the load, tried to zone out but could not because game says to gather the party before venturing forth - but gathering 6 figurines is impossible as Tcos figurine doesn't exist. So am bugged out have to remove Tcos to leave the area.
Jeanluc III the dwarvern fighter/cleric - FINAL Update!
I was fighting the illithids in the sewers when my character was trying to range an enemy and got too close and stunned. Then an illithid drained Jeanluc III's brains out - RIP Jeanluc III.
There were no great problems in Jon's dungeon. Generally fists were used, though that wasn't always possible - for instance they are not able to reach the mephit portals. Ulvaryl failed to make his escape.
After exiting to the Promenade, Clinch went straight after Mencar's gang. Brennan was blinded before a skull trap and then ice storm softened things up a bit. With the others dead I tried to grapple Brennan, but he saved and then ignored his blindness to make his exit at near-death through a non-existent gap.
At the Copper Coronet the Beastmaster was unable to put up much of a fight. The XP from giving Hendak control of the premises took Clinch to level 13 and access to level 6 spells. That includes the kit spell based on Tenser's Transformation. That greatly improves his attacks with weapons - without affecting his ability to cast magic magic. While it nerfs a basic fist attack, it does improve the magic fist (and double HPs). Here Clinch finishes clearing the upper Graveyard by dethroning the Crypt King - helped by a THAC0 of -7, 4 APR (without haste) and AC of -14.
After a few more encounters without trouble, Clinch once more suffered a near-death experience against - this time against Dracandros. He attempted to paralyze the enemy mage using ghoul touch, without considering the possible impact of spell turning - that resulted in him paralyzing himself. Fortunately he was using the 'greater' version with a duration of only 2 rounds and he recovered just as Dracandros was casting chaos at him. He ran for the nearby doorway and managed to get through that despite being confused - and no-one came after him. A sunfire then saw the back of Dracandros. Another little glitch in that area was absent-mindedly casting a spell when Hareishan arrived for the first vampire ambush - I'm sure that will not be the only time I have to watch out for those Cowled Wizards. I also picked up the silver pantaloons - even though they are unlikely to be helpful for this character.
Returning to the Graveyard Clinch took the odd risk in clearing the lower areas - ignoring the possibility of being held by ghasts or drained by a vampire (though they needed a 20 just to hit him). Finishing off the last of the spider groups took him to level 14 - though that gained no extra spells for him.
Coming back from the Graveyard Clinch rescued Renfeld - one-shotting the mage there. Rather than continue with that quest immediately he buffed up for the City Gates lich - successfully beating down its defences, though HPs had got low enough by then that a PW:stun would have been fatal. While in the area he also saved Sansuki from some vampires - note in the screenshot that he was once more caught casting spells in the City (but got out of sight range before the Cowled Wizards appeared). The Amnian soldier killed one of the wizards and another was beaten unconscious when they fought among themselves. Clinch cast a skull trap to kill that one and would then have tried to finish the others. By now though the timer had reset and more of the scum were arriving. He did manage to get out of sight of the new ones though and killed one of the two remaining from the original group with a scorcher. The last one fortunately didn't seem to have any aggressive spells left and was duly beaten to the ground.
Deciding to deal with the Cowled threat more pro-actively, Clinch deliberately summoned the next group. A couple of cloudkills killed 2 of them and a skull trap finished the others off. A death fog was added to the cloudkills for the next lot and the same combination did for a further group as well. Then it was time for the highest members of the order to make an appearance. A couple of webs and a stinking cloud were put up as interference and skull traps added to the cloudkills and death fog. Unfortunately those were not quite sufficient to finish off Zallanora and she summoned a pit fiend before teleporting away - the others though were already dead and Clinch just rested before going back to pick up the pieces (though unfortunately the pit fiend killed Jayes before Clinch was allowed to rest, so there won't be any scrolls bought from him).
He crushed the Fallen Paladins next to gain some reputation and then went on to find some illithium - taking down Neb before he could summon any help. Handing his head in took reputation to 17 and Clinch decided it was time to go to Trademeet to be able to boost that to 20. None of the genies there lasted long enough to even try and petrify Clinch (who had bulletproof saves anyway). Moving on to the Grove some trolls were swiftly disposed of to move Clinch to level 15 - picking up another 0.5 APR bonus there. After watching Cernd slaughter Faldorn Clinch reported back to Trademeet to get his reward. He quickly built on that by clearing a tomb and helping Tiris - pushing reputation up to 20 as a result.
Clinch hadn't yet got around to buying a cloak that would enable him to push charisma to 20 to get the best shop prices. To do that he returned to the Dock District. While there he finished dealing with the harpers - taking retribution on Lucette for killing Xzar. He also did the Mae-Var tasks, by-passing Rayic's PfMW with his fists and belatedly noticing that he'd picked up a level for reporting back to Edwin. Mae'Var was of course helpless when attacked. Clinch now had theoretical access to 7th level spells, but hadn't actually got around to learning any of those. With shop prices now at a minimum though and 120k or so cash, Clinch went on a bit of a spending spree - and spell learning XP gained him another quick level.
I think it's about time Clinch went in search of the Ring of Gaxx - so that will be next on the agenda.
Force Wizard L17, 99 HPs (inc. 12 from familiar and 9 from ioun stone), 392 kills (+574 in BGEE/SoD)
Edit: @semiticgoddess I'll respond further about the kit at the end of the run. I'll note here though that I was rather dozy in not recognizing that force wizards could not use enchanted weapon. That's less of a problem than I might have thought though as the 6th level transformation spell boosts magic fists as well as equipped weapons. I'm not sure if that was your intention as that means magic fists benefit from APR increases from both the basic kit and the spell. I've not done it yet, but adding in improved haste will mean enemies facing a flurry of fists at 10 APR .
~EEUITWEAKS/EEUITWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1070 // Faydark's Abilities Auto-Roller/GrimLefourbe's BG2 UI: 4.0.6
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Expanded Dual-Class Options: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Make Bags of Holding Bottomless: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Unlimited ammo stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Increase Potion Stacking -> Unlimited potion stacking: v17
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1520 // Include bard songs from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // Core Stratagems spell-system changes (installed by default by any AI component): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2500 // Add 9 new arcane spells: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2510 // Add 6 new divine spells (some borrowed from Divine Remix): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3015 // Re-introduce potions of extra-healing: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3505 // Wider selection of random scrolls: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4020 // More realistic wolves and wild dogs: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4250 // Make spell sequencers and contingencies into innate abilities: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Smarter sirines and dryads: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6310 // Slightly smarter carrion crawlers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6320 // Smarter basilisks: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Improved doppelgangers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7010 // Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7020 // Improved deployment for parties of assassins: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7030 // Improved kobolds: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7040 // Relocated bounty hunters: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7050 // Improved Ulcaster: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7060 // Improved Balduran's Isle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7070 // Improved Durlag's Tower: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7080 // Improved Demon Cultists: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7090 // Improved Cloakwood Druids: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7100 // Improved Bassilus: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7110 // Improved Drasus party: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7130 // Improved Red Wizards: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7140 // Improved Undercity assassins: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7150 // Improved Carsa/Kahrk interaction: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7200 // Tougher chapter-two end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7210 // Tougher chapter-three end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7220 // Tougher chapter-four end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7230 // Tougher chapter-five end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7250 // Improved final battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7900 // Improved minor encounters: 35.21
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single-Classes: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2380 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Kits: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2371 // Alter Dual-Class Restrictions -> Allow non-humans to dual-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2350 // Alter Multi-Class Restrictions -> Allow humans to multi-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2390 // Alter Paladin Spell Progression Table -> Paladins Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2400 // Alter Ranger Spell Progression Table -> Rangers Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~EXPANDEDCLASSES/EXPANDEDCLASSES.TP2~ #0 #32 // Kuo-toa Disciple Kit for Bards: v2.0
Started new solo run the exact same way as usual.
250xp Intro
Killed Imoen for Oil of Speed and WoMM
Killed Xzar and Montaron for Oil of Speed with WoMM
Killed Neera for Gem Bag with WoMM
900xp Marl
Killed Algernon for Charm Cloak
Beregost Manor Invis potion
400xp Noober lv2
Gnolls killed Drizzt (Charmed Jembyl stop Drizzt attacking them) got Scimitars +3 and Mithral Chain which we could wear
Nashkel Manor Invis potion
125xp Vitiare ranged casually and only took cool 1209 arrows
900xp Hentold Dagger and 3rd Invis potion lv3
1000xp Albert
2035xp Tenya's Bowl lv4 *Scimitars
Bought the 3 Invis scrolls and Potion Case from High Hedge
Used one Invis scroll and potion to pick up WoMS
5000xp Shoal killed by WoMS lv5
Killed Dushai with WoMS for Ring of Free action and Web
Bought Rep to 10
Bought Shield Amulet
Invis Scroll to reach Mulahey who was Charmed and killed by Kobbo's, Invis potion to escape
Chapter 3
800xp Joseph's Ring
650xp Charmed Minsc killed Nimbul, got Familiar and additional 22hp in LoB mode
Bought rep to 12, Oublek 13, Mulahey Symbol 14 1000xp, Drienne's Cat 15 200xp, Firebead 16 300xp
Brage 17 1000xp, Samuel 18 500xp
975xp Charmed Marl ko'd Tranzig
4000xp Kirinhale lv6 and we finally got lv2 spell slot for Invisibility
3750xp Charmed Riggolo killed Ghost
1400xp 2xWoMS killed Riggolo
Used 2xIntelligence potions to scribe Invis
Lamalha Waylay happened and we had Invis on, but our free Charm attempt didn't work, so we missed the first Power Potion.
3500xp Charmed Meilum killed Kahrk, and we got Magi Katana +2 that improves casting level and speed by one. Only Bards and F/M can use it. I think it's few of the items that SCS adds. With it we can cast Invis with 1 casting time and Slow Poison instantly.
1200xp Tried to get Meilum killed by Kobbo's but he slaughtered them all, but was then too weak to survive WoMS. We had just enough money to buy Sandthief ring for 16k gold. Raiken escorted us to Bandit camp, where we Charmed Taurgosz who got killed by Zombies and Skelies. We equipped the ER Boots and with our natural resistance we already had 75 ER, so we only needed a Sandthief charge to escape the tent.
Chapter 4
Cloakwood passed with Invisibility, Tiber's body right-click looted 800xp. Molkar waylay happened, and we got free Charm attempt, but again it didn't work so we missed the only Detect Illusion scroll. Drasus Charmed first try and he killed the rest of them and one guard before getting WoMS 5870xp. Before going to mines we bought all scrolls from HH to have scribing session once we got Knock. Charmed Davaeorn's Guard who lured Battle Horrors away and then killed Davaeorn 6000xp lv7, which doesn't give spell slots as it was first lv3 slot. Used 3 Intelligence potions and scribed everything other than Cloudkill as Bards can't cast it before BG2. My plan was to loot everything with Knock, but we only had one lv2 slot, so we wasted one Sandthief charge to loot the Laer Tear chest. My last WoMS wasn't strong enough to kill the Mustar Jelly either so we just left, 2000xp 20rep.
Chapter 5
Looted CHA and CON tomes with Invisibility for 20/20 economy. First Power Potion from Black Lily, 16k gold for WoMS recharge.
5000xp Tremain's Son. Lothander was pre Charmed and stopped leaving 1x WoMS 5500xp. 2x WoMS handled Marek 10650xp. 2x WoMS for Ragefast 4000xp lv8 * Flail and finally second lv2 slot. Ramazith pre Charmed and his own summons killed him 4000xp. In this run the Amplifier is really useful. Euric's Amulet for OGL and 1500xp. 1500xp Brun's Son and recharged the WoF. Bought Greenstone Amulet and looted Durlag's couple upper chests for Invis potion and WIS tome. 1x WoMS Lesser Basilisk 1400xp, 11x WoMS for the three Greater ones 21000xp. WoMS for Girdle Ogre 270xp. Tarnesh WoMS 120xp. Joia's Ring WoMS 505xp. In Firewine Ruins we used WoMS to move Kobbo's as they blocked the way to Lendarn. WoMS handled Lendarns mob for 2750xp, but more importantly for second Power Potion and Cloudkill scroll. WoMS Seven Suns 7100xp lv9 and first 3rd lv spell slot. Another Spell learning session.
Did Ice Island for the longest time as I wanted to see what was there, which was nothing really, but WoMS handled all the mages and other enemies for 24600xp. Resar Charmed and after he wasted his spells he was killed by WoMS. Got Fireshield Blue. Naaman Charmed and killed by Assassins. Charmed Diyab lured Kaalos away and he was killed by WoMS 2001xp. Thaldorn WoMS 975xp. Aasim lured Shennara away to be killed by WoMS 2001xp. Then WoMS handled the rest for 9600xp.
Chapter 6
Ogre Mage waylay passed with Invis potion. Iron Throne Charmed and they killed themselves, Tuth and Brunos got WoMS 5400xp. Charmed Sakul and he was killed by Spiders for his scrolls.
Chapter 7
After killing the Eltan's Greater Doppelganger with WoMS we finally got lv10, with no additional spells but nice 102hp. Quenash Charmed for Slythe. The pair grinded out by WoMS, got additional Skull Trap scroll. Denak'sp party Fireballed from afar for Ring of Energy which we recharged. Pickpocketed Dead Shot +2 first time from Ghost Knight naturally 100 (95), never new it was this easy. From Durlag's Tower Warder level we got our third Cloudkill. The level was mostly cleared by WoMS.
Tziri v Love. With Greenstone Amulet and Speed we tried to lure Fear and Avarice to level above, but they didn't want to follow. So we first used the repeating Fireball trap to kill Avarice, which took couple healing sessions level above, and in about hour mark Avarice was dead. Separating Love from Fear was easy as Fear is slower and seems to want to stay where Love spawns. We kited Love around the table with Greenstone Amulet and Ring of Energy, and after 44 hits he was dead too. Looted the next level including 5 Haste Scrolls and Durlag's Goblet.
WoMS hunted some Mages, SS upstairs for Spider Spawn, Shangalars daughters for 4th OGL and Web scroll, and Sunin for his ring for money transfer for SoD. The mages could do little with us level skipping when they started casting. Zal WoMS for Archer Bracers. Third Scribe session except for everything except Animate Dead and Cloudkill.
For the Palace Ambush we didn't have great summons nor great damage, but we did have Dispel Arrows. So we went with least risky approach and Charmed the Assassin, Shaman and Mage Doppelgangers. Three Greater Ones were easily dispatched with Dispel Arrows and WoMS. Assassin and Shaman followed no problems. For Mage we drank Magic Shielding, but the Mage dispelled it immediatelly, Greenstone Amulet. The Mage wreaked havoc for a while summoning a lot of help, but we got Dispel hit on him and he soon fell, although we needed 3 Goblet refreshes. After looting the Palace we cleared the way to Sarevok, 5xWoMS killed Tamoko for 10k gold by items.
We still got the Kirian's Party to deal with, and I also wanted to try something else. So after buying and recharging everything we still had 3700 gold (top of our valuables) so we bought 37 Stone to Flesh scrolls. We Charmed the Lesser Basilisk and used Green PfP on it. It then first stoned the Greater Basilisk 37 times, and then Kirian's party.
Tziri v Sarevok. Sarevok's gang was revealed with Detect Invisibility, and we found a spot where all of them were hit with Fireball, and after 36 explosions all of his minions were gone. And after using 88 Fireballs total Saravok dropped dead too. We then woke up in Korlasz tomb with cool 452601xp, getting lv12 immediately with additional lv3 and lv4 slots.
For BG I kept tracking mostly these items, as they're useful for Bards, and we didn't miss that much.
10/11 Stone Forms, missed Lamalha (we have 2 penalty v spells)
2/3 Power Potions, missed Lamalha
3/3 Cloudkills
7/7 Skull Traps, learned one
No Detect Illusion with failed Molkar waylay
Some additional notes:
- Scrolls are cast in their original strenght (-50%) and duration (-25%) so our penalties don't affect them and that makes them more useful
- Sometimes quickslot icon shows 1 Invisibility even though I don't have that anymore. Might be problem switching up Amplifier on and off together with the spell slot penalty mechanic.
- The Kuo-Toa Disciple Bard song wasn't that great. 40% panicking makes enemies harder to kill if they aren't cornered, 40% of Feeblemind for one round just makes them not hit one round. 15% of Stun for one round is the only useful thing. But suffering the Panic more frequently isn't worth it. Also does LoB mode still have some saving throw problems, as I found the song work far too easily?
EDIT:
- seems that we got permanent Haste at lv12, although we are supposed to get it lv15, so it's probably switched with targeting the invisible perk
- we still have the normal lore value, so the one-half penalty isn't working
SPECIAL: For this run, only female NPCs can join the group - in case of couples like Khalid/Jaheira or Minsc/Dynaheir the male can join but as soon as practically possible is removed from group. This is why Krendon is a fighter/thief as there are not a lot of female fighter types and also the only female thieves in BG 2 is Nalia (not very good) or Hexxat but Hexxat quest very hard so it's more convenient if the main character is a thief.
Party is about level 5. Ankhegs was dicey with only 30 HP for my tank (my character), but to make sure Krendon survived I had used a protection form acid scroll on Krendon for this leg. Basilisks done with help of PfP green scroll, Kirian's party hurt bad by silences and entangle. Pirate Cave area, Sirines taken out with help of clarity potion. Golems were difficult as we had no way to disarm traps it seems but Jaheira's partial resistance to charm helped for one trap.
We woke up in Korlasz Tomb with 452k xp so we maxed immediatelly to lv12 with additional lv3 and lv4 spells. We also got permanent Haste which was supposed to come lv15, but we didn't mind. Invisibility to Porios, Invisibility and PfU to Korlasz. 5 OGL/Invisibility combos made them surrender, and we already hit the xp cap. In Baldur's Gate we sold enough valuables to buy everything interesting from SS. Killed Viconia for the first Bard head gear.
Chapter 8
Not much to do because of xp cap, but just getting the useful items. Teleria doesn't aggro if not talked to, got Stone Ally. Menhir quest for Bard gear, Reed of Echoes being the most useful thing with additional spell slots. Interestingly it disables Single-Weapon Style bonuses. Listened Dwarves getting killed, used PfU and made a pact with the Lich. Easily helped Vampire Tsolak, mostly to get Biter +2 to BG2. Hid behind the Tent for parlay. Power Potion (3) from the Bridge.
Chapter 9
Picked first Enchanted Weapon scroll from the Troll Cave with two Invis potions. Got Elven Chain from the waylay that had the Myconid cave. It's our armor for SoD as it allows spell casting, and is usable with +2 Ring. Morentherene Daggered, Ziatar burned afar. Buffed up and ran past Neothelid and Charmed Akanna second try, and her Aerial Servant killed her. Got Detect Illusion scroll from the chest. Mohad Flintborn had one Power Potion, but we weren't going to risk it. In the Fort we bought bunch of Potions from the store, and held for the Kendra's Chain, although I'm probably not going to use it in DR load out. With it (5), Gargoyle Cloak (5) and our innate 21, we can have 31 DR v Slashing. But Amulet +2 is more useful because of our bad saves. Barghest had the next Power Potion, but we weren't going to risk pickpocketing it. Surrendered Fort, Bridge Mage interrupted with Ring of Energy and WoMS and Stone Ally cleared the way.
Chapter 10
208k gold selling our valuables to the Genie. Bought everything including 5 Power Potions from Belegarm. Questing for items, most notably: Martyr's Morningstar, Orog Chieftain Charmed for -4 v Slashing Belt (cursed), PfU OGL and 2x Magic Protection to loot Undead Cave for Amulet of Silence and Lesser Fire Elemental scroll, taiming the Troll for Sindret got Power Potion, getting the items for Waizahb another Power Potion, Bellowgulp Power Potion, listened Drows kill Therli's mob for Cloak of Gargoyle to stop criticals and up our damage resistance to 26, PfU to pick up Lesser Air Elemental and Minor Spell Turning from Kanaglym, three Power Potions from Polvi, 2x Magic Protection to loot Hephernaans chest for Crown of Lies, Spell Immunity and Spell Shield.
Troll Wave - pre 18 Skull Traps, 2 Webs, Cloudkill, 4 Skelis, Stone Ally and 11 Detonators
Mage Wave - pre 3 Webs, 2 Cloudkills, Stone Ally and 15 Detonators. Tought we escaped stupid Stysich Dispel, but he still cast that after the fight. What a genius. Had to rebuff for the next wave.
Paladin Wave - pre 3 Webs, 4 Cloudkills, 4 Skelis, used all Myconids, 17 Detonators and one Goblet
Final Wave - 4 Skelis, 2 Web Sequencer, 18 Detonators and one Goblet
Ashatiel grinded 1on1 which took a lot of time with our bad Thac0, and in the end we used Ring of Energy to deal her. Didn't farm any Power Potions in the battle, but we found one on the ground, which brought the total to 15 v Bel. Picked up the second Enchanted Weapon scroll from the book case and recharged our stuff last time with Belegarm. We tricked Trix with double talk to open the doors straight away.
Tziri v Belhifet
Violet, 4xPfF, 3xPfC, 2xPfE, 2xPfA, 14xMind Focus, PfP, Defense, Fortitude, Shielding, Clarity and started lift. Myconids, Stone Ally and Hope. First wave done in 5 rounds. The second one took a lot more time with the annoying disappearing Hellcats, and had to use another Shielding. The third was again faster and once the Green Abishai was left, we started final buffing round. Fortitude, Defense, 2xStone Form, Enchanted Weapon, 7xPower, killed the Abishai, 2xPower, Clarity, Hope, Blur, Fire Shield Blue, escaped Bel's Dispel and used Strength to lower Bel's Thac0 from -12 to -9. After couple Fireshield Blues Bel was already at near death, but at that point our Power started failing, and I was forced to use just Goblet to stay alive. Now it was just a waiting game if our saves failed, Goblet ended or we got the final hit. And the luck was on our side today and we got the final hit when all of our hp buffs were gone. Hephernaan also took some time with bad Thac0 and summons, but there wasn't really risk anymore. The fight lasted longer and were closer than I anticipated. I'm thinking once Power starts failing, I should test going Invisible to break up, and then rebuffing. Maybe next time.
We imported our game to BG2 with nice 702545xp and we will start straight from lv13. But again it seems that mod kit doesn't want to import correctly, and we are just a Bard. Did you manage import your Force-Wizard perfectly to BG2? @Grond0
EDIT: got it working, just had to uninstall Favored Soul mod kit first
@histamiini well done on taking down Belhifet. The only systems glitch I've had is that the game kept hanging for brief periods while playing BG1. That was annoying as it made the sort of constant movement I favor more difficult. I vaguely remember a similar thing happening before and concluding it was some sort of registry conflict between different versions of BG. As a result I have deleted all the registry entries for the SCS installation I did a while ago and, fingers crossed, that does seem to have sorted things. It also means though that I won't continue with the Ways run that had gone past Sarevok. In one way that makes sense though as that run was specifically titled as 50 ways to save the dukes ...
Clinch - Force Wizard (update 5)
Previous updates:
In the temple sewers the Rakshasa was no match for magic fists. An incendiary cloud left only one of Tarnor's group to be finished off by fists. Mekrath swiftly followed before Clinch went after some liches, using a PfU scroll. Kangaxx's physical resistance and regeneration were pretty good protection against magic fists - but not good enough.
At Watcher's Keep, Clinch went in search of an ammo container. Immediately after getting that he beat up a pair of golems before presenting a gift to a lich to get up to level 18 and gain his first HLA. None of those available are magical in nature, but emphasise the physical attacks of the force wizard. In this case Clinch took hardiness - that's the same as the basic fighter ability, except that it gives 30% extra protection rather than 40% (presumably for balance reasons as force wizards gain a permanent 30% physical protection as they increase in levels). Before leaving, Clinch opened the portal to the next level and demolished the guarding statues - attacking at 8 APR.
Next up he paid Gaelan Bayle and switched the Claw for the +2 RoP. That was to avoid a particular weakness against death saving throws before invading the Planar Prison and taking on the Master of Thralls. In the event the Master did not have time to gaze at Clinch anyway before being beaten to the floor. The Warden didn't fare much better and killing the supporting yuan-ti provided another level. This time Clinch took shatter skull - allowing him to do 100 additional crushing damage with an attack once per day.
Turning once more to the Unseeing Eye quest, Clinch went to get the first half of the Rift Device. For once, there were no beholders blocking the bridge so that was no problem. Underground, Clinch meleed a lich the old fashioned way. He did use his shatter skull on a greater mummy - that worked, but the mummy's resistance to crushing damage kept it alive for a second or two longer. That did though confirm the ability lasts for 3 rounds (like smite) rather than being a one-off attack (like harm). The HLA description seems to suggest it should be a single attack only, so I'm not sure what was intended here.
Inside the beholder hive, a skull trap sequencer helped deal with a large group of beholders. Ghoul touch and the Pixie Prick dagger helped disable a few other beholders before they could do much damage and Clinch picked up another level doing that - this time taking power attack (same as fighter HLA). The Unseeing Eye was then Rifted and Fisted. Groups of beholders and undead had arrived to try and prevent Clinch from returning the rift device, but he was not caught unawares and a first use of simulacrum helped deal with them.
At the de'Arnise Hold, Clinch tore through the trolls downstairs before a spot of cooking gave him level 21. That improved his saves as far as they will go and provided him with a critical strike (same as fighter HLA). The rest of the enemies proved no more effort than the earlier ones and Clinch told Nalia to take a hike and stop bothering him about joining the party.
At Umar Hills the mimic took a long time to activate, but did finally make a (brief) appearance. Moving on, some low-grade undead were swept aside before Clinch picked up another level for talking with a stone idol. Just for the hell of it Clinch took deathblow as an HLA. Inside the temple he tried using Greater Crushing Hand for the first time on a lich. It saved though and didn't take any damage at all (save should have just halved the damage). Possibly the damage was blocked by stoneskin, though that would seem a bit surprising against a level 9 spell. Incendiary cloud did the job though - with a simmy keeping the lich occupied in it. I've always enjoyed punching dragons, so was glad to get the excuse here. Thaxy was already at near death from a 10 APR assault with magical fists by the time he choked out a PfMW spell. Clinch just turned off his magical fists though and, still at 10 APR with improved haste, finished him off with a normal fist (imbued with extra flame). While buffs were still active, Clinch took the few seconds required to beat up the Shade Lord.
On his way to collect Valygar's body, Clinch double-checked that Greater Crushing Hand could be an effective spell against one of the guarding rangers. A bit more shopping followed, including purchasing the Sling of Everard - and then immediately selling that back rather than Arla's Dragonbane . That was a costly error, but Clinch still has 100k gold with nothing left to buy for the time being.
Force Wizard L22, 110 HPs (inc. 12 from familiar and 10 from ioun stone), 751 kills (+574 in BGEE/SoD)
Inside the Planar Sphere it didn't take Clinch long to gain another level by beating up some unpleasant halflings. He took whirlwind as the last of the 6 HLAs available to him - even though the penalty that gives to THAC0 and damage means that getting 10 APR using improved haste is rather more attractive. I normally let a summons deal with Lavok, but as Clinch is not using those this run he just waded in with magic fists. Those were not deterred by improved mantle so it only took seconds to subdue the mage. Tolgerias and his mage friend were even less successful as their skulls were shattered in quick succession. There were no problems in getting the sphere back home - which was enough for yet another level.
The last of the external areas was the Windspear Hills. None of the early enemies that stood to face Clinch lasted long, but he did have to chase for some time after one of the greater wolfweres that kept losing its morale. A rare use of grapple held it in place for 2 rounds, but that wasn't quite sufficient to finish it off - Clinch eventually found a critical to do the job. Another couple of groups of golems and Clinch was up to level 25.
Progress had been pretty easy for some time, but death is usually just moments away in Baldur's Gate if you fail to pay attention and Clinch's end came in that fashion. He didn't have any fire protection spells memorized, but did have fire shield (red) and I activated that to provide some resistance against fire spells from the genies. I was thinking of things like flame strike there and didn't consider that, in addition to targeted spells, they also used fire shields themselves. Those can interact to rack up damage extremely quickly, so if you are not immune to the damage you need to be concentrating to be able to move away immediately that starts to happen - and I wasn't …
A few afterthoughts on the Force Wizard for @semiticgoddess (and thanks for all your time and effort putting kits together ).
One of the reasons I usually prefer to play solo is that gives a much better feel for the distinctive elements of character classes and kits. In a party, differences need to be much greater in order to stand out. In a group, the huge increase in melee ability (both attack and defence) of the force wizard would be enough for them to take over a fighter's role - though that probably wouldn't happen until the latter stages of BGEE. However, it probably wouldn't add to the overall power of the party as the loss in spells would counteract the melee benefits. Therefore, for party play, the kit is probably reasonably balanced.
For solo play it felt rather overpowered. Like all mages, buffing makes a significant difference, but towards the end of this run there were few things that could really threaten Clinch even when totally unbuffed - so buffing was more to do with speeding up victories than enabling them. If you wanted to reduce the power a bit (and as I said above, you might not want to as most people use parties) you could consider:
- reducing the APR benefit of transformation from 2 to 1 and not allow dual-wielding (that would stop the force wizard from getting 10 APR with improved haste and make WW more meaningful).
- reducing or removing the AC benefit from transformation (together with standard mage defenses that makes them arguably too difficult to hit). For similar reasons you could reduce the base AC benefit, so this only goes down to 4 rather than 0.
Given that the force wizard should have fighter-level abilities when unarmed, I would also suggest reducing the penalties from WW from 4 to 2 - which again will make that a more realistic option to take as an HLA. I would also be inclined to strengthen the grapple ability. I think this is supposed to be a distinctive feature of the class, but I found it was almost always crowded out by other things. You could for instance take away the possibility of a saving throw and extend the duration to 5 rounds. If you wanted to, you could also apply a movement penalty to the force wizard as well as the opponent. That would give the same sort of effect you see with blades or dwarven defenders where you have to consider in advance the wisdom of using a powerful tactic if that makes it more difficult to withdraw from a losing encounter ...
Damn what a way to go @Grond0 definitely negative side of more op chars. I also noticed the few second stutters time to time with my Three Drows, and Favored Soul playthroughs, but not with this one. No idea what caused it, maybe subrace mod, or conflict. Anyway I would reinstall everything for every new mod install, if SCS wasn't so bothersome to install. I wish there was a mod manager for BG that would remember everything, like MO2 does for TES and such games.
'Long-life challenge' - 10 year celebration (update 1)
As noted here, it's coming up for 10 years since I started my attempt to complete the full set of unmodded BG games with all 76 possible class combinations. Thus far I've only been successful with 17 of those, so need to rack up successes at a significantly higher rate to give myself any chance of completing the overall challenge.
In an attempt to maintain motivation and make a real dent in the required numbers, I'll do concurrent runs with 10 randomly chosen classes. I've found in the past that it can be helpful to do that type of grouping. The downside is that if/when any of the group die that causes a major loss of motivation to continue with the others. I'll thus have to try hard to avoid any early deaths or the 10 year celebration could rapidly turn into a wake ...
The characters chosen are:
Dragon Disciple
Blade
Cleric/mage
Diviner
Cleric
Abjurer
Stalker
Monk
Cleric dualling to thief
Kensai
I won't do any detailed write-ups, but just note down any points of interest when providing overall progress updates. The 10 years will be up on 12th March 2026, so I'll aim to complete all the runs by then
Oh dear. I can just imagine the comments of "so predictable" if I walked into a room of no-reload players just now . The let's play safe attitude lasted long enough for the dragon disciple to hit the XP limit and halt outside the Nashkel Mine to wait for other characters to catch up. I should have ended my session there, but instead made an immediate start on the blade.
Almost straight away bad habits reasserted themselves. An example was when attacking the golems at High Hedge after buying just 10 +1 bullets. In order to kill both golems with so few bullets it would be necessary to get most hits while offensive spin was active - and that tempted me to take a second shot at a golem while still inside the building. It was still a safe distance away at the time I fired, but enemies are able to leave buildings before the point at which you can do so - and arrive outside further away than you can. I was well aware of the possibility that would allow the golem to get an attack in outside, but took the risk anyway - and the golem duly managed an attack and rolled a critical hit. I'd already killed Shoal at that point, so was at level 4 - but 27 HPs was much too low to be safe from a critical. However, fortune favored me that time and I survived the hit.
That should have shocked me into playing more safely - but failed to do so. Shortly afterward, at the basilisk area, I picked up a couple more levels before trying to tackle Kirian's group. At that stage I didn't know invisibility or blind and tried to draw just Baerin away. While that can often be done, it's not foolproof and I found Lindin and Peter had followed him. Peter targeted me with a rigid thinking spell, which would have been virtually certain to be fatal if it had taken effect while the others were in sight - but I saved.
At that point I went to buy invisibility and blind and came back to use those in conjunction with stinking cloud to safely kill that party. I still didn't mend my ways though and the next enemy attacked was Bassilus. He can be pretty safely attacked by retreating out of his sight before he casts, or by disappearing before his spell completes. However, I got greedy by trying to get a shot in before using invisibility. My initiative roll wasn't quite good enough to allow that and I disappeared a fraction of a second after he finished the spell. Invisibility is of course no protection against a spell projectile already launched and this time rigid thinking took effect while I was still in sight range. Lady luck had clearly got fed up with helping me out and I attacked Bassilus a few rounds later - and then stood there like a lemon when he came in to beat me up ...
The original aim was not to continue with any characters that died, but it's so early on that I'm going to allow the blade to restart in order to keep the group of 10 together. That won't of course be much help if I can't stop myself taking risks, but who knows - maybe it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks .
@Grond0 Condolences on the loss. You spend so much time to make sure a mage is safe, and for so long they're invincible. An amazing run, and a ruthless display of creativity and power. Good luck on your next runs.
@histamiini Great work. Your consistency in planning is legendary, friend. I have no idea how you keep all that in your head at once.
I've got some tweaks and bugfixes set up--
-Force Wizard's Transformation nerfed to +1 APR and no AC bonus
-Force Wizard's Ghoul Touch spell stays on the caster for 10 rounds instead of 5, and the paralysis duration is increased to 3 rounds.
-Grapple will last 5 rounds, slow the caster's movement for 2 rounds, and have a save penalty of -2 that grows to -4 at level 14
-Whirlwind Attack has its attack and damage penalties reduced from -4 to -2
-Shatter Skull should only trigger once (it will be blocked by Stoneskin)
-The Kuo-Toa Disciples should have the proper lore nerf, and the description will correctly say that the haste comes at level 12 and true seeing comes at 15
-Kuo-Toa Disciples should have their proper elemental resistances and weaknesses
-A Kuo-Toa Disciple's bard song will have a 75% chance of applying Feeblemind and a 25% chance of applying stun, with no chance of fear.
--but right now I'm finishing up a new kit for the mod, the Bog Witch, my first shaman kit, before release. I'd toyed with the idea of doing a bog witch-themed kit one day, and only now am I finally settling on it. It's a summoning-focused shaman that pays Hit Points, current and maximum, to summon stronger monsters with no chance of failure.
Let me know if you think any of the above changes should be tweaked further.
As for the Kuo-Toa Disciple being able to get around its spellcasting weaknesses by casting from scrolls: I don't know if I can change that behavior, but fortunately, it makes conceptual sense. A Kuo-Toa Disciple is a bad spellcaster; using a scroll might be more effective than relying on their own abilities. It fits the Red Soul and Green Soul kits as well: a scroll would ostensibly be more "default magic" than either kit's.
As for the Kuo-Toa Disciple not being able to pick HLAs, I'm not sure. I wasn't able to replicate the behavior when I tested it.
Thanks! @semiticgoddess the HLA problem might be my overall install, but it's probably too risky to change up now, and I can just add them through EEkeeper. I think the Bard song change definitely sounds better. Btw forgot to mention Animate Dead is still cast in it original level, as the best Skelis at lv16, is that intended behaviour?
The Damage Resistance might be slightly too much in the end, which I'm not close to yet but thinking ahead. I've got Ascension installed so I'll end up in 49 innate + 25 Ascension + 20 DoEH in 94 DR at the end. Of course I don't know if you can design mod around other mods, and it might even not be too much at the end. Currently I'm thinking 20 at the beginning and 5 every 10 levels would be optimal, that way it would be 25 DR at BG and 40 DR at BG2. I think the elemental resistances and weaknesses are just about right.
All in all I'm really digging Kuo-Toa Disciple. It got just right amount weaknesses/strenghts and spice in it, like the permanent Haste and Invisibility Detection that are usually reserved for enemies. And you can even turn to Kuo-Toa for full rp.
~EEUITWEAKS/EEUITWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1070 // Faydark's Abilities Auto-Roller/GrimLefourbe's BG2 UI: 4.0.7
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #0 // Rewritten Final Chapter of Throne of Bhaal: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #10 // Balthazar can be redeemed: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #20 // Improved Sarevok-Player Interactions: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #30 // Improved Imoen-Player Interactions in Throne of Bhaal: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #40 // Restored Bhaalspawn Powers: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #50 // Improved Slayer Transformation: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Tougher Abazigal: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1100 // Tougher Balthazar: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1200 // Tougher Demogorgon: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1300 // Tougher Gromnir: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1400 // Tougher Illasera: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Tougher Yaga-Shura: 2.1.0
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Expanded Dual-Class Options: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single-Classes: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2380 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Kits: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2371 // Alter Dual-Class Restrictions -> Allow non-humans to dual-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2350 // Alter Multi-Class Restrictions -> Allow humans to multi-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2390 // Alter Paladin Spell Progression Table -> Paladins Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2400 // Alter Ranger Spell Progression Table -> Rangers Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Make Bags of Holding Bottomless: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Unlimited ammo stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Increase Potion Stacking -> Unlimited potion stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Increase Scroll Stacking -> Unlimited scroll stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3491 // Better Shadows of Amn Start [dark0dave] -> Start at 500k XP, select items below: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3497 // Better Shadows of Amn Start: Add Balduran's Cloak: v17
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1520 // Include bard songs from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // Core Stratagems spell-system changes (installed by default by any AI component): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2500 // Add 9 new arcane spells: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2510 // Add 6 new divine spells (some borrowed from Divine Remix): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4240 // Treat mages' and priests' High-Level Abilities as innate abilities rather than memorisable spells (each may be taken only once): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6510 // Improved fiends and celestials: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6520 // Smarter genies: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6540 // Smarter dragons: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6550 // Smarter beholders: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6560 // Smarter mind flayers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6580 // Improved Vampires: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6800 // Smarter Illasera: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6810 // Smarter Gromnir: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6820 // Smarter Yaga-Shura: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6830 // Smarter Abazigal: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6840 // Ascension versions of Irenicus and Sendai use SCS abilities and AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6850 // Ascension demons use SCS abilities and AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8010 // Improved Shade Lord: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8020 // Spellcasting Demiliches: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8040 // Tie difficulty of level-dependent monster groupings to the difficulty slider: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix"): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8080 // Improved Bodhi: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8085 // Ascension version of Bodhi uses Improved-Bodhi abilities: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8130 // Rebalanced troll regeneration: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Improved Drow: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Improved Watcher's Keep: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Improved Sendai's Enclave: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: 35.21
~SUBRACE/SUBRACE.TP2~ #1 #200 // Subrace mod for Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (BG1, BG:SoD, BG2, EET) -> No change subrace colors (Hair and Skin): 0.3.1
~ZDBAE/ZDBAE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Baeloth BG2: v0.13
~ROMANCE_EXPANDED/SETUP-ROMANCE_EXPANDED.TP2~ #0 #0 // Viconia Romance Expanded: v1.0.7
~EXPANDEDCLASSES/EXPANDEDCLASSES.TP2~ #0 #32 // Kuo-toa Disciple Kit for Bards: v2.0
~UNOFFICIAL ITEM PACK/SETUP-UNOFFICIAL ITEM PACK.TP2~ #1 #5 // SoD items
We woke up in the Irenicus dungeon with nice 720k xp and got lv13 immediately, although no new spell slots. We also cast new Familiar with 34 hp extra in LoB mode bringing our total to 120 hp. Tested Monster Summon II and I against Lightning Mephit, but they didn't kill it. Rested up and Shadow Monsters killed it. But we really had awful summons and they only lasted 75% of time with our penalties, so we mostly used Invisibility to pass some Duergars. Found that Hasted Troll Shadow Monsters were beating single Duergars so we hunted Ilyich party out with multiple rests. Getting poison being permanently Hasted would be pretty much death sentence without sleep. 799k xp ascending to Athkatla.
Chapter 2
First things first, went to Government District and cast Invisibility on myself to summon Cowled Wizards, which the neutral guards neutralized casually. Got 3x Laear Tear, 2x Spell Trap, 2x Symbol: Fear, Summon Haekeashar, Small Shield +1, Project Image, Mantle, Improved Mantle, Protection from Elements, Spell Turning and 2x Invis potion. After Zallanora was dead, we could cast spells without disturbance.
Started Maevar quest line, and looted the guildhall and temples. Used WoMS to distract the Rayic Mephits. PfF and one PfF potion because our -35 FR penalty, and used the repeating Fireball trap to kill him lv14. Maevar pre Charmed and killed by his mob. After doing some easy Graveyard guests we bought rep to 14, solved the Bridge Murder rep 15. Lv15 which was nice one with first lv5 spell slot, and immunity to Blindness and permanent Invisibility Detection by Scripts (193). We can now AI attack invisible creatures and also attack Sanctuaried etc. enemies normally. Also casting Animate Dead I noticed that Skelis were cast in normal level which might be bug in the kit? Easy fetch quest for the Amulet +2. Bought WoMS and freed Hendak no problems with one Skeli and some Monsters. Picked our first head Gear from Pai'na 136 hp. Slavers were killed by repeating Cloudkill trap using PfP and Invis potion. Rep 17, lv 16 * Two-Weapon Style, and our innate DR hit 25.
Doing the Sir Sarles quest we Charmed Welther and he was killed by Cohrvale for Silver Pantaloons, which avoids the rep penalty. Harper Hold and looted De'Arnise for FoA +3. Lv17 which meant our weakness to Fire and resistance to Elecricity, Acid and Magic Damage reached max of 45. Looted Druid Grove for ranged Thac0 gloves and Belm +2. With Belm +2 we get 4apr with permanent Haste. Bought Invisibility and couple Power Potions from Adratha, before Pickpocketing Poison Immunity Amulet from her which worked with 150 skill. Cernd killed Faldorn by himself, and although Faldorn shapeshifted getting full health and got like hundred hits, Cernd in Werewolf form still beat her. Pickpocketed Efreeti Bottle from Taquee before attacking Khan Zharaa, and once he was killed the other two buggered away, rep 19. Bought Belt of Inertial Barrier and together with our innate bonus we have undisbellable 95 MDR which is nice especially against Mindflayers and Vampiric Wraiths. Doing the last Trademeet quests we hit 20/20 economy. Bought Crown of Lies for extra spell slots and third Skeli, Cloak of Gargoyle and DoEH +3. Spell Learning session, lv18 and got first lv6 slot. Had just enough money to start Chapter 3.
Chapter 3
Cleared Graveyard with casting Skelies from Mislead in Tombs, lv19. Picked up MoD +1 with Invisibility and Improved it. Fight against Vampiric Wraiths of Watchers Keep showcased our unique abilities. With 95 MDR (45+50) we were easily tanking their Magic attacks, and even when they went Invisible, we saw them with our Invisibility Detection and destroyed them. We only managed to beat one Statue before Deva arrived and our summons got killed, lv20 with 4th Skeli. Softened the last three with WoMS and then Skelis hunted them out. Left the last 8 Statues for now. Lv21 fighting the Paladins in Windspear Hill and we got our top Thac0 10 and saves 8/4/7/11/7(+2) which are pretty terrible. The Belt of Inertial Barrier helps though with -5 Breath, and this is pretty much first char where it will be our main belt. Summons pretty much handled rest of the dungeon. Samia's gang was softened with WoMS then picked up by Skelies lv22. Tarnor's gang Mislead gassed, as was Mencars, and Mekrath. Lv23 repelling Haer'dalis invasion.
Lv24 at Undead Bridge and we got a peek of our unique HLA's, except the ability button was greyed out, so we need to add these with EEkeeper. We have usual ones like Whirwind, Power Attack, Critical Strike, Evasion and Greater Evasion. And three unique ones:
- Scaly Skin (25 Damage Resistance for 1 round every 2 levels)
- Growing Insanity (Bard Song is done at -2 save)
- Natural Regeneration (innate 1hp/3s + Haste which means 6 hp per round)
Natural Regeneration is certainly nice with our permanent Haste, and Regeneration is further doubled to 12hpr when we get Ring of Gaxx. And I might even go Axe of Unyelding +5 in this run, which I never use. We are missing UAI, Traps and Magic Flute though, which all are big misses especially for the final battle.
After clearing the Blind Priests with summons, we put the Rod together and escaped before Unseeing Eye appeared. Bought everything interesting from Roger the Fence and then Charmed him with the Cloak. This was to have him pickpocket it from Tziri and carry out from the Sewers. But his Pickpocket skill (60) was far too bad compared to ours (130). So no way of getting the Rift Device out, we used it on the Unseeing Eye lv25 Critical Strike.
Planar Prison landing was mostly leveled with Mislead Gas. WoMS handled the few remaining ones. Then we gradually cleared the place with Skelis and Air Elementals. Before using the Orb we cleared the pits with Mislead gas. Wanted to see the xp and loot. Not really worth the bother, but got lv26 with Scaly Skin. Warden's Yuanties were gassed from Mislead, then Warden was softened with WoMS, and Skelis and Air Elemental killed it easily. Coming out of Planar Prison we were surprised by Bard Stronghold guest which I don't think I've ever done. Getting Speed Boots we decided to visit Mindies which we are pretty equipped to deal with. With 95 MDR their Detonations just tickle a little. PfU for Alhoon, saves v spell to -4, no problems. With PfU on we destroyed the two minor Liches holding Kangaxx parts. The other one got defenses on so we waited a little but no problems. Kangaxx's Remove Magic and couple other spells avoided, and then we managed to kill his Skeli and hit Kangaxx to 1 hp. Once turned we casually stoned him with Wand of Wonder and got the Ring of Gaxx and lv27 Natural Regeneration. We now had undispellable 12hpr.
Shadow Ruins was easy with just two sets of Skelis, as the Liches didn't spawn. Shadow Dragon stoned with WoW. PfU and Tensers for Shade Lord and Death Fog Contingency on Shadow Altar. Lv28 with 5th Skeli with Crown of Lies. Planar Sphere Skellied lv29, Lavok softened with WoMS. Tanari Farsight and Skellied. One Cloudkill caused mayhem with Tolgerias and their summons started fighting each other. Softened with WoMS and finished with Skelies. Lv30 starting Circus quest and another Critical Strike. Kalah smacked with Tensers and WoMS distracting others. Killing machine with Tensers zipped through the Heretic Monks and we did the easy tests mostly for True Seeing Gem (saves a spell slot). Lv31 completing the Bard Stronghold. Vampires killeds with PfU and Tensers, Bodhi waited out lv32 *Two-Handed Weapon Style and Whirlwind. Elder Air Elemental Smoked Ruhk. Turned Firkraag to stone and back couple times until my WoW was at 1 charge, and after getting to lv34 we have decided we are ready to sail away.
Session 8, the one where we pick up after the troll mound
We safely work our way around the remaining enemies in the druid grove and Cernd is given the opportunity to feast on Faldorn in his shapeshifted state. On return to Trademeet we pick up our reward, kill Reijik Hidesman and return a talisman to the mayor
After that we return to the Planar Sphere and head inside. We of course exercised care in this area and Omen only took heavy damage on several occasions. He lost control against the opening group of halflings and Coreheal was stunned but neither died and we ground our way to a subsequent victory
Omen fared better against Tolgerias but failed to realise his fire protection had expired, with Coreheal being a cleric rather than mage and multiclass. He eventually realised after entering the nearby room with a noble djinn, mephits and salamanders. Somehow he survived with a mighty 2hp remaining so we celebrated with a quick rest before clearing out the cold room
This left the engine room to do. There were enough golems to drastically re-model Omen's armour and once more his grim determination and dwarven stance hauled him through the encounter. He suggested Coreheal should loot a container to the east and before Tar could say hang on, Coreheal obeyed and another clay golem hoved into view
Coreheal retreated, his armour starting to match that of Omen. Omen wearily out-bashed the golem while Tar watched on with no suitable weapon to use. We already had a demon heart after stepping outside earlier so fed that into the engine and went to deal with Lavok - a skeleton warrior mauling him before we made ourselves known
As the sphere was back in the Slums we felt our work there was done. It was 11 at night, but the Talos contact still declined to turn up for a meet. Omen suggested we go on a lich hunt instead, and Tar decided to start at the City Gates where a handy longsword (Daystar) was rumoured to be found
Outside the inn there we found a merchant being harangued, so sorted that out. Tar decided to empty her bags at the merchant but half way through she heard the innkeeper and Coreheal, or perhaps Omen, shouting about two lovers upstairs. Suitably distracted, this forced Tar out of the merchant conversation before she sold anything and the merchant was no longer in sight. She let out a few choice words and continued with a full backpack
Coreheal buffed Omen to deal with the lich, but it survived a first shot with Azuredge. Omen patiently waited through a timestop and then threw Azuredge a second time. All we had to do was try and pick up several wands and weapons with overflowing inventory. We managed, and then we headed to a store to actually complete trades at the Bridge district
On to the second lich nearby. Tar asking where Daystar was and Omen saying he gave it to her. Tar thought long and hard
She returned to the merchant and re-purchased Daystar, feeling somewhat ashamed at selling such an item
Back to the lich, Coreheal suggesting we purchase scrolls of protection from undead. Suitably done, but then we elected not to use them and allow Omen to do his worst with Azuredge and a couple of snares. The lich survived an initial strike, got a timestop and a few spells but eventually fell to the axe leaving Omen to mop up the remaining pit fiend
A third lich under the temple district sewers was badly injured by snares. Rather than head for Kangaxx we felt completely prepared for dealing with the Unseeing Eye. By this, we mean Coreheal asking if we had the shield of Balduran and Omen / Tar saying we did not but skeletons will be fine. Coreheal did not seem particularly convinced
An initial set of beholder, gauth and shadow fiends were relatively easy to despatch, meaning we could retrieve half a rod and return past Gaal to foil his request
Down into the pit we went, Tar invisibly blocking the various undead as Omen threw Azuredge and Coreheal used turn undead to deter or destroy anything that got past Tar. At one point we found we were suitably un-levelled to avoid a lich and instead faced a greater mummy. Omen made hard work of that while Coreheal turned several undead. Tar tried to distract a skeleton archer but found it was overwhelming in melee and overwhelming at range when she ran. After two or three attempts where she could not get past it to run away she prepared to gulp a potion of healing but Omen suggested a potion of invisibility instead. A good call, and she did so with a single hit point remaining
We moved onwards, into the beholder area. Omen pushed his luck and did well. Coreheal had concerns about the blind priests but skeletons and bounty hunter snares (now with the Otiluke effect) thinned them down and we had an easy victory. Omen told Coreheal to send the skeletons towards the beholder and gauths, but Coreheal moved also and several magical effects later he slumped to the ground dead. So with five minutes remaining we had our first death of the session, used a rod of resurrection charge, and continued on our way
The rest of the beholder lair was cleared, and with no time left on the clock we agreed to deal with the Unseeing Eye itself. Moments later it was slumped dead, and Tar identified an amulet of 5% magic resistance - it has Omen's name all over it
What goodies will we have to sell now. Have a looky loo - Coreheal appears to have palmed all junk to Omen and Tar
A pretty disappointing opening series of sessions included 2 deaths - one of which I restarted. I gave all the classes the opportunity for major power boosts early on with XP from Shoal and the basilisk area to make game play easier. The risks involved after that were pretty much all self-inflicted. I'll have to tighten up gameplay significantly if the overall result is to be a decent one.
All characters are currently at the XP cap and about to enter the Nashkel Mine. The work done to get there has varied a bit between classes, but all of them have explored most of the wilderness areas they can be bothered with. Reputation is a bit more variable, as some classes are aiming to get a mixture of good and evil Bhaal abilities, but the majority of them have reputation at 20 and have bought all the items they're interested in for the present.
Summary points of interest for each class Dragon Disciple - no incidents of note to report.
Blade - first incarnation died after getting hit with rigid thinking by Bassilus. Second attempt was hit relatively early on when a critical would have been fatal. Also a worrying moment in the last encounter before going to the Nashkel Mine. I skull trapped the Red Wizards and then withdrew in case any followed me. I intended to cast invisibility, but mis-clicked and used stinking cloud on myself instead. Fortunately there was in fact no-one following …
Cleric/mage - no incidents of note to report.
Diviner - I didn't get around to learning invisibility until after I'd explored nearly all the wilderness areas. That saved a bit of money, but was really an unjustifiable risk though there weren't in fact any particularly scary ambushes. Near the end of the session I also cleared the ankheg nest without playing safe. I was attacked twice there and hit once - when a critical could have been fatal.
Cleric - failed to kill Neera, which was a bit of a pain as the gem bag both helps manage inventory and allows considerable resources to be taken through into SoD. In Durlag's Tower I had a moment of madness when trying to rest in a location where I knew I could potentially get trapped by an ambush. I was in fact trapped by a number of ghasts interrupting my rest and would undoubtedly have been killed by them if there had not been just enough room to retreat out of sight and try resting once more - this time successfully.
Abjurer - I said in an earlier post that none of the classes chosen were new. After some time trying and failing to find my starting save for this one I finally realised that I'd been wrong earlier and I didn't in fact have one. To give me an incentive to play safely, I tried to avoid any damage at all - and that was achieved. One notable mistake was mis-clicking the conversation with Kirinhale and turning her hostile - I was able to run away before she attacked though. Like the diviner I didn't buy any spells until near the end of the session - with the important exception of invisibility. That and blind allowed me to make good progress until finally learning a wide range of options.
Stalker - after a run of 6 casters in a row it was nice to get something a bit more martial. I again tried to avoid damage for as long as possible (though knowing that the stalker could not ultimately avoid trap damage in the Nashkel Mine). That was done in the spirit of staying safe and I successfully avoided any damage up to being almost ready to take level 7. However, that attitude ultimately cost me a life when tackling the sirines at the coast. I used the potion of clarity from Candlekeep in order to protect against sirine charm. Though the sirines couldn't do much damage in melee, I was trying to avoid any at all - so used backstabs and then ran away to hide again. That meant that I had to wait for the sirines to stop in order to be sure of a backstab and a bit of time was wasted following them round. However, 5 of them were taken down in what seemed like good time, so I was actually thinking I would have enough time left to use the clarity potion to protect against the charm trap in the pirate cave as well. Unfortunately, the final sirine just wouldn't stop as it wandered around the map for ages. Eventually, I gave up on it doing so and just attacked it on the move before running round a corner of the lighthouse building and hiding. It was still stood still when I came back and this time did get a backstab. That had a good chance of killing it, but I rolled low damage and it survived. I knew it still had another charm to try though, so just kept attacking in melee. My next attack was not in time to prevent the charm, but that didn't seem like a problem - until it ended the run! I had checked the potion was still active when I hid, so it ran out sometime in the few seconds after that. That seemed a pretty rough end to take, but the stalker had progressed much too far to consider restarting as I did with the blade.
Monk - despite the stalker's experience I again tried to see how long I could avoid any damage. That was successfully done up until level 7. Attacking a battle horror at Durlag's Tower, the icon was partly hidden by an arch of rock and I didn't realise that I had made an attack until the battle horror retaliated. I didn't try and avoid damage after that, but was never more than slightly injured.
Cleric dualling to thief - no incidents of note to report. I think I'm going to wait to do a relatively late dual with this one - probably at level 15. That will provide me a level 7 spell while only reducing potential thief levels from 40 to 39.
Kensai - attacked Kirian without protection against fear. A horror spell could well have been fatal there, but I saved.
Edit: oh dear, things are going rapidly downhill. The first session for the dragon disciple was uneventful, but he perished fairly early on in the second. While doing the poison quest he charmed Lothander to prevent him running away after talking to him. After killing him he went to find Marek - who was nowhere to be found. I guess I must have forgotten to talk to Lothander, so there's no way to cure the poison ...
Edit 2: I was never really happy about restarting the blade and, after 2 other deaths still only mid-way through BGEE I'm going to call this series a failure and restart the lot. I'll keep the same character classes, but change the originaly random order they came in so that the game play also changes between characters.
Starting: In BG1EE.
Mods: Full SCS 35.21, see spoiler for WeiDU.
Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
Include bard songs from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
Core Stratagems spell-system changes (installed by default by any AI component): 35.21
Changes to Restoration: 35.21
Changes to shapeshift spells: 35.21
Icewind Dale-inspired tweaks to Baldur's Gate/Baldur's Gate II spells: 35.21
Rebalancings of slightly-too-powerful spells: 35.21
Spell school changes: 35.21
Spells increased in power: 35.21
Add 9 new arcane spells: 35.21
Add 6 new divine spells (some borrowed from Divine Remix): 35.21
Revised elementals and elemental summoning: 35.21
Replace +1 arrows and other projectiles with nonmagical "fine" ones: 35.21
Re-introduce potions of extra-healing: 35.21
Make elemental arrows like BG2: 35.21
Replace many +1 magic weapons with nonmagical "fine" ones -> Fine weapons are affected by the iron crisis: 35.21
Reduce the number of Arrows of Dispelling in stores -> Remove Arrows of Dispelling from stores: 35.21
Wider selection of random scrolls: 35.21
Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic -> Inquisitors dispel at their level (not twice their level): 35.21
More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
Improved shapeshifting: 35.21
Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: 35.21
Thieves assign skill points in multiples of five: 35.21
Revised handling of death effects like disintegration, petrification and imprisonment (party members who are disintegrated etc can be resurrected; imprisoned or petrified characters rejoin the party automatically; the game doesn't end if the main character is petrified or imprisoned): 35.21
Revised resting: resting in the wild uses up provisions: 35.21
Revised inn rooms: more expensive, more benefits: 35.21
Ease-of-use party AI: 35.21
Improved BG Textscreens: 35.21
Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 35.21
Smarter general AI: 35.21
Better calls for help: 35.21
Smarter Mages: 35.21
Smarter Priests: 35.21
Potions for NPCs: 35.21
Improved Spiders: 35.21
Smarter sirines and dryads: 35.21
Slightly smarter carrion crawlers: 35.21
Smarter basilisks: 35.21
Improved doppelgangers: 35.21
Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: 35.21
Improved deployment for parties of assassins: 35.21
Improved kobolds: 35.21
Relocated bounty hunters: 35.21
Improved Ulcaster: 35.21
Improved Balduran's Isle: 35.21
Improved Durlag's Tower: 35.21
Improved Demon Cultists: 35.21
Improved Cloakwood Druids: 35.21
Improved Bassilus: 35.21
Improved Drasus party: 35.21
Improved Red Wizards: 35.21
Improved Undercity assassins: 35.21
Improved Carsa/Kahrk interaction: 35.21
Tougher chapter-two end battle: 35.21
Tougher chapter-three end battle: 35.21
Tougher chapter-four end battle: 35.21
Tougher chapter-five end battle: 35.21
Improved final battle: 35.21
Improved minor encounters: 35.21
Difficulty: Insane with no level-dependent damage increase.
Rules: Random party, random choices at level-up (except HP, which are maxed).
Party in spoiler (protagonist at top).
Protagonist
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Invoker
Alignment: True Neutral
Stats:
STR 17 DEX 9 CON 16 INT 15 WIS 11 CHA 14
Proficiencies:
Sling *
Starting spells:
Blindness, Chromatic Orb, Shield
Gender: Male
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Fighter / Mage / Thief
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Stats:
STR 13 DEX 13 CON 10 INT 16 WIS 12 CHA 12
Proficiencies:
Mace * Bastard Sword * Two-Handed Weapon Style * Club *
Thieving skills:
Detect Illusion +10 Set Traps +15 Move Silently +5 Hide in Shadows +5 Pick Pockets +5
Starting spells:
Blindness, Charm Person
Gender: Female
Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Stats:
STR 13 DEX 13 CON 14 INT 8 WIS 16 CHA 14
Proficiencies:
Two-Handed Weapon Style * Sword and Shield Style *
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Blade
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Stats:
STR 12 DEX 12 CON 10 INT 14 WIS 14 CHA 16
Proficiencies:
Flail / Morning Star * Shortbow *
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Enchanter
Alignment: Lawful Good
Stats:
STR 10 DEX 14 CON 12 INT 15 WIS 8 CHA 16
Proficiencies:
Dart *
Starting spells:
Grease, Protection from Petrification, Sleep
Gender: Male
Race: Elf
Class: Mage / Thief
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Stats:
STR 16 DEX 15 CON 13 INT 9 WIS 12 CHA 13
Proficiencies:
Short Sword * Katana *
Thieving skills:
Detect Illusion +10 Hide in Shadows +10 Move Silently +5 Open Locks +5 Pick Pockets +5 Find Traps +5
Starting spells:
Protection from Petrification, Shocking Grasp
Randomization always finds a way to bork you, I guess.
Yeah, alright, the balance isn't completely off... except the sum of our melee force is one third of a warrior and a Blade that doesn't dual-wield.
The slight upside is that the Invoker has the stats to dual into Fighter, which I intend to do if we live that long.
It'll be a fairly late dual though, so we'll be slogging along with really weak auto-attack capabilities for some time.
We'll have to make up the difference with magic, which should be doable as we have five arcanists.
Except one has minimum INT, the rest sit at middling scores, and there's only so many Potions of Genius/Mind Focusing in BGEE: I count 11/8 barring random drops, and typically there are only one or two copies of critical scrolls, so I don't think we can afford to scribe very often.
Well... I wanted it harsh. And it's not like it's unplayable, so let's see how it goes.
How to survive without a CON modifier: A Random Run, Part 1
Next part found here
Weak as we are, Carbos and Shanks are weaker still; we exit Candlekeep unimpeded.
I'll allow recruiting NPC's temporarily to rob them (this is mostly to get Jaheira's Potion of Invisibility and Neera's Gem Bag, though we also relieve Imoen and Xzar/Montaron of their belongings).
A Cleric with 16 WIS means three first level slots, so we have ample Commands available, as both the belt-wearing Ogre and Tarnesh come to appreciate.
With a Potion of Invisibility now at hand, we clear the local Hobgoblins, then get some rest and head north.
As long as you don't travel during night, I think you're guaranteed not to get ambushed in this region.
We retrieve Tenya's bowl, kill the Ankheg north of her hut using two Commands, talk to Farmer Brun while a sanctuaried Cleric holds his son's body underground, and finally clear some Zombies to the far north; while in the area, we spend some hard-earned gold on Arrows +2 so we can clear High Hedge later.
Together with the bits and pieces of experience from before, Cleric hits L2, and now has four Commands.
It's Ankheg time: We are guaranteed to be able to kill two per rest, and if a few Ankhegs fail their save against Enchanter's Sleep, that number rises to four. Of course, this isn't entirely risk-free, since you need to hope the Ankheg doesn't have time to attack before the Sleep hits (and you can tell if it worked or not).
It's actually a good thing Enchanter has such lousy hitpoints; otherwise the acid damage (which was never applied since he died from the pure physical damage) might've chunked him.
Anyway, a few mishaps later, we've killed off about 22 Ankhegs and everyone's gained 1-2 levels. We've already started to amass a bundle of unidentified items, so the plan is to grab the Red Potion from Nashkel and have Mage/Thief scribe a bunch of useful stuff (his 9 INT means he's by far the best candidate).
En route south, we clear the easy stuff, including Thalantyr's Flesh Golems, in and around Beregost, picking up a Gem Bag, though we leave Firebead alone for now: We want to save reputation-boosting quests until we're bribed up to 18, since the 1/4 reputation gain component of SCS can be pretty brutal in how little reputation you actually gain if you get some bad rolls.
Though it's a shame Blade probably will never make much of a dent in melee, at least he does acceptable work at range with a Shortbow and Offensive Spin active.
In Nashkel, we pick up the Red Potion, clear out Neira, talk Noober down, and head back into the wilderness.
One nice thing early on about having an Enchanter is that Sleep becomes even more lethal than normal: It's rare to see anything susceptible actually make its save, with literal hordes of enemies collapsing from a single casting being the norm.
Further north, Zargal is blinded and disposed of even as Sleep does in his fellow Hobgoblins. We leave Bassilus alone for now, and begin to laboriously ferry our massive amount of Ankheg shells south towards Beregost.
The gold gained is just about enough to push reputation to 18; we can now start turning in reputation quests, and with 16 CHA on Blade, we always get the best reward from quests as well with the reaction adjustment (though the extra rewards are very neglible, even by BGEE standards).
After six quests, the net amount is +1 reputation. Meh. Since they're in the same area as Hulrik's cow, we take our frustrations out on Arghain and his merry murdering monstrosities.
You'll note that's Cleric tanking. She's the only option really, given how badly shafted triple-classes get for hitpoints (exacerbated in this case since Fighter/Mage/Thief lacks a CON modifier... like almost everyone else).
Oh, the characters will get real names if they make it to BG2EE.
While in Arghain's area, I found out (to equal amounts surprise and delight on my part) that Ogre Berserkers are susceptible to Sleep!
Just scout 'em out and hit from beyond sight range, and the very tanky, very dangerous beasties are reduced to nothing. Good stuff.
Still hunting for that last point of reputation, we clear out Greywolf and save (?) Prism, as well as deliver Samuel, to no avail.
That's alright, let's try the dig and Brage then. We've already had some decent luck with random scroll drops, but this was really nice to see: A scroll of Knock fresh off the local Gnoll tribe.
This is especially good for us, since (as you'd expect) random Thief skill point distribution is random.
It's a pseudo-uniform distribution of points, meaning our Thieves are bad at everything. So at least now we can open the occasional lock... or will once Mage/Thief chugs that delightful Red Potion. Yeah, we're still running on the arcane fumes of our starting spells, plus a handful of L1 spells we dared to try to scribe (and mostly failed, though not entirely).
Clearing the dig finally nets us 20 reputation, which means we can now justify buying Mage/Thief some scrolls.
The Doomsayer outside is destroyed by Magic Stones, some Chromatic Orbs (we failed to scribe Magic Missile...),
and Imoen's starting wand. Brage returns with us, and we're back in civilized lands.
Still, I'd like to have Web available for the Bandit Camp. Let's hold off a little while longer on scribing; there's a Web scroll in Mulahey's chest, accessible without alerting him if you Sanctuary your way in.
Massive amounts of Sleep make it easy to fight our way through the Nashkel Mines up until the dreaded Kobold Shaman and slightly less (but still) dreaded Kobold Chieftain.
Sleep does for the cohorts, and amazingly, the Shaman fails its save against Silence... and did not prepare Vocalize! Hooray!
I'm always worried about taking on the Shaman, but this time it went very smoothly. We swipe the contents of Mulahey's chest and retreat to Beregost.
After successfully relieving Algernon of his cloak (owing to the now quite dead Vitiare's Potion of Master Thievery), a bought scroll of Friends lets us hit 20 CHA. With 20 reputation, that's a serious discount, and we make off with key scrolls for Mage/Thief.
Finally, we can start identifying items.
In fact, we spent so little we can afford to immediately start work on the second Ankheg Plate (the first being the easter egg one from Nashkel).
Cleric will eventually get the Hands of Takkok so she can equip Full Plate, but that's a long way off, and until then, both she and Fighter/Mage/Thief can't do better than Ankheg Plate.
While waiting for the armor to finish, we dispatch the local Wolf pack; Grease works surprisingly well here, especially when you layer on 4-5 casts. Also, Vampiric Wolves count as Undead, so are very vulnerable to Magic Stone.
Flush with our victory, we continue with Bassilus: By now we have so many sources of arcane damage, he gets interrupted constantly, and soon falls.
We're still missing a key equipment piece: The Gauntlets of Dexterity. En route to the Gnoll Fortress, we clear all the little things with ease, once again using a well-placed Sleep to disable two potentially dangerous Ogre Berserkers guarding a bridge.
To the west, the local Gibberling hordes had a scroll of Find Familiar. Swanky! Invoker casts it at once; there's another guaranteed drop of it from Nimbul after all, which we can scribe at a later date.
At the Fortress proper, Blade gets the CHA tome, putting him at 17 CHA. Not sure why I bothered, it won't make a discernible difference, but eh.
Around here the scroll randomizer seemingly goes off the rails a bit: We get Stinking Cloud, Skull Trap (twice!), another Knock, Haste (!) and most amazingly once we transit to Ingot's area, Invisibility 10' Radius!
If we weren't so incredibly strapped for INT potions, I'd scribe those last two right away; they're supremely useful.
Sendai, as well as Vax and Zal, are duly defeated, and we return to Nashkel. Now seems a good time to advance the plot a bit.
Mulahey seemingly spent all his slots on buffs: He throws a Poison at Cleric (which she saves against), then pointlessly tries to melee her down.
Blade took a serious beating trying to hold off the eastern Kobolds using Defensive Spin. He needs defensive spells, but the INT situation...
Back in Nashkel, brave sir Oublek (under the influence of Algernon's Cloak) falls in battle, and we respectfully retrieve the 2 700 gold off his remains. Nimbul is casually hacked down after he fails to save against Hold Person.
On to Beregost, where Tranzig has no counter to two Skeleton Warriors. On our way towards the bandit-infested woods, it's time for the first ambush, which turns out to be the Amazons.
Fortunately, Invoker is travelling invisibly: Mage/Thief only has two L2 slots, but the second one was spent on Detect Invisibility, which instantly reveals Telka and Maneira, preventing their potentially devastating backstabs.
Things get iffy for a moment when some party members wander straight into the Wand of Fire Scorcher of Fighter/Mage/thief (Mage/Thief in particular took a bad lick), but we pull through absent casualties.
Pushing further into the woods, we actually opt to take out Baeloth: We have an evil arcanist this time, so the robe will come in handy.
Web and oodles of L1 arcane spells keep the local Druids interrupted, and we suffer our second ambush en route to the Bandit Camp.
Halacan is focused and drops without ever getting a spell off; Drakar can be a nuisance if he prepared Hold Person, but this time seemingly tried to go for Chant first, which we interrupted. He didn't get a second chance.
Alright! We reach the Bandit Camp, rest up, and engage. Really, it's possible to do this as a running battle (keep moving and firebomb as you go), but we set up shop in the southeastern corner, throw down two Webs from Mage/Thief, and go to town.
As always, the real threat here is Venkt (we've countered Horror with pre-cast Remove Fear, but he can whip out Slow as he was trying to here, Glitterdust, Blind, etc.), and though he's got a little bit of Fire Resistance owing to his robe, he's a far cry from immune. Once Venkt drops, the remnants are mopped up in short order.
We can actually loot everything here: There's a bug in SCS 35.21 where Bracers of Dexterity "stacks" with Cat's Grace. The maximum DEX you can gain from Cat's Grace is dictated first by your class: 1-8 for Rogues, 1-6 for Warriors and Mages, 1-4 for Clerics.
It is then limited by your base dexterity: Mage/Thief has 15 DEX and counts as a Rogue, so can gain at most 5 DEX.
The bonus from Bracers of Dexterity is added on top of this: So with Cat's Grace, Mage/Thief can reach 23 DEX.
Fighter/Mage/Thief, also being a Rogue and having 13 base DEX, can theoretically reach 25 DEX.
I try to avoid exploiting the above, but pure random play is so punishing I don't mind using it to my advantage just for the sake of getting acceptable levels of Find Traps/Open Locks; and this, along with Knock for a few more stubborn chests, is how we loot everything.
OK, we're running out of wilderness areas, but noticably we've yet to clear Mutamin's Garden, so proceed in that direction.
Cleric can rustle up three 5HD Skeleton Warriors, and together with Korax and ranged party assistance, they swiftly clear the map.
There's a good amount of experience available at Durlag's too, even if you can't venture into the lower levels due to the traps, so that's next up.
We've a lot of magical damage available, so the Battle Horrors/Doom Guards outside are no real concern.
We grab the WIS tome (of course it goes to Cleric), and tackle the Greater Basilisks on the roof.
The oodles of Ghasts inside futilely expend their aggressions on a wall of Skeleton Warriors as we shoot them down; we refrain from going into the Warder level for now.
We'll be back shortly though: With three Potions of Perception, we can already get to 100 Find Traps, we just need to make the most efficient use of their duration so we can clear the entire Tower without running low.
Alright, keep vacuuming up experience: Ulcaster's Dungeon is next.
Mustard Jellys are actually a problem for us, since we only have one magical weapon (with attendant proficient wielder...) that can hurt them, i.e., Fighter/Mage/Thief with The Stupefier. Cleric helps out with a Spiritual Hammer and a ton of buffs. At least Fighter/Mage/Thief can be quite liberal with Giant Strength/Heroism potion use, as he's the only one that can use them for pretty much all of BGEE, so that helps.
Wolf of Ulcaster then. You need at least two, preferably three Remove/Resist Fear to handle the constant dispels, and lots of magic damage is useful, both to kill the Wolf itself and to handle its spawning of Ghouls.
Things get a little dicey as we try to cheapskate our way out of this, and we end up having to use most charges on a merry-go-round application of our Wand of Frost (yes, surprisingly the Wolf isn't even resistant to Cold damage).
OK! That basically leaves the Western Seaboard. Droth is still vulnerable to Command and therefore no threat, and we clear the local Ogre tribe without them getting a single swing in, while Skeleton Warriors account for the pack of Sirines to the southwest.
At the Lighthouse, Sleep does for the local Hobgoblins, and again Skeleton Warriors (properly buffed) swiftly render the local Sirines moot; the Flesh Golems are just shot down from afar while they clobber the remaining Skeletons.
Here the CON tome goes to Cleric: Since Invoker is dualing so late, he would gain literally no benefit from it.
The only alternative would be Mage/Thief who could reach 15 CON once we had access to the Machine of Lum The Mad... but that's so far away, I'd rather take the measly extra hitpoints on Cleric right now.
Next, some looting of Nashkel tombs. The undead pose no threat by now, not even the Revenant, given our amount of magical damage.
I accidentally activate Narcillicus while we're still unbuffed, but we at least had Skeleton Warriors up, and they manage to cut him down before he does anything dangerous; they then provide a distraction as Cleric and Fighter/Mage/Thief laboriously deal with the two Mustard Jellies.
And finally, we swing by Firewine Bridge to relieve Meilum of a pair of bracers.
That's about all the experience we can squeeze out of the wilderness, although I've left the Red Wizard area alone for now;
back to Durlag's Tower.
Our intent is to finish clearing/looting the above-ground levels, and for that to happen, the Ghost must be removed.
It kills off four Skeleton Warriors and throws a Chain Lightning at Blade (which, after Boots of Grounding, dealt a mighty 4 damage.. not sure how that's possible, guess the Ghost rolled really badly), but then can't do much else.
As for Kirinhale, we just mob her: She has high Magic Resistance, but it's not impervious, and eventually enough spells get through to finish the job.
We quaff three Potions of Perception, detrap and loot what we didn't yet above-ground, then head down to the Warders.
Mage/Thief goes around under Invisibility and detraps everything first, then once the entire level is safe, the party follows.
The Skeleton Warriors down here are not the real deal, as they can be hit with non-magical weapons (and only seem to have 50% resistance to missile damage), which simplifies things.
The Mustard Jellies take a bit of time to deal with, but never get a hit in, and the Flesh Golems are just shot down at range.
Finally, we rest (at the entrance floor, there's a good chance you won't get interrupted there), then return to deal with the three Greater Dopplegangers under full buffs: Yep, Cleric reached L7, so we now have Recitation and Defensive Harmony available.
That and 5 Magic Missiles quickly settle things.
Having turned in three of the four Warden riddles, we emerge with a bit of experience, a fair bit of gold, and some very important spell scrolls for Enchanter.
So far, we have been running entirely on that single batch of scribing by Mage/Thief done via the Red Potion: Everyone else only knows a few first level spells.
This is because I ran the numbers on the guaranteed to be available Potions of Genius/Mind Focusing.
With our party setup and deplorable levels of INT, we can only scribe scrolls reliably (100% success rate for the specialists, >=95% for the generalists) twice per arcanist... and then Mage/Thief only gets to scribe once, with 75% success rate.
All assuming we get no such potion as a random drop, of course (which we haven't yet).
But now it is time for Enchanter to use one of his two shots. He quaffs three Potions of Mind Focusing and scribes nearly everything we have available or can buy from High Hedge, notably including Haste, Invisibility 10' Radius, and a bundle of Enchantment spells of fourth (from Ulgoth's Beard mainly) and fifth (from Durlag's Tower) level.
Finally, we have options. I'm reasonably confident we could've held on until we reached the city before scribing, but then again, I'm not certain... and there aren't many scrolls left for Enchanter in the game anyway, so he'll be fine.
This seems a good place to end things for now. We're sitting at the Friendly Arm Inn, preparing to delve into the Cloakwood; everyone is around 60k experience.
We've had some mixed blessings with level-up Thief skills as well as proficiencies, as for the former:
None of our Thieves have Open Locks/Find Traps above 30, but they're both decent at stealthing (Thief/Mage actually being good enough that I routinely have him stealth when scouting rather than using Invisibility), and Fighter/Mage/Thief has 40 Set Traps, which can be significantly boosted using Gauntlets of Dexterity/Cat's Grace when needed.
As for the latter:
Fighter/Mage/Thief picked Longbow at Fighter L3... which isn't bad, especially in BGEE, but I had really hoped he'd luck into a specialization, or at the least gotten a more devastating melee option. He also won't get another proficiency until early SoD, so is kind of stuck with what he's got: Basically Longbow and Mace, and a Club if he ever wants to backstab.
Invoker wasted his L6 proficiency on Dart, meh.
Enchanter picked up Sling at L6, which is good! But his THAC0 is so awful it doesn't matter, and he'll eventually get all proficiencies anyway.
Mage/Thief got Two-Weapon Style at Thief L4, which is pointless on him, but less so than for instance Sword and Shield Style, so yay?
Cleric got Club at L4. Which is the least good melee option for her, but it's still a melee option, so I'll take it.
And... Blade also got Club at L4. Yuck. Though to be fair, his 12 STR means he can't use Flails, only Morning Stars, so maybe it'll be helpful? There's just no way he'll ever pick up two or more pips in Two-Weapon Style anyway, and he already has the best ranged weapon proficiency, so maybe just accept the way things are.
.After killing him he went to find Marek - who was nowhere to be found. I guess I must have forgotten to talk to Lothander, so there's no way to cure the poison
@Grond0, you realize you can still finish the game without curing the poison right? I've done that before and then BG 2 is fine after import.
Thanks @Corey_Russell. I've done that a few times, but I guess I was still on a hunt for perfection - even though that particular chimera is once more disappearing into the distance .
'Long-life challenge' - 10 concurrent runs as a 10 year celebration {2} (1st and final update)
The logic of concurrent runs is that some classes may fall by the wayside on the way through the full BG games. However, I wasn't happy with how quickly that was happening in the first attempt at this, so restarted all 10 classes from scratch. The classes are the same as before, but I changed the order so that the game play always varies significantly between each successive run.
Given that one of my problems with no-reload is I tend to play as something of an adrenaline junkie, I've been trying to maintain interest by seeing how far each of the characters could get without taking any damage. There was some slight degree of success to that until I got to the dragon disciple. That should have been the easiest class to play, but a momentary movement error exposed me to the gaze of a basilisk. Perhaps I may have to accept that I'm not up doing so many concurrent runs successfully, but I'll restart them all once more - I think to be happy to continue I'd really like them all to at least get through BGEE together.
Summary points of interest for each class
Abjurer - last time this one completed the first session without taking damage, but this time things started poorly as he was hit early on by an ambushing hobgoblin archer on the way to the basilisk area. I didn't particularly try and avoid damage after that, but the only worrying moment was soon after when a movement error let Bassilus into range and a critical hit took away 21 of my 26 HPs. The reward for Bassilus did though allow me to buy invisibility and a range of other spells to make progress easier after that.
Cleric - another one took early damage and this time it was entirely my fault. After giving Zhurlong back his boots I attacked him, but did so in melee. Although his script requires him to retreat where possible, if he gets a good initiative roll he can attack before retreating - which he did in this case. There was one close call after that when I surrounded Kirinhale with summons to try and kill her before she teleported away. I think I must have got too close to her as she targeted me with a charm - which fortunately I saved against.
Blade - a blade is capable of completing BGEE without damage, so I was keen to do better with this than the previous two attempts. The early encounters were done nicely, but annoyingly I failed to learn all 3 invisibility scrolls at High Hedge (even allowing for a specialist learning penalty my chances of success with one of them were over 97%). That made progress more difficult, but I still almost got up to level 8 before taking damage. An attempted rest saw an ogre appear, but I was under offensive spin at the time and 2 quick shots made it lose its morale. I mistakenly thought that it was running and kept shooting, but it had gone berserk instead and hit me before I could move away. As with other classes there were plenty more hits taken after that, but the blade has survived up to the Nashkel Mine.
Kensai - a kensai is not well equipped to avoid damage, but this one made a reasonable stab at it by getting close to level 7. While scouting the red wizards of Thay I was spotted, but I didn't think they'd got a good enough look at me to do anything. However, when manoeuvring round I found one of them had come down from the platform and I had no way to counter the magic missile that followed. After that I played the character more like a typical kensai - killing the enemy before they could kill you. Constitution regeneration allowed me to heal between combats. I did have one lucky escape when damage failed to disrupt a sirine's charm and my saving throw was needed to save me.
Diviner - this time I paid up for genius potions in order to guarantee learning invisibility early on. Progress was generally pretty good and no damage has been taken so far. There was though one dangerous incident that could easily have led to death. In the cave in the area to the north of the Carnival I tried to kill the Ettercap using skull traps from out of sight. The first two were cast without problem but, even though there didn't seem to be any issue with line of sight, I started moving forward to cast the third spell. That triggered the web trap and I was immediately held. Fortunately, in moving forward I'd moved slightly towards the wall and was still just out of sight of the Ettercap. As soon as I broke free I came into its sight, but the delayed skull trap cast and killed it anyway.
Cleric dualling to thief - another one successfully completed up to the Nashkel mine without taking any damage. Other than the odd invisibility potion I just relied on choice of routes and timings to reduce the chance of nasty ambushes. There were still a number of shots fired at me, but the ankheg armor and belt of piercing meant things like hobgoblins and skeletons needed a critical to hit and none of them managed that. As far as I know there's no sure way to avoid the trap damage in the Nashkel Mine, so this character will almost certainly not be able to complete BGEE without taking damage. Using haste increases the chance a floor trap won't fire, so I'll do that. I'll also surround myself with summons to see if I can confuse the trap - that certainly helps with NPCs, though I'm not sure if summons have the same effect.
Dragon Disciple - this is comfortably the easiest character to avoid damage with, but after 2 successes in a row with other characters I failed very early on with this one. I started shooting at Algernon without blinding him and wasn't really paying attention - which proved costly when his morale broke and he attacked me in a berserk rage. Possibly because of that early disappointment I wasn't concentrating fully on arrival at the basilisk area. After killing the first of the group of 4 basilisks in the south Korax attacked the second - which immediately retaliated in melee. Korax retreated and I tried to blind the basilisk, but failed - and a second lesser basilisk appeared attacking in melee. Avoiding those attacking Korax while continuing to retreat directly away and try more blinds wasn't easy. I moved to one side to make the movement easier - and the greater basilisk appeared and gazed at me before I could get out of sight …
Vampires of Brynnlaw easily destroyed with MoD +2. Perth the Adept was grinded out with WoMS although the fight managed to spread out on the streets. Once we got Spell Turning from the Book we stopped turning pages. We gave a Intelligence point it the Dream. Spellhold handled mostly with summons. We also managed to talk to the Statue seven times for 29500xp a pop, before the door opened. You can do this by pressing talk quickly after 'end dialogue'. Getting out of the tests lv37 and we got our 10th Critical Strike.
In first battle with Irenicus we cast Farsight and sent one Fire Elemental to trigger his defenses. Once we saw long casting Earth and Fire Elementals being cast we sent four Elementals to kill them. They actually got Jon to injured state. Sent in another batch and once Jon was at near death we activated the battle, and he escaped almost immediatelly. Hid the ship during Githyanki assault. Sold all my loot for Shaguain Priestess and got 170k gold. Shaguain City was solid slashing with Skellies, lv38 and last spell slot. Shaguains had no chance against 5 Skelis and 340hp 6apr Tensered Tziri.
Chapter 5
Lv39 fighting some Drows with Skelies and Elementals, the last level was going to take a while with 1.62M xp needed. Vithal's Earth Elemental battle was much harder than I remember, as the main Elemental was just hit with Elemental Damage because of inifinite casting Stoneskins (similar to Ogremoch). My Elementals died and we had to use all of our HLA's. Fire Elementals were cunningly weak to lure us not to rebuff against Air Elementals. And they force threw us back constantly and I weren't getting even hits. Had to gas them out. Apparently Vithal died during the Cloudkills, so we missed Skull of Death which we couldn't use anyway. Time Stop and Simulacrum were the important ones. All in all much improved (harder) fight on Earth and Air.
Elemental and five Skelies were enough for the Machine Lich. The Balor was stoned first hit from Wand of Wonder. Kuo-toa ran over with Tensers, the Priest interrupted nicely through Sanctuary. Got Simulacrum as random loot which was nice. 50k to buy everything interesting from Ust Natha. 13x Mind Focus, Absorption, 95 MDR, -4 Save spell (-2 because our innate bonus v Mindies), with 349hp 12hppr 6apr Tenser's and 10x Critical Strikes we are a killing machine, and quickly destroyed them.
In the Mind Flayer dungeon two Tensers and Improved Haste combos with all HLA's were just enough v the first big party of Mindies. Rested for the second one and used same approach. But I was out of Tensers and HLA's with one Umber Hulk, Ulitharid and Mindie left. Had to drink one Stone Form, separate and pick up them 1on1. Another rest for Master Brain and once his party was lured away and smacked, we killed it with gas. Buffed one last time, but just picked up the Staff of Command and didn't bother fighting and just escaped. We got all we needed. Fire Control Ring, but more importantly Staff of Command and all three Control Circlet's.
PfU for Deirex and after dodging his Remove Magic's, MoD+2 destroyed him. Double crossed the Drow and left. Before giving up the Dragon eggs we visited the Demon Knights. Buffed up with Fear, Fire, SI:Abj, IH, Tensers and concentrated on the one with the Soul Reaver +4. Skelies were doing pretty well, so we continued and killed them all. We can't use Soul Reaver yet being good, but that will change in Abyss. Looted the Sling +4 from Beholder Dungeon with Mislead, and just left. Adalon pawned the entrance and we escaped.
Chapter 6
Kruin was killed by Elementals before he could even talk to us. 230k gold selling our loot to Ribald's special shop. Built Crom Fayer +5, Wave +4, Silver Sword +3, 25k, bought scrolls for 54k. 100k left after buying spree.
"Mistake Rune"
PfU for Shangalar and started slinging him with +3 Bullets after we saw he saved Azuredge at 3. Had a heart attack once my +3 Bullets ended and my char lunged on him with melee. This triggered his Magical Swords, but we parked them on the door with Invisibility. Once Shangalar was dead we backed up. None of them see through Invisibility, so we activated Layene's Hakeashars, and they followed us and we cast Elementals for them. With PfU still on we cast Improved Haste, Mislead and Tenser's and Whirwind 10apr MoD +2 quickly destroyed Shyressa. I attacked Revanek, but Layene summoned Cornugon so we backed up and waited it out. We tried Charming Vaxall with Staff of Command, but he repelled it and followed us to the entrance. We used Invisibility and managed to lose him. Improved Haste scroll, Mislead and hacked Revanek out.
But attacking Layenes Elementals was a huge mistake as she cast Fallen Planetar who teleported on us and cast True Sight. And no where to hide we were quickly double Dispelled. Had to use Magic Shielding to kite Planetar. Used Cloudkill trying to miscast Layene, got Dispelled again and had to use another Magic Shielding. Then Vaxall saw us and Anti-Magic Rayed and started following us. We ran to bottom of the map, Invis, and it worked, we lost him. Third Magic Shielding and continued kiting the Planetar in close quarters as Vaxall was still in the main room. His True Sight finally ended and kiting his Dispel projectile with our Innate Haste, it hit, and we again drank Invis potion. And at the same time it was unsummoned. Phew.
Then we had summoning competition with Layene, and she couldn't repell our never ending Elementals. We got the Staff of Magi, and then I remembered it's just for mages, and we don't even get the UAI. What an utter mistake this was. Four Skelies then easily killed Vaxall. We wasted 3 Magic Shieldings and about 10 Invis potions, which may come bite us back. Anyway we survived and got 30k worth of loot.
We cleared Forest of Tethir and North forest with summons and got 4th Time Stop of 9 available for us (including Limited Wish). Attacked Bodhi's lair without PfU as we tried saving them. This worked well enough with Improved Haste Tensers and MoD+2. Killed probably 10 Vampires. Tanova was still left, and she was too strong for us and once we saw CON at 4 we backed off. Fire Elementals were able to kill her. Then we still found the Guard who was even stronger and again got us to 4 CON and we backed off. After resting, waiting his protections out we finally got the killing blow. For battle v Bodhi we used PfU, and it was much easier fight. After killing all vampies, Drizzt was still alive and we hacked Bodhi to death twice. Also hit max lv40.
Chapter 7
Picked 5th Time Stop in Suldanesselar. The three Rakhashas are pretty op so priestess is pretty impossible to save without Time Stop. And she was not worth one. Had to gas the last one because my HLA's and Tensers were out. Our innate Acid Resistance was nice v Nizi as it took 9 hits from WoW to stone him. Summoned Rillifane who pwned the opposition. Also found Spell Trigger as loot. 220k gold selling my loot to Reirra. Irenicus was baited being invisible. Softened with 5x WoMS and killed by Skelis.
The Abyss
Wraith Sarevok was easily killed, and we used the STR tear twice with drop trick to get our STR to 24. We are going to try to get the last point from Watcher's Keep. We also got alignment change to evil, which meant we could use Soul Reaver +4 and get audience with Tahazzar. Took Cloak of Fear and evil path in Selfhisness. Dragon Stoned second hit from WoW, got another Time Stop. In test of Greed we Charmed the Genie with Staff of Command, gave the sword but stopped him from leaving. We used his spells to Gate Balor, which he fought a while wasting spells. Cast 4 Skelis to finish the job, but the Genie cast Death Spell to destroy them. Elementals finished it as he couldn't touch them. This way we got the good Tear with Blackrazor +3. We used the Tear three times for nice -6 save bonuses.
Tziri v Irenicus
Activated the fight with one Skeli, and backed off immediatelly. Once it was killed the Balors and Glabrezus teleported on to me, and we started kiting them with WoW. They kept casting Confusion and Domination, which wasn't going to work with our saves -3/-7-/-4/-5/-4. Permanent Haste is good here. It took 35 hits to Petrify them all.
We softened Slayer with WoMS. Saw Planetar and Improved Alacrity. It took 16 WoMS and 4 Haste scrolls to hack Slayers Stoneskins out. Once Slayer was getting damaged we approached with Invis, as I still hadn't seen Time Stop. And this obviously was his plan all along. Once we were in sight, Time Stop, Dimension Door, Maze, and we didn't have any Magic Resistance...
But that was not the end, we used Protection from Magic scroll, and it Dispelled the Maze before it activated. Summoned Skelis and Elementals, buffed, and attacked with 6apr Critical Strikes, and Slayer was done after four rounds.
Luckily I remembered that Maze escape tactic. Next we try to descend the Watcher's Keep, hopefully with better results this time.
'Long-life challenge' - 10 concurrent runs as a 10 year celebration {3} (1st and final update)
Starting from scratch again, I tried this series once more - and once again taking risks resulted in an early casualty.
Summary points of interest for each class
Abjurer - the abjurer was never in trouble in terms of survival. He got shot at several times, so there's definitely room for improvement. However, his defences kept him unwounded.
Cleric - took damage at only level 4 when I forgot early in the morning I was supposed to be avoiding any damage and let a golem into range when trying to conserve magical ammunition. I wasn't concentrating so much on avoiding damage after that but there were no problems getting to Nashkel Mine, with just a few minor injuries received in the process.
Blade - once more the blade produced a rather sub-par performance, getting hit and lucky not to die at level 7. I had killed Lindin and Kirian and was just finishing off a blinded Baerin when Peter unexpectedly appeared. I was slow to react and was tagged by rigid thinking while still in sight. Peter cast spiritual hammer and attacked, but I managed to run away while confused just enough to avoid death. When the rigid thinking wore off Peter tried a hold person, but my invisibility beat him to it. It wasn't a particularly clean run since then, but with no more real danger.
Kensai - the kensai again started well and was getting close to level 7 before taking damage. After killing the basilisks I had a go at Kirian's party. Baerin died during an initial assault with Korax and a charmed Lindin. After resting, Peter was charmed and I attacked Kirian. She used horror on Peter and then her opening conversation dispelled the charm - meaning she would focus on me with her next spell. However, my opening shot took her to near death and I thought I would have time for another before she could cast again - so decided to continue attacking rather than withdraw or use a potion of invisibility. I seemed to get a poor initiative though and, although I fired first and rolled a hit, the dagger had not quite got to her when she completed a Melf's acid arrow. I mis-clicked on the conversation with Hafiz and ended up killing him, but other than that everything went smoothly after that.
Diviner - I was up to my old tricks again at the start of this run. I recognised the possibility that a golem would get into attacking range, but didn't move anyway - and was lucky to survive the subsequent hit with a single HP left. Soon after that I went into an Ettercap cave and triggered the web trap. The battle text said that I'd saved - but I was held anyway and the Ettercap made short work of its captive.
Session 9
We remembered to hand the Rift device back before leaving the old tunnels, and Coreheal questioned if we would deal with Gaal or leave him. It was not a long conversation before deciding his time was up
Roger benefited from our haul-trade, and we returned topside. Coreheal was by this time not wishing to spend yet another session healing Omen so we set off for Kangaxx with everything we needed. Except for one set of golden arms and legs, so returned back through the old tunnels and retrieved them - their guardian lich having been disposed of in the previous session
Kangaxx didn't put up much of a fight in his normal form and managed about a round in his demilich form before the Improved Mace of Disruption wielded by Omen finished him off. Tar gave Omen the ring of Gaxx and Coreheal could reduce the frequency of his healing spells
Next we returned to Watchers Keep and peered inside for the first time, far later than usual. After working our way around the side rooms Tar suggested Coreheal open a door so Omen could throw Azuredge if vampiric mists were inside. Yes they were and yes he did. The rest of this floor was cleared out, with snares helping against the two groups of statues
Tar decided to pack various items into our Promenade store (a chest really but she has grand airs) and then we departed for Brynnlaw. Omen and Coreheal helped out a girl and her brother while Tar used Pixie Prick to retrieve a wardstone from the slumbering mage nearby. His once-a-day spellbook piqued her interest and she turned pages until stopping at a True Sight page
Coreheal popped a few undead on the way to Spellhold and Tar set two snares (one special, one normal) near the final room. This was to no avail as we had eaten our fill of sullied food and Tar woke up in a jar resulting in removal of her Bhaalspawn abilities. Evidently Irenicus viewed us as weak and of no use as he allowed Bodhi to play a game of hide and seek with us
Tar, as narrator, might skip the next 30 minutes use of snares as her amazing memory reset function caused her to forget these would maze Otiluke enemies and slow progress down as they took longer to re-appear than Omen would have taken to kill them
At one point Tar and Coreheal stood patiently waiting for Omen to arrive at a party transition area. After either several eternities or a few moments Gate70 asked Grond0 if he'd had a long day and perhaps fallen asleep mid-game. Affirmative; either that or we play too slowly to hold his interest
The cat and mouse capers worked to our advantage, Omen bashing his way through and Coreheal vending himself some boots of speed to try and keep up. Tar trotted along behind, mostly keeping out of trouble until she surprised Bodhi with an out of the shadows Slayer move. Bodhi promptly left, and shortly afterwards so did we
Wrapping up our Spellhold trial, we were judged 'cured' so celebrated by asking Lonk why he was standing on those sna... oh dear ....res. With him dead to us, we gathered up the inmates and went to face Irenicus. Omen grimaces as someone cast Timestop - when will they learn his weapons are faster. Irenicus was soon convinced to flee and the murderers he left behind would barely have troubled Omen even if Tar's bookish True-Sight had not removed them from the shadows
Agreeing to leave Brynnlaw with Saemon Havarian gave chance to meet the merchant at Brynnlaw who had patiently waited all day for a bus adventurer and now here were three at once
By the time Tar had emptied her pockets and four containers it was time to draw the session to a close
Session stats:
Deaths : 0
Multiplayer disconnects: Grond0 once
Sleep-Slayer chasing party members: 1
Kills: Mainly Dwarven Defender but a goodly amount of Cleric turning and slinging
'Long-life challenge' - 10 concurrent runs as a 10 year celebration {4} (update 1)
I briefly considered giving up on this, but decided I could still take a bit more punishment . I did though reverse the order of the characters so that the ones at the end didn't miss out on their run again. I also made more of an effort to avoid playing when tired (which makes me more likely to take risks as well as make mistakes - and raise the possibility of nodding off at a crucial point). I still needed some luck to get all 10 characters up to the XP cap and waiting to enter Nashkel Mine, but felt I was somewhat closer to the standard needed to ultimately succeed with most of the group. Hopefully I'll be able to improve further, rather than lapse back as the runs progress ...
Summary points of interest for each class Monk - the monk made a good start, successfully getting to the Nashkel Mine without taking any damage. The most worrying moment that could have prevented that was when a mis-click allowed Landrin's spiders to get outside in time to block his escape. Fortunately I'd brought a charmed Silke along and her magic missiles cleared a path. I was targeted with missiles a number of times, but no-one was able to get the critical they needed to hit.
Cleric/mage - annoyingly the cleric/illusionist only got to level 5/4 undamaged. In the area to the north of the Carnival I attacked the ogre clan. The only likely problem was the 2 hobgoblin elites there, so I summoned a couple of skeletons and charmed a bear to go in ahead and act as cover while I killed them. Unfortunately one of the hobgoblins ignored the other targets and shot me, which didn't seem like normal behaviour. I forgot to cast friends before talking to Charleston Nib and lost my chance at gaining reputation there, but there were no other problems in reaching the XP limit at Nashkel Mine.
Stalker - like the monk, the stalker has the option of using stealth to reduce the risks of taking damage. That's not much use against travel ambushes though and I was hit by a critical on the first area transition. I didn't try and avoid damage after that, but was never seriously threatened.
Dragon Disciple - once again I failed to take full advantage of the capabilities this class offers and took some damage. At the Carnival I went into Zordral's tent and persuaded him to kill the other mage (to get a bit more loot). I disappeared before he could cast horror and hid behind the bookshelves while casting a couple of skull traps. A pair of webs followed and, when Zordral was held, I attacked with a sling shot and magic missile. He managed to just survive that and I went back behind the shelves again to wait until he was reported as held once more. As he hadn't seen me attacking, I expected he would stay where he was - but he suddenly appeared and used an acid arrow on me before I could react. There were no hints of danger after that though, on the way to the Nashkel Mine.
Cleric dualling to thief - this one almost made it to the Nashkel Mine undamaged. However, at the Lighthouse area I was pulling golems out of the pirate cave to face skeletons. One of those never appeared to be attacking me. However, at one point it looked like the icon was bumped when another skeleton joined the attack and the golem clearly briefly switched its attack to me - as I suddenly lost 19 HPs. I also got hit by a critical in a kobold archer ambush when on the way to the Nashkel Mine. Otherwise though it's been a pretty clean run so far.
Diviner - early on in this run a charmed Silke was instructed to cast a magic missile at Karlat - but chose to use a lightning bolt instead. That cost reputation, but as it was early on that wasn't much of a problem. The run was nice and clean after that until I was almost ready to go to the Nashkel Mine. At the Lighthouse I killed the sirines, but then deliberately walked through the charm trap in the pirate cave without protection - fortunately elven charm resistance worked there. That was just thrill-seeking, but there was then a mistake with the group of sirines to the north in Shoal's area. They were duly killed, but a skull trap was left intact when one of them moved away as I was casting. After killing a few ogres I walked back that way and set off the skull trap - spoiling a no-damage run for this character as well.
Kensai - after a couple of disappointments I did manage to get the kensai through to Nashkel Mine without taking any damage. He used up several invisibility potions to evade travel ambushes, which is arguably a bit of a waste - but it felt like a decent achievement with a character not well suited to avoiding damage.
Blade - the only 2 characters to have avoided damage thus far will almost certainly suffer trap damage in the Nashkel Mine, so I tried hard to get the blade through - who can guarantee to avoid that trap damage by combining mirror images with bard song. And, for once, my aim was successful. I was attacked once by a wandering kobold, but that missed.
Cleric - this was another occasion when I failed to get the gem bag from Neera. Things progressed well for some time after that until a bit of carelessness nearly ended the run. At the lighthouse I'd killed the sirines and 2 of the golems and was resting outside the pirate cave to get lightning protection in order to get past the glyph trap without taking damage. I hadn't bothered with using sanctuary and when a sirine appeared successfully hit it with a sling bullet to disrupt its improved invisibility. I then withdrew to where I thought would be far enough away to produce a skeleton before it could get there - but it arrived just before I'd completed the spell and only my dwarven saving throws prevented the charm from taking effect. The only trouble after that was losing my undamaged status when I was at the level cap and risked not using an invisibility potion when ambushed by kobolds - one of them got a critical to hit me.
Abjurer - I didn't learn invisibility until well after I'd reached level 7. That made for nervous work, but I managed to dodge the 2 shots that came my way. The rest of the run up to Nashkel Mine was generally easier, but there were a couple of exceptions. At the xvart area I worked my way through the minions before ending up in the cave to kill the bear there and steal its treasure. After doing that, I was surprised to find a xvart suddenly appearing in the cave and attacking (but missing) me. I think what must have happened was that one of the xvart villagers had been blinded early on and then overlooked and was scripted to continue the attack when the blind wore off. With just a few thousand XP needed to hit the cap I went to the ankheg area. I could have used skull traps to kill those safely, but tried to blind them instead to avoid so much resting. After killing several of them, one saved twice against the spell. I thought I'd waited long enough for its attack round to reset before trying for a third time, but apparently not as it responded immediately and this time I did take damage.
This was straight on 1on1 melee battle. With Inertial Belt, Cloak of Gargoyle and our innate DR we had 79 DR v missiles, with Scaly Skin 100. We were thrown back couple times, don't know what ability that is, but after using all 10 Critical Strikes Illasera was dead. First Pocket Plane challenge we used summon door trick with Elementals. Then started gassing everybody from Mislead. Eltan was killed by Elementals, Linvail by Skelis. Ellesime tried escaping with Sanctuary, but we crushed her through it. Saradush landing cleared with Tensers and Critical Strikes, bought scrolls and other stuff with 230k. We did clear whole Saradush in search of Superior Healing potions, now that RoR is nerfed they are more important. Prison handled with PfU, basement Mislead gassed.
Tziri v Gromnir
Gromnir's gang was mostly charmed by Staff of Command and disappearing level below to cast Invis. Attacked the mages with Mislead gas, but Karun started wandering finding our decoy, who was surprisingly tough with our DR. Another Mislead gas and both mages dropped dead. Gromnir survived our 10 Critical Strikes because of Hardiness, but not the following Whirlwinds.
No we were finally able to continue Watchers Keep. The eight Statues were attacked by summons including two Elder Air Elementals, but they only managed to kill the Golem statue, before Planetar destroyed all. After waiting it out, 12x WoMS and then 4 buffed Skelis cleared the level. 2nd level was solid smacking with summons, nothing hard. One nice effect of being immune to Slow was the Ice room. Chromatic Demon stoned with WoW. Getting to third level we got Bard's Gloves which we improved together with FoA +4.
Watchers Keep third level done by the usual optimal route. Start > DM Balor > Tahazzar and being evil they didn't aggro on us. Summoned help, and once Tahazzar was stoned by WoW he was quickly killed by summons. > DM Balor > Start.
Start > WM Quasit > Succubus, which we cleared with summons. Buffed with everything and with 6 Critical Strikes Ka'rashur was done. > Mayhem > Start.
Start -> WM Quasit > WM Tiefling > Demon Knights > Demon Wraith > Aesgareth. Played Aesgareth twice with experience for Wish winning the latter. Interestingly getting Slow from Strife works even us being immune to Slow. It took just 31 hits from WoW to casually stone Aesgareths whole gang. Buffed up and Aesgareth was done after 5 Criticals.
Not totally useless draw, and I think that's the first time I've ever gotten STAR from the Deck. We will get our DEX to 21 which means -5 undispellable AC. We left the Death Shade in Watchers Keep for the helmites to discover.
Fourth level main are cleared by summons. Saladrex stoned with WoW, Githyanki area looted from Mislead. Mindflayer dungeon 16x Mind Focus, Defense and Absorption. Before the last Mind Flayer mob we rested outside, rebuffed, and concentrated on the one with the Rod part. Then we just picked the Red Oil and escaped. Although one Vampiric Ulitharid and couple Umber Hulks followed, they were quickly killed. Rock and Garock were easy enough, and using the Machine of Lum the Mad we found our final form. We also had to use EEkeeper to give ToB LoB Familiar bonus, because it's still bugged. If you get Familiar in SoA you get 34hp bonus, but if that Familiar is killed in ToB you lose 58hp, even though you still had only 34hp bonus. So getting CON 17, we reduced it by one like we just killed the Familiar, and added 24hp with EEkeeper. This got our innate hp to 80+60+58 = 198.
Level 5 Test of Stamina can just be waited invisible for one turn. Test of Bravery Green Dragon stoned. Spirit Warrior test North-East-Search-North-East-North-Painting-West-Archway never fails. We used PfU and PfF scrolls for Spirit Seal, and the Flaming Skulls were easily wiped with MoD+2. Lich summoned Planetar which we waited out, and afted dodging couple Remove Magics, it was destroyed too. Got the best sling and Serpent Shaft. For Heart Seal we used first of the four Control Circlets to force Charm Hive Mother to stop using Anti-Magic ray on us. Instead we used it on Nalmrissa and she was killed in seconds with Critical Strikes. Essentially we traded one Control Circlet on Wish scroll, and left. This completed Watchers Keep for us.
Used PfU and Mod+2 to destroy Master Wraith. Yaga Shura stronghold solid smacking mostly from Mislead for Superior Healing potions. Picked up the wardstones with Mislead without fighting. Brimstone lured and blocked by the small door, Stoned by WoW. Fire Giants can't fit there either so it's a nice choke point for FoA+4. Killing Berenn from Mislead we got Balor's Claw, for Axe of Unyealding +5. Used second Control Circlet to force Charm Imix, and he was eventually killed by his Burning Men, which took a long while with his 1520hp. Got Ravager +4 which improved to +6 is the weapon of choice v Fallen Solars. Also improving Axe of Unyealding to +5 we now could have undispellable 21hppr regen. Nyalee smacked with 5 Critical Strikes.
Tziri v Yaga Shura
Plan was to beat the Bridge script with speed, that activates his army, but it didn't work. It works like 3/4 of time and is based on engine clock, so it's totally random. Anyway this was going to be harder fight. We hit Yaga with Critical Strike and he buggered off. Interestingly before Yaga is hit, the army homes on CHARNAME, but once Yaga returns they home on him. I don't really like how this is done in SCS, as it feels forced and cheating, needing to mostly cheese from player perspective. Anyway because they homed on Yaga, he was quickly trapped by his army. We used gas from afar, and soon after his army started dying, Yaga broke free. But as his army spawns indefinetly, he was trapped again. Another gassing got his Liuetants dead. Greater Malison, and then fourth Feeblemind got Yaga. But as he was still surrounded by his army, we went broke and attacked. Yaga was at 125hp once my 10x Critical Strikes were over, and dead from the last hit from the last two Whirlwinds.
Chapter 9
2nd Pocket Plane challenge we again used summond door trick. Couple Cloudkills to interrupt them, Planetar waited out. Elementals handled others, I destroyed my double. 240k gold from gassing the whole of Oasis. Got Regeneration ability. Draconis is one of the few Dragon's immune to petrification, the other two being Tamah and Abazigal. We attacked him from Farsight with Elementals, but apparently in newest SCS version he aggroes to this. Anyway he was eventually turned to Dragon by ever casting Elementals. We kited his Haste out and there was little he could do, our 95 AR and regen pretty much took his breath weapon out. After his Haste was out, we used Breach, Greater Malison and started Feebleminds. But I forgot his MR, so we had to use two Lower Resistance scrolls, and annoyingly he interrupted our Feeblemind casting, so we also had to also waste two additional Feeblemind scrolls. Casually hacking him from 2000hp took a while.
Tziri soloed the Lizard Men and Greater Werewyvern with AoU+5 being great. Anadramatis attacked by Skelis from Farsight as he doesn't agro that way. Once near death he talked, agreed to dual, surrendered immediately, and Skelis finished him. Got Wing Buffet amulet and Yellow Dragon Scales. Kuo-Toa Area again soloed by Tziri.
In quadruble dragon ambush it took 21 hits from WoW to stone the first dragon which got us slighly worried. We also needed couple healing potions even with our acid resistance and regen against the double Melf's Acid Arrows, which I think is again doubled by Haste. Second dragon took 16 hits, which meant we only had 13 for the last two. Green Dragon is the weakest with Ring of Gaxx blocking the Poison Breath, and it took only 3 hits to Stone him. Kited Carnifex Lower Resistance, Breach and Greater Malison projectiles and his Haste out. Then they hit although only Breach seemed to affect. Rebuffed PfF and continued hitting with WoW, but it was soon depleted. Had to use 2x Lower Resistance, Greater Malison, 2x Feeblemind scrolls to Feeblemind him. 8apr Kundane Belm Critical Striking x10 only got him barely injured with over 1000hp. But eventually he dropped dead. This also meant we only had 6 Feeblemind scrolls left. Ran past the Eyeball area and picked up Bronze Pantalettes, and built Big Metal Unit.
We recharged WoW and with 14 hits stoned Fll'l, got the wardstone and 12h Improved Invisibility ring. Tamah is another dragon immune to petrification so we needed to brawl her naturally. First we Criticalled the Frost Salamanders, as they are annoyingly immune to Wave +4. Fighting Tamah with BMU and not able to recast Tensers took a long time again, but she wasn't really doing damage either. Once we got her badly injured she went Ethereal and buggered off, and we could rest in Pocket Plane. And this still has the same effect of making Tamah just stand still and casually killed after we returned. The four Wyrms were easily killed 1on1.
Tziri v Abazigal
This was battle we planned a little looking how much effect spells and scrolls had. And these were the contingencies we decided.
Minor Sequencer - Strength, Strength (Abazigal 25STR->18/50 +6Thac0 -11dmg for 11 turns)
Spell Sequencer scroll - Greater Malison, Secret Word, Secret Word
Spell Trigger scroll - 3x Feeblemind
Contingency - Spell Shield on HIT
Chain Contingency scroll - 3x Pierce Magic 20MR 90s on HIT
Used all my high level Elemental summon scrolls to turn Abazigal to Dragon from Farsight. But this was a slight mistake as we were too far when he knocked us back, and our Chain Contingency didn't find anything to hit. We went back to scrolls and hit him with 3x Pierce Magic scrolls, then our Spell Sequencer, and Trigger, and just like that Aba was out of his mind. Started hacking him and eventually switched to Answerer +4 which was by far the fastest method to hit him, few Critical hits and it snowballs to every hit. Lastly we used Dispel Arrow with Critical strike and he cave his death speech.
Interestingly FoA+5 does slow our movement, but not the apr bonus from permanent Haste, Slow immunity. It probably cancells the Boots. Third Pocket Plane challenge was easily soloed through, got Dark Taint ability.
In Sendai enclave we stoned the Deer and Woodcutter with WoW, and the rest of the Drows were easily killed. The Drows were good source of Superior Healing and Invis potions. Inside the enclave we charmed the Spore Colonies with SoC and hacked everything. Attacked Thelynn from Mislead, but everyone saw us. Possibly because level change. Nevertheless Thelynn was done with one round of 8apr Criticals. We weren't boxed in so we just escaped. Used PfU on ourselves and Odamaron and it was destroyed first hit from Runehammer. Imprisonment scroll is by far the easiest way to deal Ogremoch. Diyatha lured away from her mob and easily killed, as was Captain Egeissag. Buffed last time for Mind Flayers with 19 Mind Focus and Absorption. It took on rest between the two parties, but nothing too hard.
Tziri v Sendai
First concentrated on the Cleric Statue who could cast Deva, which would stop our escape to Pocket Plane through Invisibility. And it was killed just before the extra potent Drows Whirlwind killed us, as we forgot Hardiness. Anyway we got Invis on and escaped. Got two Drows killed the next attack, Invis and escape to Pocket Plane. And so it mostly went, everytime the Mages got us Dispelled we had to drink Invis potion and escape. The two mage Drows were a problem, because I didn't want to alert every statue in the level. So we lured them to the exit with WoMS, and eventually they actually were able to grind them out. At this point there were four statues left, and the hardest one was the bottom left summoning statue. But it too was eventually grinded out by WoMS as it was trapped by its own Elementals. After all were killed real Sendai arrived, and we got just away from sight being Invisible before she cast Time Stop and Wished our spell protections destroyed. Sendai doesn't see through Invisibility so she was actually eventually killed by summons, and she didn't even see us.
Favored of Cyric easily killed, got Hand of Murder. Took Neera for a short walk, and she was killed in an ambush in less than a second. We Mislead gassed everyone, Vicross teleported us to Thayan Arena, where we gassed all the Yuanties again kiting them around. Now the reason for this visit was shopping. Most notably considering the end battle.
3x Feeblemind
3x Lower Resistance
2x Pierce Magic
2x Delayed Blast Fireball
2x Project Image
2x Spell Sequencer
1x Pierce Shield
1x Simulacrum
1x Spell Trigger
1x Wish
1x Chain Contingency
1x Time Stop
Cloak of the Lich
Golden Girdle
3rd Wand of Cloudkill
2nd Wand of Wonder
Wand of Polymorph
Resurrected Neera and sent her back to Pocket Plane. We attacked Szass Tam through Mislead, but he cast Time Stop and myriad of other spells. But we survived and then cast our own Time Stop from Limited Wish scroll, and hacked Szass to 1hp. This had effect of almost killing ourselves on his Fireshield as all the damage was hit on us post Time Stop. But he then sent us back. Even evil can ally with Balthazar with 2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1-1 dialogue choices and 18 WIS.
Tziri v The Ravager
Ravager is immune to pretty much everything except Harm, and we didn't have it or the Reflection Shield which is the only other easy way of killing him. Summon door trick and lured the Bone Blades to another room with Elementals. With Yellow Dragon Scale we had 100 DR v missiles, so Ravager missiles could only do Cold damage. And with Frost Boots and our innate regen he wasn't going to hurt us. The only problem was to make enough damage to kill it. We had 775 Bullets +4, -10 Thac0 with Hope and Courage scrolls which we had plenty. It took around 5 ingame hours and 450 bullets to sling it near death and once Ravager was at 250hp we started using HLA's. And before Crits were out, Ravager was out. Got 25DR, which makes our innate DR 74.
Being almost immune to physical damage might make the end battle a lot easier, but I suspect there're still potential traps there. Succubus -8 Charm, being Thac0 trapped, Melissan save penalties... lets see.
Session 10
Stealing a pirate horn to escape Brynnlaw was but a moments work for Coreheal thanks to sanctuary. The ship we stole sprang a leak after githyanki and sahuagin attacks, and we ended up in the City of Caverns where two sides of sahuagin bargained for our services. Tar forgot to return to the priestess, meaning their prince became hostile and we could not double-cross the king. He disappeared before we returned to him, but his lackeys had waited around for a final encounter
Tar gave Coreheal the cloak of mirroring, but in turn Coreheal lent it to Omen whenever beholders were around. This was a fair amount of time
We used a rope to descend into the underdark, where we steadily worked our way around. Omen bore the brunt of attacks and dealt the bulk of our response but Tar used two staffs (air and earth) to help with elementals. Then we resolved the duergar pit dilemma and headed into the western tunnels
Omen put in a tremendous amount of effort here, while Coreheal used summons sling and melee weapons also. Tar generally held back, using the Firetooth crossbow and mazing enemies when Omen was overly swarmed. Tar levelled up towards the end of this area and her special snares changed from Otilukes to Maze. This meant two things, firstly that she and Coreheal could lay more snares to greet un-mazed opponents - much to Coreheals delight, you learn (or remember) something every day
Secondly of course, Tar threw a special snare at a drow with spell turning active. So all enemies except one were mazed but so was Tar. She had a bit of a panic about this until Omen and Coreheal said this was fine in a party. Of course it is. Phew
With the western tunnels completed and the blood of a kuo-toa prince in our possession we had little need to clear the beholder nest or illithid lair. Other than Tar wanting to get High Level Abilities sooner rather than later. Why? Well take your pick
Being able to use scrolls, like the death spell she has in her bag for Phaere's rescue
Being able to use scrolls, like the find familiar spell she has in her bag since very early on
Probably some other reasons too but a lady must have her secrets
So we pushed bravely on into the beholder nest. Shadows, sanctuary, and cloak of mirroring. Omen puts in more overtime and at one stage has around a dozen gauth and beholders trying to surround him. To no avail, he clears the area almost single-handedly while Coreheal and Tar have little to do but level-up while Omen does not
Next is the illithid lair. It goes quite smoothly until one chamber is strangely empty. Omen doesn't blink, racing into the next room while Tar is preparing a trap to the north leaving Coreheal to enter the chamber just as the game decides to plop a group of illithid and umber hulks in. He manages to keep calm and make his way out but Omen has returned with another group hot on his heels. Many enemies. Omen gasps out that it may be too dangerous even for him and briefly wishes they were spread out a bit. Tar throws in a special snare and at least half the enemies are mazed
We start to clear up but the illithid return quickly and we retreat. Coreheal and Omen are both down to 6 intelligence and Tar finally remembers what Coreheal had asked in session 6 or 7. She throws four potions of genius in his direction, leaving many other intelligence boosting potions in her container. Coreheal is very gleeful and we return to the offensive
At some point Omen tries to open a second stubborn door in the same fashion as the earlier one - by dragging a mind flayer to it. This time he has three of them and grumbles that he thought he was close enough (he was but you first have to get the message to appear, and then return for the door to open). After suitable advice from Tar he runs a second loop around the room and hey presto the door is open. We celebrate by flaying the flayers
Not much left, we clear chambers north-east and south then only the final brain room is left. Omen enters, and Coreheal follows. Tar has waited outside and after unlocking the door twice more (these flayers have constructed it well) she tosses in a special snare. As Omen and Coreheal bash the two brain golems it is wryly remarked that the elder brain has been mazed. With such intelligence we expect a rapid return but no it takes perhaps 10 rounds and has no support against our final attack
With elder brain, elder blood and elder eyestalk we are surely prepared for whatever lies ahead. Tar sulks a bit as Omen gets his first High Level Ability - although she has more XP her next level is still a bit away. We rest up and with no drow timer yet known we decide we should rest here for a week before resuming - an hour earlier in the UK but usual time for Coreheal as our clock-changes are staggered
The bag of holding has helped manage inventory but Tar regrets not taking the missile container - not that she would have used the many kuo-toa and sahuagin bolts first collected and identified then eventually discarded
Omen has AC -8 (multiplayer not showing the correct value)
Coreheal has AC -7
Session stats:
Deaths : 0
Party members mazed: Tar
Party members with intelligence 1 from Mind-Flayerism: Omen
How to survive without a CON modifier: A Random Run, Part 2
Previous part found here
Alright! Our somewhat lopsided party had nearly finished vacuuming the Sword Coast for experience, and were just about to proceed with the main plot: Into Cloakwood.
Hilariously, Seniyaad dies immediately to five Magic Missiles, and we proceed to the Spider Area.
We don't bother trying to disarm the Web traps, instead just triggering them with an invisible character.
Fighter/Mage/Thief quaffs a Potion of Freedom, dons some armor and, after a few Wand of Fire Scorchers, clears Centeol's hideout.
The Shadow Druid area is next; we don't even need to bother with Silence 15' Radius, as massed Magic Missile serves just as well for preventing Druid spellcasting. We move on, easily clearing the Wyvern cave (under full buffs, we can handle melee and ranged combat fairly well).
Time to descend into yet another mine, but first we must deal with Drasus.
I considered having someone move invisibly to the east, Charm Kysus using Algernon's Cloak, then have the former waste his spells: There's no point trying to have Kysus help you, as his script turns him hostile as soon as Drasus has said his piece.
In the end, I settled for a frontal assault instead, led by Skeleton Warriors. Drasus doesn't have the HP or AC to survive that kind of combined melee and ranged pressure for long, and Rezdan's defenses are usually much weaker than Kysus': Both Drasus and Rezdan drop within a few rounds, swiftly followed by Genthore. As tends to be the case, Kysus is the last man standing, but a Spell Thrust and several Detect Invisibility later, a Chromatic Orb spells his end, and we have access to the mines.
Some SCS BG1 mages like to spam the Monster Summoning spells; an easy counter to this is Sleep, as we see here.
Something unusual happens as we press into the mines: Hareishan and her gaggle of guards join the fray as we fight the guards to the north of their barracks.
Things turn a bit chaotic, but there's room to move around here (unlike in the corridor to the east, from where we usually launch our assault), and Hareishan is an Enchantress this time around, so we just make sure her big spells never hit more than one character, and then she's not very dangerous at all.
Natasha kills off her own guards with a Cone of Cold, then just casts a few largely ineffectual Magic Missiles before three Skeleton Warriors take her down.
The Ogre Mage is just Commanded and chopped down.
The way is now clear to Davaeorn, whom we tackle in customary fashion: Send someone invisibly forward, D gives his speech, the Battle Horrors move north.
We then retreat towards the entrance, swiftly destroy the Battle Horrors, and deal with the (I forget if it's four or five) waves of guards, all without D being bothered in the slightest. Then we just let D chew on Skeleton Warriors. Works every time, unless D teleports into you... though he's typically out of the big spells by then (protagonist should of course be invisible the whole time, for safety).
Good thing so many Skeleton Warriors survived, since we'd be hard-pressed to tackle the Mustard Jelly down here without their help.
OK! Baldur's Gate is open to us. We methodically move through the city: Mage/Thief gets the DEX tome, bringing him to 16 DEX, and of course Cleric gets the WIS tome, bringing her to 18 WIS.
We manage to stun Lothander before he gets away, netting us a pair of Boots of Speed for Fighter/Mage/Thief.
We've got the tools to handle almost any encounter now, though very high-level Mages are still troublesome: Sunin gets a good lick in at Blade, but we deal with the former using repeated Wand of Fire Scorchers (Sunin is inexplicably immune to Stun, and I always forget it, so typically waste the first round trying Wands of Paralyzation).
Oh, it's also time for Enchanter to bite the dust again.
Again, he wasn't far off a chunking there... Stoneskin for everyone sure would be nice.
Anyway, we raise Enchanter and proceed on our merry way. Technically he is a high-level Mage, but Ramazith is tremendously weak, in part because he just has almost no hitpoints, in part because he doesn't get Mirror Image, being a Necromancer. Just... skelly him.
The INT tome goes to Enchanter, taking him to 16 INT. No big difference, but he now gets by on just two Potions of Genius to reach 100% scribing success rate. Invoker will be scribing so little in the long run, it seems a better fit on Enchanter... but thinking back now, maybe 16 INT on Invoker to guard against Mind Flayers would've been a good idea? Eh.
And that's it? We've cleared all combat encounters in the Gate barring the Iron Throne, and there was never a close call.
We celebrate by reducing our reputation to 18 by accident, as I wanted to check if there's anything worth stealing in the Gate, and got caught out in a crummy General Store by two Flaming Fists.
There are some decent potions, including a Potion of Mind Focusing in the store in the northeastern area (and weirdly, three Splint Mail +1 in total), but it really wasn't worth the time, not even robbing the Silvershield Estate.
We lick our figurative reputation-induced wounds, then ascend the Iron Throne. Same procedure as always: Lure the two Thieves out using a Skeleton Warrior patsy, deal with the former, then just do a Skeleton Warrior all-out charge.
The Thieves stand no chance on their own, and amusingly, a Greater Malison followed by a Cloud of Pestilence ensures every enemy is blinded, making them very easy prey for the ensuing Chaos (the spell).
Zhalimar puts up a decent fight, taking down a Skeleton Warrior, but the party never even takes a hit.
Around here, Invoker does his first scribing session, learning a bundle of useful spells: We won't have to be so stingy with scribing once we're out of BG1.
The reason for this scribing spree is that we're off for Balduran's Isle, in pursuit of the (to be imported) Chain Mail +3.
Gotta eke every little advantage we can out of our starting position in BG2, given how weak this party will be unless they're fully buffed and bristling with arcane artillery...
Once on the Isle proper, we clear the outdoors, then start working our way up the ship: Cleric goes in first, rounds up all melee enemies, then Fighter/Mage/Thief and Blade pop in to take everything down from range.
We then exploit Invisibility 10' Radius to move the entire party to the south of Karoug's floor, while Cleric initiates the encounter.
Daese is swiftly Spell Thrusted and then Scorchered into changing her form, but Cleric has a very hard time holding off this many Werewolves.
A fully buffed Fighter/Mage/Thief joins the fray with the Sword of Balduran, but it's not so easy beating Karoug's regeneration.
Finally, a volley of Magic Missiles spells our victory: Good thing too, we didn't have much left.
Though I suppose we could've just retreated if things turned really bad and come back later.
We return to the mainland and, compared to Karoug, two Loup Garous aren't really that problematic (especially since it turns out you can hit them with Stone Fist, which feels like an oversight): Balduran's Isle, cleared. Hooray!
Time for that most dreaded spot then; Durlag's Tower. Dreaded because random Thief skill point distribution means, even exploiting Bracers of Dexterity and Cat's Grace to hit 25 DEX, we need three Potions of Perception for 100 Find Traps, so we really can't faff about, but must be efficient (there aren't so many of these potions in total).
By now, the Warders are no concern at all, and we swiftly descend (though Enchanter took a backstab, bringing him to 8 HP...).
This level is my most hated, because the Greater Dopplegangers here are potentially so extremely powerful, as we are about to witness. We clear the initial rooms, the northern throne room, and head west... where this happens.
Oh... no. The Lesser Earth Elemental has literally boxed Cleric in, and it proceeds to quite mercilessly clobber her. At the same time, of course, Islanne turns into Durlag, who hits very nearly all the time for 20-30 damage.
We shift gears, putting everything we have into killing the Elemental to allow Cleric to flee, and just about manage it before Cleric comes too close for comfort to being chunked.
Ugh. Islanne and Durlag are a bit too powerful I think, especially given how (more or less) harmless Fuernebol and Kiel are.
Still, we muddle on through, clear the rest of the level absent incident, and descend further.
The eastern gardens down here are slowly cleared: The Ashirukurus are more annoying than usual, going Invisible right away after attacking, but we still come out on top.
We incinerate the Skeleton Archers using Wands of Fire before they can fire a single shot, netting us a bundle of Arrows of Dispelling, which are quite crucial for the Sarevok fight, given that I'm using the component which removes all Arrows of Dispelling from stores.
There's another scare as we start tackling the elemental rooms: The Air Aspect nearly does Cleric in.
She just doesn't have the hitpoints to hold the line against hard- and fast-hitting enemies, but until Fighter/Mage/Thief hits Mage level 7, we have no options.
The Greater Wyverns are cleared uneventfully, we rest up under Invisibility 10' Radius, and tackle the Chessboard.
There are no risks taken here: A massive Fireball barrage leaves just a very badly wounded King and two very frightened Pawns that escaped by the skin of their teeth (though not for long).
The final level is easier: Greater Ghouls are a hassle, but we methodically work our way through, assisted by Skeleton Warriors.
There are no close calls, the level is cleared, and we teleport out. No point risking the Demon Knight or the fight(s) in Ulgoth's Beard; we're done here.
For our final Sword Coast venture, we pickpocket a few things (successfully). Notably Thalantyr has a Potion of Mind Focusing, if you, like we, are severely strapped for these and willing to risk angering him.
Shandalar also has a bunch of level 4/5 arcane spell scrolls, though nothing more exciting than Feeblemind (still better than nothing).
Yes, we pickpocketed him before taking off for Ice Island, since I can't recall if he auto-talks to you once you teleport back or not.
The plan was to speak to him immediately if the pickpocket failed, but as we succeeded, it's all good anyway: We head for Ice Island.
A single blast from a Wand of Fire sends Andris running, but he soon returns.
My intent was to just Scorcher him down, but I accidentally went for Fireball instead...
No CON modifiers is rough; a single Fireball can potentially do half the party in.
Still, Andris falls, and we proceed throughout the maze: The only other serious threat here is Tellan, but he turned out to be an Enchanter, so after Protection from Magical Weapons (!) and Flesh to Stone (!!) aimed at a Skeleton Warrior, didn't really accomplish much.
We finish by clobbering Dezkiel for his Stoneskin scroll, and return home.
There's very little left to do, but we swing by the Red Wizards; Skeleton Warriors and a Cloud of Pestilence + Cloudkill combo dismantles the former in complete safety. Now, finally, let us move to the endgame: Back to Candlekeep.
The Ogre Magi ambush really isn't that bad, as they're quite low level, though we pre-empt a Horror by Remove Fear (Invoker quaffs a Potion of Invisibility for safety).
We leave the Iron Throne leadership their lives (briefly), are incarcerated, bust out, and cleanse the crypts; Invoker gets the STR tome bringing him to 18 STR, and Cleric gets the WIS tome bringing her to 19 WIS, which is quite respectable for a random-stat priest.
Prat and company are treated to Skeleton Warriors and Cloudkill, and we emerge unscathed.
Upon our return to the Gate, everyone does a last bid of scribing: Now everyone has at least some decent options (though BG1 choices for arcane spell levels 4 and especially 5 are rather lackluster).
We save a single Potion of Mind Focusing, since Cleric is illiterate (8 INT...), and we want her to be able to use a Scroll of Protection from Magic for the final fight. Yes, this unfortunately means she can't use a Wand of the Heavens.
Cythandria, Slythe and Krystin all feel the force of Skeleton Warriors and Enchanter-cast Chaos.
We start the Palace battle, Skeleton Warriors leading the way; for reasons unknown, the Doppleganger Assassin backstabs a Flaming Fist rather than Enchanter, not that I mind.
We swiftly crush the Assassin and Shaman: Meanwhile, the heavily buffed Skeleton Warriors have brought low the Greater Dopplegangers, and we now gang up on the Mage.
Scraping the bottom of the Potion of Perception barrel, we de-trap and subsequently trundle through yet another maze, arriving in the Undercity.
A Fireball barrage doesn't quite wipe out Rahvin's party, though he obliges by taking himself out using his Arrows of Detonation.
Cleric unfortunately gets a head of herself and charges in just as the second Fireball barrage is launched.
Sloppy play by me. Good thing Shaldrissa lost morale, or she might have well finished off Cleric.
We talk Tamoko down, rest up, and enter the temple.
I'll try my usual strategy of 2-3 buffed bruisers under Protection from Magic, assisted by summons, with the rest of the party hiding invisibly. Of course, our bruisers aren't so good at administering bruises, but hopefully it'll work out anyway.
Things kind of go off the rails a bit, but we recover: Blade has to lead basically everyone but Diarmid (our first target, since he uses Arrows of Dispelling) around by the nose while Cleric, Fighter/Mage/Thief and our Skeleton Warriors slowly grind down the former.
Successfully, I migh add.
We pop out the Arrows of Dispelling. I initially give up on dispelling Sarevok's haste, since Fighter/Mage/Thief doesn't have great THAC0, instead opting to strip Angelo of his defenses; this works fine, and we swiftly deal with Angelo, followed by Tazok.
Yeah, all this time, we have to use Skeleton Warriors to help us actually kill the enemy, so someone is always acting as a decoy to keep Sarevok from killing off our summons.
Semaj runs out of big spells and starts trying to whack us with his staff.
It turns out that Wand of Fire Scorcher can be fired from inside Protection from Magic, which I found funny; Semaj was not so amused.
With no cronies left, we finally get Sarevok under control (and dispel his Haste).
He puts in a good showing, costing us some Wand of Monster Summoning charges, but ultimately the outcome is not in doubt.
BG1, done.
As expected, this party was (and will continue to be, for the foreseeable future) heavily dependent on proper buffing and arcane firepower to supplement our woefully weak physical abilities.
We must be very, very careful not to get caught in a rest-restricted situation without the proper spellworks available, lest things take an ugly turn.
Still, Invoker will eventually dual, and soon(ish) Fighter/Mage/Thief will have access to Stoneskin, which combined with Mirror Image will at least let him tank 1-2 major encounters per rest, which should help a lot.
Indeed, once we get more Stoneskin scrolls, Blade can take over tanking duties if necessary, though we are so strapped for damage options I prefer having him using a shortbow...
Anyway. We'll be importing into SoD, both because I'm aiming for a full quadrilogy run, and because given our party setup, the extra spell scrolls (and experience!) found there will make early BG2 much less grueling.
More to come!
Tziri, Half-Orc Kuo-Toa Disciple (SCS, LoB) Final Update
We buffed up and entered to Throne of Bhaal. Balty cast Lunar Stance for Time Stop immunity and Tziri used a Time Stop scroll. With our two Whirlwinds we managed to Vorpal the other Solar with Ravager +6. At the same time Balty almost killed Bodhi. Using second Time Stop scroll, we Vorpalled the other Solar with AoU+5 and Balty managed to kill Bodhi. Imoen also buggered off, which left just Irenicus. And after he was softened with Elementals, Balty then just punched him out.
First pool Balty concentrated on Babaus and Cambions, and Tziri kited the Nabassu and Glabrezu with WoW. Balty is good on dealing the annoying Babaus as he sees through invisibility too. After that we found Marilith which we also Stoned, and Alu-Fiends which Balty punched to death. We could tank everything, so when everyone was hitting Tziri, Balty punished them. It didn't matter if Cambion got us to 100 Thac0. Lastly we still found three more Nabassus from the pool, but they couldn't do anything either. It took some kiting with Balty, because he was getting low on health, but soon all was punched to death. Got immunity to Maze and Imprisonment, and Dimesion Door ability. Our health also got restored.
Second pool was mostly same, but here was also Balor's and Succubus, and we equipped Blackrazor to stop their Charm spell. First only one Succubus, Nabassu, Babau and Cambion followed. Balty was Held, but we managed to distract the enemies so he recovered. Balty is huge help of dealing damage, and soon punched them out. Lured more enemies out of the pool and Glabrezu was stoned, and others punched by Balty. But once the last of the enemies came out, including Balor and Marilith, the kiting became chaotic as they also all had Haste. They also gated even more enemies. So we teleported Balty to lower pool which was closed with Faster than Eye ability. Continuing kiting and Balor and Marilith were soon stoned. Then we lured others one by one to lower pool to be punched by Balty. Then there was just one Succubus and Cambion left, and we first tried to lure the Succubus away. But we forgot to equip Blackrazor again, and that was it. It got us with Charm -8 v Spell, which had about 1/5 chance for charming us with -4 saves.
The LoB Ascension end battle continues to punish even small mistakes, and there's so much going on that concentration is really the key. Perhaps I was too worried about Balty getting killed, because I wanted him to atleast help in the last pool, that we didn't really think our own safety enough. Well this is not the first time the Succubus ended our run here.
Comments
Traveling with: Tcos (dwarven berserker), Jaheira, Mazzy, Yoshimo, Wewa (human wild mage)
We will soon go to Brynnlaw but first a final encounter with Firkraag. Our fear got dispelled then quite a few party members were running in fear. Also, our most powerful fighter Tcos forgot to use her enrage, and we really missed her hitting power. Our 6 snares and 5 summons weren't enough and one by one the party was killed. Then Firkraag near death and Jeanluc III were all that's left. To try to speed up the kill I had Jeanluc III switch to dual wielding two +2 hammers and miraculously Jeanluc prevailed with 12 HP to spare! Luckily there's a rod of resurrection to get his people back in business and no chunkings either. It's hard to get a fight closer than this.
EDIT:
Hmm apparently I spoke too soon. I discovered despite the fact the RoR "resurrrected" Tcos, and despite the fact I can even use her inventory, her figurine does NOT exist and also no body in the inventory screen. I think she got "chunked". So I did lose a character after all. Going to replace her with Keldorn. Will keep at it.
Yes. Remember there is NO Figurine and no body showing in inventory screen - she is chunked.
MORE INFO:
So I did the load, tried to zone out but could not because game says to gather the party before venturing forth - but gathering 6 figurines is impossible as Tcos figurine doesn't exist. So am bugged out have to remove Tcos to leave the area.
I was fighting the illithids in the sewers when my character was trying to range an enemy and got too close and stunned. Then an illithid drained Jeanluc III's brains out - RIP Jeanluc III.
What's next: not sure.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219739/#Comment_1219739
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219769/#Comment_1219769
There were no great problems in Jon's dungeon. Generally fists were used, though that wasn't always possible - for instance they are not able to reach the mephit portals. Ulvaryl failed to make his escape.
After exiting to the Promenade, Clinch went straight after Mencar's gang. Brennan was blinded before a skull trap and then ice storm softened things up a bit. With the others dead I tried to grapple Brennan, but he saved and then ignored his blindness to make his exit at near-death through a non-existent gap.
At the Copper Coronet the Beastmaster was unable to put up much of a fight. The XP from giving Hendak control of the premises took Clinch to level 13 and access to level 6 spells. That includes the kit spell based on Tenser's Transformation. That greatly improves his attacks with weapons - without affecting his ability to cast magic magic. While it nerfs a basic fist attack, it does improve the magic fist (and double HPs). Here Clinch finishes clearing the upper Graveyard by dethroning the Crypt King - helped by a THAC0 of -7, 4 APR (without haste) and AC of -14.
After a few more encounters without trouble, Clinch once more suffered a near-death experience against - this time against Dracandros. He attempted to paralyze the enemy mage using ghoul touch, without considering the possible impact of spell turning - that resulted in him paralyzing himself. Fortunately he was using the 'greater' version with a duration of only 2 rounds and he recovered just as Dracandros was casting chaos at him. He ran for the nearby doorway and managed to get through that despite being confused - and no-one came after him. A sunfire then saw the back of Dracandros. Another little glitch in that area was absent-mindedly casting a spell when Hareishan arrived for the first vampire ambush - I'm sure that will not be the only time I have to watch out for those Cowled Wizards. I also picked up the silver pantaloons - even though they are unlikely to be helpful for this character.
Returning to the Graveyard Clinch took the odd risk in clearing the lower areas - ignoring the possibility of being held by ghasts or drained by a vampire (though they needed a 20 just to hit him). Finishing off the last of the spider groups took him to level 14 - though that gained no extra spells for him.
Coming back from the Graveyard Clinch rescued Renfeld - one-shotting the mage there. Rather than continue with that quest immediately he buffed up for the City Gates lich - successfully beating down its defences, though HPs had got low enough by then that a PW:stun would have been fatal. While in the area he also saved Sansuki from some vampires - note in the screenshot that he was once more caught casting spells in the City (but got out of sight range before the Cowled Wizards appeared). The Amnian soldier killed one of the wizards and another was beaten unconscious when they fought among themselves. Clinch cast a skull trap to kill that one and would then have tried to finish the others. By now though the timer had reset and more of the scum were arriving. He did manage to get out of sight of the new ones though and killed one of the two remaining from the original group with a scorcher. The last one fortunately didn't seem to have any aggressive spells left and was duly beaten to the ground.
He crushed the Fallen Paladins next to gain some reputation and then went on to find some illithium - taking down Neb before he could summon any help. Handing his head in took reputation to 17 and Clinch decided it was time to go to Trademeet to be able to boost that to 20. None of the genies there lasted long enough to even try and petrify Clinch (who had bulletproof saves anyway). Moving on to the Grove some trolls were swiftly disposed of to move Clinch to level 15 - picking up another 0.5 APR bonus there. After watching Cernd slaughter Faldorn Clinch reported back to Trademeet to get his reward. He quickly built on that by clearing a tomb and helping Tiris - pushing reputation up to 20 as a result.
Clinch hadn't yet got around to buying a cloak that would enable him to push charisma to 20 to get the best shop prices. To do that he returned to the Dock District. While there he finished dealing with the harpers - taking retribution on Lucette for killing Xzar. He also did the Mae-Var tasks, by-passing Rayic's PfMW with his fists and belatedly noticing that he'd picked up a level for reporting back to Edwin. Mae'Var was of course helpless when attacked. Clinch now had theoretical access to 7th level spells, but hadn't actually got around to learning any of those. With shop prices now at a minimum though and 120k or so cash, Clinch went on a bit of a spending spree - and spell learning XP gained him another quick level.
I think it's about time Clinch went in search of the Ring of Gaxx - so that will be next on the agenda.
Force Wizard L17, 99 HPs (inc. 12 from familiar and 9 from ioun stone), 392 kills (+574 in BGEE/SoD)
Edit: @semiticgoddess I'll respond further about the kit at the end of the run. I'll note here though that I was rather dozy in not recognizing that force wizards could not use enchanted weapon. That's less of a problem than I might have thought though as the 6th level transformation spell boosts magic fists as well as equipped weapons. I'm not sure if that was your intention as that means magic fists benefit from APR increases from both the basic kit and the spell. I've not done it yet, but adding in improved haste will mean enemies facing a flurry of fists at 10 APR
weidu.log
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Expanded Dual-Class Options: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Make Bags of Holding Bottomless: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Unlimited ammo stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Increase Potion Stacking -> Unlimited potion stacking: v17
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1520 // Include bard songs from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // Core Stratagems spell-system changes (installed by default by any AI component): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2500 // Add 9 new arcane spells: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2510 // Add 6 new divine spells (some borrowed from Divine Remix): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3015 // Re-introduce potions of extra-healing: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3505 // Wider selection of random scrolls: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4020 // More realistic wolves and wild dogs: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4250 // Make spell sequencers and contingencies into innate abilities: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Smarter sirines and dryads: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6310 // Slightly smarter carrion crawlers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6320 // Smarter basilisks: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Improved doppelgangers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7010 // Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7020 // Improved deployment for parties of assassins: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7030 // Improved kobolds: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7040 // Relocated bounty hunters: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7050 // Improved Ulcaster: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7060 // Improved Balduran's Isle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7070 // Improved Durlag's Tower: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7080 // Improved Demon Cultists: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7090 // Improved Cloakwood Druids: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7100 // Improved Bassilus: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7110 // Improved Drasus party: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7130 // Improved Red Wizards: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7140 // Improved Undercity assassins: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7150 // Improved Carsa/Kahrk interaction: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7200 // Tougher chapter-two end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7210 // Tougher chapter-three end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7220 // Tougher chapter-four end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7230 // Tougher chapter-five end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7250 // Improved final battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7900 // Improved minor encounters: 35.21
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single-Classes: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2380 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Kits: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2371 // Alter Dual-Class Restrictions -> Allow non-humans to dual-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2350 // Alter Multi-Class Restrictions -> Allow humans to multi-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2390 // Alter Paladin Spell Progression Table -> Paladins Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2400 // Alter Ranger Spell Progression Table -> Rangers Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~EXPANDEDCLASSES/EXPANDEDCLASSES.TP2~ #0 #32 // Kuo-toa Disciple Kit for Bards: v2.0
Started new solo run the exact same way as usual.
250xp Intro
Killed Imoen for Oil of Speed and WoMM
Killed Xzar and Montaron for Oil of Speed with WoMM
Killed Neera for Gem Bag with WoMM
900xp Marl
Killed Algernon for Charm Cloak
Beregost Manor Invis potion
400xp Noober lv2
Gnolls killed Drizzt (Charmed Jembyl stop Drizzt attacking them) got Scimitars +3 and Mithral Chain which we could wear
Nashkel Manor Invis potion
125xp Vitiare ranged casually and only took cool 1209 arrows
900xp Hentold Dagger and 3rd Invis potion lv3
1000xp Albert
2035xp Tenya's Bowl lv4 *Scimitars
Bought the 3 Invis scrolls and Potion Case from High Hedge
Used one Invis scroll and potion to pick up WoMS
5000xp Shoal killed by WoMS lv5
Killed Dushai with WoMS for Ring of Free action and Web
Bought Rep to 10
Bought Shield Amulet
Invis Scroll to reach Mulahey who was Charmed and killed by Kobbo's, Invis potion to escape
Chapter 3
800xp Joseph's Ring
650xp Charmed Minsc killed Nimbul, got Familiar and additional 22hp in LoB mode
Bought rep to 12, Oublek 13, Mulahey Symbol 14 1000xp, Drienne's Cat 15 200xp, Firebead 16 300xp
Brage 17 1000xp, Samuel 18 500xp
975xp Charmed Marl ko'd Tranzig
4000xp Kirinhale lv6 and we finally got lv2 spell slot for Invisibility
3750xp Charmed Riggolo killed Ghost
1400xp 2xWoMS killed Riggolo
Used 2xIntelligence potions to scribe Invis
Lamalha Waylay happened and we had Invis on, but our free Charm attempt didn't work, so we missed the first Power Potion.
3500xp Charmed Meilum killed Kahrk, and we got Magi Katana +2 that improves casting level and speed by one. Only Bards and F/M can use it. I think it's few of the items that SCS adds. With it we can cast Invis with 1 casting time and Slow Poison instantly.
1200xp Tried to get Meilum killed by Kobbo's but he slaughtered them all, but was then too weak to survive WoMS. We had just enough money to buy Sandthief ring for 16k gold. Raiken escorted us to Bandit camp, where we Charmed Taurgosz who got killed by Zombies and Skelies. We equipped the ER Boots and with our natural resistance we already had 75 ER, so we only needed a Sandthief charge to escape the tent.
Chapter 4
Cloakwood passed with Invisibility, Tiber's body right-click looted 800xp. Molkar waylay happened, and we got free Charm attempt, but again it didn't work so we missed the only Detect Illusion scroll. Drasus Charmed first try and he killed the rest of them and one guard before getting WoMS 5870xp. Before going to mines we bought all scrolls from HH to have scribing session once we got Knock. Charmed Davaeorn's Guard who lured Battle Horrors away and then killed Davaeorn 6000xp lv7, which doesn't give spell slots as it was first lv3 slot. Used 3 Intelligence potions and scribed everything other than Cloudkill as Bards can't cast it before BG2. My plan was to loot everything with Knock, but we only had one lv2 slot, so we wasted one Sandthief charge to loot the Laer Tear chest. My last WoMS wasn't strong enough to kill the Mustar Jelly either so we just left, 2000xp 20rep.
Chapter 5
Looted CHA and CON tomes with Invisibility for 20/20 economy. First Power Potion from Black Lily, 16k gold for WoMS recharge.
5000xp Tremain's Son. Lothander was pre Charmed and stopped leaving 1x WoMS 5500xp. 2x WoMS handled Marek 10650xp. 2x WoMS for Ragefast 4000xp lv8 * Flail and finally second lv2 slot. Ramazith pre Charmed and his own summons killed him 4000xp. In this run the Amplifier is really useful. Euric's Amulet for OGL and 1500xp. 1500xp Brun's Son and recharged the WoF. Bought Greenstone Amulet and looted Durlag's couple upper chests for Invis potion and WIS tome. 1x WoMS Lesser Basilisk 1400xp, 11x WoMS for the three Greater ones 21000xp. WoMS for Girdle Ogre 270xp. Tarnesh WoMS 120xp. Joia's Ring WoMS 505xp. In Firewine Ruins we used WoMS to move Kobbo's as they blocked the way to Lendarn. WoMS handled Lendarns mob for 2750xp, but more importantly for second Power Potion and Cloudkill scroll. WoMS Seven Suns 7100xp lv9 and first 3rd lv spell slot. Another Spell learning session.
Did Ice Island for the longest time as I wanted to see what was there, which was nothing really, but WoMS handled all the mages and other enemies for 24600xp. Resar Charmed and after he wasted his spells he was killed by WoMS. Got Fireshield Blue. Naaman Charmed and killed by Assassins. Charmed Diyab lured Kaalos away and he was killed by WoMS 2001xp. Thaldorn WoMS 975xp. Aasim lured Shennara away to be killed by WoMS 2001xp. Then WoMS handled the rest for 9600xp.
Chapter 6
Ogre Mage waylay passed with Invis potion. Iron Throne Charmed and they killed themselves, Tuth and Brunos got WoMS 5400xp. Charmed Sakul and he was killed by Spiders for his scrolls.
Chapter 7
After killing the Eltan's Greater Doppelganger with WoMS we finally got lv10, with no additional spells but nice 102hp. Quenash Charmed for Slythe. The pair grinded out by WoMS, got additional Skull Trap scroll. Denak'sp party Fireballed from afar for Ring of Energy which we recharged. Pickpocketed Dead Shot +2 first time from Ghost Knight naturally 100 (95), never new it was this easy. From Durlag's Tower Warder level we got our third Cloudkill. The level was mostly cleared by WoMS.
Tziri v Love. With Greenstone Amulet and Speed we tried to lure Fear and Avarice to level above, but they didn't want to follow. So we first used the repeating Fireball trap to kill Avarice, which took couple healing sessions level above, and in about hour mark Avarice was dead. Separating Love from Fear was easy as Fear is slower and seems to want to stay where Love spawns. We kited Love around the table with Greenstone Amulet and Ring of Energy, and after 44 hits he was dead too. Looted the next level including 5 Haste Scrolls and Durlag's Goblet.
WoMS hunted some Mages, SS upstairs for Spider Spawn, Shangalars daughters for 4th OGL and Web scroll, and Sunin for his ring for money transfer for SoD. The mages could do little with us level skipping when they started casting. Zal WoMS for Archer Bracers. Third Scribe session except for everything except Animate Dead and Cloudkill.
For the Palace Ambush we didn't have great summons nor great damage, but we did have Dispel Arrows. So we went with least risky approach and Charmed the Assassin, Shaman and Mage Doppelgangers. Three Greater Ones were easily dispatched with Dispel Arrows and WoMS. Assassin and Shaman followed no problems. For Mage we drank Magic Shielding, but the Mage dispelled it immediatelly, Greenstone Amulet. The Mage wreaked havoc for a while summoning a lot of help, but we got Dispel hit on him and he soon fell, although we needed 3 Goblet refreshes. After looting the Palace we cleared the way to Sarevok, 5xWoMS killed Tamoko for 10k gold by items.
We still got the Kirian's Party to deal with, and I also wanted to try something else. So after buying and recharging everything we still had 3700 gold (top of our valuables) so we bought 37 Stone to Flesh scrolls. We Charmed the Lesser Basilisk and used Green PfP on it. It then first stoned the Greater Basilisk 37 times, and then Kirian's party.
Tziri v Sarevok. Sarevok's gang was revealed with Detect Invisibility, and we found a spot where all of them were hit with Fireball, and after 36 explosions all of his minions were gone. And after using 88 Fireballs total Saravok dropped dead too. We then woke up in Korlasz tomb with cool 452601xp, getting lv12 immediately with additional lv3 and lv4 slots.
For BG I kept tracking mostly these items, as they're useful for Bards, and we didn't miss that much.
10/11 Stone Forms, missed Lamalha (we have 2 penalty v spells)
2/3 Power Potions, missed Lamalha
3/3 Cloudkills
7/7 Skull Traps, learned one
No Detect Illusion with failed Molkar waylay
Some additional notes:
- Scrolls are cast in their original strenght (-50%) and duration (-25%) so our penalties don't affect them and that makes them more useful
- Sometimes quickslot icon shows 1 Invisibility even though I don't have that anymore. Might be problem switching up Amplifier on and off together with the spell slot penalty mechanic.
- The Kuo-Toa Disciple Bard song wasn't that great. 40% panicking makes enemies harder to kill if they aren't cornered, 40% of Feeblemind for one round just makes them not hit one round. 15% of Stun for one round is the only useful thing. But suffering the Panic more frequently isn't worth it. Also does LoB mode still have some saving throw problems, as I found the song work far too easily?
EDIT:
- seems that we got permanent Haste at lv12, although we are supposed to get it lv15, so it's probably switched with targeting the invisible perk
- we still have the normal lore value, so the one-half penalty isn't working
chaotic good
STR 19 DEX 18 CON 20 INT 11 WIS 4 CHA 18
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Viconia, Jaheira, Branwen, Imoen
SPECIAL: For this run, only female NPCs can join the group - in case of couples like Khalid/Jaheira or Minsc/Dynaheir the male can join but as soon as practically possible is removed from group. This is why Krendon is a fighter/thief as there are not a lot of female fighter types and also the only female thieves in BG 2 is Nalia (not very good) or Hexxat but Hexxat quest very hard so it's more convenient if the main character is a thief.
Party is about level 5. Ankhegs was dicey with only 30 HP for my tank (my character), but to make sure Krendon survived I had used a protection form acid scroll on Krendon for this leg. Basilisks done with help of PfP green scroll, Kirian's party hurt bad by silences and entangle. Pirate Cave area, Sirines taken out with help of clarity potion. Golems were difficult as we had no way to disarm traps it seems but Jaheira's partial resistance to charm helped for one trap.
About to venture in to Nashkel mine next...
We woke up in Korlasz Tomb with 452k xp so we maxed immediatelly to lv12 with additional lv3 and lv4 spells. We also got permanent Haste which was supposed to come lv15, but we didn't mind. Invisibility to Porios, Invisibility and PfU to Korlasz. 5 OGL/Invisibility combos made them surrender, and we already hit the xp cap. In Baldur's Gate we sold enough valuables to buy everything interesting from SS. Killed Viconia for the first Bard head gear.
Chapter 8
Not much to do because of xp cap, but just getting the useful items. Teleria doesn't aggro if not talked to, got Stone Ally. Menhir quest for Bard gear, Reed of Echoes being the most useful thing with additional spell slots. Interestingly it disables Single-Weapon Style bonuses. Listened Dwarves getting killed, used PfU and made a pact with the Lich. Easily helped Vampire Tsolak, mostly to get Biter +2 to BG2. Hid behind the Tent for parlay. Power Potion (3) from the Bridge.
Chapter 9
Picked first Enchanted Weapon scroll from the Troll Cave with two Invis potions. Got Elven Chain from the waylay that had the Myconid cave. It's our armor for SoD as it allows spell casting, and is usable with +2 Ring. Morentherene Daggered, Ziatar burned afar. Buffed up and ran past Neothelid and Charmed Akanna second try, and her Aerial Servant killed her. Got Detect Illusion scroll from the chest. Mohad Flintborn had one Power Potion, but we weren't going to risk it. In the Fort we bought bunch of Potions from the store, and held for the Kendra's Chain, although I'm probably not going to use it in DR load out. With it (5), Gargoyle Cloak (5) and our innate 21, we can have 31 DR v Slashing. But Amulet +2 is more useful because of our bad saves. Barghest had the next Power Potion, but we weren't going to risk pickpocketing it. Surrendered Fort, Bridge Mage interrupted with Ring of Energy and WoMS and Stone Ally cleared the way.
Chapter 10
208k gold selling our valuables to the Genie. Bought everything including 5 Power Potions from Belegarm. Questing for items, most notably: Martyr's Morningstar, Orog Chieftain Charmed for -4 v Slashing Belt (cursed), PfU OGL and 2x Magic Protection to loot Undead Cave for Amulet of Silence and Lesser Fire Elemental scroll, taiming the Troll for Sindret got Power Potion, getting the items for Waizahb another Power Potion, Bellowgulp Power Potion, listened Drows kill Therli's mob for Cloak of Gargoyle to stop criticals and up our damage resistance to 26, PfU to pick up Lesser Air Elemental and Minor Spell Turning from Kanaglym, three Power Potions from Polvi, 2x Magic Protection to loot Hephernaans chest for Crown of Lies, Spell Immunity and Spell Shield.
Troll Wave - pre 18 Skull Traps, 2 Webs, Cloudkill, 4 Skelis, Stone Ally and 11 Detonators
Mage Wave - pre 3 Webs, 2 Cloudkills, Stone Ally and 15 Detonators. Tought we escaped stupid Stysich Dispel, but he still cast that after the fight. What a genius.
Paladin Wave - pre 3 Webs, 4 Cloudkills, 4 Skelis, used all Myconids, 17 Detonators and one Goblet
Final Wave - 4 Skelis, 2 Web Sequencer, 18 Detonators and one Goblet
Ashatiel grinded 1on1 which took a lot of time with our bad Thac0, and in the end we used Ring of Energy to deal her. Didn't farm any Power Potions in the battle, but we found one on the ground, which brought the total to 15 v Bel. Picked up the second Enchanted Weapon scroll from the book case and recharged our stuff last time with Belegarm. We tricked Trix with double talk to open the doors straight away.
Tziri v Belhifet
Violet, 4xPfF, 3xPfC, 2xPfE, 2xPfA, 14xMind Focus, PfP, Defense, Fortitude, Shielding, Clarity and started lift. Myconids, Stone Ally and Hope. First wave done in 5 rounds. The second one took a lot more time with the annoying disappearing Hellcats, and had to use another Shielding. The third was again faster and once the Green Abishai was left, we started final buffing round. Fortitude, Defense, 2xStone Form, Enchanted Weapon, 7xPower, killed the Abishai, 2xPower, Clarity, Hope, Blur, Fire Shield Blue, escaped Bel's Dispel and used Strength to lower Bel's Thac0 from -12 to -9. After couple Fireshield Blues Bel was already at near death, but at that point our Power started failing, and I was forced to use just Goblet to stay alive. Now it was just a waiting game if our saves failed, Goblet ended or we got the final hit. And the luck was on our side today and we got the final hit when all of our hp buffs were gone. Hephernaan also took some time with bad Thac0 and summons, but there wasn't really risk anymore. The fight lasted longer and were closer than I anticipated. I'm thinking once Power starts failing, I should test going Invisible to break up, and then rebuffing. Maybe next time.
We imported our game to BG2 with nice 702545xp and we will start straight from lv13. But again it seems that mod kit doesn't want to import correctly, and we are just a Bard. Did you manage import your Force-Wizard perfectly to BG2? @Grond0
EDIT: got it working, just had to uninstall Favored Soul mod kit first
Clinch - Force Wizard (update 5)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219739/#Comment_1219739
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219769/#Comment_1219769
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219816/#Comment_1219816
In the temple sewers the Rakshasa was no match for magic fists. An incendiary cloud left only one of Tarnor's group to be finished off by fists. Mekrath swiftly followed before Clinch went after some liches, using a PfU scroll. Kangaxx's physical resistance and regeneration were pretty good protection against magic fists - but not good enough.
At Watcher's Keep, Clinch went in search of an ammo container. Immediately after getting that he beat up a pair of golems before presenting a gift to a lich to get up to level 18 and gain his first HLA. None of those available are magical in nature, but emphasise the physical attacks of the force wizard. In this case Clinch took hardiness - that's the same as the basic fighter ability, except that it gives 30% extra protection rather than 40% (presumably for balance reasons as force wizards gain a permanent 30% physical protection as they increase in levels). Before leaving, Clinch opened the portal to the next level and demolished the guarding statues - attacking at 8 APR.
Next up he paid Gaelan Bayle and switched the Claw for the +2 RoP. That was to avoid a particular weakness against death saving throws before invading the Planar Prison and taking on the Master of Thralls. In the event the Master did not have time to gaze at Clinch anyway before being beaten to the floor. The Warden didn't fare much better and killing the supporting yuan-ti provided another level. This time Clinch took shatter skull - allowing him to do 100 additional crushing damage with an attack once per day.
Turning once more to the Unseeing Eye quest, Clinch went to get the first half of the Rift Device. For once, there were no beholders blocking the bridge so that was no problem. Underground, Clinch meleed a lich the old fashioned way. He did use his shatter skull on a greater mummy - that worked, but the mummy's resistance to crushing damage kept it alive for a second or two longer. That did though confirm the ability lasts for 3 rounds (like smite) rather than being a one-off attack (like harm). The HLA description seems to suggest it should be a single attack only, so I'm not sure what was intended here.
Inside the beholder hive, a skull trap sequencer helped deal with a large group of beholders. Ghoul touch and the Pixie Prick dagger helped disable a few other beholders before they could do much damage and Clinch picked up another level doing that - this time taking power attack (same as fighter HLA). The Unseeing Eye was then Rifted and Fisted. Groups of beholders and undead had arrived to try and prevent Clinch from returning the rift device, but he was not caught unawares and a first use of simulacrum helped deal with them.
At the de'Arnise Hold, Clinch tore through the trolls downstairs before a spot of cooking gave him level 21. That improved his saves as far as they will go and provided him with a critical strike (same as fighter HLA). The rest of the enemies proved no more effort than the earlier ones and Clinch told Nalia to take a hike and stop bothering him about joining the party.
At Umar Hills the mimic took a long time to activate, but did finally make a (brief) appearance. Moving on, some low-grade undead were swept aside before Clinch picked up another level for talking with a stone idol. Just for the hell of it Clinch took deathblow as an HLA. Inside the temple he tried using Greater Crushing Hand for the first time on a lich. It saved though and didn't take any damage at all (save should have just halved the damage). Possibly the damage was blocked by stoneskin, though that would seem a bit surprising against a level 9 spell. Incendiary cloud did the job though - with a simmy keeping the lich occupied in it. I've always enjoyed punching dragons, so was glad to get the excuse here. Thaxy was already at near death from a 10 APR assault with magical fists by the time he choked out a PfMW spell. Clinch just turned off his magical fists though and, still at 10 APR with improved haste, finished him off with a normal fist (imbued with extra flame). While buffs were still active, Clinch took the few seconds required to beat up the Shade Lord.
On his way to collect Valygar's body, Clinch double-checked that Greater Crushing Hand could be an effective spell against one of the guarding rangers. A bit more shopping followed, including purchasing the Sling of Everard - and then immediately selling that back rather than Arla's Dragonbane
Force Wizard L22, 110 HPs (inc. 12 from familiar and 10 from ioun stone), 751 kills (+574 in BGEE/SoD)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219739/#Comment_1219739
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219769/#Comment_1219769
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219816/#Comment_1219816
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219873/#Comment_1219873
Inside the Planar Sphere it didn't take Clinch long to gain another level by beating up some unpleasant halflings. He took whirlwind as the last of the 6 HLAs available to him - even though the penalty that gives to THAC0 and damage means that getting 10 APR using improved haste is rather more attractive. I normally let a summons deal with Lavok, but as Clinch is not using those this run he just waded in with magic fists. Those were not deterred by improved mantle so it only took seconds to subdue the mage. Tolgerias and his mage friend were even less successful as their skulls were shattered in quick succession. There were no problems in getting the sphere back home - which was enough for yet another level.
The last of the external areas was the Windspear Hills. None of the early enemies that stood to face Clinch lasted long, but he did have to chase for some time after one of the greater wolfweres that kept losing its morale. A rare use of grapple held it in place for 2 rounds, but that wasn't quite sufficient to finish it off - Clinch eventually found a critical to do the job. Another couple of groups of golems and Clinch was up to level 25.
Progress had been pretty easy for some time, but death is usually just moments away in Baldur's Gate if you fail to pay attention and Clinch's end came in that fashion. He didn't have any fire protection spells memorized, but did have fire shield (red) and I activated that to provide some resistance against fire spells from the genies. I was thinking of things like flame strike there and didn't consider that, in addition to targeted spells, they also used fire shields themselves. Those can interact to rack up damage extremely quickly, so if you are not immune to the damage you need to be concentrating to be able to move away immediately that starts to happen - and I wasn't …
A few afterthoughts on the Force Wizard for @semiticgoddess (and thanks for all your time and effort putting kits together
One of the reasons I usually prefer to play solo is that gives a much better feel for the distinctive elements of character classes and kits. In a party, differences need to be much greater in order to stand out. In a group, the huge increase in melee ability (both attack and defence) of the force wizard would be enough for them to take over a fighter's role - though that probably wouldn't happen until the latter stages of BGEE. However, it probably wouldn't add to the overall power of the party as the loss in spells would counteract the melee benefits. Therefore, for party play, the kit is probably reasonably balanced.
For solo play it felt rather overpowered. Like all mages, buffing makes a significant difference, but towards the end of this run there were few things that could really threaten Clinch even when totally unbuffed - so buffing was more to do with speeding up victories than enabling them. If you wanted to reduce the power a bit (and as I said above, you might not want to as most people use parties) you could consider:
- reducing the APR benefit of transformation from 2 to 1 and not allow dual-wielding (that would stop the force wizard from getting 10 APR with improved haste and make WW more meaningful).
- reducing or removing the AC benefit from transformation (together with standard mage defenses that makes them arguably too difficult to hit). For similar reasons you could reduce the base AC benefit, so this only goes down to 4 rather than 0.
Given that the force wizard should have fighter-level abilities when unarmed, I would also suggest reducing the penalties from WW from 4 to 2 - which again will make that a more realistic option to take as an HLA. I would also be inclined to strengthen the grapple ability. I think this is supposed to be a distinctive feature of the class, but I found it was almost always crowded out by other things. You could for instance take away the possibility of a saving throw and extend the duration to 5 rounds. If you wanted to, you could also apply a movement penalty to the force wizard as well as the opponent. That would give the same sort of effect you see with blades or dwarven defenders where you have to consider in advance the wisdom of using a powerful tactic if that makes it more difficult to withdraw from a losing encounter ...
As noted here, it's coming up for 10 years since I started my attempt to complete the full set of unmodded BG games with all 76 possible class combinations. Thus far I've only been successful with 17 of those, so need to rack up successes at a significantly higher rate to give myself any chance of completing the overall challenge.
In an attempt to maintain motivation and make a real dent in the required numbers, I'll do concurrent runs with 10 randomly chosen classes. I've found in the past that it can be helpful to do that type of grouping. The downside is that if/when any of the group die that causes a major loss of motivation to continue with the others. I'll thus have to try hard to avoid any early deaths or the 10 year celebration could rapidly turn into a wake ...
The characters chosen are:
Dragon Disciple
Blade
Cleric/mage
Diviner
Cleric
Abjurer
Stalker
Monk
Cleric dualling to thief
Kensai
I won't do any detailed write-ups, but just note down any points of interest when providing overall progress updates. The 10 years will be up on 12th March 2026, so I'll aim to complete all the runs by then
Previous updates:
Almost straight away bad habits reasserted themselves. An example was when attacking the golems at High Hedge after buying just 10 +1 bullets. In order to kill both golems with so few bullets it would be necessary to get most hits while offensive spin was active - and that tempted me to take a second shot at a golem while still inside the building. It was still a safe distance away at the time I fired, but enemies are able to leave buildings before the point at which you can do so - and arrive outside further away than you can. I was well aware of the possibility that would allow the golem to get an attack in outside, but took the risk anyway - and the golem duly managed an attack and rolled a critical hit. I'd already killed Shoal at that point, so was at level 4 - but 27 HPs was much too low to be safe from a critical. However, fortune favored me that time and I survived the hit.
That should have shocked me into playing more safely - but failed to do so. Shortly afterward, at the basilisk area, I picked up a couple more levels before trying to tackle Kirian's group. At that stage I didn't know invisibility or blind and tried to draw just Baerin away. While that can often be done, it's not foolproof and I found Lindin and Peter had followed him. Peter targeted me with a rigid thinking spell, which would have been virtually certain to be fatal if it had taken effect while the others were in sight - but I saved.
At that point I went to buy invisibility and blind and came back to use those in conjunction with stinking cloud to safely kill that party. I still didn't mend my ways though and the next enemy attacked was Bassilus. He can be pretty safely attacked by retreating out of his sight before he casts, or by disappearing before his spell completes. However, I got greedy by trying to get a shot in before using invisibility. My initiative roll wasn't quite good enough to allow that and I disappeared a fraction of a second after he finished the spell. Invisibility is of course no protection against a spell projectile already launched and this time rigid thinking took effect while I was still in sight range. Lady luck had clearly got fed up with helping me out and I attacked Bassilus a few rounds later - and then stood there like a lemon when he came in to beat me up ...
The original aim was not to continue with any characters that died, but it's so early on that I'm going to allow the blade to restart in order to keep the group of 10 together. That won't of course be much help if I can't stop myself taking risks, but who knows - maybe it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks
@histamiini Great work. Your consistency in planning is legendary, friend. I have no idea how you keep all that in your head at once.
I've got some tweaks and bugfixes set up--
-Force Wizard's Transformation nerfed to +1 APR and no AC bonus
-Force Wizard's Ghoul Touch spell stays on the caster for 10 rounds instead of 5, and the paralysis duration is increased to 3 rounds.
-Grapple will last 5 rounds, slow the caster's movement for 2 rounds, and have a save penalty of -2 that grows to -4 at level 14
-Whirlwind Attack has its attack and damage penalties reduced from -4 to -2
-Shatter Skull should only trigger once (it will be blocked by Stoneskin)
-The Kuo-Toa Disciples should have the proper lore nerf, and the description will correctly say that the haste comes at level 12 and true seeing comes at 15
-Kuo-Toa Disciples should have their proper elemental resistances and weaknesses
-A Kuo-Toa Disciple's bard song will have a 75% chance of applying Feeblemind and a 25% chance of applying stun, with no chance of fear.
--but right now I'm finishing up a new kit for the mod, the Bog Witch, my first shaman kit, before release. I'd toyed with the idea of doing a bog witch-themed kit one day, and only now am I finally settling on it. It's a summoning-focused shaman that pays Hit Points, current and maximum, to summon stronger monsters with no chance of failure.
Let me know if you think any of the above changes should be tweaked further.
As for the Kuo-Toa Disciple being able to get around its spellcasting weaknesses by casting from scrolls: I don't know if I can change that behavior, but fortunately, it makes conceptual sense. A Kuo-Toa Disciple is a bad spellcaster; using a scroll might be more effective than relying on their own abilities. It fits the Red Soul and Green Soul kits as well: a scroll would ostensibly be more "default magic" than either kit's.
As for the Kuo-Toa Disciple not being able to pick HLAs, I'm not sure. I wasn't able to replicate the behavior when I tested it.
The Damage Resistance might be slightly too much in the end, which I'm not close to yet but thinking ahead. I've got Ascension installed so I'll end up in 49 innate + 25 Ascension + 20 DoEH in 94 DR at the end. Of course I don't know if you can design mod around other mods, and it might even not be too much at the end. Currently I'm thinking 20 at the beginning and 5 every 10 levels would be optimal, that way it would be 25 DR at BG and 40 DR at BG2. I think the elemental resistances and weaknesses are just about right.
All in all I'm really digging Kuo-Toa Disciple. It got just right amount weaknesses/strenghts and spice in it, like the permanent Haste and Invisibility Detection that are usually reserved for enemies. And you can even turn to Kuo-Toa for full rp.
Shadows of Amn
weidu.log
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #0 // Rewritten Final Chapter of Throne of Bhaal: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #10 // Balthazar can be redeemed: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #20 // Improved Sarevok-Player Interactions: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #30 // Improved Imoen-Player Interactions in Throne of Bhaal: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #40 // Restored Bhaalspawn Powers: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #50 // Improved Slayer Transformation: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Tougher Abazigal: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1100 // Tougher Balthazar: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1200 // Tougher Demogorgon: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1300 // Tougher Gromnir: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1400 // Tougher Illasera: 2.1.0
~ASCENSION/ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Tougher Yaga-Shura: 2.1.0
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Expanded Dual-Class Options: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single-Classes: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2380 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Kits: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2371 // Alter Dual-Class Restrictions -> Allow non-humans to dual-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2350 // Alter Multi-Class Restrictions -> Allow humans to multi-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2390 // Alter Paladin Spell Progression Table -> Paladins Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2400 // Alter Ranger Spell Progression Table -> Rangers Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Make Bags of Holding Bottomless: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Unlimited ammo stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Increase Potion Stacking -> Unlimited potion stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Increase Scroll Stacking -> Unlimited scroll stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3491 // Better Shadows of Amn Start [dark0dave] -> Start at 500k XP, select items below: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3497 // Better Shadows of Amn Start: Add Balduran's Cloak: v17
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1520 // Include bard songs from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // Core Stratagems spell-system changes (installed by default by any AI component): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2500 // Add 9 new arcane spells: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2510 // Add 6 new divine spells (some borrowed from Divine Remix): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4240 // Treat mages' and priests' High-Level Abilities as innate abilities rather than memorisable spells (each may be taken only once): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6510 // Improved fiends and celestials: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6520 // Smarter genies: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6540 // Smarter dragons: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6550 // Smarter beholders: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6560 // Smarter mind flayers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6580 // Improved Vampires: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6800 // Smarter Illasera: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6810 // Smarter Gromnir: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6820 // Smarter Yaga-Shura: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6830 // Smarter Abazigal: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6840 // Ascension versions of Irenicus and Sendai use SCS abilities and AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6850 // Ascension demons use SCS abilities and AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8010 // Improved Shade Lord: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8020 // Spellcasting Demiliches: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8040 // Tie difficulty of level-dependent monster groupings to the difficulty slider: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix"): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8080 // Improved Bodhi: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8085 // Ascension version of Bodhi uses Improved-Bodhi abilities: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8130 // Rebalanced troll regeneration: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Improved Drow: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Improved Watcher's Keep: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Improved Sendai's Enclave: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: 35.21
~SUBRACE/SUBRACE.TP2~ #1 #200 // Subrace mod for Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (BG1, BG:SoD, BG2, EET) -> No change subrace colors (Hair and Skin): 0.3.1
~ZDBAE/ZDBAE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Baeloth BG2: v0.13
~ROMANCE_EXPANDED/SETUP-ROMANCE_EXPANDED.TP2~ #0 #0 // Viconia Romance Expanded: v1.0.7
~EXPANDEDCLASSES/EXPANDEDCLASSES.TP2~ #0 #32 // Kuo-toa Disciple Kit for Bards: v2.0
~UNOFFICIAL ITEM PACK/SETUP-UNOFFICIAL ITEM PACK.TP2~ #1 #5 // SoD items
We woke up in the Irenicus dungeon with nice 720k xp and got lv13 immediately, although no new spell slots. We also cast new Familiar with 34 hp extra in LoB mode bringing our total to 120 hp. Tested Monster Summon II and I against Lightning Mephit, but they didn't kill it. Rested up and Shadow Monsters killed it. But we really had awful summons and they only lasted 75% of time with our penalties, so we mostly used Invisibility to pass some Duergars. Found that Hasted Troll Shadow Monsters were beating single Duergars so we hunted Ilyich party out with multiple rests. Getting poison being permanently Hasted would be pretty much death sentence without sleep. 799k xp ascending to Athkatla.
Chapter 2
First things first, went to Government District and cast Invisibility on myself to summon Cowled Wizards, which the neutral guards neutralized casually. Got 3x Laear Tear, 2x Spell Trap, 2x Symbol: Fear, Summon Haekeashar, Small Shield +1, Project Image, Mantle, Improved Mantle, Protection from Elements, Spell Turning and 2x Invis potion. After Zallanora was dead, we could cast spells without disturbance.
Started Maevar quest line, and looted the guildhall and temples. Used WoMS to distract the Rayic Mephits. PfF and one PfF potion because our -35 FR penalty, and used the repeating Fireball trap to kill him lv14. Maevar pre Charmed and killed by his mob. After doing some easy Graveyard guests we bought rep to 14, solved the Bridge Murder rep 15. Lv15 which was nice one with first lv5 spell slot, and immunity to Blindness and permanent Invisibility Detection by Scripts (193). We can now AI attack invisible creatures and also attack Sanctuaried etc. enemies normally. Also casting Animate Dead I noticed that Skelis were cast in normal level which might be bug in the kit? Easy fetch quest for the Amulet +2. Bought WoMS and freed Hendak no problems with one Skeli and some Monsters. Picked our first head Gear from Pai'na 136 hp. Slavers were killed by repeating Cloudkill trap using PfP and Invis potion. Rep 17, lv 16 * Two-Weapon Style, and our innate DR hit 25.
Doing the Sir Sarles quest we Charmed Welther and he was killed by Cohrvale for Silver Pantaloons, which avoids the rep penalty. Harper Hold and looted De'Arnise for FoA +3. Lv17 which meant our weakness to Fire and resistance to Elecricity, Acid and Magic Damage reached max of 45. Looted Druid Grove for ranged Thac0 gloves and Belm +2. With Belm +2 we get 4apr with permanent Haste. Bought Invisibility and couple Power Potions from Adratha, before Pickpocketing Poison Immunity Amulet from her which worked with 150 skill. Cernd killed Faldorn by himself, and although Faldorn shapeshifted getting full health and got like hundred hits, Cernd in Werewolf form still beat her. Pickpocketed Efreeti Bottle from Taquee before attacking Khan Zharaa, and once he was killed the other two buggered away, rep 19. Bought Belt of Inertial Barrier and together with our innate bonus we have undisbellable 95 MDR which is nice especially against Mindflayers and Vampiric Wraiths. Doing the last Trademeet quests we hit 20/20 economy. Bought Crown of Lies for extra spell slots and third Skeli, Cloak of Gargoyle and DoEH +3. Spell Learning session, lv18 and got first lv6 slot. Had just enough money to start Chapter 3.
Chapter 3
Cleared Graveyard with casting Skelies from Mislead in Tombs, lv19. Picked up MoD +1 with Invisibility and Improved it. Fight against Vampiric Wraiths of Watchers Keep showcased our unique abilities. With 95 MDR (45+50) we were easily tanking their Magic attacks, and even when they went Invisible, we saw them with our Invisibility Detection and destroyed them. We only managed to beat one Statue before Deva arrived and our summons got killed, lv20 with 4th Skeli. Softened the last three with WoMS and then Skelis hunted them out. Left the last 8 Statues for now. Lv21 fighting the Paladins in Windspear Hill and we got our top Thac0 10 and saves 8/4/7/11/7(+2) which are pretty terrible. The Belt of Inertial Barrier helps though with -5 Breath, and this is pretty much first char where it will be our main belt. Summons pretty much handled rest of the dungeon. Samia's gang was softened with WoMS then picked up by Skelies lv22. Tarnor's gang Mislead gassed, as was Mencars, and Mekrath. Lv23 repelling Haer'dalis invasion.
Lv24 at Undead Bridge and we got a peek of our unique HLA's, except the ability button was greyed out, so we need to add these with EEkeeper. We have usual ones like Whirwind, Power Attack, Critical Strike, Evasion and Greater Evasion. And three unique ones:
- Scaly Skin (25 Damage Resistance for 1 round every 2 levels)
- Growing Insanity (Bard Song is done at -2 save)
- Natural Regeneration (innate 1hp/3s + Haste which means 6 hp per round)
Natural Regeneration is certainly nice with our permanent Haste, and Regeneration is further doubled to 12hpr when we get Ring of Gaxx. And I might even go Axe of Unyelding +5 in this run, which I never use. We are missing UAI, Traps and Magic Flute though, which all are big misses especially for the final battle.
After clearing the Blind Priests with summons, we put the Rod together and escaped before Unseeing Eye appeared. Bought everything interesting from Roger the Fence and then Charmed him with the Cloak. This was to have him pickpocket it from Tziri and carry out from the Sewers. But his Pickpocket skill (60) was far too bad compared to ours (130). So no way of getting the Rift Device out, we used it on the Unseeing Eye lv25 Critical Strike.
Planar Prison landing was mostly leveled with Mislead Gas. WoMS handled the few remaining ones. Then we gradually cleared the place with Skelis and Air Elementals. Before using the Orb we cleared the pits with Mislead gas. Wanted to see the xp and loot. Not really worth the bother, but got lv26 with Scaly Skin. Warden's Yuanties were gassed from Mislead, then Warden was softened with WoMS, and Skelis and Air Elemental killed it easily. Coming out of Planar Prison we were surprised by Bard Stronghold guest which I don't think I've ever done. Getting Speed Boots we decided to visit Mindies which we are pretty equipped to deal with. With 95 MDR their Detonations just tickle a little. PfU for Alhoon, saves v spell to -4, no problems. With PfU on we destroyed the two minor Liches holding Kangaxx parts. The other one got defenses on so we waited a little but no problems. Kangaxx's Remove Magic and couple other spells avoided, and then we managed to kill his Skeli and hit Kangaxx to 1 hp. Once turned we casually stoned him with Wand of Wonder and got the Ring of Gaxx and lv27 Natural Regeneration. We now had undispellable 12hpr.
Shadow Ruins was easy with just two sets of Skelis, as the Liches didn't spawn. Shadow Dragon stoned with WoW. PfU and Tensers for Shade Lord and Death Fog Contingency on Shadow Altar. Lv28 with 5th Skeli with Crown of Lies. Planar Sphere Skellied lv29, Lavok softened with WoMS. Tanari Farsight and Skellied. One Cloudkill caused mayhem with Tolgerias and their summons started fighting each other. Softened with WoMS and finished with Skelies. Lv30 starting Circus quest and another Critical Strike. Kalah smacked with Tensers and WoMS distracting others. Killing machine with Tensers zipped through the Heretic Monks and we did the easy tests mostly for True Seeing Gem (saves a spell slot). Lv31 completing the Bard Stronghold. Vampires killeds with PfU and Tensers, Bodhi waited out lv32 *Two-Handed Weapon Style and Whirlwind. Elder Air Elemental Smoked Ruhk. Turned Firkraag to stone and back couple times until my WoW was at 1 charge, and after getting to lv34 we have decided we are ready to sail away.
Tar, dwaven bounty hunter 17 (Gate70)
Omen, dwarven defender 14 (Grond0)
Coreheal VII, gnome cleric 11 thief 13 (Corey_Russell)
Session 8, the one where we pick up after the troll mound
We safely work our way around the remaining enemies in the druid grove and Cernd is given the opportunity to feast on Faldorn in his shapeshifted state. On return to Trademeet we pick up our reward, kill Reijik Hidesman and return a talisman to the mayor
After that we return to the Planar Sphere and head inside. We of course exercised care in this area and Omen only took heavy damage on several occasions. He lost control against the opening group of halflings and Coreheal was stunned but neither died and we ground our way to a subsequent victory
Omen fared better against Tolgerias but failed to realise his fire protection had expired, with Coreheal being a cleric rather than mage and multiclass. He eventually realised after entering the nearby room with a noble djinn, mephits and salamanders. Somehow he survived with a mighty 2hp remaining so we celebrated with a quick rest before clearing out the cold room
This left the engine room to do. There were enough golems to drastically re-model Omen's armour and once more his grim determination and dwarven stance hauled him through the encounter. He suggested Coreheal should loot a container to the east and before Tar could say hang on, Coreheal obeyed and another clay golem hoved into view
Coreheal retreated, his armour starting to match that of Omen. Omen wearily out-bashed the golem while Tar watched on with no suitable weapon to use. We already had a demon heart after stepping outside earlier so fed that into the engine and went to deal with Lavok - a skeleton warrior mauling him before we made ourselves known
As the sphere was back in the Slums we felt our work there was done. It was 11 at night, but the Talos contact still declined to turn up for a meet. Omen suggested we go on a lich hunt instead, and Tar decided to start at the City Gates where a handy longsword (Daystar) was rumoured to be found
Outside the inn there we found a merchant being harangued, so sorted that out. Tar decided to empty her bags at the merchant but half way through she heard the innkeeper and Coreheal, or perhaps Omen, shouting about two lovers upstairs. Suitably distracted, this forced Tar out of the merchant conversation before she sold anything and the merchant was no longer in sight. She let out a few choice words and continued with a full backpack
Coreheal buffed Omen to deal with the lich, but it survived a first shot with Azuredge. Omen patiently waited through a timestop and then threw Azuredge a second time. All we had to do was try and pick up several wands and weapons with overflowing inventory. We managed, and then we headed to a store to actually complete trades at the Bridge district
On to the second lich nearby. Tar asking where Daystar was and Omen saying he gave it to her. Tar thought long and hard
She returned to the merchant and re-purchased Daystar, feeling somewhat ashamed at selling such an item
Back to the lich, Coreheal suggesting we purchase scrolls of protection from undead. Suitably done, but then we elected not to use them and allow Omen to do his worst with Azuredge and a couple of snares. The lich survived an initial strike, got a timestop and a few spells but eventually fell to the axe leaving Omen to mop up the remaining pit fiend
A third lich under the temple district sewers was badly injured by snares. Rather than head for Kangaxx we felt completely prepared for dealing with the Unseeing Eye. By this, we mean Coreheal asking if we had the shield of Balduran and Omen / Tar saying we did not but skeletons will be fine. Coreheal did not seem particularly convinced
An initial set of beholder, gauth and shadow fiends were relatively easy to despatch, meaning we could retrieve half a rod and return past Gaal to foil his request
Down into the pit we went, Tar invisibly blocking the various undead as Omen threw Azuredge and Coreheal used turn undead to deter or destroy anything that got past Tar. At one point we found we were suitably un-levelled to avoid a lich and instead faced a greater mummy. Omen made hard work of that while Coreheal turned several undead. Tar tried to distract a skeleton archer but found it was overwhelming in melee and overwhelming at range when she ran. After two or three attempts where she could not get past it to run away she prepared to gulp a potion of healing but Omen suggested a potion of invisibility instead. A good call, and she did so with a single hit point remaining
We moved onwards, into the beholder area. Omen pushed his luck and did well. Coreheal had concerns about the blind priests but skeletons and bounty hunter snares (now with the Otiluke effect) thinned them down and we had an easy victory. Omen told Coreheal to send the skeletons towards the beholder and gauths, but Coreheal moved also and several magical effects later he slumped to the ground dead. So with five minutes remaining we had our first death of the session, used a rod of resurrection charge, and continued on our way
The rest of the beholder lair was cleared, and with no time left on the clock we agreed to deal with the Unseeing Eye itself. Moments later it was slumped dead, and Tar identified an amulet of 5% magic resistance - it has Omen's name all over it
What goodies will we have to sell now. Have a looky loo - Coreheal appears to have palmed all junk to Omen and Tar
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1219926/#Comment_1219926
A pretty disappointing opening series of sessions included 2 deaths - one of which I restarted. I gave all the classes the opportunity for major power boosts early on with XP from Shoal and the basilisk area to make game play easier. The risks involved after that were pretty much all self-inflicted. I'll have to tighten up gameplay significantly if the overall result is to be a decent one.
All characters are currently at the XP cap and about to enter the Nashkel Mine. The work done to get there has varied a bit between classes, but all of them have explored most of the wilderness areas they can be bothered with. Reputation is a bit more variable, as some classes are aiming to get a mixture of good and evil Bhaal abilities, but the majority of them have reputation at 20 and have bought all the items they're interested in for the present.
Summary points of interest for each class
Dragon Disciple - no incidents of note to report.
Blade - first incarnation died after getting hit with rigid thinking by Bassilus. Second attempt was hit relatively early on when a critical would have been fatal. Also a worrying moment in the last encounter before going to the Nashkel Mine. I skull trapped the Red Wizards and then withdrew in case any followed me. I intended to cast invisibility, but mis-clicked and used stinking cloud on myself instead. Fortunately there was in fact no-one following …
Cleric/mage - no incidents of note to report.
Diviner - I didn't get around to learning invisibility until after I'd explored nearly all the wilderness areas. That saved a bit of money, but was really an unjustifiable risk though there weren't in fact any particularly scary ambushes. Near the end of the session I also cleared the ankheg nest without playing safe. I was attacked twice there and hit once - when a critical could have been fatal.
Cleric - failed to kill Neera, which was a bit of a pain as the gem bag both helps manage inventory and allows considerable resources to be taken through into SoD. In Durlag's Tower I had a moment of madness when trying to rest in a location where I knew I could potentially get trapped by an ambush. I was in fact trapped by a number of ghasts interrupting my rest and would undoubtedly have been killed by them if there had not been just enough room to retreat out of sight and try resting once more - this time successfully.
Abjurer - I said in an earlier post that none of the classes chosen were new. After some time trying and failing to find my starting save for this one I finally realised that I'd been wrong earlier and I didn't in fact have one. To give me an incentive to play safely, I tried to avoid any damage at all - and that was achieved. One notable mistake was mis-clicking the conversation with Kirinhale and turning her hostile - I was able to run away before she attacked though. Like the diviner I didn't buy any spells until near the end of the session - with the important exception of invisibility. That and blind allowed me to make good progress until finally learning a wide range of options.
Stalker - after a run of 6 casters in a row it was nice to get something a bit more martial. I again tried to avoid damage for as long as possible (though knowing that the stalker could not ultimately avoid trap damage in the Nashkel Mine). That was done in the spirit of staying safe and I successfully avoided any damage up to being almost ready to take level 7. However, that attitude ultimately cost me a life when tackling the sirines at the coast. I used the potion of clarity from Candlekeep in order to protect against sirine charm. Though the sirines couldn't do much damage in melee, I was trying to avoid any at all - so used backstabs and then ran away to hide again. That meant that I had to wait for the sirines to stop in order to be sure of a backstab and a bit of time was wasted following them round. However, 5 of them were taken down in what seemed like good time, so I was actually thinking I would have enough time left to use the clarity potion to protect against the charm trap in the pirate cave as well. Unfortunately, the final sirine just wouldn't stop as it wandered around the map for ages. Eventually, I gave up on it doing so and just attacked it on the move before running round a corner of the lighthouse building and hiding. It was still stood still when I came back and this time did get a backstab. That had a good chance of killing it, but I rolled low damage and it survived. I knew it still had another charm to try though, so just kept attacking in melee. My next attack was not in time to prevent the charm, but that didn't seem like a problem - until it ended the run! I had checked the potion was still active when I hid, so it ran out sometime in the few seconds after that. That seemed a pretty rough end to take, but the stalker had progressed much too far to consider restarting as I did with the blade.
Monk - despite the stalker's experience I again tried to see how long I could avoid any damage. That was successfully done up until level 7. Attacking a battle horror at Durlag's Tower, the icon was partly hidden by an arch of rock and I didn't realise that I had made an attack until the battle horror retaliated. I didn't try and avoid damage after that, but was never more than slightly injured.
Cleric dualling to thief - no incidents of note to report. I think I'm going to wait to do a relatively late dual with this one - probably at level 15. That will provide me a level 7 spell while only reducing potential thief levels from 40 to 39.
Kensai - attacked Kirian without protection against fear. A horror spell could well have been fatal there, but I saved.
Edit: oh dear, things are going rapidly downhill. The first session for the dragon disciple was uneventful, but he perished fairly early on in the second. While doing the poison quest he charmed Lothander to prevent him running away after talking to him. After killing him he went to find Marek - who was nowhere to be found. I guess I must have forgotten to talk to Lothander, so there's no way to cure the poison ...
Edit 2: I was never really happy about restarting the blade and, after 2 other deaths still only mid-way through BGEE I'm going to call this series a failure and restart the lot. I'll keep the same character classes, but change the originaly random order they came in so that the game play also changes between characters.
Mods: Full SCS 35.21, see spoiler for WeiDU.
Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
Include bard songs from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
Core Stratagems spell-system changes (installed by default by any AI component): 35.21
Changes to Restoration: 35.21
Changes to shapeshift spells: 35.21
Icewind Dale-inspired tweaks to Baldur's Gate/Baldur's Gate II spells: 35.21
Rebalancings of slightly-too-powerful spells: 35.21
Spell school changes: 35.21
Spells increased in power: 35.21
Add 9 new arcane spells: 35.21
Add 6 new divine spells (some borrowed from Divine Remix): 35.21
Revised elementals and elemental summoning: 35.21
Replace +1 arrows and other projectiles with nonmagical "fine" ones: 35.21
Re-introduce potions of extra-healing: 35.21
Make elemental arrows like BG2: 35.21
Replace many +1 magic weapons with nonmagical "fine" ones -> Fine weapons are affected by the iron crisis: 35.21
Reduce the number of Arrows of Dispelling in stores -> Remove Arrows of Dispelling from stores: 35.21
Wider selection of random scrolls: 35.21
Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic -> Inquisitors dispel at their level (not twice their level): 35.21
More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
Improved shapeshifting: 35.21
Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: 35.21
Thieves assign skill points in multiples of five: 35.21
Revised handling of death effects like disintegration, petrification and imprisonment (party members who are disintegrated etc can be resurrected; imprisoned or petrified characters rejoin the party automatically; the game doesn't end if the main character is petrified or imprisoned): 35.21
Revised resting: resting in the wild uses up provisions: 35.21
Revised inn rooms: more expensive, more benefits: 35.21
Ease-of-use party AI: 35.21
Improved BG Textscreens: 35.21
Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 35.21
Smarter general AI: 35.21
Better calls for help: 35.21
Smarter Mages: 35.21
Smarter Priests: 35.21
Potions for NPCs: 35.21
Improved Spiders: 35.21
Smarter sirines and dryads: 35.21
Slightly smarter carrion crawlers: 35.21
Smarter basilisks: 35.21
Improved doppelgangers: 35.21
Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: 35.21
Improved deployment for parties of assassins: 35.21
Improved kobolds: 35.21
Relocated bounty hunters: 35.21
Improved Ulcaster: 35.21
Improved Balduran's Isle: 35.21
Improved Durlag's Tower: 35.21
Improved Demon Cultists: 35.21
Improved Cloakwood Druids: 35.21
Improved Bassilus: 35.21
Improved Drasus party: 35.21
Improved Red Wizards: 35.21
Improved Undercity assassins: 35.21
Improved Carsa/Kahrk interaction: 35.21
Tougher chapter-two end battle: 35.21
Tougher chapter-three end battle: 35.21
Tougher chapter-four end battle: 35.21
Tougher chapter-five end battle: 35.21
Improved final battle: 35.21
Improved minor encounters: 35.21
Rules: Random party, random choices at level-up (except HP, which are maxed).
Party in spoiler (protagonist at top).
Protagonist
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Invoker
Alignment: True Neutral
Stats:
STR 17 DEX 9 CON 16 INT 15 WIS 11 CHA 14
Proficiencies:
Sling *
Starting spells:
Blindness, Chromatic Orb, Shield
Gender: Male
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Fighter / Mage / Thief
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Stats:
STR 13 DEX 13 CON 10 INT 16 WIS 12 CHA 12
Proficiencies:
Mace * Bastard Sword * Two-Handed Weapon Style * Club *
Thieving skills:
Detect Illusion +10 Set Traps +15 Move Silently +5 Hide in Shadows +5 Pick Pockets +5
Starting spells:
Blindness, Charm Person
Gender: Female
Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Stats:
STR 13 DEX 13 CON 14 INT 8 WIS 16 CHA 14
Proficiencies:
Two-Handed Weapon Style * Sword and Shield Style *
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Blade
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Stats:
STR 12 DEX 12 CON 10 INT 14 WIS 14 CHA 16
Proficiencies:
Flail / Morning Star * Shortbow *
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Enchanter
Alignment: Lawful Good
Stats:
STR 10 DEX 14 CON 12 INT 15 WIS 8 CHA 16
Proficiencies:
Dart *
Starting spells:
Grease, Protection from Petrification, Sleep
Gender: Male
Race: Elf
Class: Mage / Thief
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Stats:
STR 16 DEX 15 CON 13 INT 9 WIS 12 CHA 13
Proficiencies:
Short Sword * Katana *
Thieving skills:
Detect Illusion +10 Hide in Shadows +10 Move Silently +5 Open Locks +5 Pick Pockets +5 Find Traps +5
Starting spells:
Protection from Petrification, Shocking Grasp
Randomization always finds a way to bork you, I guess.
Yeah, alright, the balance isn't completely off... except the sum of our melee force is one third of a warrior and a Blade that doesn't dual-wield.
The slight upside is that the Invoker has the stats to dual into Fighter, which I intend to do if we live that long.
It'll be a fairly late dual though, so we'll be slogging along with really weak auto-attack capabilities for some time.
We'll have to make up the difference with magic, which should be doable as we have five arcanists.
Except one has minimum INT, the rest sit at middling scores, and there's only so many Potions of Genius/Mind Focusing in BGEE: I count 11/8 barring random drops, and typically there are only one or two copies of critical scrolls, so I don't think we can afford to scribe very often.
Well... I wanted it harsh. And it's not like it's unplayable, so let's see how it goes.
How to survive without a CON modifier: A Random Run, Part 1
Next part found here
I'll allow recruiting NPC's temporarily to rob them (this is mostly to get Jaheira's Potion of Invisibility and Neera's Gem Bag, though we also relieve Imoen and Xzar/Montaron of their belongings).
A Cleric with 16 WIS means three first level slots, so we have ample Commands available, as both the belt-wearing Ogre and Tarnesh come to appreciate.
With a Potion of Invisibility now at hand, we clear the local Hobgoblins, then get some rest and head north.
As long as you don't travel during night, I think you're guaranteed not to get ambushed in this region.
We retrieve Tenya's bowl, kill the Ankheg north of her hut using two Commands, talk to Farmer Brun while a sanctuaried Cleric holds his son's body underground, and finally clear some Zombies to the far north; while in the area, we spend some hard-earned gold on Arrows +2 so we can clear High Hedge later.
Together with the bits and pieces of experience from before, Cleric hits L2, and now has four Commands.
It's Ankheg time: We are guaranteed to be able to kill two per rest, and if a few Ankhegs fail their save against Enchanter's Sleep, that number rises to four. Of course, this isn't entirely risk-free, since you need to hope the Ankheg doesn't have time to attack before the Sleep hits (and you can tell if it worked or not).
It's actually a good thing Enchanter has such lousy hitpoints; otherwise the acid damage (which was never applied since he died from the pure physical damage) might've chunked him.
Anyway, a few mishaps later, we've killed off about 22 Ankhegs and everyone's gained 1-2 levels. We've already started to amass a bundle of unidentified items, so the plan is to grab the Red Potion from Nashkel and have Mage/Thief scribe a bunch of useful stuff (his 9 INT means he's by far the best candidate).
En route south, we clear the easy stuff, including Thalantyr's Flesh Golems, in and around Beregost, picking up a Gem Bag, though we leave Firebead alone for now: We want to save reputation-boosting quests until we're bribed up to 18, since the 1/4 reputation gain component of SCS can be pretty brutal in how little reputation you actually gain if you get some bad rolls.
Though it's a shame Blade probably will never make much of a dent in melee, at least he does acceptable work at range with a Shortbow and Offensive Spin active.
In Nashkel, we pick up the Red Potion, clear out Neira, talk Noober down, and head back into the wilderness.
One nice thing early on about having an Enchanter is that Sleep becomes even more lethal than normal: It's rare to see anything susceptible actually make its save, with literal hordes of enemies collapsing from a single casting being the norm.
Further north, Zargal is blinded and disposed of even as Sleep does in his fellow Hobgoblins. We leave Bassilus alone for now, and begin to laboriously ferry our massive amount of Ankheg shells south towards Beregost.
The gold gained is just about enough to push reputation to 18; we can now start turning in reputation quests, and with 16 CHA on Blade, we always get the best reward from quests as well with the reaction adjustment (though the extra rewards are very neglible, even by BGEE standards).
After six quests, the net amount is +1 reputation. Meh. Since they're in the same area as Hulrik's cow, we take our frustrations out on Arghain and his merry murdering monstrosities.
You'll note that's Cleric tanking. She's the only option really, given how badly shafted triple-classes get for hitpoints (exacerbated in this case since Fighter/Mage/Thief lacks a CON modifier... like almost everyone else).
Oh, the characters will get real names if they make it to BG2EE.
While in Arghain's area, I found out (to equal amounts surprise and delight on my part) that Ogre Berserkers are susceptible to Sleep!
Just scout 'em out and hit from beyond sight range, and the very tanky, very dangerous beasties are reduced to nothing. Good stuff.
Still hunting for that last point of reputation, we clear out Greywolf and save (?) Prism, as well as deliver Samuel, to no avail.
That's alright, let's try the dig and Brage then. We've already had some decent luck with random scroll drops, but this was really nice to see: A scroll of Knock fresh off the local Gnoll tribe.
This is especially good for us, since (as you'd expect) random Thief skill point distribution is random.
It's a pseudo-uniform distribution of points, meaning our Thieves are bad at everything. So at least now we can open the occasional lock... or will once Mage/Thief chugs that delightful Red Potion. Yeah, we're still running on the arcane fumes of our starting spells, plus a handful of L1 spells we dared to try to scribe (and mostly failed, though not entirely).
Clearing the dig finally nets us 20 reputation, which means we can now justify buying Mage/Thief some scrolls.
The Doomsayer outside is destroyed by Magic Stones, some Chromatic Orbs (we failed to scribe Magic Missile...),
and Imoen's starting wand. Brage returns with us, and we're back in civilized lands.
Still, I'd like to have Web available for the Bandit Camp. Let's hold off a little while longer on scribing; there's a Web scroll in Mulahey's chest, accessible without alerting him if you Sanctuary your way in.
Massive amounts of Sleep make it easy to fight our way through the Nashkel Mines up until the dreaded Kobold Shaman and slightly less (but still) dreaded Kobold Chieftain.
Sleep does for the cohorts, and amazingly, the Shaman fails its save against Silence... and did not prepare Vocalize! Hooray!
I'm always worried about taking on the Shaman, but this time it went very smoothly. We swipe the contents of Mulahey's chest and retreat to Beregost.
After successfully relieving Algernon of his cloak (owing to the now quite dead Vitiare's Potion of Master Thievery), a bought scroll of Friends lets us hit 20 CHA. With 20 reputation, that's a serious discount, and we make off with key scrolls for Mage/Thief.
Finally, we can start identifying items.
In fact, we spent so little we can afford to immediately start work on the second Ankheg Plate (the first being the easter egg one from Nashkel).
Cleric will eventually get the Hands of Takkok so she can equip Full Plate, but that's a long way off, and until then, both she and Fighter/Mage/Thief can't do better than Ankheg Plate.
While waiting for the armor to finish, we dispatch the local Wolf pack; Grease works surprisingly well here, especially when you layer on 4-5 casts. Also, Vampiric Wolves count as Undead, so are very vulnerable to Magic Stone.
Flush with our victory, we continue with Bassilus: By now we have so many sources of arcane damage, he gets interrupted constantly, and soon falls.
We're still missing a key equipment piece: The Gauntlets of Dexterity. En route to the Gnoll Fortress, we clear all the little things with ease, once again using a well-placed Sleep to disable two potentially dangerous Ogre Berserkers guarding a bridge.
To the west, the local Gibberling hordes had a scroll of Find Familiar. Swanky! Invoker casts it at once; there's another guaranteed drop of it from Nimbul after all, which we can scribe at a later date.
At the Fortress proper, Blade gets the CHA tome, putting him at 17 CHA. Not sure why I bothered, it won't make a discernible difference, but eh.
Around here the scroll randomizer seemingly goes off the rails a bit: We get Stinking Cloud, Skull Trap (twice!), another Knock, Haste (!) and most amazingly once we transit to Ingot's area, Invisibility 10' Radius!
If we weren't so incredibly strapped for INT potions, I'd scribe those last two right away; they're supremely useful.
Sendai, as well as Vax and Zal, are duly defeated, and we return to Nashkel. Now seems a good time to advance the plot a bit.
Mulahey seemingly spent all his slots on buffs: He throws a Poison at Cleric (which she saves against), then pointlessly tries to melee her down.
Blade took a serious beating trying to hold off the eastern Kobolds using Defensive Spin. He needs defensive spells, but the INT situation...
Back in Nashkel, brave sir Oublek (under the influence of Algernon's Cloak) falls in battle, and we respectfully retrieve the 2 700 gold off his remains. Nimbul is casually hacked down after he fails to save against Hold Person.
On to Beregost, where Tranzig has no counter to two Skeleton Warriors. On our way towards the bandit-infested woods, it's time for the first ambush, which turns out to be the Amazons.
Fortunately, Invoker is travelling invisibly: Mage/Thief only has two L2 slots, but the second one was spent on Detect Invisibility, which instantly reveals Telka and Maneira, preventing their potentially devastating backstabs.
Things get iffy for a moment when some party members wander straight into the Wand of Fire Scorcher of Fighter/Mage/thief (Mage/Thief in particular took a bad lick), but we pull through absent casualties.
Pushing further into the woods, we actually opt to take out Baeloth: We have an evil arcanist this time, so the robe will come in handy.
Web and oodles of L1 arcane spells keep the local Druids interrupted, and we suffer our second ambush en route to the Bandit Camp.
Halacan is focused and drops without ever getting a spell off; Drakar can be a nuisance if he prepared Hold Person, but this time seemingly tried to go for Chant first, which we interrupted. He didn't get a second chance.
Alright! We reach the Bandit Camp, rest up, and engage. Really, it's possible to do this as a running battle (keep moving and firebomb as you go), but we set up shop in the southeastern corner, throw down two Webs from Mage/Thief, and go to town.
As always, the real threat here is Venkt (we've countered Horror with pre-cast Remove Fear, but he can whip out Slow as he was trying to here, Glitterdust, Blind, etc.), and though he's got a little bit of Fire Resistance owing to his robe, he's a far cry from immune. Once Venkt drops, the remnants are mopped up in short order.
We can actually loot everything here: There's a bug in SCS 35.21 where Bracers of Dexterity "stacks" with Cat's Grace. The maximum DEX you can gain from Cat's Grace is dictated first by your class: 1-8 for Rogues, 1-6 for Warriors and Mages, 1-4 for Clerics.
It is then limited by your base dexterity: Mage/Thief has 15 DEX and counts as a Rogue, so can gain at most 5 DEX.
The bonus from Bracers of Dexterity is added on top of this: So with Cat's Grace, Mage/Thief can reach 23 DEX.
Fighter/Mage/Thief, also being a Rogue and having 13 base DEX, can theoretically reach 25 DEX.
I try to avoid exploiting the above, but pure random play is so punishing I don't mind using it to my advantage just for the sake of getting acceptable levels of Find Traps/Open Locks; and this, along with Knock for a few more stubborn chests, is how we loot everything.
OK, we're running out of wilderness areas, but noticably we've yet to clear Mutamin's Garden, so proceed in that direction.
Cleric can rustle up three 5HD Skeleton Warriors, and together with Korax and ranged party assistance, they swiftly clear the map.
There's a good amount of experience available at Durlag's too, even if you can't venture into the lower levels due to the traps, so that's next up.
We've a lot of magical damage available, so the Battle Horrors/Doom Guards outside are no real concern.
We grab the WIS tome (of course it goes to Cleric), and tackle the Greater Basilisks on the roof.
The oodles of Ghasts inside futilely expend their aggressions on a wall of Skeleton Warriors as we shoot them down; we refrain from going into the Warder level for now.
We'll be back shortly though: With three Potions of Perception, we can already get to 100 Find Traps, we just need to make the most efficient use of their duration so we can clear the entire Tower without running low.
Alright, keep vacuuming up experience: Ulcaster's Dungeon is next.
Mustard Jellys are actually a problem for us, since we only have one magical weapon (with attendant proficient wielder...) that can hurt them, i.e., Fighter/Mage/Thief with The Stupefier. Cleric helps out with a Spiritual Hammer and a ton of buffs. At least Fighter/Mage/Thief can be quite liberal with Giant Strength/Heroism potion use, as he's the only one that can use them for pretty much all of BGEE, so that helps.
Wolf of Ulcaster then. You need at least two, preferably three Remove/Resist Fear to handle the constant dispels, and lots of magic damage is useful, both to kill the Wolf itself and to handle its spawning of Ghouls.
Things get a little dicey as we try to cheapskate our way out of this, and we end up having to use most charges on a merry-go-round application of our Wand of Frost (yes, surprisingly the Wolf isn't even resistant to Cold damage).
OK! That basically leaves the Western Seaboard. Droth is still vulnerable to Command and therefore no threat, and we clear the local Ogre tribe without them getting a single swing in, while Skeleton Warriors account for the pack of Sirines to the southwest.
At the Lighthouse, Sleep does for the local Hobgoblins, and again Skeleton Warriors (properly buffed) swiftly render the local Sirines moot; the Flesh Golems are just shot down from afar while they clobber the remaining Skeletons.
Here the CON tome goes to Cleric: Since Invoker is dualing so late, he would gain literally no benefit from it.
The only alternative would be Mage/Thief who could reach 15 CON once we had access to the Machine of Lum The Mad... but that's so far away, I'd rather take the measly extra hitpoints on Cleric right now.
Next, some looting of Nashkel tombs. The undead pose no threat by now, not even the Revenant, given our amount of magical damage.
I accidentally activate Narcillicus while we're still unbuffed, but we at least had Skeleton Warriors up, and they manage to cut him down before he does anything dangerous; they then provide a distraction as Cleric and Fighter/Mage/Thief laboriously deal with the two Mustard Jellies.
And finally, we swing by Firewine Bridge to relieve Meilum of a pair of bracers.
That's about all the experience we can squeeze out of the wilderness, although I've left the Red Wizard area alone for now;
back to Durlag's Tower.
Our intent is to finish clearing/looting the above-ground levels, and for that to happen, the Ghost must be removed.
It kills off four Skeleton Warriors and throws a Chain Lightning at Blade (which, after Boots of Grounding, dealt a mighty 4 damage.. not sure how that's possible, guess the Ghost rolled really badly), but then can't do much else.
As for Kirinhale, we just mob her: She has high Magic Resistance, but it's not impervious, and eventually enough spells get through to finish the job.
We quaff three Potions of Perception, detrap and loot what we didn't yet above-ground, then head down to the Warders.
Mage/Thief goes around under Invisibility and detraps everything first, then once the entire level is safe, the party follows.
The Skeleton Warriors down here are not the real deal, as they can be hit with non-magical weapons (and only seem to have 50% resistance to missile damage), which simplifies things.
The Mustard Jellies take a bit of time to deal with, but never get a hit in, and the Flesh Golems are just shot down at range.
Finally, we rest (at the entrance floor, there's a good chance you won't get interrupted there), then return to deal with the three Greater Dopplegangers under full buffs: Yep, Cleric reached L7, so we now have Recitation and Defensive Harmony available.
That and 5 Magic Missiles quickly settle things.
Having turned in three of the four Warden riddles, we emerge with a bit of experience, a fair bit of gold, and some very important spell scrolls for Enchanter.
So far, we have been running entirely on that single batch of scribing by Mage/Thief done via the Red Potion: Everyone else only knows a few first level spells.
This is because I ran the numbers on the guaranteed to be available Potions of Genius/Mind Focusing.
With our party setup and deplorable levels of INT, we can only scribe scrolls reliably (100% success rate for the specialists, >=95% for the generalists) twice per arcanist... and then Mage/Thief only gets to scribe once, with 75% success rate.
All assuming we get no such potion as a random drop, of course (which we haven't yet).
But now it is time for Enchanter to use one of his two shots. He quaffs three Potions of Mind Focusing and scribes nearly everything we have available or can buy from High Hedge, notably including Haste, Invisibility 10' Radius, and a bundle of Enchantment spells of fourth (from Ulgoth's Beard mainly) and fifth (from Durlag's Tower) level.
Finally, we have options. I'm reasonably confident we could've held on until we reached the city before scribing, but then again, I'm not certain... and there aren't many scrolls left for Enchanter in the game anyway, so he'll be fine.
This seems a good place to end things for now. We're sitting at the Friendly Arm Inn, preparing to delve into the Cloakwood; everyone is around 60k experience.
We've had some mixed blessings with level-up Thief skills as well as proficiencies, as for the former:
None of our Thieves have Open Locks/Find Traps above 30, but they're both decent at stealthing (Thief/Mage actually being good enough that I routinely have him stealth when scouting rather than using Invisibility), and Fighter/Mage/Thief has 40 Set Traps, which can be significantly boosted using Gauntlets of Dexterity/Cat's Grace when needed.
As for the latter:
Fighter/Mage/Thief picked Longbow at Fighter L3... which isn't bad, especially in BGEE, but I had really hoped he'd luck into a specialization, or at the least gotten a more devastating melee option. He also won't get another proficiency until early SoD, so is kind of stuck with what he's got: Basically Longbow and Mace, and a Club if he ever wants to backstab.
Invoker wasted his L6 proficiency on Dart, meh.
Enchanter picked up Sling at L6, which is good! But his THAC0 is so awful it doesn't matter, and he'll eventually get all proficiencies anyway.
Mage/Thief got Two-Weapon Style at Thief L4, which is pointless on him, but less so than for instance Sword and Shield Style, so yay?
Cleric got Club at L4. Which is the least good melee option for her, but it's still a melee option, so I'll take it.
And... Blade also got Club at L4. Yuck. Though to be fair, his 12 STR means he can't use Flails, only Morning Stars, so maybe it'll be helpful? There's just no way he'll ever pick up two or more pips in Two-Weapon Style anyway, and he already has the best ranged weapon proficiency, so maybe just accept the way things are.
@Grond0, you realize you can still finish the game without curing the poison right? I've done that before and then BG 2 is fine after import.
'Long-life challenge' - 10 concurrent runs as a 10 year celebration {2} (1st and final update)
The logic of concurrent runs is that some classes may fall by the wayside on the way through the full BG games. However, I wasn't happy with how quickly that was happening in the first attempt at this, so restarted all 10 classes from scratch. The classes are the same as before, but I changed the order so that the game play always varies significantly between each successive run.
Given that one of my problems with no-reload is I tend to play as something of an adrenaline junkie, I've been trying to maintain interest by seeing how far each of the characters could get without taking any damage. There was some slight degree of success to that until I got to the dragon disciple. That should have been the easiest class to play, but a momentary movement error exposed me to the gaze of a basilisk. Perhaps I may have to accept that I'm not up doing so many concurrent runs successfully, but I'll restart them all once more - I think to be happy to continue I'd really like them all to at least get through BGEE together.
Summary points of interest for each class
Abjurer - last time this one completed the first session without taking damage, but this time things started poorly as he was hit early on by an ambushing hobgoblin archer on the way to the basilisk area. I didn't particularly try and avoid damage after that, but the only worrying moment was soon after when a movement error let Bassilus into range and a critical hit took away 21 of my 26 HPs. The reward for Bassilus did though allow me to buy invisibility and a range of other spells to make progress easier after that.
Cleric - another one took early damage and this time it was entirely my fault. After giving Zhurlong back his boots I attacked him, but did so in melee. Although his script requires him to retreat where possible, if he gets a good initiative roll he can attack before retreating - which he did in this case. There was one close call after that when I surrounded Kirinhale with summons to try and kill her before she teleported away. I think I must have got too close to her as she targeted me with a charm - which fortunately I saved against.
Blade - a blade is capable of completing BGEE without damage, so I was keen to do better with this than the previous two attempts. The early encounters were done nicely, but annoyingly I failed to learn all 3 invisibility scrolls at High Hedge (even allowing for a specialist learning penalty my chances of success with one of them were over 97%). That made progress more difficult, but I still almost got up to level 8 before taking damage. An attempted rest saw an ogre appear, but I was under offensive spin at the time and 2 quick shots made it lose its morale. I mistakenly thought that it was running and kept shooting, but it had gone berserk instead and hit me before I could move away. As with other classes there were plenty more hits taken after that, but the blade has survived up to the Nashkel Mine.
Kensai - a kensai is not well equipped to avoid damage, but this one made a reasonable stab at it by getting close to level 7. While scouting the red wizards of Thay I was spotted, but I didn't think they'd got a good enough look at me to do anything. However, when manoeuvring round I found one of them had come down from the platform and I had no way to counter the magic missile that followed. After that I played the character more like a typical kensai - killing the enemy before they could kill you. Constitution regeneration allowed me to heal between combats. I did have one lucky escape when damage failed to disrupt a sirine's charm and my saving throw was needed to save me.
Diviner - this time I paid up for genius potions in order to guarantee learning invisibility early on. Progress was generally pretty good and no damage has been taken so far. There was though one dangerous incident that could easily have led to death. In the cave in the area to the north of the Carnival I tried to kill the Ettercap using skull traps from out of sight. The first two were cast without problem but, even though there didn't seem to be any issue with line of sight, I started moving forward to cast the third spell. That triggered the web trap and I was immediately held. Fortunately, in moving forward I'd moved slightly towards the wall and was still just out of sight of the Ettercap. As soon as I broke free I came into its sight, but the delayed skull trap cast and killed it anyway.
Cleric dualling to thief - another one successfully completed up to the Nashkel mine without taking any damage. Other than the odd invisibility potion I just relied on choice of routes and timings to reduce the chance of nasty ambushes. There were still a number of shots fired at me, but the ankheg armor and belt of piercing meant things like hobgoblins and skeletons needed a critical to hit and none of them managed that. As far as I know there's no sure way to avoid the trap damage in the Nashkel Mine, so this character will almost certainly not be able to complete BGEE without taking damage. Using haste increases the chance a floor trap won't fire, so I'll do that. I'll also surround myself with summons to see if I can confuse the trap - that certainly helps with NPCs, though I'm not sure if summons have the same effect.
Dragon Disciple - this is comfortably the easiest character to avoid damage with, but after 2 successes in a row with other characters I failed very early on with this one. I started shooting at Algernon without blinding him and wasn't really paying attention - which proved costly when his morale broke and he attacked me in a berserk rage. Possibly because of that early disappointment I wasn't concentrating fully on arrival at the basilisk area. After killing the first of the group of 4 basilisks in the south Korax attacked the second - which immediately retaliated in melee. Korax retreated and I tried to blind the basilisk, but failed - and a second lesser basilisk appeared attacking in melee. Avoiding those attacking Korax while continuing to retreat directly away and try more blinds wasn't easy. I moved to one side to make the movement easier - and the greater basilisk appeared and gazed at me before I could get out of sight …
Stalker -
Cleric/mage -
Monk -
Chapter 4
Vampires of Brynnlaw easily destroyed with MoD +2. Perth the Adept was grinded out with WoMS although the fight managed to spread out on the streets. Once we got Spell Turning from the Book we stopped turning pages. We gave a Intelligence point it the Dream. Spellhold handled mostly with summons. We also managed to talk to the Statue seven times for 29500xp a pop, before the door opened. You can do this by pressing talk quickly after 'end dialogue'. Getting out of the tests lv37 and we got our 10th Critical Strike.
In first battle with Irenicus we cast Farsight and sent one Fire Elemental to trigger his defenses. Once we saw long casting Earth and Fire Elementals being cast we sent four Elementals to kill them. They actually got Jon to injured state. Sent in another batch and once Jon was at near death we activated the battle, and he escaped almost immediatelly. Hid the ship during Githyanki assault. Sold all my loot for Shaguain Priestess and got 170k gold. Shaguain City was solid slashing with Skellies, lv38 and last spell slot. Shaguains had no chance against 5 Skelis and 340hp 6apr Tensered Tziri.
Chapter 5
Lv39 fighting some Drows with Skelies and Elementals, the last level was going to take a while with 1.62M xp needed. Vithal's Earth Elemental battle was much harder than I remember, as the main Elemental was just hit with Elemental Damage because of inifinite casting Stoneskins (similar to Ogremoch). My Elementals died and we had to use all of our HLA's. Fire Elementals were cunningly weak to lure us not to rebuff against Air Elementals. And they force threw us back constantly and I weren't getting even hits. Had to gas them out. Apparently Vithal died during the Cloudkills, so we missed Skull of Death which we couldn't use anyway. Time Stop and Simulacrum were the important ones. All in all much improved (harder) fight on Earth and Air.
Elemental and five Skelies were enough for the Machine Lich. The Balor was stoned first hit from Wand of Wonder. Kuo-toa ran over with Tensers, the Priest interrupted nicely through Sanctuary. Got Simulacrum as random loot which was nice. 50k to buy everything interesting from Ust Natha. 13x Mind Focus, Absorption, 95 MDR, -4 Save spell (-2 because our innate bonus v Mindies), with 349hp 12hppr 6apr Tenser's and 10x Critical Strikes we are a killing machine, and quickly destroyed them.
In the Mind Flayer dungeon two Tensers and Improved Haste combos with all HLA's were just enough v the first big party of Mindies. Rested for the second one and used same approach. But I was out of Tensers and HLA's with one Umber Hulk, Ulitharid and Mindie left. Had to drink one Stone Form, separate and pick up them 1on1. Another rest for Master Brain and once his party was lured away and smacked, we killed it with gas. Buffed one last time, but just picked up the Staff of Command and didn't bother fighting and just escaped. We got all we needed. Fire Control Ring, but more importantly Staff of Command and all three Control Circlet's.
PfU for Deirex and after dodging his Remove Magic's, MoD+2 destroyed him. Double crossed the Drow and left. Before giving up the Dragon eggs we visited the Demon Knights. Buffed up with Fear, Fire, SI:Abj, IH, Tensers and concentrated on the one with the Soul Reaver +4. Skelies were doing pretty well, so we continued and killed them all. We can't use Soul Reaver yet being good, but that will change in Abyss. Looted the Sling +4 from Beholder Dungeon with Mislead, and just left. Adalon pawned the entrance and we escaped.
Chapter 6
Kruin was killed by Elementals before he could even talk to us. 230k gold selling our loot to Ribald's special shop. Built Crom Fayer +5, Wave +4, Silver Sword +3, 25k, bought scrolls for 54k. 100k left after buying spree.
"Mistake Rune"
PfU for Shangalar and started slinging him with +3 Bullets after we saw he saved Azuredge at 3. Had a heart attack once my +3 Bullets ended and my char lunged on him with melee. This triggered his Magical Swords, but we parked them on the door with Invisibility. Once Shangalar was dead we backed up. None of them see through Invisibility, so we activated Layene's Hakeashars, and they followed us and we cast Elementals for them. With PfU still on we cast Improved Haste, Mislead and Tenser's and Whirwind 10apr MoD +2 quickly destroyed Shyressa. I attacked Revanek, but Layene summoned Cornugon so we backed up and waited it out. We tried Charming Vaxall with Staff of Command, but he repelled it and followed us to the entrance. We used Invisibility and managed to lose him. Improved Haste scroll, Mislead and hacked Revanek out.
But attacking Layenes Elementals was a huge mistake as she cast Fallen Planetar who teleported on us and cast True Sight. And no where to hide we were quickly double Dispelled. Had to use Magic Shielding to kite Planetar. Used Cloudkill trying to miscast Layene, got Dispelled again and had to use another Magic Shielding. Then Vaxall saw us and Anti-Magic Rayed and started following us. We ran to bottom of the map, Invis, and it worked, we lost him. Third Magic Shielding and continued kiting the Planetar in close quarters as Vaxall was still in the main room. His True Sight finally ended and kiting his Dispel projectile with our Innate Haste, it hit, and we again drank Invis potion. And at the same time it was unsummoned. Phew.
Then we had summoning competition with Layene, and she couldn't repell our never ending Elementals. We got the Staff of Magi, and then I remembered it's just for mages, and we don't even get the UAI. What an utter mistake this was. Four Skelies then easily killed Vaxall. We wasted 3 Magic Shieldings and about 10 Invis potions, which may come bite us back. Anyway we survived and got 30k worth of loot.
We cleared Forest of Tethir and North forest with summons and got 4th Time Stop of 9 available for us (including Limited Wish). Attacked Bodhi's lair without PfU as we tried saving them. This worked well enough with Improved Haste Tensers and MoD+2. Killed probably 10 Vampires. Tanova was still left, and she was too strong for us and once we saw CON at 4 we backed off. Fire Elementals were able to kill her. Then we still found the Guard who was even stronger and again got us to 4 CON and we backed off. After resting, waiting his protections out we finally got the killing blow. For battle v Bodhi we used PfU, and it was much easier fight. After killing all vampies, Drizzt was still alive and we hacked Bodhi to death twice. Also hit max lv40.
Chapter 7
Picked 5th Time Stop in Suldanesselar. The three Rakhashas are pretty op so priestess is pretty impossible to save without Time Stop. And she was not worth one. Had to gas the last one because my HLA's and Tensers were out. Our innate Acid Resistance was nice v Nizi as it took 9 hits from WoW to stone him. Summoned Rillifane who pwned the opposition. Also found Spell Trigger as loot. 220k gold selling my loot to Reirra. Irenicus was baited being invisible. Softened with 5x WoMS and killed by Skelis.
The Abyss
Wraith Sarevok was easily killed, and we used the STR tear twice with drop trick to get our STR to 24. We are going to try to get the last point from Watcher's Keep. We also got alignment change to evil, which meant we could use Soul Reaver +4 and get audience with Tahazzar. Took Cloak of Fear and evil path in Selfhisness. Dragon Stoned second hit from WoW, got another Time Stop. In test of Greed we Charmed the Genie with Staff of Command, gave the sword but stopped him from leaving. We used his spells to Gate Balor, which he fought a while wasting spells. Cast 4 Skelis to finish the job, but the Genie cast Death Spell to destroy them. Elementals finished it as he couldn't touch them. This way we got the good Tear with Blackrazor +3. We used the Tear three times for nice -6 save bonuses.
Tziri v Irenicus
Activated the fight with one Skeli, and backed off immediatelly. Once it was killed the Balors and Glabrezus teleported on to me, and we started kiting them with WoW. They kept casting Confusion and Domination, which wasn't going to work with our saves -3/-7-/-4/-5/-4. Permanent Haste is good here. It took 35 hits to Petrify them all.
We softened Slayer with WoMS. Saw Planetar and Improved Alacrity. It took 16 WoMS and 4 Haste scrolls to hack Slayers Stoneskins out. Once Slayer was getting damaged we approached with Invis, as I still hadn't seen Time Stop. And this obviously was his plan all along. Once we were in sight, Time Stop, Dimension Door, Maze, and we didn't have any Magic Resistance...
But that was not the end, we used Protection from Magic scroll, and it Dispelled the Maze before it activated. Summoned Skelis and Elementals, buffed, and attacked with 6apr Critical Strikes, and Slayer was done after four rounds.
Luckily I remembered that Maze escape tactic. Next we try to descend the Watcher's Keep, hopefully with better results this time.
Starting from scratch again, I tried this series once more - and once again taking risks resulted in an early casualty.
Summary points of interest for each class
Abjurer - the abjurer was never in trouble in terms of survival. He got shot at several times, so there's definitely room for improvement. However, his defences kept him unwounded.
Cleric - took damage at only level 4 when I forgot early in the morning I was supposed to be avoiding any damage and let a golem into range when trying to conserve magical ammunition. I wasn't concentrating so much on avoiding damage after that but there were no problems getting to Nashkel Mine, with just a few minor injuries received in the process.
Blade - once more the blade produced a rather sub-par performance, getting hit and lucky not to die at level 7. I had killed Lindin and Kirian and was just finishing off a blinded Baerin when Peter unexpectedly appeared. I was slow to react and was tagged by rigid thinking while still in sight. Peter cast spiritual hammer and attacked, but I managed to run away while confused just enough to avoid death. When the rigid thinking wore off Peter tried a hold person, but my invisibility beat him to it. It wasn't a particularly clean run since then, but with no more real danger.
Kensai - the kensai again started well and was getting close to level 7 before taking damage. After killing the basilisks I had a go at Kirian's party. Baerin died during an initial assault with Korax and a charmed Lindin. After resting, Peter was charmed and I attacked Kirian. She used horror on Peter and then her opening conversation dispelled the charm - meaning she would focus on me with her next spell. However, my opening shot took her to near death and I thought I would have time for another before she could cast again - so decided to continue attacking rather than withdraw or use a potion of invisibility. I seemed to get a poor initiative though and, although I fired first and rolled a hit, the dagger had not quite got to her when she completed a Melf's acid arrow. I mis-clicked on the conversation with Hafiz and ended up killing him, but other than that everything went smoothly after that.
Diviner - I was up to my old tricks again at the start of this run. I recognised the possibility that a golem would get into attacking range, but didn't move anyway - and was lucky to survive the subsequent hit with a single HP left. Soon after that I went into an Ettercap cave and triggered the web trap. The battle text said that I'd saved - but I was held anyway and the Ettercap made short work of its captive.
Cleric dualling to thief -
Dragon Disciple -
Stalker -
Cleric/mage -
Monk -
Tar, dwaven bounty hunter (Gate70)
Omen, dwarven defender (Grond0)
Coreheal VII, gnome cleric / thief (Corey_Russell)
Session 9
We remembered to hand the Rift device back before leaving the old tunnels, and Coreheal questioned if we would deal with Gaal or leave him. It was not a long conversation before deciding his time was up
Roger benefited from our haul-trade, and we returned topside. Coreheal was by this time not wishing to spend yet another session healing Omen so we set off for Kangaxx with everything we needed. Except for one set of golden arms and legs, so returned back through the old tunnels and retrieved them - their guardian lich having been disposed of in the previous session
Kangaxx didn't put up much of a fight in his normal form and managed about a round in his demilich form before the Improved Mace of Disruption wielded by Omen finished him off. Tar gave Omen the ring of Gaxx and Coreheal could reduce the frequency of his healing spells
Next we returned to Watchers Keep and peered inside for the first time, far later than usual. After working our way around the side rooms Tar suggested Coreheal open a door so Omen could throw Azuredge if vampiric mists were inside. Yes they were and yes he did. The rest of this floor was cleared out, with snares helping against the two groups of statues
Tar decided to pack various items into our Promenade store (a chest really but she has grand airs) and then we departed for Brynnlaw. Omen and Coreheal helped out a girl and her brother while Tar used Pixie Prick to retrieve a wardstone from the slumbering mage nearby. His once-a-day spellbook piqued her interest and she turned pages until stopping at a True Sight page
Coreheal popped a few undead on the way to Spellhold and Tar set two snares (one special, one normal) near the final room. This was to no avail as we had eaten our fill of sullied food and Tar woke up in a jar resulting in removal of her Bhaalspawn abilities. Evidently Irenicus viewed us as weak and of no use as he allowed Bodhi to play a game of hide and seek with us
Tar, as narrator, might skip the next 30 minutes use of snares as her amazing memory reset function caused her to forget these would maze Otiluke enemies and slow progress down as they took longer to re-appear than Omen would have taken to kill them
At one point Tar and Coreheal stood patiently waiting for Omen to arrive at a party transition area. After either several eternities or a few moments Gate70 asked Grond0 if he'd had a long day and perhaps fallen asleep mid-game. Affirmative; either that or we play too slowly to hold his interest
The cat and mouse capers worked to our advantage, Omen bashing his way through and Coreheal vending himself some boots of speed to try and keep up. Tar trotted along behind, mostly keeping out of trouble until she surprised Bodhi with an out of the shadows Slayer move. Bodhi promptly left, and shortly afterwards so did we
Wrapping up our Spellhold trial, we were judged 'cured' so celebrated by asking Lonk why he was standing on those sna... oh dear ....res. With him dead to us, we gathered up the inmates and went to face Irenicus. Omen grimaces as someone cast Timestop - when will they learn his weapons are faster. Irenicus was soon convinced to flee and the murderers he left behind would barely have troubled Omen even if Tar's bookish True-Sight had not removed them from the shadows
Agreeing to leave Brynnlaw with Saemon Havarian gave chance to meet the merchant at Brynnlaw who had patiently waited all day for a bus adventurer and now here were three at once
By the time Tar had emptied her pockets and four containers it was time to draw the session to a close
Session stats:
Deaths : 0
Multiplayer disconnects: Grond0 once
Sleep-Slayer chasing party members: 1
Kills: Mainly Dwarven Defender but a goodly amount of Cleric turning and slinging
I briefly considered giving up on this, but decided I could still take a bit more punishment
Summary points of interest for each class
Monk - the monk made a good start, successfully getting to the Nashkel Mine without taking any damage. The most worrying moment that could have prevented that was when a mis-click allowed Landrin's spiders to get outside in time to block his escape. Fortunately I'd brought a charmed Silke along and her magic missiles cleared a path. I was targeted with missiles a number of times, but no-one was able to get the critical they needed to hit.
Cleric/mage - annoyingly the cleric/illusionist only got to level 5/4 undamaged. In the area to the north of the Carnival I attacked the ogre clan. The only likely problem was the 2 hobgoblin elites there, so I summoned a couple of skeletons and charmed a bear to go in ahead and act as cover while I killed them. Unfortunately one of the hobgoblins ignored the other targets and shot me, which didn't seem like normal behaviour. I forgot to cast friends before talking to Charleston Nib and lost my chance at gaining reputation there, but there were no other problems in reaching the XP limit at Nashkel Mine.
Stalker - like the monk, the stalker has the option of using stealth to reduce the risks of taking damage. That's not much use against travel ambushes though and I was hit by a critical on the first area transition. I didn't try and avoid damage after that, but was never seriously threatened.
Dragon Disciple - once again I failed to take full advantage of the capabilities this class offers and took some damage. At the Carnival I went into Zordral's tent and persuaded him to kill the other mage (to get a bit more loot). I disappeared before he could cast horror and hid behind the bookshelves while casting a couple of skull traps. A pair of webs followed and, when Zordral was held, I attacked with a sling shot and magic missile. He managed to just survive that and I went back behind the shelves again to wait until he was reported as held once more. As he hadn't seen me attacking, I expected he would stay where he was - but he suddenly appeared and used an acid arrow on me before I could react. There were no hints of danger after that though, on the way to the Nashkel Mine.
Cleric dualling to thief - this one almost made it to the Nashkel Mine undamaged. However, at the Lighthouse area I was pulling golems out of the pirate cave to face skeletons. One of those never appeared to be attacking me. However, at one point it looked like the icon was bumped when another skeleton joined the attack and the golem clearly briefly switched its attack to me - as I suddenly lost 19 HPs. I also got hit by a critical in a kobold archer ambush when on the way to the Nashkel Mine. Otherwise though it's been a pretty clean run so far.
Diviner - early on in this run a charmed Silke was instructed to cast a magic missile at Karlat - but chose to use a lightning bolt instead. That cost reputation, but as it was early on that wasn't much of a problem. The run was nice and clean after that until I was almost ready to go to the Nashkel Mine. At the Lighthouse I killed the sirines, but then deliberately walked through the charm trap in the pirate cave without protection - fortunately elven charm resistance worked there. That was just thrill-seeking, but there was then a mistake with the group of sirines to the north in Shoal's area. They were duly killed, but a skull trap was left intact when one of them moved away as I was casting. After killing a few ogres I walked back that way and set off the skull trap - spoiling a no-damage run for this character as well.
Kensai - after a couple of disappointments I did manage to get the kensai through to Nashkel Mine without taking any damage. He used up several invisibility potions to evade travel ambushes, which is arguably a bit of a waste - but it felt like a decent achievement with a character not well suited to avoiding damage.
Blade - the only 2 characters to have avoided damage thus far will almost certainly suffer trap damage in the Nashkel Mine, so I tried hard to get the blade through - who can guarantee to avoid that trap damage by combining mirror images with bard song. And, for once, my aim was successful. I was attacked once by a wandering kobold, but that missed.
Cleric - this was another occasion when I failed to get the gem bag from Neera. Things progressed well for some time after that until a bit of carelessness nearly ended the run. At the lighthouse I'd killed the sirines and 2 of the golems and was resting outside the pirate cave to get lightning protection in order to get past the glyph trap without taking damage. I hadn't bothered with using sanctuary and when a sirine appeared successfully hit it with a sling bullet to disrupt its improved invisibility. I then withdrew to where I thought would be far enough away to produce a skeleton before it could get there - but it arrived just before I'd completed the spell and only my dwarven saving throws prevented the charm from taking effect. The only trouble after that was losing my undamaged status when I was at the level cap and risked not using an invisibility potion when ambushed by kobolds - one of them got a critical to hit me.
Abjurer - I didn't learn invisibility until well after I'd reached level 7. That made for nervous work, but I managed to dodge the 2 shots that came my way. The rest of the run up to Nashkel Mine was generally easier, but there were a couple of exceptions. At the xvart area I worked my way through the minions before ending up in the cave to kill the bear there and steal its treasure. After doing that, I was surprised to find a xvart suddenly appearing in the cave and attacking (but missing) me. I think what must have happened was that one of the xvart villagers had been blinded early on and then overlooked and was scripted to continue the attack when the blind wore off. With just a few thousand XP needed to hit the cap I went to the ankheg area. I could have used skull traps to kill those safely, but tried to blind them instead to avoid so much resting. After killing several of them, one saved twice against the spell. I thought I'd waited long enough for its attack round to reset before trying for a third time, but apparently not as it responded immediately and this time I did take damage.
Tziri v Illasera
This was straight on 1on1 melee battle. With Inertial Belt, Cloak of Gargoyle and our innate DR we had 79 DR v missiles, with Scaly Skin 100. We were thrown back couple times, don't know what ability that is, but after using all 10 Critical Strikes Illasera was dead. First Pocket Plane challenge we used summon door trick with Elementals. Then started gassing everybody from Mislead. Eltan was killed by Elementals, Linvail by Skelis. Ellesime tried escaping with Sanctuary, but we crushed her through it. Saradush landing cleared with Tensers and Critical Strikes, bought scrolls and other stuff with 230k. We did clear whole Saradush in search of Superior Healing potions, now that RoR is nerfed they are more important. Prison handled with PfU, basement Mislead gassed.
Tziri v Gromnir
Gromnir's gang was mostly charmed by Staff of Command and disappearing level below to cast Invis. Attacked the mages with Mislead gas, but Karun started wandering finding our decoy, who was surprisingly tough with our DR. Another Mislead gas and both mages dropped dead. Gromnir survived our 10 Critical Strikes because of Hardiness, but not the following Whirlwinds.
No we were finally able to continue Watchers Keep. The eight Statues were attacked by summons including two Elder Air Elementals, but they only managed to kill the Golem statue, before Planetar destroyed all. After waiting it out, 12x WoMS and then 4 buffed Skelis cleared the level. 2nd level was solid smacking with summons, nothing hard. One nice effect of being immune to Slow was the Ice room. Chromatic Demon stoned with WoW. Getting to third level we got Bard's Gloves which we improved together with FoA +4.
Watchers Keep third level done by the usual optimal route. Start > DM Balor > Tahazzar and being evil they didn't aggro on us. Summoned help, and once Tahazzar was stoned by WoW he was quickly killed by summons. > DM Balor > Start.
Start > WM Quasit > Succubus, which we cleared with summons. Buffed with everything and with 6 Critical Strikes Ka'rashur was done. > Mayhem > Start.
Start -> WM Quasit > WM Tiefling > Demon Knights > Demon Wraith > Aesgareth. Played Aesgareth twice with experience for Wish winning the latter. Interestingly getting Slow from Strife works even us being immune to Slow. It took just 31 hits from WoW to casually stone Aesgareths whole gang. Buffed up and Aesgareth was done after 5 Criticals.
Deck of Many Things, to stop run ending effects:
1st Draw, SI:Abjuration, SI:Evocation - DONJON
2nd Draw, SI:Alteration, SI:Enchantment - STAR (DEX)
3rd Draw, SI:Conjuration - SKULL
Not totally useless draw, and I think that's the first time I've ever gotten STAR from the Deck. We will get our DEX to 21 which means -5 undispellable AC. We left the Death Shade in Watchers Keep for the helmites to discover.
Fourth level main are cleared by summons. Saladrex stoned with WoW, Githyanki area looted from Mislead. Mindflayer dungeon 16x Mind Focus, Defense and Absorption. Before the last Mind Flayer mob we rested outside, rebuffed, and concentrated on the one with the Rod part. Then we just picked the Red Oil and escaped. Although one Vampiric Ulitharid and couple Umber Hulks followed, they were quickly killed. Rock and Garock were easy enough, and using the Machine of Lum the Mad we found our final form. We also had to use EEkeeper to give ToB LoB Familiar bonus, because it's still bugged. If you get Familiar in SoA you get 34hp bonus, but if that Familiar is killed in ToB you lose 58hp, even though you still had only 34hp bonus. So getting CON 17, we reduced it by one like we just killed the Familiar, and added 24hp with EEkeeper. This got our innate hp to 80+60+58 = 198.
Level 5 Test of Stamina can just be waited invisible for one turn. Test of Bravery Green Dragon stoned. Spirit Warrior test North-East-Search-North-East-North-Painting-West-Archway never fails. We used PfU and PfF scrolls for Spirit Seal, and the Flaming Skulls were easily wiped with MoD+2. Lich summoned Planetar which we waited out, and afted dodging couple Remove Magics, it was destroyed too. Got the best sling and Serpent Shaft. For Heart Seal we used first of the four Control Circlets to force Charm Hive Mother to stop using Anti-Magic ray on us. Instead we used it on Nalmrissa and she was killed in seconds with Critical Strikes. Essentially we traded one Control Circlet on Wish scroll, and left. This completed Watchers Keep for us.
Used PfU and Mod+2 to destroy Master Wraith. Yaga Shura stronghold solid smacking mostly from Mislead for Superior Healing potions. Picked up the wardstones with Mislead without fighting. Brimstone lured and blocked by the small door, Stoned by WoW. Fire Giants can't fit there either so it's a nice choke point for FoA+4. Killing Berenn from Mislead we got Balor's Claw, for Axe of Unyealding +5. Used second Control Circlet to force Charm Imix, and he was eventually killed by his Burning Men, which took a long while with his 1520hp. Got Ravager +4 which improved to +6 is the weapon of choice v Fallen Solars. Also improving Axe of Unyealding to +5 we now could have undispellable 21hppr regen. Nyalee smacked with 5 Critical Strikes.
Tziri v Yaga Shura
Plan was to beat the Bridge script with speed, that activates his army, but it didn't work. It works like 3/4 of time and is based on engine clock, so it's totally random. Anyway this was going to be harder fight. We hit Yaga with Critical Strike and he buggered off. Interestingly before Yaga is hit, the army homes on CHARNAME, but once Yaga returns they home on him. I don't really like how this is done in SCS, as it feels forced and cheating, needing to mostly cheese from player perspective. Anyway because they homed on Yaga, he was quickly trapped by his army. We used gas from afar, and soon after his army started dying, Yaga broke free. But as his army spawns indefinetly, he was trapped again. Another gassing got his Liuetants dead. Greater Malison, and then fourth Feeblemind got Yaga. But as he was still surrounded by his army, we went broke and attacked. Yaga was at 125hp once my 10x Critical Strikes were over, and dead from the last hit from the last two Whirlwinds.
Chapter 9
2nd Pocket Plane challenge we again used summond door trick. Couple Cloudkills to interrupt them, Planetar waited out. Elementals handled others, I destroyed my double. 240k gold from gassing the whole of Oasis. Got Regeneration ability. Draconis is one of the few Dragon's immune to petrification, the other two being Tamah and Abazigal. We attacked him from Farsight with Elementals, but apparently in newest SCS version he aggroes to this. Anyway he was eventually turned to Dragon by ever casting Elementals. We kited his Haste out and there was little he could do, our 95 AR and regen pretty much took his breath weapon out. After his Haste was out, we used Breach, Greater Malison and started Feebleminds. But I forgot his MR, so we had to use two Lower Resistance scrolls, and annoyingly he interrupted our Feeblemind casting, so we also had to also waste two additional Feeblemind scrolls. Casually hacking him from 2000hp took a while.
Tziri soloed the Lizard Men and Greater Werewyvern with AoU+5 being great. Anadramatis attacked by Skelis from Farsight as he doesn't agro that way. Once near death he talked, agreed to dual, surrendered immediately, and Skelis finished him. Got Wing Buffet amulet and Yellow Dragon Scales. Kuo-Toa Area again soloed by Tziri.
In quadruble dragon ambush it took 21 hits from WoW to stone the first dragon which got us slighly worried. We also needed couple healing potions even with our acid resistance and regen against the double Melf's Acid Arrows, which I think is again doubled by Haste. Second dragon took 16 hits, which meant we only had 13 for the last two. Green Dragon is the weakest with Ring of Gaxx blocking the Poison Breath, and it took only 3 hits to Stone him. Kited Carnifex Lower Resistance, Breach and Greater Malison projectiles and his Haste out. Then they hit although only Breach seemed to affect. Rebuffed PfF and continued hitting with WoW, but it was soon depleted. Had to use 2x Lower Resistance, Greater Malison, 2x Feeblemind scrolls to Feeblemind him. 8apr Kundane Belm Critical Striking x10 only got him barely injured with over 1000hp. But eventually he dropped dead. This also meant we only had 6 Feeblemind scrolls left. Ran past the Eyeball area and picked up Bronze Pantalettes, and built Big Metal Unit.
We recharged WoW and with 14 hits stoned Fll'l, got the wardstone and 12h Improved Invisibility ring. Tamah is another dragon immune to petrification so we needed to brawl her naturally. First we Criticalled the Frost Salamanders, as they are annoyingly immune to Wave +4. Fighting Tamah with BMU and not able to recast Tensers took a long time again, but she wasn't really doing damage either. Once we got her badly injured she went Ethereal and buggered off, and we could rest in Pocket Plane. And this still has the same effect of making Tamah just stand still and casually killed after we returned. The four Wyrms were easily killed 1on1.
Tziri v Abazigal
This was battle we planned a little looking how much effect spells and scrolls had. And these were the contingencies we decided.
Minor Sequencer - Strength, Strength (Abazigal 25STR->18/50 +6Thac0 -11dmg for 11 turns)
Spell Sequencer scroll - Greater Malison, Secret Word, Secret Word
Spell Trigger scroll - 3x Feeblemind
Contingency - Spell Shield on HIT
Chain Contingency scroll - 3x Pierce Magic 20MR 90s on HIT
Used all my high level Elemental summon scrolls to turn Abazigal to Dragon from Farsight. But this was a slight mistake as we were too far when he knocked us back, and our Chain Contingency didn't find anything to hit. We went back to scrolls and hit him with 3x Pierce Magic scrolls, then our Spell Sequencer, and Trigger, and just like that Aba was out of his mind. Started hacking him and eventually switched to Answerer +4 which was by far the fastest method to hit him, few Critical hits and it snowballs to every hit. Lastly we used Dispel Arrow with Critical strike and he cave his death speech.
Interestingly FoA+5 does slow our movement, but not the apr bonus from permanent Haste, Slow immunity. It probably cancells the Boots. Third Pocket Plane challenge was easily soloed through, got Dark Taint ability.
In Sendai enclave we stoned the Deer and Woodcutter with WoW, and the rest of the Drows were easily killed. The Drows were good source of Superior Healing and Invis potions. Inside the enclave we charmed the Spore Colonies with SoC and hacked everything. Attacked Thelynn from Mislead, but everyone saw us. Possibly because level change. Nevertheless Thelynn was done with one round of 8apr Criticals. We weren't boxed in so we just escaped. Used PfU on ourselves and Odamaron and it was destroyed first hit from Runehammer. Imprisonment scroll is by far the easiest way to deal Ogremoch. Diyatha lured away from her mob and easily killed, as was Captain Egeissag. Buffed last time for Mind Flayers with 19 Mind Focus and Absorption. It took on rest between the two parties, but nothing too hard.
Tziri v Sendai
First concentrated on the Cleric Statue who could cast Deva, which would stop our escape to Pocket Plane through Invisibility. And it was killed just before the extra potent Drows Whirlwind killed us, as we forgot Hardiness. Anyway we got Invis on and escaped. Got two Drows killed the next attack, Invis and escape to Pocket Plane. And so it mostly went, everytime the Mages got us Dispelled we had to drink Invis potion and escape. The two mage Drows were a problem, because I didn't want to alert every statue in the level. So we lured them to the exit with WoMS, and eventually they actually were able to grind them out. At this point there were four statues left, and the hardest one was the bottom left summoning statue. But it too was eventually grinded out by WoMS as it was trapped by its own Elementals. After all were killed real Sendai arrived, and we got just away from sight being Invisible before she cast Time Stop and Wished our spell protections destroyed. Sendai doesn't see through Invisibility so she was actually eventually killed by summons, and she didn't even see us.
Favored of Cyric easily killed, got Hand of Murder. Took Neera for a short walk, and she was killed in an ambush in less than a second. We Mislead gassed everyone, Vicross teleported us to Thayan Arena, where we gassed all the Yuanties again kiting them around. Now the reason for this visit was shopping. Most notably considering the end battle.
3x Lower Resistance
2x Pierce Magic
2x Delayed Blast Fireball
2x Project Image
2x Spell Sequencer
1x Pierce Shield
1x Simulacrum
1x Spell Trigger
1x Wish
1x Chain Contingency
1x Time Stop
Cloak of the Lich
Golden Girdle
3rd Wand of Cloudkill
2nd Wand of Wonder
Wand of Polymorph
Resurrected Neera and sent her back to Pocket Plane. We attacked Szass Tam through Mislead, but he cast Time Stop and myriad of other spells. But we survived and then cast our own Time Stop from Limited Wish scroll, and hacked Szass to 1hp. This had effect of almost killing ourselves on his Fireshield as all the damage was hit on us post Time Stop.
Tziri v The Ravager
Ravager is immune to pretty much everything except Harm, and we didn't have it or the Reflection Shield which is the only other easy way of killing him. Summon door trick and lured the Bone Blades to another room with Elementals. With Yellow Dragon Scale we had 100 DR v missiles, so Ravager missiles could only do Cold damage. And with Frost Boots and our innate regen he wasn't going to hurt us. The only problem was to make enough damage to kill it. We had 775 Bullets +4, -10 Thac0 with Hope and Courage scrolls which we had plenty. It took around 5 ingame hours and 450 bullets to sling it near death and once Ravager was at 250hp we started using HLA's. And before Crits were out, Ravager was out. Got 25DR, which makes our innate DR 74.
Being almost immune to physical damage might make the end battle a lot easier, but I suspect there're still potential traps there. Succubus -8 Charm, being Thac0 trapped, Melissan save penalties... lets see.
Tar, dwaven bounty hunter (Gate70)
Omen, dwarven defender (Grond0)
Coreheal VII, gnome cleric / thief (Corey_Russell)
Session 10
Stealing a pirate horn to escape Brynnlaw was but a moments work for Coreheal thanks to sanctuary. The ship we stole sprang a leak after githyanki and sahuagin attacks, and we ended up in the City of Caverns where two sides of sahuagin bargained for our services. Tar forgot to return to the priestess, meaning their prince became hostile and we could not double-cross the king. He disappeared before we returned to him, but his lackeys had waited around for a final encounter
Tar gave Coreheal the cloak of mirroring, but in turn Coreheal lent it to Omen whenever beholders were around. This was a fair amount of time
We used a rope to descend into the underdark, where we steadily worked our way around. Omen bore the brunt of attacks and dealt the bulk of our response but Tar used two staffs (air and earth) to help with elementals. Then we resolved the duergar pit dilemma and headed into the western tunnels
Omen put in a tremendous amount of effort here, while Coreheal used summons sling and melee weapons also. Tar generally held back, using the Firetooth crossbow and mazing enemies when Omen was overly swarmed. Tar levelled up towards the end of this area and her special snares changed from Otilukes to Maze. This meant two things, firstly that she and Coreheal could lay more snares to greet un-mazed opponents - much to Coreheals delight, you learn (or remember) something every day
Secondly of course, Tar threw a special snare at a drow with spell turning active. So all enemies except one were mazed but so was Tar. She had a bit of a panic about this until Omen and Coreheal said this was fine in a party. Of course it is. Phew
With the western tunnels completed and the blood of a kuo-toa prince in our possession we had little need to clear the beholder nest or illithid lair. Other than Tar wanting to get High Level Abilities sooner rather than later. Why? Well take your pick
So we pushed bravely on into the beholder nest. Shadows, sanctuary, and cloak of mirroring. Omen puts in more overtime and at one stage has around a dozen gauth and beholders trying to surround him. To no avail, he clears the area almost single-handedly while Coreheal and Tar have little to do but level-up while Omen does not
Next is the illithid lair. It goes quite smoothly until one chamber is strangely empty. Omen doesn't blink, racing into the next room while Tar is preparing a trap to the north leaving Coreheal to enter the chamber just as the game decides to plop a group of illithid and umber hulks in. He manages to keep calm and make his way out but Omen has returned with another group hot on his heels. Many enemies. Omen gasps out that it may be too dangerous even for him and briefly wishes they were spread out a bit. Tar throws in a special snare and at least half the enemies are mazed
We start to clear up but the illithid return quickly and we retreat. Coreheal and Omen are both down to 6 intelligence and Tar finally remembers what Coreheal had asked in session 6 or 7. She throws four potions of genius in his direction, leaving many other intelligence boosting potions in her container. Coreheal is very gleeful and we return to the offensive
At some point Omen tries to open a second stubborn door in the same fashion as the earlier one - by dragging a mind flayer to it. This time he has three of them and grumbles that he thought he was close enough (he was but you first have to get the message to appear, and then return for the door to open). After suitable advice from Tar he runs a second loop around the room and hey presto the door is open. We celebrate by flaying the flayers
Not much left, we clear chambers north-east and south then only the final brain room is left. Omen enters, and Coreheal follows. Tar has waited outside and after unlocking the door twice more (these flayers have constructed it well) she tosses in a special snare. As Omen and Coreheal bash the two brain golems it is wryly remarked that the elder brain has been mazed. With such intelligence we expect a rapid return but no it takes perhaps 10 rounds and has no support against our final attack
With elder brain, elder blood and elder eyestalk we are surely prepared for whatever lies ahead. Tar sulks a bit as Omen gets his first High Level Ability - although she has more XP her next level is still a bit away. We rest up and with no drow timer yet known we decide we should rest here for a week before resuming - an hour earlier in the UK but usual time for Coreheal as our clock-changes are staggered
The bag of holding has helped manage inventory but Tar regrets not taking the missile container - not that she would have used the many kuo-toa and sahuagin bolts first collected and identified then eventually discarded
Omen has AC -8 (multiplayer not showing the correct value)
Coreheal has AC -7
Session stats:
Deaths : 0
Party members mazed: Tar
Party members with intelligence 1 from Mind-Flayerism: Omen
Previous part found here
Hilariously, Seniyaad dies immediately to five Magic Missiles, and we proceed to the Spider Area.
We don't bother trying to disarm the Web traps, instead just triggering them with an invisible character.
Fighter/Mage/Thief quaffs a Potion of Freedom, dons some armor and, after a few Wand of Fire Scorchers, clears Centeol's hideout.
The Shadow Druid area is next; we don't even need to bother with Silence 15' Radius, as massed Magic Missile serves just as well for preventing Druid spellcasting. We move on, easily clearing the Wyvern cave (under full buffs, we can handle melee and ranged combat fairly well).
Time to descend into yet another mine, but first we must deal with Drasus.
I considered having someone move invisibly to the east, Charm Kysus using Algernon's Cloak, then have the former waste his spells: There's no point trying to have Kysus help you, as his script turns him hostile as soon as Drasus has said his piece.
In the end, I settled for a frontal assault instead, led by Skeleton Warriors. Drasus doesn't have the HP or AC to survive that kind of combined melee and ranged pressure for long, and Rezdan's defenses are usually much weaker than Kysus': Both Drasus and Rezdan drop within a few rounds, swiftly followed by Genthore. As tends to be the case, Kysus is the last man standing, but a Spell Thrust and several Detect Invisibility later, a Chromatic Orb spells his end, and we have access to the mines.
Some SCS BG1 mages like to spam the Monster Summoning spells; an easy counter to this is Sleep, as we see here.
Something unusual happens as we press into the mines: Hareishan and her gaggle of guards join the fray as we fight the guards to the north of their barracks.
Things turn a bit chaotic, but there's room to move around here (unlike in the corridor to the east, from where we usually launch our assault), and Hareishan is an Enchantress this time around, so we just make sure her big spells never hit more than one character, and then she's not very dangerous at all.
Natasha kills off her own guards with a Cone of Cold, then just casts a few largely ineffectual Magic Missiles before three Skeleton Warriors take her down.
The Ogre Mage is just Commanded and chopped down.
The way is now clear to Davaeorn, whom we tackle in customary fashion: Send someone invisibly forward, D gives his speech, the Battle Horrors move north.
We then retreat towards the entrance, swiftly destroy the Battle Horrors, and deal with the (I forget if it's four or five) waves of guards, all without D being bothered in the slightest. Then we just let D chew on Skeleton Warriors. Works every time, unless D teleports into you... though he's typically out of the big spells by then (protagonist should of course be invisible the whole time, for safety).
Good thing so many Skeleton Warriors survived, since we'd be hard-pressed to tackle the Mustard Jelly down here without their help.
OK! Baldur's Gate is open to us. We methodically move through the city: Mage/Thief gets the DEX tome, bringing him to 16 DEX, and of course Cleric gets the WIS tome, bringing her to 18 WIS.
We manage to stun Lothander before he gets away, netting us a pair of Boots of Speed for Fighter/Mage/Thief.
We've got the tools to handle almost any encounter now, though very high-level Mages are still troublesome: Sunin gets a good lick in at Blade, but we deal with the former using repeated Wand of Fire Scorchers (Sunin is inexplicably immune to Stun, and I always forget it, so typically waste the first round trying Wands of Paralyzation).
Oh, it's also time for Enchanter to bite the dust again.
Again, he wasn't far off a chunking there... Stoneskin for everyone sure would be nice.
Anyway, we raise Enchanter and proceed on our merry way. Technically he is a high-level Mage, but Ramazith is tremendously weak, in part because he just has almost no hitpoints, in part because he doesn't get Mirror Image, being a Necromancer. Just... skelly him.
The INT tome goes to Enchanter, taking him to 16 INT. No big difference, but he now gets by on just two Potions of Genius to reach 100% scribing success rate. Invoker will be scribing so little in the long run, it seems a better fit on Enchanter... but thinking back now, maybe 16 INT on Invoker to guard against Mind Flayers would've been a good idea? Eh.
And that's it? We've cleared all combat encounters in the Gate barring the Iron Throne, and there was never a close call.
We celebrate by reducing our reputation to 18 by accident, as I wanted to check if there's anything worth stealing in the Gate, and got caught out in a crummy General Store by two Flaming Fists.
There are some decent potions, including a Potion of Mind Focusing in the store in the northeastern area (and weirdly, three Splint Mail +1 in total), but it really wasn't worth the time, not even robbing the Silvershield Estate.
We lick our figurative reputation-induced wounds, then ascend the Iron Throne. Same procedure as always: Lure the two Thieves out using a Skeleton Warrior patsy, deal with the former, then just do a Skeleton Warrior all-out charge.
The Thieves stand no chance on their own, and amusingly, a Greater Malison followed by a Cloud of Pestilence ensures every enemy is blinded, making them very easy prey for the ensuing Chaos (the spell).
Zhalimar puts up a decent fight, taking down a Skeleton Warrior, but the party never even takes a hit.
Around here, Invoker does his first scribing session, learning a bundle of useful spells: We won't have to be so stingy with scribing once we're out of BG1.
The reason for this scribing spree is that we're off for Balduran's Isle, in pursuit of the (to be imported) Chain Mail +3.
Gotta eke every little advantage we can out of our starting position in BG2, given how weak this party will be unless they're fully buffed and bristling with arcane artillery...
Once on the Isle proper, we clear the outdoors, then start working our way up the ship: Cleric goes in first, rounds up all melee enemies, then Fighter/Mage/Thief and Blade pop in to take everything down from range.
We then exploit Invisibility 10' Radius to move the entire party to the south of Karoug's floor, while Cleric initiates the encounter.
Daese is swiftly Spell Thrusted and then Scorchered into changing her form, but Cleric has a very hard time holding off this many Werewolves.
A fully buffed Fighter/Mage/Thief joins the fray with the Sword of Balduran, but it's not so easy beating Karoug's regeneration.
Finally, a volley of Magic Missiles spells our victory: Good thing too, we didn't have much left.
Though I suppose we could've just retreated if things turned really bad and come back later.
We return to the mainland and, compared to Karoug, two Loup Garous aren't really that problematic (especially since it turns out you can hit them with Stone Fist, which feels like an oversight): Balduran's Isle, cleared. Hooray!
Time for that most dreaded spot then; Durlag's Tower. Dreaded because random Thief skill point distribution means, even exploiting Bracers of Dexterity and Cat's Grace to hit 25 DEX, we need three Potions of Perception for 100 Find Traps, so we really can't faff about, but must be efficient (there aren't so many of these potions in total).
By now, the Warders are no concern at all, and we swiftly descend (though Enchanter took a backstab, bringing him to 8 HP...).
This level is my most hated, because the Greater Dopplegangers here are potentially so extremely powerful, as we are about to witness. We clear the initial rooms, the northern throne room, and head west... where this happens.
Oh... no. The Lesser Earth Elemental has literally boxed Cleric in, and it proceeds to quite mercilessly clobber her. At the same time, of course, Islanne turns into Durlag, who hits very nearly all the time for 20-30 damage.
We shift gears, putting everything we have into killing the Elemental to allow Cleric to flee, and just about manage it before Cleric comes too close for comfort to being chunked.
Ugh. Islanne and Durlag are a bit too powerful I think, especially given how (more or less) harmless Fuernebol and Kiel are.
Still, we muddle on through, clear the rest of the level absent incident, and descend further.
The eastern gardens down here are slowly cleared: The Ashirukurus are more annoying than usual, going Invisible right away after attacking, but we still come out on top.
We incinerate the Skeleton Archers using Wands of Fire before they can fire a single shot, netting us a bundle of Arrows of Dispelling, which are quite crucial for the Sarevok fight, given that I'm using the component which removes all Arrows of Dispelling from stores.
There's another scare as we start tackling the elemental rooms: The Air Aspect nearly does Cleric in.
She just doesn't have the hitpoints to hold the line against hard- and fast-hitting enemies, but until Fighter/Mage/Thief hits Mage level 7, we have no options.
The Greater Wyverns are cleared uneventfully, we rest up under Invisibility 10' Radius, and tackle the Chessboard.
There are no risks taken here: A massive Fireball barrage leaves just a very badly wounded King and two very frightened Pawns that escaped by the skin of their teeth (though not for long).
The final level is easier: Greater Ghouls are a hassle, but we methodically work our way through, assisted by Skeleton Warriors.
There are no close calls, the level is cleared, and we teleport out. No point risking the Demon Knight or the fight(s) in Ulgoth's Beard; we're done here.
For our final Sword Coast venture, we pickpocket a few things (successfully). Notably Thalantyr has a Potion of Mind Focusing, if you, like we, are severely strapped for these and willing to risk angering him.
Shandalar also has a bunch of level 4/5 arcane spell scrolls, though nothing more exciting than Feeblemind (still better than nothing).
Yes, we pickpocketed him before taking off for Ice Island, since I can't recall if he auto-talks to you once you teleport back or not.
The plan was to speak to him immediately if the pickpocket failed, but as we succeeded, it's all good anyway: We head for Ice Island.
A single blast from a Wand of Fire sends Andris running, but he soon returns.
My intent was to just Scorcher him down, but I accidentally went for Fireball instead...
No CON modifiers is rough; a single Fireball can potentially do half the party in.
Still, Andris falls, and we proceed throughout the maze: The only other serious threat here is Tellan, but he turned out to be an Enchanter, so after Protection from Magical Weapons (!) and Flesh to Stone (!!) aimed at a Skeleton Warrior, didn't really accomplish much.
We finish by clobbering Dezkiel for his Stoneskin scroll, and return home.
There's very little left to do, but we swing by the Red Wizards; Skeleton Warriors and a Cloud of Pestilence + Cloudkill combo dismantles the former in complete safety. Now, finally, let us move to the endgame: Back to Candlekeep.
The Ogre Magi ambush really isn't that bad, as they're quite low level, though we pre-empt a Horror by Remove Fear (Invoker quaffs a Potion of Invisibility for safety).
We leave the Iron Throne leadership their lives (briefly), are incarcerated, bust out, and cleanse the crypts; Invoker gets the STR tome bringing him to 18 STR, and Cleric gets the WIS tome bringing her to 19 WIS, which is quite respectable for a random-stat priest.
Prat and company are treated to Skeleton Warriors and Cloudkill, and we emerge unscathed.
Upon our return to the Gate, everyone does a last bid of scribing: Now everyone has at least some decent options (though BG1 choices for arcane spell levels 4 and especially 5 are rather lackluster).
We save a single Potion of Mind Focusing, since Cleric is illiterate (8 INT...), and we want her to be able to use a Scroll of Protection from Magic for the final fight. Yes, this unfortunately means she can't use a Wand of the Heavens.
Cythandria, Slythe and Krystin all feel the force of Skeleton Warriors and Enchanter-cast Chaos.
We start the Palace battle, Skeleton Warriors leading the way; for reasons unknown, the Doppleganger Assassin backstabs a Flaming Fist rather than Enchanter, not that I mind.
We swiftly crush the Assassin and Shaman: Meanwhile, the heavily buffed Skeleton Warriors have brought low the Greater Dopplegangers, and we now gang up on the Mage.
Scraping the bottom of the Potion of Perception barrel, we de-trap and subsequently trundle through yet another maze, arriving in the Undercity.
A Fireball barrage doesn't quite wipe out Rahvin's party, though he obliges by taking himself out using his Arrows of Detonation.
Cleric unfortunately gets a head of herself and charges in just as the second Fireball barrage is launched.
Sloppy play by me. Good thing Shaldrissa lost morale, or she might have well finished off Cleric.
We talk Tamoko down, rest up, and enter the temple.
I'll try my usual strategy of 2-3 buffed bruisers under Protection from Magic, assisted by summons, with the rest of the party hiding invisibly. Of course, our bruisers aren't so good at administering bruises, but hopefully it'll work out anyway.
Things kind of go off the rails a bit, but we recover: Blade has to lead basically everyone but Diarmid (our first target, since he uses Arrows of Dispelling) around by the nose while Cleric, Fighter/Mage/Thief and our Skeleton Warriors slowly grind down the former.
Successfully, I migh add.
We pop out the Arrows of Dispelling. I initially give up on dispelling Sarevok's haste, since Fighter/Mage/Thief doesn't have great THAC0, instead opting to strip Angelo of his defenses; this works fine, and we swiftly deal with Angelo, followed by Tazok.
Yeah, all this time, we have to use Skeleton Warriors to help us actually kill the enemy, so someone is always acting as a decoy to keep Sarevok from killing off our summons.
Semaj runs out of big spells and starts trying to whack us with his staff.
It turns out that Wand of Fire Scorcher can be fired from inside Protection from Magic, which I found funny; Semaj was not so amused.
With no cronies left, we finally get Sarevok under control (and dispel his Haste).
He puts in a good showing, costing us some Wand of Monster Summoning charges, but ultimately the outcome is not in doubt.
BG1, done.
As expected, this party was (and will continue to be, for the foreseeable future) heavily dependent on proper buffing and arcane firepower to supplement our woefully weak physical abilities.
We must be very, very careful not to get caught in a rest-restricted situation without the proper spellworks available, lest things take an ugly turn.
Still, Invoker will eventually dual, and soon(ish) Fighter/Mage/Thief will have access to Stoneskin, which combined with Mirror Image will at least let him tank 1-2 major encounters per rest, which should help a lot.
Indeed, once we get more Stoneskin scrolls, Blade can take over tanking duties if necessary, though we are so strapped for damage options I prefer having him using a shortbow...
Anyway. We'll be importing into SoD, both because I'm aiming for a full quadrilogy run, and because given our party setup, the extra spell scrolls (and experience!) found there will make early BG2 much less grueling.
More to come!
We buffed up and entered to Throne of Bhaal. Balty cast Lunar Stance for Time Stop immunity and Tziri used a Time Stop scroll. With our two Whirlwinds we managed to Vorpal the other Solar with Ravager +6. At the same time Balty almost killed Bodhi. Using second Time Stop scroll, we Vorpalled the other Solar with AoU+5 and Balty managed to kill Bodhi. Imoen also buggered off, which left just Irenicus. And after he was softened with Elementals, Balty then just punched him out.
First pool Balty concentrated on Babaus and Cambions, and Tziri kited the Nabassu and Glabrezu with WoW. Balty is good on dealing the annoying Babaus as he sees through invisibility too. After that we found Marilith which we also Stoned, and Alu-Fiends which Balty punched to death. We could tank everything, so when everyone was hitting Tziri, Balty punished them. It didn't matter if Cambion got us to 100 Thac0. Lastly we still found three more Nabassus from the pool, but they couldn't do anything either. It took some kiting with Balty, because he was getting low on health, but soon all was punched to death. Got immunity to Maze and Imprisonment, and Dimesion Door ability. Our health also got restored.
Second pool was mostly same, but here was also Balor's and Succubus, and we equipped Blackrazor to stop their Charm spell. First only one Succubus, Nabassu, Babau and Cambion followed. Balty was Held, but we managed to distract the enemies so he recovered. Balty is huge help of dealing damage, and soon punched them out. Lured more enemies out of the pool and Glabrezu was stoned, and others punched by Balty. But once the last of the enemies came out, including Balor and Marilith, the kiting became chaotic as they also all had Haste. They also gated even more enemies. So we teleported Balty to lower pool which was closed with Faster than Eye ability. Continuing kiting and Balor and Marilith were soon stoned. Then we lured others one by one to lower pool to be punched by Balty. Then there was just one Succubus and Cambion left, and we first tried to lure the Succubus away. But we forgot to equip Blackrazor again, and that was it. It got us with Charm -8 v Spell, which had about 1/5 chance for charming us with -4 saves.
The LoB Ascension end battle continues to punish even small mistakes, and there's so much going on that concentration is really the key. Perhaps I was too worried about Balty getting killed, because I wanted him to atleast help in the last pool, that we didn't really think our own safety enough. Well this is not the first time the Succubus ended our run here.