With his shooting becoming steadily less effective, Restless decided it was time to switch to item use as his primary means of combat. Thus there was no real concern about doing lots of travel any more. First though he was keen to do at least one more shooting encounter - and headed to find Drizzt. A potion of magic blocking protected against both his charm attempts and Restless switched to a sling and used a cloud giant strength potion to boost his damage with critical hits to 12. When that ended he switched to frost giant (10 damage) and then stone giant (also 10 damage net of Drizzt's physical resistance). The final potion lasted just long enough to see the back of the drow.
Temple donations took reputation back to 12 before Restless headed for the coast. A fireball and a few magic missiles killed some worgs to get another reputation point before a potion of clarity and wand scorchers accounted for 6 sirines - that allowed Restless to get to level 7/7. He just dodged the golems in the cave while collecting their treasure. The tome from there, plus Buckley's Buckler, allows constitution regeneration - so reducing the need to pay temple healing in future.
The Cloud Peak Mountains yielded some more reputation to push that up to 20, along with the charisma tome (allowing friends to get charisma to 20). The fire wand did most of the killing there.
Looking for a bit more money, Restless went in search of Bassilus. The cleric ignored damage from the wand of frost to complete his rigid thinking spell, but Restless had stepped back out of sight before that hit and was able to wait out the effect. Back at High Hedge Melicamp failed to survive, but Restless bought various scrolls and potions and recharged the fire wand. He then spent a while in bringing various stashes of equipment together before using several potions of genius - to both learn scrolls and identify items to save paying for that. During that phase Restless also fire-bombed the Red Wizards to get the Ring of Energy as another damaging alternative.
A quick trip to Watcher's Keep saw a number of enemies die in fire, while Riggilo was treated to a first use of the wand of paralysation. By that stage Restless was at the XP cap, so intended to complete the rest of BGEE in one session in order to keep the XP earned over the cap. A PFM scroll allowed Restless to get the tome as well as kill the ghost and do some extra looting. A PfP scroll was added to deal with the basilisks on the roof (he used his sword there as the bonus for attacking enemies without a melee weapon helped counter his fatigue).
Ulgoth's Beard happily took all Restless' money in exchange for a few more scrolls and fully charged wands of frost, paralysation and monster summoning. Then he finally started dealing with the encounters in Baldur's Gate. That provided enough funding to buy desirable potions and scrolls and allow another binge of learning spells. I accidentally chose the wrong dialogue option with Yago and he disappeared, but otherwise things went pretty smoothly - or so I thought at the time ...
With most of the encounters completed I decided to do a bit of inventory management - including collecting together items previously stored at Durlag's Tower and Beregost. I also nipped over to the coast to hand over a cursed ring there. While doing that I noticed a message briefly appear in the corner of the map along the lines of "you've been poisoned" and realised that one of the few things left to do in Baldur's Gate was complete the poison quest. I hastened back there, but collapsed on arrival.
Progress up to that point was easier than I expected and I don't think it should be too difficult in principle to do a full no-reload without resting. SoD should be easy as you can get a helmet near the start that cancels fatigue penalties and there are huge amounts of resources available in that game. BG2EE wouldn't be as easy, but you can get to quite a high level with little travel in order to minimise fatigue penalties and rely largely on fighting abilities to make progress. Use of things like wish resting and spell trap should then make the later game perfectly manageable while concentrating on spell use.
With all the characters over-levelled for this stage making progress was pretty easy. While there were a few mistakes, none of them proved costly and the 6 remaining characters will have the chance to tackle ToB.
Summary points of interest for each class Stalker - the change back to a character with relatively poor saving throws meant more care was necessary. I'm not sure if I reacted quickly enough to equip the shield of harmony to protect against a domination from a yuan-ti mage in Spellhold, though no saving throw was shown. I was definitely at risk when saving against paralysation from Adalon after being malisoned. However, I survived and the +2 saving throws from the hell trials will help in ToB. I also managed to get back Blackrazor in the hell trials after initially giving that up to avoid falling - the strength bonus, healing and level drain abilities make that probably my favorite weapon in the game for fighter types.
Dragon Disciple - I again mainly attacked from distance using spells and summons and made pretty short and easy work of it. The only problem was in the final fight with Irenicus when the slayer was beaten down and changed back to Irenicus' natural form, but failed to give his final dialogue. The game wouldn't allow a rest and a planetar healing him didn't help. In the end I reluctantly permitted a reload as I decided I couldn't have predicted this bug - and this time Jon's speech came on cue.
Cleric dualling to thief - I continued on immediately with this character, after the dragon disciple. That resulted in a strong temptation to take more risks at a time when the character was still rather vulnerable. However, I managed to just about keep things under control and was never in real danger.
Kensai - by the latter stages of SoA the kensai has good saving throws and enough hits that a critical is no longer a particular danger. Progress is thus easy as long as you keep a close watch on HPs against multiple attacking enemies - and I had no real problems in getting through to ToB.
Blade - early on I was caught out by the change from kensai to blade when not checking my saves. I had a 5% chance of failing when hit by a shadow fiend, but got away with it. The only other save problem noted was when I was scared by a symbol spell from a demon knight in the Underdark. Only one of those had survived traps though and it failed to get to grips with me. One other problem was that I surprisingly failed to get Blackrazor, despite having a full complement of summons and a simmy attacking the genie. I was still thinking about what went wrong there when I did the dialogue with Sarevok and chose the wrong option - getting unneeded wisdom and charisma there rather than strength.
Cleric - as has been the pattern in this series of runs, I took a bit more care with this character than some and had no problems on the way to deal with Jon.
No pause + no-reload = no chance? Caesar, dwarf berserker {10} (update 1) Previous run
Looking to have another little break from my long-life runs, I decided to pick up this challenge that I've not tried for a while. The last time I tried this I partly died as a result of the time it takes to select rage and, to try and avoid that problem, I attempted to assign a hot key to do this quicker. I was unable to work out how to do that using the LUA file though - if anyone knows how to do this I would be grateful ...
My rules related to pausing are:
1) Autopause of any sort is not allowed.
2) Pausing using the space bar / clockwork button is not allowed.
3) Pausing to look at inventory / record screen / options is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (including outside visual range).
4) Pausing for dialogue is allowed, but only for normal conversation.
5) Pausing for map screen is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (exception: travel can be initiated when running away from enemies, but once map screen is open then travel is required rather than going back to the same area).
As in all my runs, AI is disabled to prevent auto-targeting using that.
Caesar picked up some early XP from Shoal (first attacking her from range to prevent her initiating a kiss). A few tasks in Beregost included taking on the spiders - they managed to poison Caesar once, but that was insufficient to cause him any real problem. Beating up Karlat got him a 4th level.
Caesar gained a shield upgrade from Bjornin's half-ogres and picked up some better armor in Nashkel. With his improved defenses he risked taking on Meilum to get his bracers and a magical sword.
After beating up the belt ogre and handing in Landrin's goods, Caesar was close to another level and got that by rescuing Samuel. With the extra HPs from that he felt confident in taking on the golems at High Hedge and managed both of those without resting. He bought a potion case and then completed his container collection by successfully using his non-proficient sling on Neera.
He then decided it was time to have a go at some basilisks. Normally I just use Korax for that, but with the constraint of no pause that would have been more risky and Korax might not have remained charmed long enough to deal with all the opponents. Thus, Caesar invested in a green PfP scroll and killed most of the basilisks on his own - gaining a 6th level in the process. He did recruit Korax to take on Mutamin and then Kirian's crew. Most of those died easily enough, but Lindin managed several hits and forced Caesar to run away and rest before finishing the job. At the time I assumed that was just bad luck, but looking at a screenshot Caesar had his sling quipped against Lindin - that was initially used to drag Baerin & Peter away from the others and I must have failed to change that.
Bassilus proved no match for rage and reviving Melicamp provided a nice bonus before Caesar headed for the seaside. His rage lasted long enough to deal with the sirines and gain him a 7th level. The tome also activated constitution regeneration for a nice bonus - though that's slightly less useful for a berserker as the bug that allows unused rage abilities to heal on rest has never been corrected in the EE. More sirines were killed in Shoal's area before Caesar hit 20 reputation by clearing a bunch of ankhegs and returning an acid-burned son to his father.
Before doing some shopping, Caesar took a trip through the Cloud Peak mountains to get the charisma tome - that trip started by massacring Greywolf in order to further improve his long sword collection. After spending nearly all his money, Caesar used his new amulet of missiles to help take down the Red Wizards. With another level not far off, Caesar decided to take on the Doomsayer and comfortably defeated him. Now he's at the level cap he will probably be heading for the Nashkel Mine next.
Here's his current character record and inventory.
When I first tried this challenge many years ago I found it extremely difficult to avoid pausing. However, that's seemed much easier to resist recently, making decent progress with this challenge feel much more likely.
The Nashkel Mine was soon cleared. Mulahey never had any real chance, but the amazons outside the mine have sometimes caused Caesar problems in previous runs. This time though all 4 went down very quickly. A single slash disposed of Nimbul despite his mirror images, while Tranzig lasted only 2. There were also no problems with the Bandit Camp - the use of the Horn of Kazgaroth there being not really needed.
Caesar had bought a potion of freedom that could have been used in the second Cloakwood area, but didn't actually take that. That could have caused a problem when he accidentally triggered a web trap near the final Ettercap, but fortunately Caesar saved against the effect there. He had a protection from poison scroll ready in a quick slot, but didn't need to use that while fetching Spider's Bane. At the mine, Drasus & Genthore were pulled away and cut down before Caesar used rage and the Horn of Kazgaroth against the wizards. Inside, Caesar worked down to the bottom level and pulled the battle horrors back for disposal. He used a potion of magic blocking against the traps before cornering Davaeorn.
The encounters in Baldur's Gate generally went well. The one with Larze was a bit amusing when Caesar accidentally stunned him with his first attack. Caesar had bought a few darts of stunning to have a go at Lothander. Despite successfully blocking the stairs he failed to target Lothander before the thief disappeared and then didn't change weapons before tackling Larze. At the Iron Throne the clerics were pulled up and down stairs to dodge their spells. The mages were killed by a first use of fireballs.
In Candlekeep Caesar considered using a scroll of PfM against traps, but ultimately just relied on HPs. The phase spiders died in fireballs. Two potions of magic protection ensured there were no problems from Prat's gang. I couldn't remember if that would protect against the basilisk gaze, so added in a mirrored eyes potion for them.
Before returning to the City, Caesar took a trip to Durlag's Tower. A scroll of PfM could have allowed him to loot quite extensively, but as he'd already got all the resources he might need there didn't seem much point in that. Caesar accidentally killed Riggilo before handing over the 'nymph hair' so lost out on some potential XP there.
For the final encounters Caesar beat up Slythe without taking any damage. At the palace he used potion buffs, allowing him to take down the dopplegangers very quickly. That was a good job too as they made short work of Belt and would soon have killed Liia if Caesar had not finished them off in time. The maze inhabitants didn't last long, but Caesar still rested before chucking fireballs at the Undercity party. Inside the old temple Caesar used a couple of PfE scrolls and repeatedly triggered the lightning bolt trap. He wasn't particularly scared of a fair fight, but wanted to ensure the detonation arrows were not wasted. Once Angelo was finally dead (Tazok and Semaj are far easier to hit), Caesar buffed a bit and closed in on Sarevok to deliver the kill. I appear to have been a fraction too late to get the screenshot there, but I don't think Sarevok managed a hit.
Caesar transferred to SoD with 484k XP, i.e. he's already almost at the XP limit for that game ...
Berserker L9, 116 HPs (inc. 5 from Helm), 495 kills
Oh dear. I really shouldn't have said I was finding not pausing easier . I had been trying to avoid pausing by keeping my left arm away from the keyboard. Starting the game in the early morning though I forgot to do that in the first seconds of play and, immediately after throwing out a fireball, tapped the space bar by reflex ...
For me personally Stysich is the most hateful character of the Baldur's Gate universe, and I really do mean that. A complete outlier of run ending allies. The guy has to be a Crusader Spy.
Maybe just an anarchist .
That, makes even more sense.
The thing is you can't really avoid his Dispel in LoB, because you need to tank the enemies. Otherwise you risk them going for the barrels. The mage wave is the best way to deal him, because it's the most stable and easiest of them. I wonder if there's other tactic here, maybe trying to Charm him during the break time?
We learned the last time, that using summons through Farsight v Draconis now activates him. So we used single Elemental to pull his spells. His Fallen Planetar nicely killed all four of his Invisible Stalkers. After waiting Planetar out, we continued sending Elementals. After he was out of spells single Skeli was able to turn him to Dragon form. We kept 3 Skelis in reserves, but Draconis Death Field still killed them, even if they were the other side of the map. Kept sending Elementals to pull his defenses out. Then we used our last Farsight, and attacked with Clone and Deva. Clone attacked with Answerer Crits, and in the mean time Athena cast Harm and used her own Critical Strike to kill the Dragon.
The entrance level against Greater Werewyvern and potent Lizard Men was done by single rest, first casting Deva from Sanctuary to tank. Anadramatis is very easy with Farsight, as she doesn't agro if she doesn't see you. Skelis casually made him to talk, surrender and die. After Cespenar built Yellow Dragon Scale from his scales, we quite easily wiped the Kuo-toa.
In the Quadruble Dragon ambush we used Grandmaster Armor to get triple speed, and kited them with Wand of Wonder. Apparently Cloak of Mirroring doesn't protect from Dragon Breath even though uesp so claims. It does protect from their Melf's Acid Arrows, which can be very potent with two of them casting double of them, and being Hasted. Carnifex managed to Powerword Blind us through Spell Turning, but we drank Oil of Speed for Quadruble speed, and continued easily kiting even his Hasted form. In the end it took just 19 hits from WoW to petrify all of them. Eyeball area was just ran through, and after building Big Metal Unit, we stoned FII'Y for the 12h Improved Invisibility ring.
The fight v Tamah and Frost Salamanders required us to switch to Superior healing potions as Tamah was doing too much damage. At some point Tamah went Ethereal and buggered off as she usually does. And after resting in Pocket Plane she just stood still and accepted her death. Easily hunted the four Drakes one by one.
Athena v Abazigal
Sent in Elemental to spend Abazigal's Oil of Speed. We buffed up and with four Skelis easily turned him into the Dragon form. Started kiting his PfMW out, he Dispelled us and we drank Speed and Invul, and continued kiting. After his Haste was out we hit him couple of times to confirm he didn't have any more protections. And it was go time, we cast Clone who cast Improved Haste and attacked Abi with Answerer, Athena cast Harm and Critical Strike... but Aba evaded it somehow. He possibly still had some Spell protection on. Time to double tank, and we both cast AoF and Hardiness to get 85 DR with DoEH. And Aba didn't survive our 16 apr Criticals.
Slayer was nobody in the third Pocket challenge, got Dark Taint. In Sendai Enclave we Stoned first the Deer and then the Woodcutter with WoW, which revealed the Drow but took out the two casters. Got 15 Superiors and 16 Invis potions from the outside level. Inside we used SoC to Charm the Spore Colonies and watched the mayhem. Then we easily cleared the level with Clone and Deva. Thelynn didn't survive a round of 10apr Crits, and we then used Smite to break free and escape.
Lured Yochol and Glabrezus away to be killed by our gang, 2xPfU and Rune Hammer MoD combo for Odamaron. Built Carsomyr +6, Spectral Brand +5, and Short Sword of Mask +5 which was going to serve us well soon after. After luring the Greater Earth Elementals away from Ogremoch we cast Clone and Deva. Clone hit Ogremoch with Answerer, but Athena's Harm again failed... and we were in a world of pain. Because we didn't have Blackrazor +3 either, we had to turn to Short Sword of Mask +5 and its 15% of lv1 drain. Because there really isn't fighting Ogremoch head on, as he Dispels every hit, has unlimited casting Stoneskins, and does insane amount of damage, and can sleep four rounds with -6 v Spell which we can't protect against. DoEH and Roranach's Horn gives 70 DR v Crushing, and we used all our AoF and Hardinesses one by one. And it was slow business getting the needed hits. But luckily he started to miss eventually and before our AoF/Hardiness were out. And after like three in game hours he was dead. By far the most dangerous enemy to this point.
Diyatha died in few rounds, as did Captan Egeissag. Last of the Mindies, 19xMind Focus, Absorption, Invul and we grinded them in about hour and half. The last Wizards were killed by Elementals.
Athena v Sendai
We buffed accordingly with DR and Regeneration and first concentrated on Cleric Statue, who could cast Deva and ruin our escape by Invisibility. After it was killed we drank Invis and made our escape to Pocket Plane. Another go and after killing just one of the extremely potent Drows with -30 Thac0 and Whirwinds, we saw Dispel coming, and we timed our Invis potion after it hit. Another rest in Pocket Plane. And so it went, sometimes picking just one Drow, sometimes three, but we always escaped after the Dispel hit. After the Drows eventually were dead, we lured the Mages with Fire Elementals away from the rest and they were killed too. After that we started hunting the statues one by one. We left casting statue last, but it managed to cast Planetar who saw us and started hunting. We used Speed and Invul to just kite it out. Then Earth Elementals killed the last statue, and real Sendai arrived. Which is kind of anticlimactic, as she doesn't see through Invisibilty. So we could just keep sending Elementals to waste her spells. And she was killed soon after.
Favored of Cyric had no chance v Athena and Clone in 4th Pocket challenge, got Hand of Murder. Took Neera for short stroll and she was killed by Red Wizards in a ambush. We used SoC to charm and getting them killed one by one. The battle at Thay arena took about 10 Superior potions to survive even with our 85 DR. After it was done we resurrected Neera and sent her home. Shopped in Thayan market, mostly for Golden Girdle and second Wand of Wonder. Then we played cat&mouse game with Szass Tam around the market. Szass is by far the spell caster of the game. He first cast 3 Time Stops, then Wished them back and did it again. But we used Fire Elementals as decoyes and he hardly saw us. It still took full Staff of Fire to deplete his spell repertoire. Then he was hunted and boxed in by Skelis and after a while he couldn't take it anymore and sent us back. Getting back to Amkehtran, Saemon was still alive obviously, as he can even evade the console. We convinced Balty to join us for the battle in Throne of Bhaal with 2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1-1 dialogue choices.
Athena v the Ravager
We used summon door trick, and lured the Bone Blades to another pocket. Cavalier can acces the easy way of killing the Ravager and that is a Reflection Shield. And after a while it killed itself with its own missiles, and we got 25 DR.
Athena - Half-Orc Cavalier (solo LoB SCS Ascension) Final update
Athena v Throne of Bhaal
Starting the fight we managed to Vorpal the other Solar with Ravager +6 Whirlwind, but we were also Dispelled by their arrows. So we backed off, equipped Reflection Shield and rebuffed. Using Balty's Faster than Eye ability, we teleported him to one of the pools so I wouldn't have to micromanage two characters. His AI can be quite annoying, as he always homes onto PC or fights enemies if he sees them. After some kiting Imoen left, and we managed to Vorpal the second Solar. Pulled Balty back and together we killed Bodhi. But not until she managed to drain few levels from us. This was annoying as we would be fatigued after restoration. Then we used Elementals to deplete Irenicus, and Balty then punched him to death.
For the pool fights we chose the bottom right first, as it gives very useful Teleport power. And this time the Succuby Charms weren't going to stop us. We used a corridor as choke point to fight the mass, and every round I tried to WoW petrify the Marilith. Balty was stunned at some point, but recovered. But the WoW just wasn't getting the necessary hit, and Marilith kept spawning Skeleton Warriors. It's always something here. Killing Marilith normally would be very annoying with its ever casting PfMW's. We backed off, and started to kite them around the level, trying to pick them up one by one. At some point Balty got near death, but just after I saw him at full health. A second wind? There was 2xBabau, 2xNabassu, 2xAlu-Fiend, Cambion, Glabrezu and Marilith in this fight. Finally after no less than 34 hits from WoW the Marilith was Stoned. The last two Alu-Fiends were easy after that. Got immunity to Imprisonment and Maze, Teleport and Control Demon power, which we would find very useful soon after. And we were also Healed from our Fatigue.
For the next pool we teleported Balty to previous closed pool out of harms way. He's very useful to finish enemies and seeing the invisible Babau's. After Stoning the Balor with WoW, we tried Control Demon power, and omg was it ever good with 75% chance of controlling them. Got Glabrezu and Marilith with it, and Marilith started creating Skelis for us. Succuby Charm wasn't going to bother us, but it still managed to Drain few of our levels. At one point we were Panicked, although I don't know from where or how? Luckily this was near the end, and enemies were preoccubied with our Demons. After it was finished we got Focus v Time Stop, Disintegration and Flesh to Stone for 30s power, and Immunity for Slayer Taint, whatever that is?
Third pool was mostly the same. At this point I figured the best tactic, and it was to Control Demon Marilith, and it would start casting Skelis and tank the enemies. Then continuing Controlling them every 30s and using WoW in between to try to Stone them. Got immunity to Death and Vorpal effects.
Athena v the Big Six
Our plan was simple, teleport into one of the pools and hurt them from there. There was only two enemies that after initial mayhem, could continue bother us. And those were Illasera and Sendai with their ranged attacks. For this we needed natural 100 DR v missiles. And we achieved this by equipping Yellow Dragon Scale 50 DR, Belt of Inertial Barrier 25 DR, and from base 25 DR that we got from the Ravager. With this we could use the two handed Big Metal Rod to hurt all of them. Started the fight and we had accumulated 12 Magic Shieldings which we started using. After using four of them in quick succession I remembered that Illasera's arrows still Dispelled us. So we equipped Reflection Shield too. After tanking their spells, kiting the Planetar out, and killing their minor summons we started hitting Yaga with Firetooth +3, as he's the only one immune to Frag Grenades. But Sendai was hurting herself now too quickly from our Reflection Shield, so we had to unequip it. This meant that Illasera too started hitting us with her Magic Damage, so we needed constantly drink Health potions. Once Yaga was near death, we started using Frag Grenades to hit the others. Once all of them were near death our plan was to let Sendai kill herself to our Reflection Shield, buff up because Illasera could not Dispel us anymore, and introduce a trump card that was Balthazar.
Athena v Amelyssan
But we accidentally killed Sarevok before any of this plan happened and Amelyssan arrived. After trying to scramble with my thoughts what to do, we hit first Hardiness and pulled Balty out of the top pool, and he started hurting the Big Six. We also hit Focus v Time Stop, but Mel didn't cast it yet. She's usually very sneaky about it. Balty managed to punch Illasera (Dispel) and Yaga (immunity to Grenades) to death, but then Mel got into the fight and Balty was pretty quickly killed. We also were using Frag Grenades and managed to kill Abazigal and Gromnir. And Sendai who was supposed to be first killed, was the last one alive. We ranged her to death with Firetooth +3. Then we introduced another trump card, the Rift Device, or Devices, as we first used Clone to hit her with it. This Dispelled all her protections and more importantly reduced her health to 40% or to 500hp. I was afraid of using my own Rift Device immediately after that, because I didn't remember if the Solar's would Heal Mel. Then she used Time Stop, and we weren't fast enough to Focus against it. But it didn't really matter as she couldn't touch us directly, as she doesn't teleport onto you if she sees you and we were in a closed pool. After a while the Solar's buggered off or unsummoned, and we were comfortable using our Rift Device further reducing Mel to under 200 hp. And soon after using Freg Grenades on the other enemies and hitting Mel with area damage she dropped dead.
Finally after all these years and many tries managed to pull Cavalier through with LoB nR solo, although it took some tweaking. We used IWD-spell progression, but that didn't really do that much as Harm hardly worked v anyone, only Yaga and Draconis. And the spell progression is actually slower or harder at the beginning of SoA. Bigger change was the revised Hell Trials which allowed us to get -10 Thac0 instead of 25 STR/AC cap/-2 saves, and not fall. But that itself introduced some difficulty v Ogremoch. Was it a crucial chance? Perhaps, but maybe not. At least not at the end fight, as the tactics were pretty universal with Balty, closed pools, Wand of Wonder and Big Metal Rod. Some chars can't get Reflection Shield nor natural 100 DR v missiles, but that's their problem.
Interestingly Balty was also resurrected at the end, and it was nice to read about his life afterwards. On to the next one.
Thanks @Enuhal making the entry. I may have some chars from the other thread that are still missing from the Hall, but I've to go through it because I don't remember when those happened.
Jiddy and Chanceless were stood in the crypt with Imoen pointing at the door. "I'll stay here" she said, "you two shorties will be fine. Go ahead"
We looked at each other. Jiddy was considering the recklessness of Imoens comment while Chanceless no doubt was not thinking too much beyond go go go
Jiddy raced ahead, but Chanceless had boots of speed and effortlessly scooted into the lead. By the time Jiddy reached the bridge Chanceless had already convinced the mercenaries in the room beyond that they should surrender. That was a quick first area, so we looted their spoils and headed downstairs
Chanceless stopped to ask what the plan was. Jiddy had not expected this, having thought the fighter/thief would wade directly into combat but no. If Jiddy was being asked to come up with a plan he'd better come up with a good one. A very good plan
He fished about in his containers, and found a scroll of protection from undead. The plan would be for Chanceless to pick off the plenitude of undead while Jiddy patiently waited. One reason why this was a good plan, one why it was not. On the negative side, Chanceless' bladed weapon would be blunted against the skeletal undead while the quarterstaff wielded by Jiddy would be much more efficient
This was more than offset by the good part of the plan. Jiddy knew that Chanceless had a patience deficit and would be unable to wait for Jiddy to clear the undead. Jiddy almost felt guilty about withholding this fact from Chanceless but not enough to feel guilty for more than... no he's already absolved himself of any blame
So Chanceless deaded the undead, de-trapped the traps, unlocked the locks. Jiddy acted the part of a general, leading from the rear. Chanceless either ignored any feeling of being used as cannon-fodder or was happy to do his part. What a team
It's not long before we have cleared Korlasz' family tomb including the lady herself. Jiddy occasionally helped Chanceless by adding the odd set of wand summons, and by bagging various spoils of war
With the tomb cleared we return to the city and ducal palace. A bad nights sleep is followed by assassination attempts within the palace so we head out for Dragonspear. Our first stop is before a bridge, and while clear we should waste no time there are a few diversions. By the time we sate our interest in these and head to the bridge we find it has been blockaded and explosive barrels are in place. Just as we are in sight, the bridge is destroyed and we are forced to fight several determined defenders. By which we mean we cower behind a tent - Jiddy glugging a potion of invisibility while Chanceless chuckles as he runs from one side of the tent to the other and enemies do the same on the other side. This goes on long enough for their leader to get fed up and they depart
We move on in search of a new bridge. Through a scripted encounter we have to deal with trolls. Even for us these might be problematic but we use invisibility to gain the initiative, and then wear them down. Jiddy grabs the firefly sling to complement the fire arrows Chanceless is shooting and from that point the trolls drop one by one
The direct route from here is shortest (well duh) but we meander into a cave, past a dragon and into an abandoned temple of Bhaal lately of Cyric. Once more Jiddy demonstrates his leadership potential by thrusting Chanceless into tanking position. There are many bugbears in the way and Jiddy shows compassion for Chanceless by wanding in more summons. Good job he'd sold and repurchased the wand as several uses are required
Chanceless suggests we skip the guards and head straight for the part-dragon in charge. She puts up a determined resistance after we shut ourselves in with her, until Chanceless lands a dart of stunning. Haha game over for her
The neothelid is next. A very dangerous foe, not to be underestimated. Many brave adventurers (ours anyway) have perished here due to no save effects, but summons plus potions allows us to safely negotiate past it after of course killing it. The next major stumbling block is a group led by a mindflayer. Again, a very dangerous group which have killed more brave adventurers (ours anyway)
Chanceless is struggling against the mage and katana wielder, the two of them keeping him busy in that chamber. Outside, Jiddy is standing back and monster-wanding to keep the mindflayer and dwarven slugger occupied. Three, or four, or five groups of summons are used - some being charmed and others being flattened. Eventually Jiddy is able to add in his spells and sling, and once the flayer is down the dwarf is on his back foot
By this time Chanceless is ailing and the mirrored stoneskins of the mage are somewhat intact. Jiddy calls for Chanceless to return so the summons can take the heat, and this allows the enemies to be crushed before us
We sneak back to Akanna, where a group of summons occupy her and two arial servants long enough to kill them. We finish the area and rapidly kill (according to the log but it took something like 5-7 daggers for Chanceless to hit and kill) the dragon
Right. Time to head to Bridgefort. Only another intervention, a young dragon being attacked by two hill giants. We kill them and loot the nearby cache. Chanceless would have liked to kill the dragon too but we were unable to attack it in time
That's enough for one day. Maybe a bit more next week, unless the Trio session goes ahead
No Cure for the Armor-Swapping Blues: A Random Run, Part 2
Previous part found here
Ah yes, Korlasz's dungeon. As I've taken to doing, the party is stripped of their belongings and gold upon entering: SoD is so chock-full of gear anyway, it won't matter for long, and it adds an initial challenge.
I also found a funny quirk: Cleric (having 9 inactive Necromancer levels) gets boosted to 64k experience in her Cleric class, so technically goes 38k (64 + 135 = 199) over the BG1 level cap immediately upon entering... guess inactive dual classes weren't accounted for in the script that checks experience levels, or it might even be intentional.
I leave it be, as it won't matter in the long run. We brutally bomb the first level and aquire some basic gear, then head downstairs.
Our oodles of summons means progress is reasonably smooth, though we have to retreat a few times to rest under Pixie Dust.
Korlasz duly falls, we spend the little gold we aquired throughout the dungeon on some scrolls of Restoration from the Flaming Fist Healer, and head back to the palace.
Once out into the city, again, no issues; we are able to afford some +1 THAC0 bracers (very important for this party), a scroll case/potion case/gem bag, and a single Potion of Magic Shielding, then we're off.
We clear the outside, including Tsolak's area, first, then head into the Repository of Undeath.
Around here, Druid unlocks Fire Elementals. These are fairly potent even in the unmodded game, but with recent SCS improvements, they're downright lethal: They have some kind of flame aura constantly going off, the higher-level ones you sometimes get can cast Flame Shroud, apparently at will (it refreshes every few rounds), and they hit for 30 - 40 blunt damage.
We basically kick back and relax, since we got an Elder version, while our Fire Elementals clears half the dungeon; they're not invulnerable though, and eventually succumb to repeated level drains and hasted Bladed Skeletons.
So we just retreat, rest, and let a second batch mop up the remnants.
Coldhearth has no answer to The Secret Revealed, and we brutalize the Crusaders guarding the bridge.
Before leaving, we pick up some things from Herod: Mosela's Cudgel and the Savage Shortbow are both useful for us at the moment.
Tons of crap to kill here, but we've arcane and divine firepower aplenty, so there are really no close calls (don't underestimate the Ogres here though, they're quite dangerous once the Ogre Mage gets a Haste off).
Eventually we head for the old Temple of Bhaal, daggering Morentherene on our way down.
Fire Elementals (Druid is L12 by now, so plural) clear most of the dungeon, though for Ziatar we add some Skeleton Warriors and drop a Cloudkill on her and her attendant Mages.
The Neothelid just can't take the pressure of Skeleton Warriors, and Darskhelin is roasted whole by Fire Elementals.
Fire Elementals also do for the Shadow Aspect, and Akanna is visited and disposed of on the way out; Jegg fashions some Green Dragon Scale (good armor for Beast Master), though we fail to aquire the Boots of Speed.
Since you lose access to Thirrim after Bridgefort, we buy a few potions.
He doesn't have much of value, but Magic Shielding is always useful, and we also indulge in all of his fire-bombing variants: I like using these against the Necromancer Kabal in Kanaglym (they go straight through MGOI and none of them ever seem to buff with Protection from Fire), during the Crusader attack on the allied camp, and finally to speed things up during the assault on Dragonspear.
We take the fight to the Crusaders at Bridgefort and prevail quite easily; the Mage at the bridge is also duly interrupted.
On our way north, the Well Spirit actually drops a Longbow +2. Nice, as Beast Master lacks the STR to use a Composite version.
Once in the final camp, we reveal Nazramu and sell off our ill-gotten gains; we can immediately afford to buy all the gear we'll need (barring some ammunition and potions), and so are now well-equipped for the final stretch.
This time, I remembered that 1) The Killer Mimic inside the Spider Cave targets EVERYONE with its glue, and 2) The attendant Phase Spiders gleefully teleport around, swiftly disposing of anyone that gets glued.
Thus, we apply Invisibility 10' Radius and pull through sans sacrifice.
Tons of crap to kill all around, and we also get the Shadowy Figure ambush; 6 potion-induced firebombings later, a single shot by Beastmaster brings him low.
There's also a close call here, ridiculously enough by a lowly Orc.
That Orc had good aim, and nasty arrows to boot. Cleric managed to quaff an antidote, and there was only the single enemy Raider left alive, so we made it, but still: Cleric is very vulnerable.
Not so much left to do now. Mage/Thief fumbles the first pickpocket attempt in the Dragonspear Courtyard (though I immediately pause, try again, and am able to lift the ring for Waizabh's quest before the Crusader turns hostile), so we have to beat a hasty retreat.
We take no chances gallivanting through the Underground River, double-Skull Trapping most enemy encounters before engaging under full buffs. The local Necromancers are Firebombed (with able assistance by Fire Elementals), Zadroth is put down using The Secret Revealed, and Strunk survives long enough that we end up having to fight the Crusaders to the west of him.
Still, they were weaker than I thought: So weak in fact, that we just send our two Fire Elementals to kill all the Crusaders by the entrance. Which they do, without breaking a sweat. Not so strange, since none of the Crusaders there except the Mage has a means of harming them.
A rest later, we head upstairs, purchasing some protection scrolls from Polvi.
We get two Greater Fire Elementals while summoning up here, and they literally hold off an army of Crusaders on their own, as we detrap and loot Hephernaan's chambers.
Back to camp, and prepare for the last spurt.
Mass firebombing solves each wave, including Grimgor, and we depart for Dragonspear.
It takes a while, but Ashatiel eventually appears: We refuse a duel (again, Cleric is weak), and instead just shoot Ashatiel down.
Into Avernus: Everyone gets Potion of Freedom and Potion of Clarity, and we reach the bottom of the Hellevator.
Rest up a few times to prepare Spell Sequencers for both Mage/Thief and Enchanter, then apply a bunch of protection scrolls and potions, and up we go.
I'm not sure how this works: I thought you always get four waves on the way up, but this time there were only two? Strange, though perhaps I am misremembering.
Anyway, we arrive in Belhifet's chambers, and all hell breaks loose.
Cleric has no way to protect against Belhifet's initial Dispel Magic: My plan was to instantly quaff a Potion of Magic Shielding after the former hit, then have her slowly rebuff while keeping out of harm's way as the rest of the party handled the combat.
This would work fine, except I forgot that Chaotic Commands (which everyone had active courtesy of scrolls) actually doesn't protect against Demon Fear. Cleric is duly feared, stripped of all her buffs by the Dispel Magic... but the Fear effect isn't dispelled.
Maybe it's some kind of weird 0th level effect that can't be dispelled?
Now we're in it deep.
At this point I still didn't grasp what was happening: Everyone should've just quaffed a Potion of Clarity and we might've turned it around. Instead, Mage/Thief and eventually Enchanter both succumb to Demon Fear.
I eventually wise up and immunize Druid, Fighter/Thief and Beast Master, but Cleric is being targetted by an Erinyes and winds up poisoned.
Druid desperately darts for her, preparing a Neutralize Poison, but she eats another arrow and... that's it.
First time I've ever lost a run to Belhifet, and it wasn't even his doing, really.
Some simple conclusions here: Don't bother with Chaotic Commands, just vacuum merchants for any and all Potions of Clarity, and rely on those.
Also, any caster that can should probably have a means of removing fear on hand: If Enchanter or Mage/Thief had Resist Fear memorized, we might've been able to bring Cleric back under control.
It was an odd party, but fairly powerful (though that was mostly Beast Master's doing).
I'll roll up another random one I think, perhaps with more lenient rules: We spent the entire run with a single specialized weapon (Longbow for Beast Master), making progress a bit slow at times.
Comments
Previous updates:
With his shooting becoming steadily less effective, Restless decided it was time to switch to item use as his primary means of combat. Thus there was no real concern about doing lots of travel any more. First though he was keen to do at least one more shooting encounter - and headed to find Drizzt. A potion of magic blocking protected against both his charm attempts and Restless switched to a sling and used a cloud giant strength potion to boost his damage with critical hits to 12. When that ended he switched to frost giant (10 damage) and then stone giant (also 10 damage net of Drizzt's physical resistance). The final potion lasted just long enough to see the back of the drow.
Temple donations took reputation back to 12 before Restless headed for the coast. A fireball and a few magic missiles killed some worgs to get another reputation point before a potion of clarity and wand scorchers accounted for 6 sirines - that allowed Restless to get to level 7/7. He just dodged the golems in the cave while collecting their treasure. The tome from there, plus Buckley's Buckler, allows constitution regeneration - so reducing the need to pay temple healing in future.
The Cloud Peak Mountains yielded some more reputation to push that up to 20, along with the charisma tome (allowing friends to get charisma to 20). The fire wand did most of the killing there.
Looking for a bit more money, Restless went in search of Bassilus. The cleric ignored damage from the wand of frost to complete his rigid thinking spell, but Restless had stepped back out of sight before that hit and was able to wait out the effect. Back at High Hedge Melicamp failed to survive, but Restless bought various scrolls and potions and recharged the fire wand. He then spent a while in bringing various stashes of equipment together before using several potions of genius - to both learn scrolls and identify items to save paying for that. During that phase Restless also fire-bombed the Red Wizards to get the Ring of Energy as another damaging alternative.
A quick trip to Watcher's Keep saw a number of enemies die in fire, while Riggilo was treated to a first use of the wand of paralysation. By that stage Restless was at the XP cap, so intended to complete the rest of BGEE in one session in order to keep the XP earned over the cap. A PFM scroll allowed Restless to get the tome as well as kill the ghost and do some extra looting. A PfP scroll was added to deal with the basilisks on the roof (he used his sword there as the bonus for attacking enemies without a melee weapon helped counter his fatigue).
Ulgoth's Beard happily took all Restless' money in exchange for a few more scrolls and fully charged wands of frost, paralysation and monster summoning. Then he finally started dealing with the encounters in Baldur's Gate. That provided enough funding to buy desirable potions and scrolls and allow another binge of learning spells. I accidentally chose the wrong dialogue option with Yago and he disappeared, but otherwise things went pretty smoothly - or so I thought at the time ...
With most of the encounters completed I decided to do a bit of inventory management - including collecting together items previously stored at Durlag's Tower and Beregost. I also nipped over to the coast to hand over a cursed ring there. While doing that I noticed a message briefly appear in the corner of the map along the lines of "you've been poisoned" and realised that one of the few things left to do in Baldur's Gate was complete the poison quest. I hastened back there, but collapsed on arrival.
Progress up to that point was easier than I expected and I don't think it should be too difficult in principle to do a full no-reload without resting. SoD should be easy as you can get a helmet near the start that cancels fatigue penalties and there are huge amounts of resources available in that game. BG2EE wouldn't be as easy, but you can get to quite a high level with little travel in order to minimise fatigue penalties and rely largely on fighting abilities to make progress. Use of things like wish resting and spell trap should then make the later game perfectly manageable while concentrating on spell use.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1220894/#Comment_1220894
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1221406/#Comment_1221406
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1221518/#Comment_1221518
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1221985/#Comment_1221985
With all the characters over-levelled for this stage making progress was pretty easy. While there were a few mistakes, none of them proved costly and the 6 remaining characters will have the chance to tackle ToB.
Summary points of interest for each class
Stalker - the change back to a character with relatively poor saving throws meant more care was necessary. I'm not sure if I reacted quickly enough to equip the shield of harmony to protect against a domination from a yuan-ti mage in Spellhold, though no saving throw was shown. I was definitely at risk when saving against paralysation from Adalon after being malisoned. However, I survived and the +2 saving throws from the hell trials will help in ToB. I also managed to get back Blackrazor in the hell trials after initially giving that up to avoid falling - the strength bonus, healing and level drain abilities make that probably my favorite weapon in the game for fighter types.
Dragon Disciple - I again mainly attacked from distance using spells and summons and made pretty short and easy work of it. The only problem was in the final fight with Irenicus when the slayer was beaten down and changed back to Irenicus' natural form, but failed to give his final dialogue. The game wouldn't allow a rest and a planetar healing him didn't help. In the end I reluctantly permitted a reload as I decided I couldn't have predicted this bug - and this time Jon's speech came on cue.
Cleric dualling to thief - I continued on immediately with this character, after the dragon disciple. That resulted in a strong temptation to take more risks at a time when the character was still rather vulnerable. However, I managed to just about keep things under control and was never in real danger.
Kensai - by the latter stages of SoA the kensai has good saving throws and enough hits that a critical is no longer a particular danger. Progress is thus easy as long as you keep a close watch on HPs against multiple attacking enemies - and I had no real problems in getting through to ToB.
Blade - early on I was caught out by the change from kensai to blade when not checking my saves. I had a 5% chance of failing when hit by a shadow fiend, but got away with it. The only other save problem noted was when I was scared by a symbol spell from a demon knight in the Underdark. Only one of those had survived traps though and it failed to get to grips with me. One other problem was that I surprisingly failed to get Blackrazor, despite having a full complement of summons and a simmy attacking the genie. I was still thinking about what went wrong there when I did the dialogue with Sarevok and chose the wrong option - getting unneeded wisdom and charisma there rather than strength.
Cleric - as has been the pattern in this series of runs, I took a bit more care with this character than some and had no problems on the way to deal with Jon.
Caesar, dwarf berserker {10} (update 1)
Previous run
Looking to have another little break from my long-life runs, I decided to pick up this challenge that I've not tried for a while. The last time I tried this I partly died as a result of the time it takes to select rage and, to try and avoid that problem, I attempted to assign a hot key to do this quicker. I was unable to work out how to do that using the LUA file though - if anyone knows how to do this I would be grateful ...
My rules related to pausing are:
1) Autopause of any sort is not allowed.
2) Pausing using the space bar / clockwork button is not allowed.
3) Pausing to look at inventory / record screen / options is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (including outside visual range).
4) Pausing for dialogue is allowed, but only for normal conversation.
5) Pausing for map screen is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (exception: travel can be initiated when running away from enemies, but once map screen is open then travel is required rather than going back to the same area).
As in all my runs, AI is disabled to prevent auto-targeting using that.
Caesar picked up some early XP from Shoal (first attacking her from range to prevent her initiating a kiss). A few tasks in Beregost included taking on the spiders - they managed to poison Caesar once, but that was insufficient to cause him any real problem. Beating up Karlat got him a 4th level.
Caesar gained a shield upgrade from Bjornin's half-ogres and picked up some better armor in Nashkel. With his improved defenses he risked taking on Meilum to get his bracers and a magical sword.
After beating up the belt ogre and handing in Landrin's goods, Caesar was close to another level and got that by rescuing Samuel. With the extra HPs from that he felt confident in taking on the golems at High Hedge and managed both of those without resting. He bought a potion case and then completed his container collection by successfully using his non-proficient sling on Neera.
He then decided it was time to have a go at some basilisks. Normally I just use Korax for that, but with the constraint of no pause that would have been more risky and Korax might not have remained charmed long enough to deal with all the opponents. Thus, Caesar invested in a green PfP scroll and killed most of the basilisks on his own - gaining a 6th level in the process. He did recruit Korax to take on Mutamin and then Kirian's crew. Most of those died easily enough, but Lindin managed several hits and forced Caesar to run away and rest before finishing the job. At the time I assumed that was just bad luck, but looking at a screenshot Caesar had his sling quipped against Lindin - that was initially used to drag Baerin & Peter away from the others and I must have failed to change that.
Bassilus proved no match for rage and reviving Melicamp provided a nice bonus before Caesar headed for the seaside. His rage lasted long enough to deal with the sirines and gain him a 7th level. The tome also activated constitution regeneration for a nice bonus - though that's slightly less useful for a berserker as the bug that allows unused rage abilities to heal on rest has never been corrected in the EE. More sirines were killed in Shoal's area before Caesar hit 20 reputation by clearing a bunch of ankhegs and returning an acid-burned son to his father.
Before doing some shopping, Caesar took a trip through the Cloud Peak mountains to get the charisma tome - that trip started by massacring Greywolf in order to further improve his long sword collection. After spending nearly all his money, Caesar used his new amulet of missiles to help take down the Red Wizards. With another level not far off, Caesar decided to take on the Doomsayer and comfortably defeated him. Now he's at the level cap he will probably be heading for the Nashkel Mine next.
Here's his current character record and inventory.
Caesar, dwarf berserker {10} (update 2)
Previous updates:
When I first tried this challenge many years ago I found it extremely difficult to avoid pausing. However, that's seemed much easier to resist recently, making decent progress with this challenge feel much more likely.
The Nashkel Mine was soon cleared. Mulahey never had any real chance, but the amazons outside the mine have sometimes caused Caesar problems in previous runs. This time though all 4 went down very quickly. A single slash disposed of Nimbul despite his mirror images, while Tranzig lasted only 2. There were also no problems with the Bandit Camp - the use of the Horn of Kazgaroth there being not really needed.
Caesar had bought a potion of freedom that could have been used in the second Cloakwood area, but didn't actually take that. That could have caused a problem when he accidentally triggered a web trap near the final Ettercap, but fortunately Caesar saved against the effect there. He had a protection from poison scroll ready in a quick slot, but didn't need to use that while fetching Spider's Bane. At the mine, Drasus & Genthore were pulled away and cut down before Caesar used rage and the Horn of Kazgaroth against the wizards. Inside, Caesar worked down to the bottom level and pulled the battle horrors back for disposal. He used a potion of magic blocking against the traps before cornering Davaeorn.
The encounters in Baldur's Gate generally went well. The one with Larze was a bit amusing when Caesar accidentally stunned him with his first attack. Caesar had bought a few darts of stunning to have a go at Lothander. Despite successfully blocking the stairs he failed to target Lothander before the thief disappeared and then didn't change weapons before tackling Larze. At the Iron Throne the clerics were pulled up and down stairs to dodge their spells. The mages were killed by a first use of fireballs.
In Candlekeep Caesar considered using a scroll of PfM against traps, but ultimately just relied on HPs. The phase spiders died in fireballs. Two potions of magic protection ensured there were no problems from Prat's gang. I couldn't remember if that would protect against the basilisk gaze, so added in a mirrored eyes potion for them.
Before returning to the City, Caesar took a trip to Durlag's Tower. A scroll of PfM could have allowed him to loot quite extensively, but as he'd already got all the resources he might need there didn't seem much point in that. Caesar accidentally killed Riggilo before handing over the 'nymph hair' so lost out on some potential XP there.
For the final encounters Caesar beat up Slythe without taking any damage. At the palace he used potion buffs, allowing him to take down the dopplegangers very quickly. That was a good job too as they made short work of Belt and would soon have killed Liia if Caesar had not finished them off in time. The maze inhabitants didn't last long, but Caesar still rested before chucking fireballs at the Undercity party. Inside the old temple Caesar used a couple of PfE scrolls and repeatedly triggered the lightning bolt trap. He wasn't particularly scared of a fair fight, but wanted to ensure the detonation arrows were not wasted. Once Angelo was finally dead (Tazok and Semaj are far easier to hit), Caesar buffed a bit and closed in on Sarevok to deliver the kill. I appear to have been a fraction too late to get the screenshot there, but I don't think Sarevok managed a hit.
Caesar transferred to SoD with 484k XP, i.e. he's already almost at the XP limit for that game ...
Berserker L9, 116 HPs (inc. 5 from Helm), 495 kills
Caesar, dwarf berserker {10} (3rd and final update)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1222205/#Comment_1222205
Oh dear. I really shouldn't have said I was finding not pausing easier
The thing is you can't really avoid his Dispel in LoB, because you need to tank the enemies. Otherwise you risk them going for the barrels. The mage wave is the best way to deal him, because it's the most stable and easiest of them. I wonder if there's other tactic here, maybe trying to Charm him during the break time?
Chapter 9
We learned the last time, that using summons through Farsight v Draconis now activates him. So we used single Elemental to pull his spells. His Fallen Planetar nicely killed all four of his Invisible Stalkers. After waiting Planetar out, we continued sending Elementals. After he was out of spells single Skeli was able to turn him to Dragon form. We kept 3 Skelis in reserves, but Draconis Death Field still killed them, even if they were the other side of the map. Kept sending Elementals to pull his defenses out. Then we used our last Farsight, and attacked with Clone and Deva. Clone attacked with Answerer Crits, and in the mean time Athena cast Harm and used her own Critical Strike to kill the Dragon.
The entrance level against Greater Werewyvern and potent Lizard Men was done by single rest, first casting Deva from Sanctuary to tank. Anadramatis is very easy with Farsight, as she doesn't agro if she doesn't see you. Skelis casually made him to talk, surrender and die. After Cespenar built Yellow Dragon Scale from his scales, we quite easily wiped the Kuo-toa.
In the Quadruble Dragon ambush we used Grandmaster Armor to get triple speed, and kited them with Wand of Wonder. Apparently Cloak of Mirroring doesn't protect from Dragon Breath even though uesp so claims. It does protect from their Melf's Acid Arrows, which can be very potent with two of them casting double of them, and being Hasted. Carnifex managed to Powerword Blind us through Spell Turning, but we drank Oil of Speed for Quadruble speed, and continued easily kiting even his Hasted form. In the end it took just 19 hits from WoW to petrify all of them. Eyeball area was just ran through, and after building Big Metal Unit, we stoned FII'Y for the 12h Improved Invisibility ring.
The fight v Tamah and Frost Salamanders required us to switch to Superior healing potions as Tamah was doing too much damage. At some point Tamah went Ethereal and buggered off as she usually does. And after resting in Pocket Plane she just stood still and accepted her death. Easily hunted the four Drakes one by one.
Athena v Abazigal
Sent in Elemental to spend Abazigal's Oil of Speed. We buffed up and with four Skelis easily turned him into the Dragon form. Started kiting his PfMW out, he Dispelled us and we drank Speed and Invul, and continued kiting. After his Haste was out we hit him couple of times to confirm he didn't have any more protections. And it was go time, we cast Clone who cast Improved Haste and attacked Abi with Answerer, Athena cast Harm and Critical Strike... but Aba evaded it somehow. He possibly still had some Spell protection on. Time to double tank, and we both cast AoF and Hardiness to get 85 DR with DoEH. And Aba didn't survive our 16 apr Criticals.
Slayer was nobody in the third Pocket challenge, got Dark Taint. In Sendai Enclave we Stoned first the Deer and then the Woodcutter with WoW, which revealed the Drow but took out the two casters. Got 15 Superiors and 16 Invis potions from the outside level. Inside we used SoC to Charm the Spore Colonies and watched the mayhem. Then we easily cleared the level with Clone and Deva. Thelynn didn't survive a round of 10apr Crits, and we then used Smite to break free and escape.
Lured Yochol and Glabrezus away to be killed by our gang, 2xPfU and Rune Hammer MoD combo for Odamaron. Built Carsomyr +6, Spectral Brand +5, and Short Sword of Mask +5 which was going to serve us well soon after. After luring the Greater Earth Elementals away from Ogremoch we cast Clone and Deva. Clone hit Ogremoch with Answerer, but Athena's Harm again failed... and we were in a world of pain.
Diyatha died in few rounds, as did Captan Egeissag. Last of the Mindies, 19xMind Focus, Absorption, Invul and we grinded them in about hour and half. The last Wizards were killed by Elementals.
Athena v Sendai
We buffed accordingly with DR and Regeneration and first concentrated on Cleric Statue, who could cast Deva and ruin our escape by Invisibility. After it was killed we drank Invis and made our escape to Pocket Plane. Another go and after killing just one of the extremely potent Drows with -30 Thac0 and Whirwinds, we saw Dispel coming, and we timed our Invis potion after it hit. Another rest in Pocket Plane. And so it went, sometimes picking just one Drow, sometimes three, but we always escaped after the Dispel hit. After the Drows eventually were dead, we lured the Mages with Fire Elementals away from the rest and they were killed too. After that we started hunting the statues one by one. We left casting statue last, but it managed to cast Planetar who saw us and started hunting. We used Speed and Invul to just kite it out. Then Earth Elementals killed the last statue, and real Sendai arrived. Which is kind of anticlimactic, as she doesn't see through Invisibilty. So we could just keep sending Elementals to waste her spells. And she was killed soon after.
Favored of Cyric had no chance v Athena and Clone in 4th Pocket challenge, got Hand of Murder. Took Neera for short stroll and she was killed by Red Wizards in a ambush. We used SoC to charm and getting them killed one by one. The battle at Thay arena took about 10 Superior potions to survive even with our 85 DR. After it was done we resurrected Neera and sent her home. Shopped in Thayan market, mostly for Golden Girdle and second Wand of Wonder. Then we played cat&mouse game with Szass Tam around the market. Szass is by far the spell caster of the game. He first cast 3 Time Stops, then Wished them back and did it again. But we used Fire Elementals as decoyes and he hardly saw us. It still took full Staff of Fire to deplete his spell repertoire. Then he was hunted and boxed in by Skelis and after a while he couldn't take it anymore and sent us back. Getting back to Amkehtran, Saemon was still alive obviously, as he can even evade the console. We convinced Balty to join us for the battle in Throne of Bhaal with 2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1-1 dialogue choices.
Athena v the Ravager
We used summon door trick, and lured the Bone Blades to another pocket. Cavalier can acces the easy way of killing the Ravager and that is a Reflection Shield. And after a while it killed itself with its own missiles, and we got 25 DR.
Time to finish business in ToB.
Athena v Throne of Bhaal
Starting the fight we managed to Vorpal the other Solar with Ravager +6 Whirlwind, but we were also Dispelled by their arrows. So we backed off, equipped Reflection Shield and rebuffed. Using Balty's Faster than Eye ability, we teleported him to one of the pools so I wouldn't have to micromanage two characters. His AI can be quite annoying, as he always homes onto PC or fights enemies if he sees them. After some kiting Imoen left, and we managed to Vorpal the second Solar. Pulled Balty back and together we killed Bodhi. But not until she managed to drain few levels from us. This was annoying as we would be fatigued after restoration. Then we used Elementals to deplete Irenicus, and Balty then punched him to death.
For the pool fights we chose the bottom right first, as it gives very useful Teleport power. And this time the Succuby Charms weren't going to stop us. We used a corridor as choke point to fight the mass, and every round I tried to WoW petrify the Marilith. Balty was stunned at some point, but recovered. But the WoW just wasn't getting the necessary hit, and Marilith kept spawning Skeleton Warriors. It's always something here.
For the next pool we teleported Balty to previous closed pool out of harms way. He's very useful to finish enemies and seeing the invisible Babau's. After Stoning the Balor with WoW, we tried Control Demon power, and omg was it ever good with 75% chance of controlling them. Got Glabrezu and Marilith with it, and Marilith started creating Skelis for us. Succuby Charm wasn't going to bother us, but it still managed to Drain few of our levels. At one point we were Panicked, although I don't know from where or how? Luckily this was near the end, and enemies were preoccubied with our Demons. After it was finished we got Focus v Time Stop, Disintegration and Flesh to Stone for 30s power, and Immunity for Slayer Taint, whatever that is?
Third pool was mostly the same. At this point I figured the best tactic, and it was to Control Demon Marilith, and it would start casting Skelis and tank the enemies. Then continuing Controlling them every 30s and using WoW in between to try to Stone them. Got immunity to Death and Vorpal effects.
Athena v the Big Six
Our plan was simple, teleport into one of the pools and hurt them from there. There was only two enemies that after initial mayhem, could continue bother us. And those were Illasera and Sendai with their ranged attacks. For this we needed natural 100 DR v missiles. And we achieved this by equipping Yellow Dragon Scale 50 DR, Belt of Inertial Barrier 25 DR, and from base 25 DR that we got from the Ravager. With this we could use the two handed Big Metal Rod to hurt all of them. Started the fight and we had accumulated 12 Magic Shieldings which we started using. After using four of them in quick succession I remembered that Illasera's arrows still Dispelled us. So we equipped Reflection Shield too. After tanking their spells, kiting the Planetar out, and killing their minor summons we started hitting Yaga with Firetooth +3, as he's the only one immune to Frag Grenades. But Sendai was hurting herself now too quickly from our Reflection Shield, so we had to unequip it. This meant that Illasera too started hitting us with her Magic Damage, so we needed constantly drink Health potions. Once Yaga was near death, we started using Frag Grenades to hit the others. Once all of them were near death our plan was to let Sendai kill herself to our Reflection Shield, buff up because Illasera could not Dispel us anymore, and introduce a trump card that was Balthazar.
Athena v Amelyssan
But we accidentally killed Sarevok before any of this plan happened and Amelyssan arrived. After trying to scramble with my thoughts what to do, we hit first Hardiness and pulled Balty out of the top pool, and he started hurting the Big Six. We also hit Focus v Time Stop, but Mel didn't cast it yet. She's usually very sneaky about it. Balty managed to punch Illasera (Dispel) and Yaga (immunity to Grenades) to death, but then Mel got into the fight and Balty was pretty quickly killed. We also were using Frag Grenades and managed to kill Abazigal and Gromnir. And Sendai who was supposed to be first killed, was the last one alive. We ranged her to death with Firetooth +3. Then we introduced another trump card, the Rift Device, or Devices, as we first used Clone to hit her with it. This Dispelled all her protections and more importantly reduced her health to 40% or to 500hp. I was afraid of using my own Rift Device immediately after that, because I didn't remember if the Solar's would Heal Mel. Then she used Time Stop, and we weren't fast enough to Focus against it. But it didn't really matter as she couldn't touch us directly, as she doesn't teleport onto you if she sees you and we were in a closed pool. After a while the Solar's buggered off or unsummoned, and we were comfortable using our Rift Device further reducing Mel to under 200 hp. And soon after using Freg Grenades on the other enemies and hitting Mel with area damage she dropped dead.
Finally after all these years and many tries managed to pull Cavalier through with LoB nR solo, although it took some tweaking. We used IWD-spell progression, but that didn't really do that much as Harm hardly worked v anyone, only Yaga and Draconis. And the spell progression is actually slower or harder at the beginning of SoA. Bigger change was the revised Hell Trials which allowed us to get -10 Thac0 instead of 25 STR/AC cap/-2 saves, and not fall. But that itself introduced some difficulty v Ogremoch. Was it a crucial chance? Perhaps, but maybe not. At least not at the end fight, as the tactics were pretty universal with Balty, closed pools, Wand of Wonder and Big Metal Rod. Some chars can't get Reflection Shield nor natural 100 DR v missiles, but that's their problem.
Interestingly Balty was also resurrected at the end, and it was nice to read about his life afterwards. On to the next one.
Jiddy (male gnome Fighter/Illusionist, Gate70); Chanceless (male gnome Fighter/Thief, Grond0)
Jiddy and Chanceless were stood in the crypt with Imoen pointing at the door. "I'll stay here" she said, "you two shorties will be fine. Go ahead"
We looked at each other. Jiddy was considering the recklessness of Imoens comment while Chanceless no doubt was not thinking too much beyond go go go
Jiddy raced ahead, but Chanceless had boots of speed and effortlessly scooted into the lead. By the time Jiddy reached the bridge Chanceless had already convinced the mercenaries in the room beyond that they should surrender. That was a quick first area, so we looted their spoils and headed downstairs
Chanceless stopped to ask what the plan was. Jiddy had not expected this, having thought the fighter/thief would wade directly into combat but no. If Jiddy was being asked to come up with a plan he'd better come up with a good one. A very good plan
He fished about in his containers, and found a scroll of protection from undead. The plan would be for Chanceless to pick off the plenitude of undead while Jiddy patiently waited. One reason why this was a good plan, one why it was not. On the negative side, Chanceless' bladed weapon would be blunted against the skeletal undead while the quarterstaff wielded by Jiddy would be much more efficient
This was more than offset by the good part of the plan. Jiddy knew that Chanceless had a patience deficit and would be unable to wait for Jiddy to clear the undead. Jiddy almost felt guilty about withholding this fact from Chanceless but not enough to feel guilty for more than... no he's already absolved himself of any blame
So Chanceless deaded the undead, de-trapped the traps, unlocked the locks. Jiddy acted the part of a general, leading from the rear. Chanceless either ignored any feeling of being used as cannon-fodder or was happy to do his part. What a team
It's not long before we have cleared Korlasz' family tomb including the lady herself. Jiddy occasionally helped Chanceless by adding the odd set of wand summons, and by bagging various spoils of war
With the tomb cleared we return to the city and ducal palace. A bad nights sleep is followed by assassination attempts within the palace so we head out for Dragonspear. Our first stop is before a bridge, and while clear we should waste no time there are a few diversions. By the time we sate our interest in these and head to the bridge we find it has been blockaded and explosive barrels are in place. Just as we are in sight, the bridge is destroyed and we are forced to fight several determined defenders. By which we mean we cower behind a tent - Jiddy glugging a potion of invisibility while Chanceless chuckles as he runs from one side of the tent to the other and enemies do the same on the other side. This goes on long enough for their leader to get fed up and they depart
We move on in search of a new bridge. Through a scripted encounter we have to deal with trolls. Even for us these might be problematic but we use invisibility to gain the initiative, and then wear them down. Jiddy grabs the firefly sling to complement the fire arrows Chanceless is shooting and from that point the trolls drop one by one
The direct route from here is shortest (well duh) but we meander into a cave, past a dragon and into an abandoned temple of Bhaal lately of Cyric. Once more Jiddy demonstrates his leadership potential by thrusting Chanceless into tanking position. There are many bugbears in the way and Jiddy shows compassion for Chanceless by wanding in more summons. Good job he'd sold and repurchased the wand as several uses are required
Chanceless suggests we skip the guards and head straight for the part-dragon in charge. She puts up a determined resistance after we shut ourselves in with her, until Chanceless lands a dart of stunning. Haha game over for her
The neothelid is next. A very dangerous foe, not to be underestimated. Many brave adventurers (ours anyway) have perished here due to no save effects, but summons plus potions allows us to safely negotiate past it after of course killing it. The next major stumbling block is a group led by a mindflayer. Again, a very dangerous group which have killed more brave adventurers (ours anyway)
Chanceless is struggling against the mage and katana wielder, the two of them keeping him busy in that chamber. Outside, Jiddy is standing back and monster-wanding to keep the mindflayer and dwarven slugger occupied. Three, or four, or five groups of summons are used - some being charmed and others being flattened. Eventually Jiddy is able to add in his spells and sling, and once the flayer is down the dwarf is on his back foot
By this time Chanceless is ailing and the mirrored stoneskins of the mage are somewhat intact. Jiddy calls for Chanceless to return so the summons can take the heat, and this allows the enemies to be crushed before us
We sneak back to Akanna, where a group of summons occupy her and two arial servants long enough to kill them. We finish the area and rapidly kill (according to the log but it took something like 5-7 daggers for Chanceless to hit and kill) the dragon
Right. Time to head to Bridgefort. Only another intervention, a young dragon being attacked by two hill giants. We kill them and loot the nearby cache. Chanceless would have liked to kill the dragon too but we were unable to attack it in time
That's enough for one day. Maybe a bit more next week, unless the Trio session goes ahead
Previous part found here
I also found a funny quirk: Cleric (having 9 inactive Necromancer levels) gets boosted to 64k experience in her Cleric class, so technically goes 38k (64 + 135 = 199) over the BG1 level cap immediately upon entering... guess inactive dual classes weren't accounted for in the script that checks experience levels, or it might even be intentional.
I leave it be, as it won't matter in the long run. We brutally bomb the first level and aquire some basic gear, then head downstairs.
Our oodles of summons means progress is reasonably smooth, though we have to retreat a few times to rest under Pixie Dust.
Korlasz duly falls, we spend the little gold we aquired throughout the dungeon on some scrolls of Restoration from the Flaming Fist Healer, and head back to the palace.
Once out into the city, again, no issues; we are able to afford some +1 THAC0 bracers (very important for this party), a scroll case/potion case/gem bag, and a single Potion of Magic Shielding, then we're off.
We clear the outside, including Tsolak's area, first, then head into the Repository of Undeath.
Around here, Druid unlocks Fire Elementals. These are fairly potent even in the unmodded game, but with recent SCS improvements, they're downright lethal: They have some kind of flame aura constantly going off, the higher-level ones you sometimes get can cast Flame Shroud, apparently at will (it refreshes every few rounds), and they hit for 30 - 40 blunt damage.
We basically kick back and relax, since we got an Elder version, while our Fire Elementals clears half the dungeon; they're not invulnerable though, and eventually succumb to repeated level drains and hasted Bladed Skeletons.
So we just retreat, rest, and let a second batch mop up the remnants.
Coldhearth has no answer to The Secret Revealed, and we brutalize the Crusaders guarding the bridge.
Before leaving, we pick up some things from Herod: Mosela's Cudgel and the Savage Shortbow are both useful for us at the moment.
Tons of crap to kill here, but we've arcane and divine firepower aplenty, so there are really no close calls (don't underestimate the Ogres here though, they're quite dangerous once the Ogre Mage gets a Haste off).
Eventually we head for the old Temple of Bhaal, daggering Morentherene on our way down.
Fire Elementals (Druid is L12 by now, so plural) clear most of the dungeon, though for Ziatar we add some Skeleton Warriors and drop a Cloudkill on her and her attendant Mages.
The Neothelid just can't take the pressure of Skeleton Warriors, and Darskhelin is roasted whole by Fire Elementals.
Fire Elementals also do for the Shadow Aspect, and Akanna is visited and disposed of on the way out; Jegg fashions some Green Dragon Scale (good armor for Beast Master), though we fail to aquire the Boots of Speed.
Since you lose access to Thirrim after Bridgefort, we buy a few potions.
He doesn't have much of value, but Magic Shielding is always useful, and we also indulge in all of his fire-bombing variants: I like using these against the Necromancer Kabal in Kanaglym (they go straight through MGOI and none of them ever seem to buff with Protection from Fire), during the Crusader attack on the allied camp, and finally to speed things up during the assault on Dragonspear.
We take the fight to the Crusaders at Bridgefort and prevail quite easily; the Mage at the bridge is also duly interrupted.
On our way north, the Well Spirit actually drops a Longbow +2. Nice, as Beast Master lacks the STR to use a Composite version.
Once in the final camp, we reveal Nazramu and sell off our ill-gotten gains; we can immediately afford to buy all the gear we'll need (barring some ammunition and potions), and so are now well-equipped for the final stretch.
This time, I remembered that 1) The Killer Mimic inside the Spider Cave targets EVERYONE with its glue, and 2) The attendant Phase Spiders gleefully teleport around, swiftly disposing of anyone that gets glued.
Thus, we apply Invisibility 10' Radius and pull through sans sacrifice.
Tons of crap to kill all around, and we also get the Shadowy Figure ambush; 6 potion-induced firebombings later, a single shot by Beastmaster brings him low.
There's also a close call here, ridiculously enough by a lowly Orc.
That Orc had good aim, and nasty arrows to boot. Cleric managed to quaff an antidote, and there was only the single enemy Raider left alive, so we made it, but still: Cleric is very vulnerable.
Not so much left to do now. Mage/Thief fumbles the first pickpocket attempt in the Dragonspear Courtyard (though I immediately pause, try again, and am able to lift the ring for Waizabh's quest before the Crusader turns hostile), so we have to beat a hasty retreat.
We take no chances gallivanting through the Underground River, double-Skull Trapping most enemy encounters before engaging under full buffs. The local Necromancers are Firebombed (with able assistance by Fire Elementals), Zadroth is put down using The Secret Revealed, and Strunk survives long enough that we end up having to fight the Crusaders to the west of him.
Still, they were weaker than I thought: So weak in fact, that we just send our two Fire Elementals to kill all the Crusaders by the entrance. Which they do, without breaking a sweat. Not so strange, since none of the Crusaders there except the Mage has a means of harming them.
A rest later, we head upstairs, purchasing some protection scrolls from Polvi.
We get two Greater Fire Elementals while summoning up here, and they literally hold off an army of Crusaders on their own, as we detrap and loot Hephernaan's chambers.
Back to camp, and prepare for the last spurt.
Mass firebombing solves each wave, including Grimgor, and we depart for Dragonspear.
It takes a while, but Ashatiel eventually appears: We refuse a duel (again, Cleric is weak), and instead just shoot Ashatiel down.
Into Avernus: Everyone gets Potion of Freedom and Potion of Clarity, and we reach the bottom of the Hellevator.
Rest up a few times to prepare Spell Sequencers for both Mage/Thief and Enchanter, then apply a bunch of protection scrolls and potions, and up we go.
I'm not sure how this works: I thought you always get four waves on the way up, but this time there were only two? Strange, though perhaps I am misremembering.
Anyway, we arrive in Belhifet's chambers, and all hell breaks loose.
Cleric has no way to protect against Belhifet's initial Dispel Magic: My plan was to instantly quaff a Potion of Magic Shielding after the former hit, then have her slowly rebuff while keeping out of harm's way as the rest of the party handled the combat.
This would work fine, except I forgot that Chaotic Commands (which everyone had active courtesy of scrolls) actually doesn't protect against Demon Fear. Cleric is duly feared, stripped of all her buffs by the Dispel Magic... but the Fear effect isn't dispelled.
Maybe it's some kind of weird 0th level effect that can't be dispelled?
Now we're in it deep.
At this point I still didn't grasp what was happening: Everyone should've just quaffed a Potion of Clarity and we might've turned it around. Instead, Mage/Thief and eventually Enchanter both succumb to Demon Fear.
I eventually wise up and immunize Druid, Fighter/Thief and Beast Master, but Cleric is being targetted by an Erinyes and winds up poisoned.
Druid desperately darts for her, preparing a Neutralize Poison, but she eats another arrow and... that's it.
First time I've ever lost a run to Belhifet, and it wasn't even his doing, really.
Some simple conclusions here: Don't bother with Chaotic Commands, just vacuum merchants for any and all Potions of Clarity, and rely on those.
Also, any caster that can should probably have a means of removing fear on hand: If Enchanter or Mage/Thief had Resist Fear memorized, we might've been able to bring Cleric back under control.
It was an odd party, but fairly powerful (though that was mostly Beast Master's doing).
I'll roll up another random one I think, perhaps with more lenient rules: We spent the entire run with a single specialized weapon (Longbow for Beast Master), making progress a bit slow at times.