We made our way through the remainder of the Cloakwood without trouble. Corepally commented at one point that he needn't have run from some ambushing wyverns, given his immunity to poison. He declined, though, when offered the opportunity to tackle wyverns in their home cave environment. On reaching the mine 3 oils of fiery burning were lobbed in simultaneously and accounted for both mages. Drasus and Genthore lasted a while after that, but without offering any real threat. Inside the mine we quickly made our way down to the bottom level. Silo disarmed most of the traps and Corepally used a potion of magic blocking to hunt Davaeorn down before he had finishing his teleporting.
In the City there was an early problem when we took on the ogre mage in the sewers. Buster and Silo were in the shadows going down, leaving Corepally as the target. His AC proved insufficient against the attack of the crawlers and he was held. Buster and Silo attempted to burn up the attackers, but 1 crawler remained alive. That proved crucial as it chased Silo away and Buster was unable to finish off the ogre mage before it could summon an ogrillon. By that time Corepally was down to 3 HPs and the ogrillon managed to remove those to notch up our first party death.
After a temple visit we took on Ramazith's tower. Corepally used the Greenstone Amulet there to avoid being held by the ghasts. Nearby, though, Corepally took further heavy damage from Drelik's magic missiles. He was forced into retreat, but still got the satisfaction of the kill by lobbing in a throwing dagger from distance.
Corepally had lost his magical axe when re-equipping after his earlier death and wanted to get a replacement from the Maulers of Undermountain. That proved somewhat more difficult than expected after Corepally was once more held at the start of the conflict. With innocents around and a paladin's sensitive reputation to uphold throwing explosions around was not a good option and Corepally became a victim once more. Silo and Buster did a good job though in taking out the opposition. They were helped in that by Gretek's strange obsession. Despite being in a fight for his life he seemed more interested in the dreadful service in the pub and chased after a waiter that had jostled him in the melee. It might be some small consolation for Gretek that he did manage to get his revenge on the waiter just before being shot down himself .
While doing the poison quest we returned the body of Tremain's son and watched as he was resurrected. Unfortunately though the quest conversation became broken and we received no reward for our endeavours. Making up for that though we did manage to acquire Lothander's boots of speed by successfully blocking both staircases and disabling him with darts of stunning. Silo was pleased with how quickly he could now move around and fancied trying a bit of travel to wear them in properly. Corepally was less excited by the acquisition though and reminded Silo of the need to complete the poison quest. Buster was feeling excited himself about a new toy - in his case darts of stunning - and was given all our remaining stocks. He soon put them to good use to bring down Larze and kept them in hand when taking on Marek. The latter did manage to finish a confusion spell with affected Buster, but Buster continued attacks for a second or two and one of his darts took effect. Corepally came over to shrug off the remaining stack of darts and protect the wandering innocents.
There was more confusion in evidence when taking on Vay-ya. Corepally was protected by his amulet, but both Buster and Silo were confused this time. Fortunately Buster was in a corner away from any innocents and Corepally was able to stand by Silo and absorb his attacks while shooting down Vay-ya - once more successfully protecting our reputation. A nearby basilisk thought it might have got a reprieve when Silo looked in vain for any potions of mirror eyes. However, the potion bag was persuaded to disgorge a pair of invulnerability potions. As the saving throw bonus for those stacks, Corepally was able to push his petrification save into safe territory to pick off the basilisk.
The Iron Throne will be first on the list in the next session.
I have a solo cleric working their way through BG 1 but have a few questions:
1) I don't see a way to get the tomes from the Candlekeep crypts as I can only get 20 STR. Am I missing something?
2) How do I deal with Sarevok and Semaj since I can't dispel Sarevok's haste or Semaj's mirrors?
Corecleric XX the solo halfling cleric entering trilogy no-reload challenge:
Corecleric XX has just made it past Sarevok and is in Irenicus' dungeon. No near misses, some updates of note:
1) Most of Corecleric's experience was from basilisks, sirines, and some ankhegs. For ankhegs, some skeletons and commands worked OK. For basilisks, needed to use green PfP since I didn't have any skeletons yet. So a lot of slinging...however with help of skeletons Mutamutin was defeated. Also recruited Korax to boost the skeletons attack plus silence and holds and the battle vs Kirian's group was decisive.
2) The BG 1 level cap was reached quickly which meant a huge amount of content was skipped, basically just the main quest and upgrades from herein out.
3) I managed to dominate Khosahnn which for sure made it a bit easier to clear the bandit camp. For Tazok's tent, used sanctuary, moved into corner, summoned 4 skeletons, buffed them and sent them in - victory!
4) Nearly the entire Cloakwood skipped. For Cloakwood area 2, used freedom of action potion and potion of invisibility to skip the area.
5) For Drassus, buffed skeletons and silence was enough to prevail. Then went down to lowest level. For battle horrors, most damage was dealt by wand of heavens. I tried to rest, but was ambushed. So decided to charm one of them and send them against Davaeorn as a distraction, then sling all the way - success!
6) Only a few upgrades gotten in the Big City. Used sanctuary to talk to Thaldhorn and get the notes. Then headed to the Crypts. I had no way to open the crypts so just skipped the entire crypts using invisibility ring.
7) Slythe had a lot of problems with my skeletons, so no problem there. Duchal palace was different as somehow most of my skeletons failed to get into the battle. Luckily spamming wand of heavens was just enough to keep Belt alive. Thieve's maze was skipped although skeleton warriors were destroyed. For magic missile trap used shield amulet to protect myself.
8) Undercity party - was difficult, but victory nevertheless.
9) Sarevok - was a difficult battle a ton of potions used of all kinds, magic shielding, blue potions and haste potions. It was hard as Tazok, Semaj, and Angelo all joined the fight. Even a battle horror was spawned. But one by one they were killed, mostly with haste/slinging/running and repeat. I had to go invisible a lot, so much so the invis ring poofed. But Sarevok eventually admitted defeat. Whew!
@Corey_Russell If no mods, the Violet Potion sets STR to 25 for 24 hours. If SCS, Strength of Stone grants +4 STR; combine with Draw Upon Holy Might to reach 24 STR (if your Cleric doesn't have 18 base STR, cast Holy Power first), though I'm not sure if 24 is enough to bash open the chests.
There's no way to dispel Sarevok's haste as a solo Cleric, but you can just wait out Semaj's (and Angelo's, for that matter) buffs invisibly.
Ah of course the violet potion - can clerics use that? If so that was the answer. No mods on my install. And 24 STR is enough. As it turned out I was able to run and shoot Sarevok, apparently haste potion and haste boots was just enough edge. I just skipped the crypts as I didn't get your answer in time.
@Corey_Russell in the unmodded game the violet potion is indeed the only way for solo clerics (and druids and shamans) to get the strength tome - the wizard slayer is the only class that can't get that at all. Any character with base strength 18 can open the tomb without a tome (using DUHM to get 20+ strength) - that has a scroll of PfM that can be handy for some classes.
For the final battle you can make things a bit easier by activating Sarevok from range (shoot him when just in sight and immediately withdraw. Come back gradually while invisible / sanctuaried until his conversation activates). That means you only face him and Semaj, but you do need to keep out of sight of the dais. If you want to make things really easy then there's a repeating lightning bolt trap on the left which can kill all of them (though Angelo is hard to hit and takes a while). Wearing the boots of grounding means any character can get victory for the price of a single green scroll (or in the case of a cleric for nothing as your own protection spell lasts a long time).
Any character with base strength 18 can open the tomb without a tome (using DUHM to get 20+ strength) - that has a scroll of PfM that can be handy for some classes.
I am a halfling so don't get base 18 STR - I was only able to get to 20 STR using holy power and then DUHM. A PfM is not terribly useful for me as then I can't cast any spells...although final fight I didn't use spells really just a lot of slinging and gulping various potions.
Corecleric the level 11 solo halfling cleric (Priest of Lathander) - Update 2
So Corecleric made it out of Irenicus' dungeon OK. He did allow Imoen and Yoshimo to join but that was only because Corecleric didn't have any containers, so those two NPCs were Corecleric's containers. Yoshimo was booted once we sold the junk he was carrying and now Corecleric is solo once more. FIRST MAJOR PURCHASE: ring of air control. The improved invisibility was a huge help in ambushes, as Corecleric can go invisible, go to a corner, and summon and buff his skeletons plus make Corecleric immune to lightning. This enabled victory in all ambushes. I would probably have to run in ambushes without this item.
Some things accomplished:
1) Circus problem solved - no doubt on this since Corecleric used sanctuary, turn undead and true seeing.
2) Hendak freed. The mass of skeletons were very helpul as well as a greater command on the beast master.
3) Lilacor quest complete. Buffed skeletons carried the day once again.
4) Slavers in moored ship - this was considerably more difficult, but Corecleric prevailed once more. Corecleric used sword of flame (spell) to deal with trolls. Children freed.
5) Trademeet problem solved the cheesy way. That is, Corecleric used the invis potion at the High Merchant's office, and skipped everything in druid grove and let Cernd carry the day. A protection from petrification scroll plus skeletons allowed Corecleric to deal with genies. Shield of Harmony is a good upgrade.
6) Tarnor's group defeated. With sanctuary Corecleric sneaked up and told his buffed minions to take down Gaius. Corecleric used some hold persons and slinging but his minions couldn't quite finish the job so Corecleric had to run. However, resting then summoning a new batch of skeletons carried the day and also took down the Rakshashka and the kobold minions nearby.
Corecleric uses the belt of hill giant strength since otherwise he is so weak (17). Good thing as it was needed to loot Tarnor's goodies.
Comments
Silo - human illusionist (Grond0)
Corepally - human cavalier (Corey_Russell)
Buster - human monk (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1222752/#Comment_1222752
We made our way through the remainder of the Cloakwood without trouble. Corepally commented at one point that he needn't have run from some ambushing wyverns, given his immunity to poison. He declined, though, when offered the opportunity to tackle wyverns in their home cave environment. On reaching the mine 3 oils of fiery burning were lobbed in simultaneously and accounted for both mages. Drasus and Genthore lasted a while after that, but without offering any real threat. Inside the mine we quickly made our way down to the bottom level. Silo disarmed most of the traps and Corepally used a potion of magic blocking to hunt Davaeorn down before he had finishing his teleporting.
In the City there was an early problem when we took on the ogre mage in the sewers. Buster and Silo were in the shadows going down, leaving Corepally as the target. His AC proved insufficient against the attack of the crawlers and he was held. Buster and Silo attempted to burn up the attackers, but 1 crawler remained alive. That proved crucial as it chased Silo away and Buster was unable to finish off the ogre mage before it could summon an ogrillon. By that time Corepally was down to 3 HPs and the ogrillon managed to remove those to notch up our first party death.
After a temple visit we took on Ramazith's tower. Corepally used the Greenstone Amulet there to avoid being held by the ghasts. Nearby, though, Corepally took further heavy damage from Drelik's magic missiles. He was forced into retreat, but still got the satisfaction of the kill by lobbing in a throwing dagger from distance.
Corepally had lost his magical axe when re-equipping after his earlier death and wanted to get a replacement from the Maulers of Undermountain. That proved somewhat more difficult than expected after Corepally was once more held at the start of the conflict. With innocents around and a paladin's sensitive reputation to uphold throwing explosions around was not a good option and Corepally became a victim once more. Silo and Buster did a good job though in taking out the opposition. They were helped in that by Gretek's strange obsession. Despite being in a fight for his life he seemed more interested in the dreadful service in the pub and chased after a waiter that had jostled him in the melee. It might be some small consolation for Gretek that he did manage to get his revenge on the waiter just before being shot down himself
While doing the poison quest we returned the body of Tremain's son and watched as he was resurrected. Unfortunately though the quest conversation became broken and we received no reward for our endeavours. Making up for that though we did manage to acquire Lothander's boots of speed by successfully blocking both staircases and disabling him with darts of stunning. Silo was pleased with how quickly he could now move around and fancied trying a bit of travel to wear them in properly. Corepally was less excited by the acquisition though and reminded Silo of the need to complete the poison quest. Buster was feeling excited himself about a new toy - in his case darts of stunning - and was given all our remaining stocks. He soon put them to good use to bring down Larze and kept them in hand when taking on Marek. The latter did manage to finish a confusion spell with affected Buster, but Buster continued attacks for a second or two and one of his darts took effect. Corepally came over to shrug off the remaining stack of darts and protect the wandering innocents.
There was more confusion in evidence when taking on Vay-ya. Corepally was protected by his amulet, but both Buster and Silo were confused this time. Fortunately Buster was in a corner away from any innocents and Corepally was able to stand by Silo and absorb his attacks while shooting down Vay-ya - once more successfully protecting our reputation. A nearby basilisk thought it might have got a reprieve when Silo looked in vain for any potions of mirror eyes. However, the potion bag was persuaded to disgorge a pair of invulnerability potions. As the saving throw bonus for those stacks, Corepally was able to push his petrification save into safe territory to pick off the basilisk.
The Iron Throne will be first on the list in the next session.
Thief 7 (Illusionist 7), 44 HPs, 63 kills
Cavalier 7, 85 HPs (inc. 5 from helm), 263 kills, 2 deaths
Monk 7, 59 HPs, 140 kills, 0 deaths
I have a solo cleric working their way through BG 1 but have a few questions:
1) I don't see a way to get the tomes from the Candlekeep crypts as I can only get 20 STR. Am I missing something?
2) How do I deal with Sarevok and Semaj since I can't dispel Sarevok's haste or Semaj's mirrors?
Corecleric XX has just made it past Sarevok and is in Irenicus' dungeon. No near misses, some updates of note:
1) Most of Corecleric's experience was from basilisks, sirines, and some ankhegs. For ankhegs, some skeletons and commands worked OK. For basilisks, needed to use green PfP since I didn't have any skeletons yet. So a lot of slinging...however with help of skeletons Mutamutin was defeated. Also recruited Korax to boost the skeletons attack plus silence and holds and the battle vs Kirian's group was decisive.
2) The BG 1 level cap was reached quickly which meant a huge amount of content was skipped, basically just the main quest and upgrades from herein out.
3) I managed to dominate Khosahnn which for sure made it a bit easier to clear the bandit camp. For Tazok's tent, used sanctuary, moved into corner, summoned 4 skeletons, buffed them and sent them in - victory!
4) Nearly the entire Cloakwood skipped. For Cloakwood area 2, used freedom of action potion and potion of invisibility to skip the area.
5) For Drassus, buffed skeletons and silence was enough to prevail. Then went down to lowest level. For battle horrors, most damage was dealt by wand of heavens. I tried to rest, but was ambushed. So decided to charm one of them and send them against Davaeorn as a distraction, then sling all the way - success!
6) Only a few upgrades gotten in the Big City. Used sanctuary to talk to Thaldhorn and get the notes. Then headed to the Crypts. I had no way to open the crypts so just skipped the entire crypts using invisibility ring.
7) Slythe had a lot of problems with my skeletons, so no problem there. Duchal palace was different as somehow most of my skeletons failed to get into the battle. Luckily spamming wand of heavens was just enough to keep Belt alive. Thieve's maze was skipped although skeleton warriors were destroyed. For magic missile trap used shield amulet to protect myself.
8) Undercity party - was difficult, but victory nevertheless.
9) Sarevok - was a difficult battle a ton of potions used of all kinds, magic shielding, blue potions and haste potions. It was hard as Tazok, Semaj, and Angelo all joined the fight. Even a battle horror was spawned. But one by one they were killed, mostly with haste/slinging/running and repeat. I had to go invisible a lot, so much so the invis ring poofed. But Sarevok eventually admitted defeat. Whew!
There's no way to dispel Sarevok's haste as a solo Cleric, but you can just wait out Semaj's (and Angelo's, for that matter) buffs invisibly.
For the final battle you can make things a bit easier by activating Sarevok from range (shoot him when just in sight and immediately withdraw. Come back gradually while invisible / sanctuaried until his conversation activates). That means you only face him and Semaj, but you do need to keep out of sight of the dais. If you want to make things really easy then there's a repeating lightning bolt trap on the left which can kill all of them (though Angelo is hard to hit and takes a while). Wearing the boots of grounding means any character can get victory for the price of a single green scroll (or in the case of a cleric for nothing as your own protection spell lasts a long time).
I am a halfling so don't get base 18 STR - I was only able to get to 20 STR using holy power and then DUHM. A PfM is not terribly useful for me as then I can't cast any spells...although final fight I didn't use spells really just a lot of slinging and gulping various potions.
So Corecleric made it out of Irenicus' dungeon OK. He did allow Imoen and Yoshimo to join but that was only because Corecleric didn't have any containers, so those two NPCs were Corecleric's containers. Yoshimo was booted once we sold the junk he was carrying and now Corecleric is solo once more. FIRST MAJOR PURCHASE: ring of air control. The improved invisibility was a huge help in ambushes, as Corecleric can go invisible, go to a corner, and summon and buff his skeletons plus make Corecleric immune to lightning. This enabled victory in all ambushes. I would probably have to run in ambushes without this item.
Some things accomplished:
1) Circus problem solved - no doubt on this since Corecleric used sanctuary, turn undead and true seeing.
2) Hendak freed. The mass of skeletons were very helpul as well as a greater command on the beast master.
3) Lilacor quest complete. Buffed skeletons carried the day once again.
4) Slavers in moored ship - this was considerably more difficult, but Corecleric prevailed once more. Corecleric used sword of flame (spell) to deal with trolls. Children freed.
5) Trademeet problem solved the cheesy way. That is, Corecleric used the invis potion at the High Merchant's office, and skipped everything in druid grove and let Cernd carry the day. A protection from petrification scroll plus skeletons allowed Corecleric to deal with genies. Shield of Harmony is a good upgrade.
6) Tarnor's group defeated. With sanctuary Corecleric sneaked up and told his buffed minions to take down Gaius. Corecleric used some hold persons and slinging but his minions couldn't quite finish the job so Corecleric had to run. However, resting then summoning a new batch of skeletons carried the day and also took down the Rakshashka and the kobold minions nearby.
Corecleric uses the belt of hill giant strength since otherwise he is so weak (17). Good thing as it was needed to loot Tarnor's goodies.
Will keep at it.