I have started a new run with a half-orc Inquisitor. My thinking was that if the game could have a half-orc Blackguard, then using EE-Keeper to make a half-orc paladin must be OK. Here is my starting character.
I am about to go to the Bandit Camp having picked up Tenya, Ishlilka, Safana, and Dynaheir.
The reason for using these NPCs is that all of them can be found in SoD.
All characters are level 6 or 7 and Reputation is 20.
In this game I have realised that Jenna and Morik, NPCs introduced by EE can be pickpocketted or killed. They have some excellent equipment.
If they are visible by Jaheira when they go hostile, she will also go hostile. However, if you recruit her, and take her outside the inn, first, they can be safely attacked.
(You can also use Ctrl Q to recruit them. There's no dialogue, so you might not want to do that. I haven't played them, just tested them.)
We could talk about our great victory over the Fallen Paladins, or we can talk about Tardis' kidnappers being stopped, or our brilliant victory over Tarnor the Hatchetman's party, or our brave rescue of Haer'Dalis.
But what mattered is when we tried to rescue Haer'Dalis troupe we were unable to all go invisible (this was an issue that plagued us the whole run as Sludge never could go invisible) and this meant the mage immediately put up protection from magic weapons. Sludge and Simmy noticed this and attacked other enemies but Basher tried to kill the mage uselessly - meanwhile the mage gleefully cast finger of death at Basher and of course Basher's half-orc saves weren't up to the task and he died - RIP Basher.
After the fingering incident, we still had half the session available to make a start with a new party. As usual I generated a random class, but the gods were generous by providing a sturdy berserker as the protagonist. With plenty of clerical back-up and the ability to navigate traps safely, that should in theory allow easy enough progress to be made.
So far the run has mainly followed some pretty well-worn tracks with the first real action seeing Shoal reduced to shouts of incoherent rage after failing to sneak in for a kiss. There was though something of a departure next when Crusher inisted on taking on, rather than avoiding, a couple of flesh golems moonlighting as shop security guards. Crusher pulled the first of those outside with a view to Brinholder shooting it down with a few +1 bullets bought for the occasion. However, Crusher got a bit too far ahead of the intended prey and the golem switched targets to Brinholder - a single blow proving too much for him (his 14 HPs at the time were one too many to allow level 1 HP protection to kick in). Behemoth had stated that he was allergic to magical bullets and didn't initially want to participate in the action. However, he proved willing to step up to the plate in order to avenge his fallen companion and his half-orc strength meant the 10 bullets purchased were still enough to finish off the golems.
After raising Brinholder, the team did a few minor chores around Beregost before going down to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armor and allow Crusher to get the first of his vivid dreams. A green scroll purchased there also made a date with basilisks look attractive next. Those monsters allowed party levels to shoot up quickly before Crusher raged to protect himself against Mutamin. That just left Kirian as a target on the map and, after resting, her unfortunate party found themselves all silenced then all held for the most comfortable of victories.
Moving up to the FAI, Tarnesh was another to go silently to the grave before Crusher moved on in search of a bunch of ankhegs. His choice to dual-wield rather than use a shield left him slightly vulnerable to acid damage, but the odd clerical heal kept him in good enough shape to chew through the monsters without resting.
Hullo, glad to see that you've all been keeping at it. I recently picked up a BG2 run with the Half-Orc Conjurer Vlarn, who was mostly accompanied by Anomen (a Champion of Helm), Viconia (dualed to mage), Gavin the Priest of Lathander, Imoen (as a thief), and Fylavara (a stout warrior). There have been many interesting mods devised for the game in recent years so I took on a lot of new content, such as Acifer's Throne of the Mad God and Call of the Lost Goddess. It was quite refreshing not to be taking on many of the usual stronghold quests but in the end Vlarn first had a rather dubious bug when an opponent who it was necessary to kill disappeared, and then a few poor dialogue choices resulted in him being tortured in the Abyss for all eternity. A not unexpected result of no-reloading new content, especially when a fair amount of intrigue is involved. I still have another run to pick up in BG2 sometime- the randomised antics of Fall the Hexblade, so I shall probably pop in again whenever I can face up to the necessary reinstall. One thing of note was that using Eeex (for the first time) with the spell menu mod made playing a mage somewhat less painful .
For a while I couldn't get on to this site for some reason.
Kurtig killed Sarevok and entered SoD. Ishlilik however disappeared at the start of SoD. I was however able to transfer her equipment before she did so. I am hoping to find her somewhere in Baldur's Gate but have no idea where to look.
Hullo, glad to see that you've all been keeping at it. I recently picked up a BG2 run with the Half-Orc Conjurer Vlarn, who was mostly accompanied by Anomen (a Champion of Helm), Viconia (dualed to mage), Gavin the Priest of Lathander, Imoen (as a thief), and Fylavara (a stout warrior). There have been many interesting mods devised for the game in recent years so I took on a lot of new content, such as Acifer's Throne of the Mad God and Call of the Lost Goddess. It was quite refreshing not to be taking on many of the usual stronghold quests but in the end Vlarn first had a rather dubious bug when an opponent who it was necessary to kill disappeared, and then a few poor dialogue choices resulted in him being tortured in the Abyss for all eternity. A not unexpected result of no-reloading new content, especially when a fair amount of intrigue is involved. I still have another run to pick up in BG2 sometime- the randomised antics of Fall the Hexblade, so I shall probably pop in again whenever I can face up to the necessary reinstall. One thing of note was that using Eeex (for the first time) with the spell menu mod made playing a mage somewhat less painful .
Jiddy and Chanceless dust off the cobwebs and look around. Jiddy had rather more cobwebs than Chanceless and after sneaking into the Bridgefort crusader encampment stole a feather instead of a scroll. More on that in a bit
We then headed to the northeast where worgs and goblins were despatched, entered a cave and killed more goblins. The wardstone obtained four months ago was still powered up and allowed us to enter the fort. Khalid greeted us inside and just as we were about to distract the defenders Chanceless asked if we had a scroll. Jiddy realised his mistake so we exited the fort and he used his common sense to send the boot-sped Chanceless to retrieve the scroll. Thus we were well prepared to deal with the problems inside the fort
The negative plane mess left inside looked grim so we decided to spoil the food and hand the fort over to the crusaders. Once that was done we struggled to prevent a crusader mage from summoning elementals to destroy the bridge. It was close, but our summons and chanceless just managed to do the job so we could head to an encampment ahead
From there we checked out an area with a druid, a sick basilisk, and a shambling mound - jiddy finally getting his head into the game and encouraging Chanceless to wear a ring of free action for that last encounter. This was followed by a shadowy ambush, where we turned back and left rather than risk a pointless and dangerous combat. Then on to rescue Safana from four attackers
We reached the underground river entrance and cleared the entire map (barring druids) with ease. Unless you count Chanceless losing a missile contest with one of the defenders stood over the corpse of a cyclops. Jiddy could have continued combat but decided it was best to get his companion raised before our XP diverged too far
With Chanceless breathing once more we finished off these final defenders and unless his memory fails that's where we left it
At the start of the session Behemoth noted that even his great strength was insufficient to stuff another ankheg shell in his backpack - and that prompted a trip to Beregost to dispose of the others. Then it was on to the Cloudpeaks to pick up a bit more reputation along with the charisma tome. A couple more quick quests and reputation hit 20, allowing a few items to be acquired relatively cheaply at Ulgoth's Beard.
In search of some quick XP, Crusher led the way to the coast to find some sirines and golems to pick on, There was a bit of discussion about whether silence was useful against sirines - on the plus side that stops them going invisible, but on the minus side they then fire off magical arrows reducing the amount of loot available.
Up to this point cleric spells had been used sparingly in the session, but Greywolf suffered the indignity of being doomed, commanded and then held. After a stroll through the mine, silence stole Mulahey's tongue (and his ability to defend himself ). Outside the mine skeletons made an appearance, though with the amazons all silenced they were not really needed. Behemoth ensured there was no need for spells against Nimbul by demonstrating the efficacy of his backstabs with the help of his new +3 staff.
Brinholder commented that we hadn't yet paid a visit to Meilum to get his bracers, so a quick trip remedied that. Then it was on to Durlag's Tower where Brinholder made use of the Wand of Heavens from Ulgoth's Beard to ensure there was no fair fight with the Battle Horrors. Crusher used a couple of potions of mirror eyes as a simple way to deal with the basilisks on the roof, though Brinholder could have used sanctuary and skeletons as a cheaper solution.
After Tranzig was slaughtered, the Bandit Camp offered little challenge. The two clerics sneaked into Tazok's tent and used silence and skeletons to make that combat a foregone conclusion.
After clearing inventories of loot the final action of the session was to make our way through the Cloakwood. Crusher was the only character that could potentially benefit from Spider's Bane and decided not to bother with that. However, he did decide to take on the wyvern cave which we often don't bother with. That was partly because Brinholder had been commenting that the Cloak of Displacement took his poison save down to 1 - meaning automatic saves against many enemies. Brinholder was nearly caught out though by discovering the hard way that the wyvern poison has a -4 save penalty - he withdrew just in time and used a healing potion to cure the poison and get a few HPs back.
At the mine area Behemoth intended to scout out the enemies but was spotted earlier than intended by Drasus. He and Genthore chased us, but the mages failed to arrive in support, making them easy enough victims. The mages paid for the passivity by being silenced and slaughtered.
Comments
I am about to go to the Bandit Camp having picked up Tenya, Ishlilka, Safana, and Dynaheir.
The reason for using these NPCs is that all of them can be found in SoD.
All characters are level 6 or 7 and Reputation is 20.
If they are visible by Jaheira when they go hostile, she will also go hostile. However, if you recruit her, and take her outside the inn, first, they can be safely attacked.
(You can also use Ctrl Q to recruit them. There's no dialogue, so you might not want to do that. I haven't played them, just tested them.)
Basher - protagonist, half-orc berserker (Corey_Russell)
Sludge - dwarven berserker (Gate70)
Simmy - human monk (Grond0)
We could talk about our great victory over the Fallen Paladins, or we can talk about Tardis' kidnappers being stopped, or our brilliant victory over Tarnor the Hatchetman's party, or our brave rescue of Haer'Dalis.
But what mattered is when we tried to rescue Haer'Dalis troupe we were unable to all go invisible (this was an issue that plagued us the whole run as Sludge never could go invisible) and this meant the mage immediately put up protection from magic weapons. Sludge and Simmy noticed this and attacked other enemies but Basher tried to kill the mage uselessly - meanwhile the mage gleefully cast finger of death at Basher and of course Basher's half-orc saves weren't up to the task and he died - RIP Basher.
Crusher - dwarf berserker (Grond0)
Brinholder - dwarf fighter/cleric (Corey_Russell)
Behemoth - half-orc cleric/thief (Gate70)
Previous run
After the fingering incident, we still had half the session available to make a start with a new party. As usual I generated a random class, but the gods were generous by providing a sturdy berserker as the protagonist. With plenty of clerical back-up and the ability to navigate traps safely, that should in theory allow easy enough progress to be made.
So far the run has mainly followed some pretty well-worn tracks with the first real action seeing Shoal reduced to shouts of incoherent rage after failing to sneak in for a kiss. There was though something of a departure next when Crusher inisted on taking on, rather than avoiding, a couple of flesh golems moonlighting as shop security guards. Crusher pulled the first of those outside with a view to Brinholder shooting it down with a few +1 bullets bought for the occasion. However, Crusher got a bit too far ahead of the intended prey and the golem switched targets to Brinholder - a single blow proving too much for him (his 14 HPs at the time were one too many to allow level 1 HP protection to kick in). Behemoth had stated that he was allergic to magical bullets and didn't initially want to participate in the action. However, he proved willing to step up to the plate in order to avenge his fallen companion and his half-orc strength meant the 10 bullets purchased were still enough to finish off the golems.
After raising Brinholder, the team did a few minor chores around Beregost before going down to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armor and allow Crusher to get the first of his vivid dreams. A green scroll purchased there also made a date with basilisks look attractive next. Those monsters allowed party levels to shoot up quickly before Crusher raged to protect himself against Mutamin. That just left Kirian as a target on the map and, after resting, her unfortunate party found themselves all silenced then all held for the most comfortable of victories.
Moving up to the FAI, Tarnesh was another to go silently to the grave before Crusher moved on in search of a bunch of ankhegs. His choice to dual-wield rather than use a shield left him slightly vulnerable to acid damage, but the odd clerical heal kept him in good enough shape to chew through the monsters without resting.
Berserker 5, 64 HPs, 31 kills
Figher 4 / cleric 4, 47 HPs, 13 kills, 1 death
Cleric 4 / thief 4, 28 HPs, 24 kills, 0 deaths
Kurtig killed Sarevok and entered SoD. Ishlilik however disappeared at the start of SoD. I was however able to transfer her equipment before she did so. I am hoping to find her somewhere in Baldur's Gate but have no idea where to look.
Suggestions welcome
Interesting!!
Enjoying following your run too Grond0 .
Jiddy (male gnome Fighter/Illusionist, Gate70); Chanceless (male gnome Fighter/Thief, Grond0)
21 June... with a week to forget any detail
Jiddy and Chanceless dust off the cobwebs and look around. Jiddy had rather more cobwebs than Chanceless and after sneaking into the Bridgefort crusader encampment stole a feather instead of a scroll. More on that in a bit
We then headed to the northeast where worgs and goblins were despatched, entered a cave and killed more goblins. The wardstone obtained four months ago was still powered up and allowed us to enter the fort. Khalid greeted us inside and just as we were about to distract the defenders Chanceless asked if we had a scroll. Jiddy realised his mistake so we exited the fort and he used his common sense to send the boot-sped Chanceless to retrieve the scroll. Thus we were well prepared to deal with the problems inside the fort
The negative plane mess left inside looked grim so we decided to spoil the food and hand the fort over to the crusaders. Once that was done we struggled to prevent a crusader mage from summoning elementals to destroy the bridge. It was close, but our summons and chanceless just managed to do the job so we could head to an encampment ahead
From there we checked out an area with a druid, a sick basilisk, and a shambling mound - jiddy finally getting his head into the game and encouraging Chanceless to wear a ring of free action for that last encounter. This was followed by a shadowy ambush, where we turned back and left rather than risk a pointless and dangerous combat. Then on to rescue Safana from four attackers
We reached the underground river entrance and cleared the entire map (barring druids) with ease. Unless you count Chanceless losing a missile contest with one of the defenders stood over the corpse of a cyclops. Jiddy could have continued combat but decided it was best to get his companion raised before our XP diverged too far
With Chanceless breathing once more we finished off these final defenders and unless his memory fails that's where we left it
Thanks Wise - good to see you found your way back on to the site
Crusher - dwarf berserker (Grond0)
Brinholder - dwarf fighter/cleric (Corey_Russell)
Behemoth - half-orc cleric/thief (Gate70)
Previous updates:
At the start of the session Behemoth noted that even his great strength was insufficient to stuff another ankheg shell in his backpack - and that prompted a trip to Beregost to dispose of the others. Then it was on to the Cloudpeaks to pick up a bit more reputation along with the charisma tome. A couple more quick quests and reputation hit 20, allowing a few items to be acquired relatively cheaply at Ulgoth's Beard.
In search of some quick XP, Crusher led the way to the coast to find some sirines and golems to pick on, There was a bit of discussion about whether silence was useful against sirines - on the plus side that stops them going invisible, but on the minus side they then fire off magical arrows reducing the amount of loot available.
Up to this point cleric spells had been used sparingly in the session, but Greywolf suffered the indignity of being doomed, commanded and then held. After a stroll through the mine, silence stole Mulahey's tongue (and his ability to defend himself
Brinholder commented that we hadn't yet paid a visit to Meilum to get his bracers, so a quick trip remedied that. Then it was on to Durlag's Tower where Brinholder made use of the Wand of Heavens from Ulgoth's Beard to ensure there was no fair fight with the Battle Horrors. Crusher used a couple of potions of mirror eyes as a simple way to deal with the basilisks on the roof, though Brinholder could have used sanctuary and skeletons as a cheaper solution.
After clearing inventories of loot the final action of the session was to make our way through the Cloakwood. Crusher was the only character that could potentially benefit from Spider's Bane and decided not to bother with that. However, he did decide to take on the wyvern cave which we often don't bother with. That was partly because Brinholder had been commenting that the Cloak of Displacement took his poison save down to 1 - meaning automatic saves against many enemies. Brinholder was nearly caught out though by discovering the hard way that the wyvern poison has a -4 save penalty - he withdrew just in time and used a healing potion to cure the poison and get a few HPs back.
At the mine area Behemoth intended to scout out the enemies but was spotted earlier than intended by Drasus. He and Genthore chased us, but the mages failed to arrive in support, making them easy enough victims. The mages paid for the passivity by being silenced and slaughtered.
Berserker 7, 90 HPs, 175 kills
Figher 5 / cleric 6, 64 HPs, 73 kills, 1 death
Cleric 6 / thief 6, 40 HPs, 80 kills, 0 deaths
Sad to hear of your demise
I have to change my password every time! A bit of a pain! [Sorted it now!]