@Heindrich1988, at this point, I've watched up through the battle with Nizzidramaii'yt.
It was very dramatic and interesting to watch you trying to save Aerie, so I watched the next several videos after the Bodhi battle to see you roleplay it up through finally getting Aerie back. You tried everything anyone could think of not to kill her, and then you finally figured everything out through in game clues. I wouldn't have had that much patience - I would have been consulting online guides long before piecing it all together like you did.
The first time I played in 1999, I figured it out through taking the heart and Anomen's body (I was playing a female sorceress) to the altar of Amaunator, but it turns out that the procedure does not work unless you have spoken to the priest of Oghma in the docks first, and I did not know that, and had not spoken to him. I got really mad and almost quit the game. I finally finished SoA, but without Anomen, so the whole thing was very bittersweet.
Your dragon battle was certainly interesting. That spell that almost wiped your party was Insect Plague. It's an extremely powerful 7th level druid spell, and you should have Jaheira using it frequently - it will save you a lot in ToB. Once it hits its initial target, it keeps spreading until every enemy in the area is affected. At 2 damage per segment, save vs. panic, and 100% spell failure, it's one of the best mage killers in the game.
In fact, if Jaheira had been able to get her own Insect Plague onto Nizzy first, she could have prevented Nizzy's Haste, Entangle, and Insect Plague, and you might have had a much easier time of it.
Interestingly, Nizzy never used her acid breath during your battle, or I didn't catch it if she did. If she had used more acid breath, I think you might have had a party wipe, so you may have had a bit of luck, there. One of the things SCS does, I think, is to script the dragons in the game to use their breath weapon much more frequently.
Dragon breath is so powerful, I guess the original scripters thought it would frustrate too many players if the dragons used it more than once per battle. Any way, it was the battle with Nizzy I was thinking of when I suggested you might need the acid protection armor. Looks like you didn't need it, after all.
Very exciting to watch - thank you for posting these.
That's not quite right - I use the same timer settings as in vanilla. However, I think various features of the vanilla scripts mean dragons are a bit more likely to choose not to breathe in certain circumstances.
@belgarathmth Hehe I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was kinda proud of myself for figuring out that puzzle, and it's an example of why I love this game. It's incredible that I picked up some Acorns right at the start of the game, and completed the quest more than 50 hrs later in Chapter 6. After cleansing the Temple Ruins of the Shade Lord, I had no idea I would return again to restore Aerie!
Ah right... I guess that was my first experience of Insect Plague... perhaps I should use it myself! lol Is there no cure for the spell? Can you run away from the zone of effect? It's absolutely devastating for a party like mine.
As for dragon breath... yeah I think I've only really noticed one major dragon breath attack, and that was by Firkraag, I imagine the acid version of that would've been devastating to a party already crippled by Insect Plague.
Oh and I forgot to mention, thanks a lot for the tip about the spell short-cuts on the action bar, that's REALLY useful given how much I use Chaotic Commands, Stoneskin etc...
@Heindrich1988, I just watched your final battles with Irenicus. Bravo, and congratulations! I can't wait to watch your ToB battles, if you are going to record ToB. Great job on making this huge SoA Let's Play. You have a complete body of work to be proud of.
36) Throne of Bhaal Intro and Party Progress Review
Irenicus has been vanquished. Jin and his companions have survived the trials of Hell itself. However there is no respite for a Child of Bhaal...
I take the opportunity to review the progress of the party to date and reflect on how my journey has differed from that Tord and Lilly Black, who inspired the whole endeavour in the first place.
Jin and his friends arrive in Saradush, a desperate city under siege by the armies of Yaga-Shura and crushed by the oppression of its tyrannical ruler, Gromnir Il-Khan.
Having witnessed the random brutality and injustice of the Il-Khan Army, Jin storms Saradush Castle from the underground tunnels beneath, hoping to catch Gromnir by surprise and end his reign of terror, by reason or by force.
In the third level of Watcher's Keep, Jin and company stumble into the bewildering death-trap that is the Maze of Portals. Lost and confused, they stumble from one room to the next, each inhabited by deadly demonic beasts and other dangers. Worse still, many of the rooms are Dead Magic or Wild Magic zones, which makes spell-casting either dangerously unreliable or utterly impossible. A desperate struggle for escape and survive ensues...
I found it difficult to select a 'highlight video' for this part of Watcher's Keep, because, partly as a result of my noob-ish mistakes, this turned out to an immensely interesting and challenging series of battles, where my party were repeatedly thrust into desperate battles, with little chance to prepare or rest due to the confusing layout of the Portal Maze and the Dead/Wild magic zones. Thus I picked the video starting from the first significant encounter in the maze...
Having finally learnt to use the 'Madman's Journal' to navigate through the maze, Jin and his friends near the exit to the cavern containing the exit portal and possible escape from the nightmarish maze. However, in the path stands an enemy never before encounter... A powerful Demon Wraith and his Slave Wraiths subjects. To make matters worse, the battlefield is filled with deadly arcane traps...
@Heindrich1988, good grief! Those repeating traps sure were deadly. Looks like you had someone standing on one of them for some time without realizing it. Did you have a scroll of Stone to Flesh for Anomen, or perhaps time and enough safety to rest, for Jin or Aerie to memorize one from their spellbooks?
The cleric spell Find Traps might have been useful here, because it works faster and over a larger area than thief skill, plus it keeps ticking for several turns automatically while the priest or druid takes other actions. If you could have at least *seen* the traps without Imoen needing the time to find them while all hell was breaking loose, that might have been helpful.
I guess I should check out YouTube to watch the rest of the recovery and escape.
Watcher's Keep is a nightmare! Congratulations on surviving that battle in the second video without reloading - I thought you were toast for a minute, there.
@belgarathmth Hehe, yeah I watched Tord's effort in this battle, I think it was Imoen who stepped on the trap, which triggers 4 (yes, FOUR) fireballs in a row. lol I think the Demon Wraith probably threw a fireball or two in there himself just to add to the mayhem.
Recovering from that was a bit of a logistical exercise. I think Minsc carried an item that had 1 charge of Stone to Flesh per day, but first I had to Raise Minsc with a Rod of Resurrection, which was in Anomen's Inventory, who of course was Petrified. All the while I was keen to raise Imoen first, so she can disarm the traps that at this stage made me scared to move one step in any direction. lol Thankfully the Bag of Holding automatically transfer to Charname when you lose the NPC carrying it, and the Rod of Resurrection was in the bag.
I really enjoyed that level of the Watcher's Keep. The Demon Wraith came at the end of a sequence of really tricky battles (due to Dead/Wild Magic zones), and I actually felt I was much closer to a party wipe in the previous battle against the Succubus and her Alou-Fiends. If Aerie's Dispel was a moment later, it would have been Death No 17. lol
Actually speaking of deaths. It is beginning to bug me how many of my party wipes are due to totally careless mistakes. I have actually navigated many near-disasters (Succubus, Black Dragon, Irenicus and Demon Wraith), but died to random Fire Giants and Shadow Fiends.
Flushed with success from their latest victory over the ancient dragon, Saladrex, Jin and his companions venture into a small nondescript crypt adjoining the Githyanki Encampment, only to come face to face with a Demi-Lich, an evil entity of such power that Saladrex might as well have been its pet familiar!
What followed would be a desperate battle for survival that would push Jin to his very limits and beyond, and result in a calamity Jin could not have imagined mere moments earlier.
Ahaha! Looks like yer ran into quite a pickle there groundling! What you needed was a good reliable dwarf with a trusty axe or hammer!
Okay what u really needed was +5 weapons, that staff you got from Saladrex would do, if u upgrade it. That's also why Minute Meteors worked, they are +5 weapons.
For protection, you cudda used Protection from Magic scrolls and cast Spell Immunity (whatever school Imprisonment is, I forget)
You know, I never knew that demi-lich was so dangerous during my ToB run, because I had Keldorn wielding Carsomyr, which is a +5 weapon, and three people casting Melf's Minute Meteors (which I knew to be a critical spell against liches), and we killed him very quickly, before I found out the hard way about the unlimited Imprisonment instant cast special ability.
@Heindrich1988, I went ahead and watched video number 443 to see what you decided to do. Kudos for trying to live with the consequences and not reload.
I know how dangerous and awful Imprisonment is, so I always travel prepared for it, holding as many Freedom scrolls as I can find in my scroll cases. There are a couple for sale in Amn, and those duergar in the first part of the Underdark have several for sale. I'm not sure where to find them in ToB, though. It looks like you forgot to check the store run by those knights up on top of Watcher's Keep, to see if they had Freedom scrolls for sale.
Roleplaying-wise, I consider the Imprisonment spell to be hideously evil, because the spell description says the victims are held in suspended animation in a small sphere below the ground, and *are still conscious.* Brrrr. What an awful, horrible fate! Anyone held that way for long would quickly go insane, and be in a state of terrible suffering - which is even worse when you consider that the evil caster intends to leave them like that forever, and they can't die. It's almost too terrible to contemplate.
If and when you get Aerie back, be aware that I'm pretty sure Imprisonment breaks your romance variable, like Petrification, so you will need to Keeper the variable back to "2" for your romance - I think it has some more content to it that you haven't seen yet.
Okay what u really needed was +5 weapons, that staff you got from Saladrex would do, if u upgrade it. That's also why Minute Meteors worked, they are +5 weapons.
For protection, you cudda used Protection from Magic scrolls and cast Spell Immunity (whatever school Imprisonment is, I forget)
@Durlag_Thunderaxe @jackjack Ah thanks guys! I actually tried to look through both Arcane and Priest spells, trying to see if there were any way of preventing Imprisonment, and concluded that it was unblockable. lol It never occurred to me to use Spell Immunity! I hope the spell has a long duration... otherwise it might be tricky to know when to cast it... cos, later, I discovered Demi-lich isn't the only thing that casts Imprisonment.
@belgarathmth Yeah I really regret selling Carsomyr in Amn, I had no idea I'd have need of Keldorn again in ToB, or actually I had no idea you could recruit old friends until I clicked on the statue in the Pocket Plane. I wish Jin had the sense to gift the mighty blade to Keldorn after returning to Athkatla from the Windspear Hills. We even visited the Order of the Radiant to enlist aid against Bhodi!
I checked out Lilly Black's actions in the Underdark Cavern, apparently I totally missed the fact that one of the Druegar was a merchant. Also she freed a mage with a freedom scroll (a quest I obviously missed), so presumably that's when Tord learnt about Imprisonment and bought Freedom scrolls, which is incredibly high level stuff for Underdark content.
Anyway the Watcher Knights do not have Freedom scrolls, but I do have an idea of where I can find it (several hours into the 'future' from the latest upload), and should be able to bring back Aerie and Imoen at least (it depends on how many scrolls I can find).
And yes, I hate Imprisonment, it has been my bane in Watcher's Keep. Absolutely horrible, I didn't even know the victim was still conscious. That's worse than death!
Despite the loss of Aerie, Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira, those dearest and closest to him, Jin determinedly presses deeper into Watcher's Keep, having enlisted the aid of his former comrades and friends, Nalia, Keldorn, Valygar and Mazzy.
After overcoming the challenges of Mind, Spirit and Heart, the party attempt to unlock the seals containing the Imprisoned One with the hard-won keys. However, they discover that each seal is protected by yet more guardians... With the Rilmani of the Spirit Seal defeated, Jin turns the Heart Key, and is immediately confronted by a powerful Lich by the name of Azamantes, and his retinue of Flaming Skulls...
@Heindrich1988 one scroll of Freedom frees ALL the characters that were imprisioned in that are. Also, I reloaded 17 times for the Demon Wraith, you've reloaded one time less :P well, I was in chapter three of SoA, searching for money to buy an armor for Anomen :P I was such a poor pal
Do you mean that you reloaded 17 times by the time u got to the Demon Wraith? Or that it took you 17 attempts to kill the Demon Wraith? Cos I did it first time
I tend to die in random situations, quite often cos of carelessness.
Careless Deaths: No7. Anomen kills Jin after being dominated by a Mindflayer.
No8. Random Shadow Fiend kills Jin cos I stupidly allowed him to attack a pack of them alone (he had Boots of Speed, and got there first). He got Held, and the rest of the party couldn't save him in time.
No13. Drow Gladiator in Ust Natha. Went into the fight without any preparation. It was easy once I gave Jin all the party's best gear.
No15. Mindflayer sucks out Jin's brains, cos I thought "He's got 19 Int, he'll be fine!" and didn't check his Intelligence as he tanked a pack of Mindflayers in the Temple Sewers.
No16. A Fire Giant in the Watcher's Keep Fire Library. I didn't realise how hard the giants would hit, and underestimated them cos they were not spellcasters. Jin got squished in what should have been an easy encounter.
So yeah... Irenicus? Fine. Dragons? No Problem! Stupid carelessness? NOOOOoooooo!!!!
ps: I should add the caveat that I do not find 'boss battles' easy, it's just when I am expecting a challenging encounter, I tend to be a lot more careful, and scrape through some truly desperate situations like Irenicus at Spellhold, the Black Dragon in Suldanesselar and several encounters in Watcher's Keep. (Rod of Ressurrection is so oh' useful!)
@Heindrich1988 I was like 1,7M XP, and I was more a noob than now (t'was my first SoA/ToB run, but I was in early SoA). Mainly, it was because the PC had the best spells, but he was the only one with a good find traps, and, well, Anomen dien't had an armor, and we were halfaways Mazzy's quest, so she was waiting with Anomen's armor, in her house. Jan didn't had more than a Knave Robe, we had noy one weapon able to hit the Demoin Wraith, and only the PC (and Haer'Dalis, but he had to barrage the Demon Wraith with magic missiles :P) could use because it was a long sword (and Jan sucks for melee, and Anomen is a vighter dual cleric :P). So, to kill him I've used a Project Image scroll (random loot, I've could have sold it, but it was the key to victory), used millions of MM on the D wraith, while Haer'Dalis and Jan were shooting MMs too, the other keys to won were: 1) Anomen battling the Slave wraith and killing them, 2) the PC using a wand of cloukill thrice on the Demon Wraith (to interrupt spellcasting), 3) The summoned Flesh Golem (golem manual FTW) that took all the Symbols :P and a finishing Death Spell, 4) Jan with his victorious Magic Missile of Doom, Jan the Demon-Wraith-Slayer, who only casted Magic Missile twice, and yet he killed the demon :P And, yeah, I've misunderstood :P Also, the thing was that I didn't realized we were going to face off a high level spellcaster that was not from this plane and could destroy everyone, including the Flesh Golem, in two rounds. In some moment he stunned himself, but the only effective weapon we had were MM, so there was no change, the PC stepped into a trap while rushing to the Demon Wraith, and when he was near, I discovered that the Demon Wraith had casted Improved Mantle before. Fuck him, I've used Dispel Effects, so the stun was gone, and he killed the PC with two spells, Symbol, Stun, Symbol, Death.
Oops! Sorry I missed this until now! lol Don't know what happened! Either there was no notification, or I musta missed it...
Anyways... Yes it's GREAT to have the normal crew back, especially given the battles I've fought since then. I don't think I could have done it with an underlevelled, undergeared and unfamiliar second string party.
It took about 4 days... shorter for Keldorn cos he got Imprisoned quite a bit later than Minsc, Aerie, Jaheira and Immy.
Having FINALLY managed to free his friends and loved ones trapped by Imprisonment in Watcher's Keep, Jin and company return to face the third and final group of guardians barring their path to the Vault of the Imprisoned One.
The group is an unlikely alliance of incredibly powerful and exotic individuals, including a female serpentine demon called Y'tossi and a Beholder Hive Mother! Somehow, working in unison much like Jin and his party, the seal guardians pose the greatest challenge Jin has faced thus far!
This is the 3rd attempt following a double-party (18th and 19th) wipe in the previous session
This group is ridiculous. I still don't know who/what some of them are, but they seem to be just as specialised and balanced as my party, and on the whole much more powerful "man-for-man".
@Heindrich1988, LOL. I haven't watched the video yet, because I want to save it for some mealtime entertainment, either tonight, tomorrow, or Monday.
But, I wanted to go ahead and say, this is the battle I've been waiting to see you try. I think I had about five or six reloads during my last (and first remembered) go at it. It was this battle that first taught me to respect the spell Insect Plague, because one of them managed to get it on me first. I had a magic-heavy party, like yours, and having all my casting disabled for the whole battle was devastating. Fatal, actually.
I can't remember how I eventually succeeded, because, although I had Jaheira with me, I had not had her memorize any Insect Plagues (insects, schminsects, bah).
I think I learned to watch for which one of them was going to cast Insect Plague, and then concentrated all fire on *that* caster first, right when the battle started.
There was also an issue with
that elder orb casting Imprisonment on my Charname! I think it *always* automatically targeted my Charname, who was a sorcerer in the back lines, or at least it sure seemed that way. I may have wound up turning my Charname sorcerer invisible and just keeping him out of the battle.
I can't advise you about Demogorgon,
because I made the choice to banish him without fighting him, which seemed like what any sane person would do.
It was this battle at the bottom of Watcher's Keep that first made me go, "Oh, holy crap, the Throne of Bhaal expansion is *seriously* out to get me!" LOL
And, I don't know how far past this you've been, but, I hate to tell you it only gets worse from here. And just think, there are lots of people who want the "Ascension" and "Sword Coast Strategems" mods to make all these battles even *more* difficult!
@belgarathmth This battle truly was epic. I couldn't believe how long it took. I had intended to finish Watcher's Keep in that session, but this one battle left me exhausted, hence the rather abrupt stop at the end.
It was this battle that first taught me to respect the spell Insect Plague, because one of them managed to get it on me first. I had a magic-heavy party, like yours, and having all my casting disabled for the whole battle was devastating. Fatal, actually.
I got hit with Insect Plague here too, but it wasn't as deadly as the Black Dragon incident, I guess cos my party was much more spread out in order to take on the fairly spread out enemy. I had intentionally decided to take on all six of them at the same time, rather than trying to pull them one by one from one flank.
I guess my party also had more resistances and hp at this stage too, so the sheer damage from Insect Plague wasn't so crippling as before.
that elder orb casting Imprisonment on my Charname! I think it *always* automatically targeted my Charname, who was a sorcerer in the back lines, or at least it sure seemed that way. I may have wound up turning my Charname sorcerer invisible and just keeping him out of the battle.
Ouch! That sounds like... AI Cheese! You sure u didn't have SCS/Ascension installed? Or maybe playing at higher than Core?! I have no idea how to counter that... well actually Durlag mentioned Spell Immunity, but still, that is ridiculous! The Hive Mother was nasty in my battle, and refused to go down despite me throwing so much at it (it even got healed by the Cleric when it was near death!), but at least it didn't cheese me to gg repeatedly.
It was this battle at the bottom of Watcher's Keep that first made me go, "Oh, holy crap, the Throne of Bhaal expansion is *seriously* out to get me!" LOL
And, I don't know how far past this you've been, but, I hate to tell you it only gets worse from here. And just think, there are lots of people who want the "Ascension" and "Sword Coast Strategems" mods to make all these battles even *more* difficult!
lol... I haven't got much further, had a break at Xmas/New Year.
To be honest, I know there are things I can do to make life easier... but I think it's a bit cheesy, so I won't resort to it just yet. For instance I thought about pre-casting long duration spells just before I turned the key, so Immy can Timestop just as the battle begins. I could also use Mislead for Jin, Aerie and Immy, and keep their bodies safely outta harm's way. I could pre-emptively Web/Storm of Vengeance where I know the enemy will spawn, which will probably disrupt their spellcasting etc (In my first wipe at this encounter, I accidentally almost killed Nalmissara with an Aerial Servant before her protections kicked in)...
So that's why SCS doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. It would forces me to metagame and cheese to have any chance of victory, and it makes every minor mage battle a major headache. I quite like how (In SoA at least) you get a few easy encounters building up to a difficult finale. It'd be no fun if you are constantly struggling for survival.
That said, I do recognise that I remain very inexperienced at high level mage battles. I still don't really know which penetration spell to use for which occasions, and probably waste a lot of spells via trial and error.
I suggest don't even worry about it. Breach takes down the defenses that protect against melee attacks so don't leave home without it. All the turning type defenses don't help against AoE so just use that instead of taking down their defenses for single target spells which will just backfire or get stopped anyway if you forgot something.
Another thing to keep in mind: there are a few +6 weapons in the game while the highest immunity is +5. Do the math...
@Heindrich1988, okay, I watched the video before this one, this one, and the two after it, so I could see the whole scenario and learn from it. I'm glad I didn't try to watch last night while I was too tired.
Thanks for a great Saturday morning and early afternoon of great BG entertainment.
Congratulations on beating it! I started laughing and shaking my head when that cleric ran over there and cast Heal on the hive mother, after you'd worked so hard to beat her down.
I also thought it was kind of funny when your reaction to killing Xei Wan Toh (or whatever that name was), wasn't a "yay", but rather "Rrrrgh. Finally."
My goodness, what an exhausting battle! That was quite the marathon.
As I said in a YouTube comment, the thing that was making Xei Wan Toh so deadly was Whirlwind Attack, which is ten attacks in one round, plus extra attacks because he was dual wielding. Concentrating WA's from my own warriors was one of the ways I was able to get through ToB battles in my own run.
So, the next time you build a team, you might want to consider prioritizing taking WA and Greater WA as the first HLA's for all your warriors.
You made excellent use of summons here. That last time, when you managed to beat it, I think you got Xei Wan Toh to waste all his or her WA's on your summons, so that really helped.
I see you had also learned by the last time to keep out of melee range of the cleric's Blade Barrier.
Thanks again - I learned from watching these three attempts at this gods-awful combat scenario. Kudos to you. You're a good strategist, and I appreciate that you insist on winning without using any foreknowledge of spawn points or placement of AoE's, or which buffs and protections to cast.
After battling through untold horrors and overcoming guardians of incredible power, Jin and company finally come face to face with The Imprisoned One.
In a shocking series of events, the Imprisoned is revealed to be Demogorgon, and Jin had been betrayed by the Vigil Knights of Helm, who had intended to trap him and his heroic companions in the vault along with the Prince of Demons. Instead however, thanks to the intervention of an avatar of Helm, it was the treacherous Odren and his knights that were imprisoned instead, and the seals of the vault reinforced for ages to come.
However, in a alternate reality, Jin inexplicably decides to take on Demogorgon and face the Prince of Demons in battle.
This is again the third attempt after two failures in the previous session, where I take on Demogorgon, just for fun.
These party wipes do not contribute to my overall death count, which stands at 19 at this point, and proves that Jin was wise to avoid the battle with Demogorgon in the first place!
Comments
It was very dramatic and interesting to watch you trying to save Aerie, so I watched the next several videos after the Bodhi battle to see you roleplay it up through finally getting Aerie back. You tried everything anyone could think of not to kill her, and then you finally figured everything out through in game clues. I wouldn't have had that much patience - I would have been consulting online guides long before piecing it all together like you did.
The first time I played in 1999, I figured it out through taking the heart and Anomen's body (I was playing a female sorceress) to the altar of Amaunator, but it turns out that the procedure does not work unless you have spoken to the priest of Oghma in the docks first, and I did not know that, and had not spoken to him. I got really mad and almost quit the game. I finally finished SoA, but without Anomen, so the whole thing was very bittersweet.
Your dragon battle was certainly interesting. That spell that almost wiped your party was Insect Plague. It's an extremely powerful 7th level druid spell, and you should have Jaheira using it frequently - it will save you a lot in ToB. Once it hits its initial target, it keeps spreading until every enemy in the area is affected. At 2 damage per segment, save vs. panic, and 100% spell failure, it's one of the best mage killers in the game.
In fact, if Jaheira had been able to get her own Insect Plague onto Nizzy first, she could have prevented Nizzy's Haste, Entangle, and Insect Plague, and you might have had a much easier time of it.
Interestingly, Nizzy never used her acid breath during your battle, or I didn't catch it if she did. If she had used more acid breath, I think you might have had a party wipe, so you may have had a bit of luck, there. One of the things SCS does, I think, is to script the dragons in the game to use their breath weapon much more frequently.
Dragon breath is so powerful, I guess the original scripters thought it would frustrate too many players if the dragons used it more than once per battle. Any way, it was the battle with Nizzy I was thinking of when I suggested you might need the acid protection armor. Looks like you didn't need it, after all.
Very exciting to watch - thank you for posting these.
Hehe I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was kinda proud of myself for figuring out that puzzle, and it's an example of why I love this game. It's incredible that I picked up some Acorns right at the start of the game, and completed the quest more than 50 hrs later in Chapter 6. After cleansing the Temple Ruins of the Shade Lord, I had no idea I would return again to restore Aerie!
Ah right... I guess that was my first experience of Insect Plague... perhaps I should use it myself! lol Is there no cure for the spell? Can you run away from the zone of effect? It's absolutely devastating for a party like mine.
As for dragon breath... yeah I think I've only really noticed one major dragon breath attack, and that was by Firkraag, I imagine the acid version of that would've been devastating to a party already crippled by Insect Plague.
Oh and I forgot to mention, thanks a lot for the tip about the spell short-cuts on the action bar, that's REALLY useful given how much I use Chaotic Commands, Stoneskin etc...
36) Throne of Bhaal Intro and Party Progress Review
Irenicus has been vanquished. Jin and his companions have survived the trials of Hell itself. However there is no respite for a Child of Bhaal...
I take the opportunity to review the progress of the party to date and reflect on how my journey has differed from that Tord and Lilly Black, who inspired the whole endeavour in the first place.
37) Gromnir Il-Khan
Jin and his friends arrive in Saradush, a desperate city under siege by the armies of Yaga-Shura and crushed by the oppression of its tyrannical ruler, Gromnir Il-Khan.
Having witnessed the random brutality and injustice of the Il-Khan Army, Jin storms Saradush Castle from the underground tunnels beneath, hoping to catch Gromnir by surprise and end his reign of terror, by reason or by force.
In the third level of Watcher's Keep, Jin and company stumble into the bewildering death-trap that is the Maze of Portals. Lost and confused, they stumble from one room to the next, each inhabited by deadly demonic beasts and other dangers. Worse still, many of the rooms are Dead Magic or Wild Magic zones, which makes spell-casting either dangerously unreliable or utterly impossible. A desperate struggle for escape and survive ensues...
I found it difficult to select a 'highlight video' for this part of Watcher's Keep, because, partly as a result of my noob-ish mistakes, this turned out to an immensely interesting and challenging series of battles, where my party were repeatedly thrust into desperate battles, with little chance to prepare or rest due to the confusing layout of the Portal Maze and the Dead/Wild magic zones. Thus I picked the video starting from the first significant encounter in the maze...
39) Demon Wraith
Having finally learnt to use the 'Madman's Journal' to navigate through the maze, Jin and his friends near the exit to the cavern containing the exit portal and possible escape from the nightmarish maze. However, in the path stands an enemy never before encounter... A powerful Demon Wraith and his Slave Wraiths subjects. To make matters worse, the battlefield is filled with deadly arcane traps...
The cleric spell Find Traps might have been useful here, because it works faster and over a larger area than thief skill, plus it keeps ticking for several turns automatically while the priest or druid takes other actions. If you could have at least *seen* the traps without Imoen needing the time to find them while all hell was breaking loose, that might have been helpful.
I guess I should check out YouTube to watch the rest of the recovery and escape.
Watcher's Keep is a nightmare! Congratulations on surviving that battle in the second video without reloading - I thought you were toast for a minute, there.
Hehe, yeah I watched Tord's effort in this battle, I think it was Imoen who stepped on the trap, which triggers 4 (yes, FOUR) fireballs in a row. lol I think the Demon Wraith probably threw a fireball or two in there himself just to add to the mayhem.
Recovering from that was a bit of a logistical exercise. I think Minsc carried an item that had 1 charge of Stone to Flesh per day, but first I had to Raise Minsc with a Rod of Resurrection, which was in Anomen's Inventory, who of course was Petrified. All the while I was keen to raise Imoen first, so she can disarm the traps that at this stage made me scared to move one step in any direction. lol Thankfully the Bag of Holding automatically transfer to Charname when you lose the NPC carrying it, and the Rod of Resurrection was in the bag.
I really enjoyed that level of the Watcher's Keep. The Demon Wraith came at the end of a sequence of really tricky battles (due to Dead/Wild Magic zones), and I actually felt I was much closer to a party wipe in the previous battle against the Succubus and her Alou-Fiends. If Aerie's Dispel was a moment later, it would have been Death No 17. lol
Actually speaking of deaths. It is beginning to bug me how many of my party wipes are due to totally careless mistakes. I have actually navigated many near-disasters (Succubus, Black Dragon, Irenicus and Demon Wraith), but died to random Fire Giants and Shadow Fiends.
Flushed with success from their latest victory over the ancient dragon, Saladrex, Jin and his companions venture into a small nondescript crypt adjoining the Githyanki Encampment, only to come face to face with a Demi-Lich, an evil entity of such power that Saladrex might as well have been its pet familiar!
What followed would be a desperate battle for survival that would push Jin to his very limits and beyond, and result in a calamity Jin could not have imagined mere moments earlier.
Okay what u really needed was +5 weapons, that staff you got from Saladrex would do, if u upgrade it. That's also why Minute Meteors worked, they are +5 weapons.
For protection, you cudda used Protection from Magic scrolls and cast Spell Immunity (whatever school Imprisonment is, I forget)
@Heindrich1988, I went ahead and watched video number 443 to see what you decided to do. Kudos for trying to live with the consequences and not reload.
I know how dangerous and awful Imprisonment is, so I always travel prepared for it, holding as many Freedom scrolls as I can find in my scroll cases. There are a couple for sale in Amn, and those duergar in the first part of the Underdark have several for sale. I'm not sure where to find them in ToB, though. It looks like you forgot to check the store run by those knights up on top of Watcher's Keep, to see if they had Freedom scrolls for sale.
Roleplaying-wise, I consider the Imprisonment spell to be hideously evil, because the spell description says the victims are held in suspended animation in a small sphere below the ground, and *are still conscious.* Brrrr. What an awful, horrible fate! Anyone held that way for long would quickly go insane, and be in a state of terrible suffering - which is even worse when you consider that the evil caster intends to leave them like that forever, and they can't die. It's almost too terrible to contemplate.
If and when you get Aerie back, be aware that I'm pretty sure Imprisonment breaks your romance variable, like Petrification, so you will need to Keeper the variable back to "2" for your romance - I think it has some more content to it that you haven't seen yet.
@jackjack
Ah thanks guys! I actually tried to look through both Arcane and Priest spells, trying to see if there were any way of preventing Imprisonment, and concluded that it was unblockable. lol It never occurred to me to use Spell Immunity! I hope the spell has a long duration... otherwise it might be tricky to know when to cast it... cos, later, I discovered Demi-lich isn't the only thing that casts Imprisonment.
@belgarathmth
Yeah I really regret selling Carsomyr in Amn, I had no idea I'd have need of Keldorn again in ToB, or actually I had no idea you could recruit old friends until I clicked on the statue in the Pocket Plane. I wish Jin had the sense to gift the mighty blade to Keldorn after returning to Athkatla from the Windspear Hills. We even visited the Order of the Radiant to enlist aid against Bhodi!
I checked out Lilly Black's actions in the Underdark Cavern, apparently I totally missed the fact that one of the Druegar was a merchant. Also she freed a mage with a freedom scroll (a quest I obviously missed), so presumably that's when Tord learnt about Imprisonment and bought Freedom scrolls, which is incredibly high level stuff for Underdark content.
Anyway the Watcher Knights do not have Freedom scrolls, but I do have an idea of where I can find it (several hours into the 'future' from the latest upload), and should be able to bring back Aerie and Imoen at least
And yes, I hate Imprisonment, it has been my bane in Watcher's Keep. Absolutely horrible, I didn't even know the victim was still conscious. That's worse than death!
Despite the loss of Aerie, Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira, those dearest and closest to him, Jin determinedly presses deeper into Watcher's Keep, having enlisted the aid of his former comrades and friends, Nalia, Keldorn, Valygar and Mazzy.
After overcoming the challenges of Mind, Spirit and Heart, the party attempt to unlock the seals containing the Imprisoned One with the hard-won keys. However, they discover that each seal is protected by yet more guardians... With the Rilmani of the Spirit Seal defeated, Jin turns the Heart Key, and is immediately confronted by a powerful Lich by the name of Azamantes, and his retinue of Flaming Skulls...
Also, I reloaded 17 times for the Demon Wraith, you've reloaded one time less :P well, I was in chapter three of SoA, searching for money to buy an armor for Anomen :P I was such a poor pal
Do you mean that you reloaded 17 times by the time u got to the Demon Wraith? Or that it took you 17 attempts to kill the Demon Wraith? Cos I did it first time
I tend to die in random situations, quite often cos of carelessness.
Careless Deaths:
No7. Anomen kills Jin after being dominated by a Mindflayer.
No8. Random Shadow Fiend kills Jin cos I stupidly allowed him to attack a pack of them alone (he had Boots of Speed, and got there first). He got Held, and the rest of the party couldn't save him in time.
No13. Drow Gladiator in Ust Natha. Went into the fight without any preparation. It was easy once I gave Jin all the party's best gear.
No15. Mindflayer sucks out Jin's brains, cos I thought "He's got 19 Int, he'll be fine!" and didn't check his Intelligence as he tanked a pack of Mindflayers in the Temple Sewers.
No16. A Fire Giant in the Watcher's Keep Fire Library. I didn't realise how hard the giants would hit, and underestimated them cos they were not spellcasters. Jin got squished in what should have been an easy encounter.
So yeah... Irenicus? Fine. Dragons? No Problem! Stupid carelessness? NOOOOoooooo!!!!
ps: I should add the caveat that I do not find 'boss battles' easy, it's just when I am expecting a challenging encounter, I tend to be a lot more careful, and scrape through some truly desperate situations like Irenicus at Spellhold, the Black Dragon in Suldanesselar and several encounters in Watcher's Keep. (Rod of Ressurrection is so oh' useful!)
Mainly, it was because the PC had the best spells, but he was the only one with a good find traps, and, well, Anomen dien't had an armor, and we were halfaways Mazzy's quest, so she was waiting with Anomen's armor, in her house.
Jan didn't had more than a Knave Robe, we had noy one weapon able to hit the Demoin Wraith, and only the PC (and Haer'Dalis, but he had to barrage the Demon Wraith with magic missiles :P) could use because it was a long sword (and Jan sucks for melee, and Anomen is a vighter dual cleric :P).
So, to kill him I've used a Project Image scroll (random loot, I've could have sold it, but it was the key to victory), used millions of MM on the D wraith, while Haer'Dalis and Jan were shooting MMs too, the other keys to won were:
1) Anomen battling the Slave wraith and killing them,
2) the PC using a wand of cloukill thrice on the Demon Wraith (to interrupt spellcasting),
3) The summoned Flesh Golem (golem manual FTW) that took all the Symbols :P and a finishing Death Spell,
4) Jan with his victorious Magic Missile of Doom, Jan the Demon-Wraith-Slayer, who only casted Magic Missile twice, and yet he killed the demon :P
And, yeah, I've misunderstood :P
Also, the thing was that I didn't realized we were going to face off a high level spellcaster that was not from this plane and could destroy everyone, including the Flesh Golem, in two rounds.
In some moment he stunned himself, but the only effective weapon we had were MM, so there was no change, the PC stepped into a trap while rushing to the Demon Wraith, and when he was near, I discovered that the Demon Wraith had casted Improved Mantle before. Fuck him, I've used Dispel Effects, so the stun was gone, and he killed the PC with two spells, Symbol, Stun, Symbol, Death.
how long was that in game time? do you maybe have a save from when that happened still that you could see how long they were stuck underground?
Oops! Sorry I missed this until now! lol Don't know what happened! Either there was no notification, or I musta missed it...
Anyways... Yes it's GREAT to have the normal crew back, especially given the battles I've fought since then. I don't think I could have done it with an underlevelled, undergeared and unfamiliar second string party.
It took about 4 days... shorter for Keldorn cos he got Imprisoned quite a bit later than Minsc, Aerie, Jaheira and Immy.
Having FINALLY managed to free his friends and loved ones trapped by Imprisonment in Watcher's Keep, Jin and company return to face the third and final group of guardians barring their path to the Vault of the Imprisoned One.
The group is an unlikely alliance of incredibly powerful and exotic individuals, including a female serpentine demon called Y'tossi and a Beholder Hive Mother! Somehow, working in unison much like Jin and his party, the seal guardians pose the greatest challenge Jin has faced thus far!
This is the 3rd attempt following a double-party (18th and 19th) wipe in the previous session
This group is ridiculous. I still don't know who/what some of them are, but they seem to be just as specialised and balanced as my party, and on the whole much more powerful "man-for-man".
But, I wanted to go ahead and say, this is the battle I've been waiting to see you try. I think I had about five or six reloads during my last (and first remembered) go at it. It was this battle that first taught me to respect the spell Insect Plague, because one of them managed to get it on me first. I had a magic-heavy party, like yours, and having all my casting disabled for the whole battle was devastating. Fatal, actually.
I can't remember how I eventually succeeded, because, although I had Jaheira with me, I had not had her memorize any Insect Plagues (insects, schminsects, bah).
I think I learned to watch for which one of them was going to cast Insect Plague, and then concentrated all fire on *that* caster first, right when the battle started.
There was also an issue with
I can't advise you about Demogorgon,
It was this battle at the bottom of Watcher's Keep that first made me go, "Oh, holy crap, the Throne of Bhaal expansion is *seriously* out to get me!" LOL
And, I don't know how far past this you've been, but, I hate to tell you it only gets worse from here. And just think, there are lots of people who want the "Ascension" and "Sword Coast Strategems" mods to make all these battles even *more* difficult!
This battle truly was epic. I couldn't believe how long it took. I had intended to finish Watcher's Keep in that session, but this one battle left me exhausted, hence the rather abrupt stop at the end.
I guess my party also had more resistances and hp at this stage too, so the sheer damage from Insect Plague wasn't so crippling as before. Ouch! That sounds like... AI Cheese! You sure u didn't have SCS/Ascension installed? Or maybe playing at higher than Core?! I have no idea how to counter that... well actually Durlag mentioned Spell Immunity, but still, that is ridiculous! The Hive Mother was nasty in my battle, and refused to go down despite me throwing so much at it (it even got healed by the Cleric when it was near death!), but at least it didn't cheese me to gg repeatedly. lol... I haven't got much further, had a break at Xmas/New Year.
To be honest, I know there are things I can do to make life easier... but I think it's a bit cheesy, so I won't resort to it just yet. For instance I thought about pre-casting long duration spells just before I turned the key, so Immy can Timestop just as the battle begins. I could also use Mislead for Jin, Aerie and Immy, and keep their bodies safely outta harm's way. I could pre-emptively Web/Storm of Vengeance where I know the enemy will spawn, which will probably disrupt their spellcasting etc (In my first wipe at this encounter, I accidentally almost killed Nalmissara with an Aerial Servant before her protections kicked in)...
So that's why SCS doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. It would forces me to metagame and cheese to have any chance of victory, and it makes every minor mage battle a major headache. I quite like how (In SoA at least) you get a few easy encounters building up to a difficult finale. It'd be no fun if you are constantly struggling for survival.
That said, I do recognise that I remain very inexperienced at high level mage battles. I still don't really know which penetration spell to use for which occasions, and probably waste a lot of spells via trial and error.
Another thing to keep in mind: there are a few +6 weapons in the game while the highest immunity is +5. Do the math...
Thanks for a great Saturday morning and early afternoon of great BG entertainment.
Congratulations on beating it! I started laughing and shaking my head when that cleric ran over there and cast Heal on the hive mother, after you'd worked so hard to beat her down.
I also thought it was kind of funny when your reaction to killing Xei Wan Toh (or whatever that name was), wasn't a "yay", but rather "Rrrrgh. Finally."
My goodness, what an exhausting battle! That was quite the marathon.
As I said in a YouTube comment, the thing that was making Xei Wan Toh so deadly was Whirlwind Attack, which is ten attacks in one round, plus extra attacks because he was dual wielding. Concentrating WA's from my own warriors was one of the ways I was able to get through ToB battles in my own run.
So, the next time you build a team, you might want to consider prioritizing taking WA and Greater WA as the first HLA's for all your warriors.
You made excellent use of summons here. That last time, when you managed to beat it, I think you got Xei Wan Toh to waste all his or her WA's on your summons, so that really helped.
I see you had also learned by the last time to keep out of melee range of the cleric's Blade Barrier.
Thanks again - I learned from watching these three attempts at this gods-awful combat scenario. Kudos to you. You're a good strategist, and I appreciate that you insist on winning without using any foreknowledge of spawn points or placement of AoE's, or which buffs and protections to cast.
After battling through untold horrors and overcoming guardians of incredible power, Jin and company finally come face to face with The Imprisoned One.
In a shocking series of events, the Imprisoned is revealed to be Demogorgon, and Jin had been betrayed by the Vigil Knights of Helm, who had intended to trap him and his heroic companions in the vault along with the Prince of Demons. Instead however, thanks to the intervention of an avatar of Helm, it was the treacherous Odren and his knights that were imprisoned instead, and the seals of the vault reinforced for ages to come.
However, in a alternate reality, Jin inexplicably decides to take on Demogorgon and face the Prince of Demons in battle.
This is again the third attempt after two failures in the previous session, where I take on Demogorgon, just for fun.
These party wipes do not contribute to my overall death count, which stands at 19 at this point, and proves that Jin was wise to avoid the battle with Demogorgon in the first place!