I have been inspired to try this out again. I have started many times but never been successful. Since I don't have much time to play, I will keep my descriptions brief for now.
I rolled a pretty balanced archer, this was my first 75 roll. I saved it and rolled others, but none had quite this balance, so I ended up taking it.
I lost Neera. It was a mix of emotions. She was of course a liability as a wild mage, but her death was so sudden and violent, I couldn't help but be saddened by her loss (she died to a hail of thrown daggers from undead in the High Hedge area). The party held a humble service for her at the church in Nashkel
We replaced her with Edwin, though his quest seemed shady he seems a solid choice. We set out to complete his quest at once lest he abandon us at an inconvenient time. Alas, on our way to the Gnoll Stronghold, Khalid was felled by a rain of poison arrows and an Ogre's morningstar to the skull. The party laid him to rest near Neera in Nashkel. Jaheira was overwhelmed with grief and excused her self from the party so that she could mourn her husband in peace. Perhaps after some time when the pain has passed we can call upon her again if the need arises.
The party recruited Kagain a second time (they had left him earlier since he had such a sour attitude) and also rescued Branwen from her prison of stone. The party replenished supplies and will be heading out again toward the Gnoll fortress.
The party had a lot of setbacks, but Gwyn still survives.
After Khalid's death the party set out to complete Edwin's quest. They had no trouble storming the fortress now that they were such a seasoned group - real combat veterans. The trouble began when they located this supposed "witch" Edwin had been talking about. Not only was the woman apparently innocent, but also had a keen intellect and convinced the party she would be more valuable alive. When they agreed to this, Edwin became angry and began to storm off, taking with him a significant amount of the party's treasure. They called out for him to stop, but he would not. Kagain hefted his axe and then threw it straight at the departing wizard. The axe lodged into Edwin's skull and the wizard died for his betrayal. Or was it the party that betrayed Edwin? Gwyn continues to ponder on this and was greatly saddened by this terrible turn of events. They decided to leave Edwin's body in the Gnoll fortress. Kagain said he wouldn't haul a traitor's corpse all the way back for a proper burial. Gwyn agreed, but for her own reasons, she did not want to carry a reminder of her failure as a leader.
After this the party returned to Nashkel to rest and recover. Kagain suggested they drink to the memory of fallen comrades (when asked if he meant Edwin, he grumbled something unintelligible). Kagain then proceeded to drink more than even his dwarven constitution could handle and began to pick a fight with Volo who was at the tavern. They managed to break it up before anyone was seriously hurt, but Kagain refused to leave the tavern and nobody was going to make him. The party parted ways with the stout dwarf once again.
Upon leaving the tavern and heading to the inn, they came across Minsc, who was grateful for the rescue of Dynaheir (the "witch"), and offered his services in the party. Now, there was just one more quest that Gwyn wanted to do before delving into the mines. She wanted to find and slay Bassilus the mad priest. She knew this was dangerous, but the bounty of 5,000 gold was just too much to resist. They could outfit themselves nicely with gold like that. And so they set off to find the mad priest.
It was a brutal fight, at first the party did quiet well, they had the priest on the defensive, but then he managed to hold Minsc and then Branwen, who both fell quickly to the undead assisting Bassilus. Gwyn managed to strike the killing blow with a well placed arrow, but unfortunately most of the undead had not been dealt with. Bloodied and bruised the party retreated. As they made their escape, Garrick suddenly screamed out, a crossbow bolt in his throat turned his scream into a gurgle, then silence as he fell, dead.
Gwyn knew that she needed Bassilus' holy symbol as proof of his demise. She quaffed a potion of invisibility that Imoen had been carrying and ran back to pick it up. Once she did so, she was revealed but managed to make it back to the others safely.
She should have stopped there. They had already lost three members of the party and 5,000 gold should be more than enough to replace the equipment of her fallen comrades. Gwyn reasoned that she couldn't leave their bodies behind, but in truth it was mostly greed that led her to try and recover their bodies in addition to their gear. The plan was they would draw the undead back one or two at a time, since they didn't seem to be working together much and hadn't even pursued the group earlier. And so they did just that, everything was going according to plan. Then suddenly there was another skeleton, it must have been drawn by the noise, it let loose with it's crossbow, aimed right at Imoen. Gwyn shouted a warning but it was too late, Imoen fell immediately, with barely any time to cry out.
In the end, the battle was won, but at what cost? Only Dynaheir and Gwyn remained alive, the others had given their life for the quest and Gwyn had put a price tag on what that was worth - 5,000 gold pieces.
Gwyn arranged for the bodies to be transported to Nashkel, where they could be buried alongside their other fallen comrades.
Ok, so much for brief. It's too easy to get into the narrative. I'm going to summarize the rest to bring it up to where I am. I wanted to head to the mines, but wanted a thief. I didn't want Montaron (you'll see how that worked out), so I decided to find Safana. First I picked up Jaheira again, as well as Rasaad and Dorn, then headed out. Jaheira had her skull smashed in by an Ogre (just like Khalid, the party has doubts as to whether or not this was intentional) and Rasaad died from a Sirine's poisoned arrow (he was also charmed, so that didn't help). We cut our losses and gave up on finding Safana.The party buried Jaheira next to Khalid and Rasaad with the other fallen comrades.
After that we picked up Monty (yeah, I know right) and ditched his crazy friend in a house at the Friendly Arm. We rescued Viconia from an overzealous member of the Flaming Fist and recruited Kagain for the third time (he was sober by now). Our party is now complete (again) though in worse shape than it began before trying to tackle Bassilus. We'll be doing the first part of Dorn's quest, then heading at last down to the mines!
This has been a blast so far, it has really been tough at times to not reload, to undo some mistake after seeing the devastating consequences. Also, the RP aspect has forced some tough decisions. I'll admit, I do a bit of meta-gaming when it comes to engineering my party, but I've tried my best to stick to the CG alignment of my character in her decisions. I hope that I don't run out of NPCs!
I've been having the worst girl problems lately, absolutely sleepless torment. I just keep saying to myself I wish I could erase my memory with that laser from men in black and get lost in Faerun.
I can't wait to try this challenge again sometime with a clear mind ready to soak in the nostalgia ...
@Sirk8 Nice run man. Glad to see you are enjoying it
I've been having the worst girl problems lately, absolutely sleepless torment. I just keep saying to myself I wish I could erase my memory with that laser from men in black and get lost in Faerun.
I can't wait to try this challenge again sometime with a clear mind ready to soak in the nostalgia ...
@Sirk8 Nice run man. Glad to see you are enjoying it
Am sorry to hear that. For what's it worth from a perfect stranger, I hope things will get better for you soon.
Things got off to a rocky start. The party was accosted by a nosy member of the flaming fist. Gwyn being tired of being harassed by them at every turn (and a bit nervous since they had killed one rescuing Viconia), mouthed off a bit and told him she didn't need to answer his questions. This resulted in a fight and the death of the Flaming Fist. This dropped the party reputation by 6 points and Gwyn is now a fallen Ranger.
This really caught me off guard and tested my resolve not to reload. I've never had a fallen class before. Does this mean basically I'm now playing a fighter w/out the benefits and still have all the restrictions of my kit (without the benefits?) as well as XP progression of a ranger? Is there anyway to recover from this? I've since atoned by doing good deeds and even donated to the temple in hopes of restoring my class, but to no avail. I'm discouraged by this turn of events, but determined to press on with the challenge.
We killed Dorn's necromancer easily enough and took Samuel back to FAI for healing. We easily defeated Greywolf and turned in the bounty on Prism. After that the party was finally ready for the mines! And so they delved into the mines, and made quick work of Mulahey and his minions.
Feeling quite encouraged now, the party decided to take on the group of Amazons. Dynaheir shined in this fight, they didn't stand a chance between her web, exploding potion and Viconia's hold person, they only managed to get one poison arrow off on Kagain, which was neutralized by Dynaheir. They were unstoppable!
That is until they got over confident and began to explore the area bit carelessly. The party was ambushed by an Ankheg (?!) and Dorn gave his life in defense of the others.
A bit in shock, the party decided to scout around a bit more (they had this dagger some lunatic gave them and was raving about returning it). They came upon a mad wizard experimenting with jellies. Dynaheir expressed a bit too much interest in his spell and he attacked. They easily killed the wizard, but the jellies were another matter. Constantly poisoning and slowing Kagain, but taking no damage themselves. The party was forced to retreat lest they lose another member. This is a good example of how no resurrection and no reload really changes your decision making
The party returned to Nashkel and buried poor Dorn next to the others. He seemed to be an evil man... er Half-orc rather... but Gwyn had spoken with him often of his past and betrayal of his former companions. She believed that he had a core of good that had been overshadowed and corrupted by his circumstances. She couldn't help but to shed a tear at his passing, and hoped that whatever dark pacts that he had alluded to had no more hold over his soul. May he rest in peace.
The party picked up Kivan as a replacement. They were in High Hedge to get some scrolls for Dynaheir (she leveled) and ran across him. He seemed hell bent on revenge against some bandits... and well the party just happened to be hunting down bandits, so the arrangement was quite convenient.
The party is now in Beregost where they plan to confront Tranzig and rest a bit before deciding their next move.
Ok everyone, I need some advice here. I'm really struggling with this fallen ranger bit. As far as I can tell there is no way from me to recover from this and the more I think about it, the more it's breaking immersion for me. My PC did not act out of character nor commit an inherently evil act. When a Flaming Fist guard inquired what the party was doing she simply said that she doesn't have to answer his questions. This is quite fitting with CG in my opinion and not necessarily hostile. At that point the guard accused them of being bandits and attacked immediately. Of course they defended themselves, as the attack was quite unprovoked. This however caused my PC to "fall". At first it didn't bug me much, ok she would ponder on her actions and atone, and regain rangerhood, but alas, this is not possible at all.
Also, what is breaking the immersion for me at this point is that I lose the ability to hide/move silently... does this really make sense? A ranger "falls" and then suddenly can't hide or move silently. Suddenly all of their class abilities are stripped and it is irreversible... my class is not granted powers by a a God right?
Also what is frustrating to me is that now I am faced with either 1) rerolling, 2) pressing on with a character that has no class, basically I'll just get HP every level and a standard THAC0 bonus a far as I can tell, 3) Coming up with my on RP way of redeeming the PC and then using EEKeeper to remove the fallen status.
What are your opinions? I'm liking this play through and I'm not keen on giving it up. Nor does the prospect of going through the game classless sound like fun. After all this game is about fun. So I'm leaning toward EEKeeper, but I fear this would disqualify me from this challenge. What are your thoughts on this?
I would agree with the use of EEKeeper in this instance, as long as the only thing you changed was the fallen status. The game offers no way to get rid of the fallen status, so you will have to fix it yourself. That being said, I thing you should have to get to at least 12 reputation (very easy by the way or grant it back after doing one of the major quests, for example killing Daevorn and saving all the miners in the Cloakwood Mines). CG alignment could possibly do things that would make them seem criminals to the established law, but would agree with their morals.
@Fighting_Ferret - Thank you for your wise words. Since the fall happened prior to the Nashkel mines and since then my PC has raised their rep to 12, cleared the Nashkel mines, rescued a wizard's apprentice turned talking chicken and stormed a bandit camp, I'll consider her redeemed. She's learned her lesson now, even if she finds the law annoying at times, it is best to interact with them courteously. For no matter what the true events were, it is their word against yours and the perception of the people that matter. While Gwyn is not overly concerned about what others think of her, she does realize she is now into this "iron shortage" deeper than she had anticipated and she will likely need the cooperation of others, including the law... best to keep up appearances from here on out.
This time around things got off to a great start. The group rescued a talking chicken that turned out to be an apprentice of the sulky wizard in High Hedge (not that rescuing his apprentice netted them any reward from the high and mighty Thalantyr).
With Kivan pressuring the group to track down the bandits the group confronted Tranzig and managed to get him to spill the beans on the operation, or at least what he knew of it. Gwyn was going to let him go, but Kivan was worried that he would warn the others if they did so. While the rangers discussed the moral and ethical implications of killing him, Monty ran his new magical shortsword through Tranzig's ribs and into his heart, settling the matter for them. (Actually what really happened here, is I was going to let him go, but he stayed red even after the dialogue and he was dead before I could call of the group). Sorry no screenshot of this encounter I forgot.
With the information from Tranzig they party set off to confront the bandits. While tracking the bandits in Peldvale, they came across one of the leaders. Gwyn was going to try and infiltrate the camp by posing as recruits, but Kivan was already yelling things about vengeance and Deheriana. He let an arrow fly at the leader and the fight was on. The party came out victorious, but their chance for subtlety was gone. Gwyn will need to have a few words with Kivan about not becoming blinded by revenge. However, for now they had a job to do. They eventually found the camp, stormed it and assassinated the leaders, as well as uncovered more information regarding the iron crisis and who was really behind it.
While heading back to Beregost to turn in some scalps for bounty money they came across a group of Red Wizards. It looked like they were involved in some sort of ritual, but the party had no chance to inquire, as the wizards were not happy to have been interrupted and attacked. A well placed web and a hail of arrows and stones put the wizards down fairly quickly. Kagain charged in gulping down a potion of freedom (he'd been wanting to do this for a very long time and now was his chance). However the dwarf was promptly sent running scared by a horror spell.
Here is Kagain posing with the bodies like he actually did something:
Still heading back to Beregost the group was ambushed by a pack of spiders and a triggered a web trap. Karma caught up to Dynaheir and she was stuck good in the web. She fell quickly to a sword spider and the group didn't even have a chance to try and save her (oh the irony!). After a very bloody battle the group managed to avenge her and kill all of the spiders.
They then made the pilgrimage to Nashkel to bury her alongside the others.
And now they are 5. I may pick up Baeloth for my caster, but that is really tipping the balance of this party toward evil. Gwyn is not too choosy about her companions but the others I think are becoming a bad influence on her. The other choice is Xan... hmmmm yes, I may go for him instead.
It's been a while since I've had time to do an update and much has happened. So I'll just make this a very brief update. After losing Dynaheir, we replaced her with Xan. We lost Kivan to the spider cave and replaced him with Coran after burying him in Nashkel along with the others. We parted ways with Viconia in order to help out Yeslick, unfortunately he died fighting Davaeorn so we reunited with Viconia (we buried Yeslick in the mines). After that we had a very solid group for some time. At this point I was just finishing up some exploring before investigating the Seven Suns to kick of the next major part in the plot. Unfortunately it could not last. I lost Coran to some kobold commandos in Razimuth's tower, it happened to fast to stop. Then when picking up Eldoth as a replacement we got waylaid by Wyverns and Viconia got poisoned twice in a row, she took damage faster than I could neutralize the poison and she went down as well. This has been a disastrous loss for our party, those were two of my favorite party members. I had to take a break at this point due to my frustration :P
Every single time I've picked up Yeslick he dies in the mines. I seriously don't remember getting out of the mines with that guy, he's fated to die there I'm pretty sure
Things are moving fast, since at this point in the game I tend to push the plot forward fairly quickly. If I drag my feet too much I lose immersion. We lost Xan, I don't recall how, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time is all I remember. We filled the two slots with Skie and Ajantis and did well until Candlekeep Catacombs. Here is where I made an error in judgement. I had Montaron scouting ahead for traps and Ajantis following him in case he needed a meat shield. The rest of the party would hang back unless needed. Well they ran into a patch of spiders and both got poisoned, all of the antidote potions were on Gwyn and they both died before she made it there to get them the potions. This was extremely frustrating to say the least. Although originally I wasn't fond of picking up Monty, he was now at least skilled out the way I wanted him on trap detection and working on his lockpicking. Skie on the other hand is very poorly statted right now
This was the fastest I made it through the Catacombs though, with those two down there was no playing around, exploring and looting, I didn't want to risk it (another example of how this challenge can really affect your gameplay decisions, I love it!). We made it out ok and then sought out some replacements. We picked up Shar-Teel and Faldorn.
After some wandering around BG (especially the sewers) we finally got enough info pointing us to the Palace and an invitation to the party. We're ready to head inside and expose Sarevok for who he is!
I'm starting to worry at this point though. There is a big experience gap between Gwyn, Kagain and the rest of the party. All spell casting is low level and doesn't seem to be sufficient for this point in the game. At the same time I don't want to go out on an XP spree since that will break immersion for me. Also I'm running pretty low on NPCs now, especially meatshields!
Ok so I went ahead with the battle. It wasn't as hard as I remember (I've played BG a lot, but usually end up rerolling before this actual battle). However, two bad things did happen - 1) Faldorn bit the dust. She took damage right away and I couldn't get her out of the way in time; 2) Eldoth took out a doppelganger with the fire wand scorcher and a stupid FF walked into it after I had carefully positioned it not to hit anyone else. Well this resulted in the FF going apeshit on my party and they ended up getting slaughtered, which drove my rep to 1 and resulted in Skie (heretofore known as the traitorous bitch) walking out on us mid battle, carrying with her some very valuable armor (shadow armor) and a nice collection of potions, darts of wounding and darts of stunning. She said she was going home, but when we returned to the estate she is nowhere to be found.
Does anyone know if she is gone for good? Or can I find her somewhere and either get her to join again (rep is OK now) or kill her for her betrayal? Something like this would usually cause me to reload or hack her back into my game somehow, but I've decided to see it through.
We replaced Skie with Tiax (my first time ever having him in my party) and we buried Faldorn in Cloakwood at her druid's circle:
Next we're going to recruit Baeloth... I'm running out of NPCs!!!
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The Party
Gwyn - Level 7 Archer Kagain - Level 7 Fighter Eldoth - Level 7 Bard Shar-Teel - Level 6 Fighter Tiax - Level 5/6 Cleric/Thief Baeloth* (on my way to get him)
Only the EE party members will be found again if a party member storms off due to low reputation. So Skie and her equipment are gone for good. Just be glad she didn't take Eldoth with her. >.>
As for the fallen status, it gets cured in BGII when you do the ranger stronghold. Personally, I'd say if you fall due to your rep dropping that low, you've failed your duties as a ranger and should have to live with the consequences until you can cure it in BGII.
Well, Gwyn is dead now. I lost Baeloth on Ice Island (got transported there automatically since I had killed Shandalar's daughters). I picked up Quayle then headed to the final fight. We were well prepared and doing quite well until Angelo lobbed his detonation arrows into my party. He had been webbed and was near death, but got one off before he died. Previously cloudkill had taken out Tiax. The detonation arrow finished off Shar-Teel and Kagain who were both beat up pretty good. Sarevok sliced through Eldoth like butter then came after Gwyn.
Tazok never appeared, so it was down to Gwyn and Sarevok, unfortunately she could not stand up to his physical damage and ended up dying.
This is only like the 3rd or 4th time I've done the final fight in all the times I've played BG, and the first in BG:EE so I feel I did pretty well overall. There are some things I would have done differently. I thought about reloading just to try out the fight to see if I could do it w/this group, but I don't have the motivation to today.... perhaps another day, I have the save.
I must say this is the most fun I've had playing BG. Doing a no reload no res has brought much anticipation to the game, knowing each fight could be the last if I screw up. It has forced me to play differently, calculate risks better and push on even if things went really bad. It also forced me to join up with just about every NPC in the game. Usually I stick to a few out of habit and due to the fact they are available early on or have quests, etc.
For now I will finish my SCS playthrough (minimal reload only), but I will definitely be giving this playstyle another go in the future.
@Sirk8, am sorry she fell... Awesome run, lots of excitement. I'd like to read about your next charname's exploits. And I'd also like to try this sometime myself... hmm so many options with this game, so little time.
I had him to injured before Gwyn went down. I'm fairly certain if Kagain could have stayed up I could have finished him off. Next time around more fire protection, I only had my archers protected for fire since they were the ones that were lobbing exploding arrows at the bad guys. I had forgotten that Angelo has a few of his own.
@Blackraven - I highly recommend this challenge, it is a brand new way to experience the game. I started it many times but usually died pretty early, this is the furthest I've gotten.
So this challenge has changed my thinking on 2 things. 1) it seems absurd now to power roll a character (though I'll admit to doing so for my current SCS playthrough, but on my Black Pits game I went with an all 75 team) and 2) when an NPC dies now, I'm tempted sometimes to just not resurrect them and push on so I experience different combos of NPCs in my party (did that for some in my SCS game but not Imoen, couldn't resist ressing her).
Also, I may do this challenge again after my SCS game using the BG1NPC mod. I'm really enjoying the mod so far and would make the losing of party members even more intense in an RP way, as well as gaining a lot of benefit from having each of the different NPCs in your party.
Ladies and gentlemen - the Baldur's Gate nostalgia has re-kindled and it is time I re-visit this challenge in the near future. I implore anyone to document their attempts if they choose to attempt such a task!
Alright I am contemplating recording youtube videos of this challenge. Built a new rig and am ready to rock. Would anyone be interested in a video format compared to the write up/screenshot method? I guess it's easier to concentrate the highlights in write up/screenshot form but maybe I'll throw some videos up.
I think a mix of the 2 methods would be ideal. You can write your role-playing part, add some pictures for flavor, especially the different or funny instances that occur sometimes. I would suggest to make a video only for the more significant fights like Mulahey, Bassilus, Bandit Camp, Davaeorn etc. I wouldn't miss a recording of a good fight for the world!!
Making a likable video is a hard thing, viewers can get bored very fast especially if you record the whole run. If you prefer the latter you will have to be a great and also a funny speaker maybe, in order to keep your audience attached!
Well I put together a short little gameplay video of Dana, a female wild mage. Her life ended abruptly after some bad luck. I need to get a mic and maybe I can look into doing some half decent gameplay videos.
The only way to survive that encounter with a level 1 Charname is to gulp a haste potion with Charname and leave the area to the right no matter what's happening and who's dead without ANY fighting. There's a temple near the FAI, you'll resurrect your companions. There're other companions in the game besides those you can find on the Lion's Crossing.
@bengoshi Well, with this challenge you can't resurrect companions, but I do agree on running if you can.
@EnterHaerDalis Thank you for sharing this video. I'd love to see more videos of this challenge. I think it would definitely help to have a mic though, just watching someone play w/out commentary can get boring fast.
That was a glorious death for Dana may she rest in peace!
The only way to survive that encounter with a level 1 Charname is to gulp a haste potion with Charname and leave the area to the right no matter what's happening and who's dead without ANY fighting. There's a temple near the FAI, you'll resurrect your companions. There're other companions in the game besides those you can find on the Lion's Crossing.
@bengoshi Well, with this challenge you can't resurrect companions, but I do agree on running if you can.
@EnterHaerDalis Thank you for sharing this video. I'd love to see more videos of this challenge. I think it would definitely help to have a mic though, just watching someone play w/out commentary can get boring fast.
That was a glorious death for Dana may she rest in peace!
I am contemplating setting up a stream on twitch for some of these runs. Currently doing a BG2 run but am right back into the baldurs gate nostalgia. 2 ish years is enough
Why did I not see this thread before? Right, I need to think about a CHARNAME for this. With my luck, I'll die early and not need to worry about restartitis.
Comments
I rolled a pretty balanced archer, this was my first 75 roll. I saved it and rolled others, but none had quite this balance, so I ended up taking it.
I lost Neera. It was a mix of emotions. She was of course a liability as a wild mage, but her death was so sudden and violent, I couldn't help but be saddened by her loss (she died to a hail of thrown daggers from undead in the High Hedge area). The party held a humble service for her at the church in Nashkel
We replaced her with Edwin, though his quest seemed shady he seems a solid choice. We set out to complete his quest at once lest he abandon us at an inconvenient time. Alas, on our way to the Gnoll Stronghold, Khalid was felled by a rain of poison arrows and an Ogre's morningstar to the skull. The party laid him to rest near Neera in Nashkel. Jaheira was overwhelmed with grief and excused her self from the party so that she could mourn her husband in peace. Perhaps after some time when the pain has passed we can call upon her again if the need arises.
The party recruited Kagain a second time (they had left him earlier since he had such a sour attitude) and also rescued Branwen from her prison of stone. The party replenished supplies and will be heading out again toward the Gnoll fortress.
The Party
Gwyn - Level 2 Archer
Imoen - Level 3 Thief
Garrick - Level 3 Bard
Edwin - Level 2 Conjurer
Kagain - Level 1 Figher
Branwen - Level 2 Cleric
The Fallen
Neera - Level 1 Wild Mage
Khalid - Level 2 Fighter
The party had a lot of setbacks, but Gwyn still survives.
After Khalid's death the party set out to complete Edwin's quest. They had no trouble storming the fortress now that they were such a seasoned group - real combat veterans. The trouble began when they located this supposed "witch" Edwin had been talking about. Not only was the woman apparently innocent, but also had a keen intellect and convinced the party she would be more valuable alive. When they agreed to this, Edwin became angry and began to storm off, taking with him a significant amount of the party's treasure. They called out for him to stop, but he would not. Kagain hefted his axe and then threw it straight at the departing wizard. The axe lodged into Edwin's skull and the wizard died for his betrayal. Or was it the party that betrayed Edwin? Gwyn continues to ponder on this and was greatly saddened by this terrible turn of events. They decided to leave Edwin's body in the Gnoll fortress. Kagain said he wouldn't haul a traitor's corpse all the way back for a proper burial. Gwyn agreed, but for her own reasons, she did not want to carry a reminder of her failure as a leader.
After this the party returned to Nashkel to rest and recover. Kagain suggested they drink to the memory of fallen comrades (when asked if he meant Edwin, he grumbled something unintelligible). Kagain then proceeded to drink more than even his dwarven constitution could handle and began to pick a fight with Volo who was at the tavern. They managed to break it up before anyone was seriously hurt, but Kagain refused to leave the tavern and nobody was going to make him. The party parted ways with the stout dwarf once again.
Upon leaving the tavern and heading to the inn, they came across Minsc, who was grateful for the rescue of Dynaheir (the "witch"), and offered his services in the party. Now, there was just one more quest that Gwyn wanted to do before delving into the mines. She wanted to find and slay Bassilus the mad priest. She knew this was dangerous, but the bounty of 5,000 gold was just too much to resist. They could outfit themselves nicely with gold like that. And so they set off to find the mad priest.
It was a brutal fight, at first the party did quiet well, they had the priest on the defensive, but then he managed to hold Minsc and then Branwen, who both fell quickly to the undead assisting Bassilus. Gwyn managed to strike the killing blow with a well placed arrow, but unfortunately most of the undead had not been dealt with. Bloodied and bruised the party retreated. As they made their escape, Garrick suddenly screamed out, a crossbow bolt in his throat turned his scream into a gurgle, then silence as he fell, dead.
Gwyn knew that she needed Bassilus' holy symbol as proof of his demise. She quaffed a potion of invisibility that Imoen had been carrying and ran back to pick it up. Once she did so, she was revealed but managed to make it back to the others safely.
She should have stopped there. They had already lost three members of the party and 5,000 gold should be more than enough to replace the equipment of her fallen comrades. Gwyn reasoned that she couldn't leave their bodies behind, but in truth it was mostly greed that led her to try and recover their bodies in addition to their gear. The plan was they would draw the undead back one or two at a time, since they didn't seem to be working together much and hadn't even pursued the group earlier. And so they did just that, everything was going according to plan. Then suddenly there was another skeleton, it must have been drawn by the noise, it let loose with it's crossbow, aimed right at Imoen. Gwyn shouted a warning but it was too late, Imoen fell immediately, with barely any time to cry out.
In the end, the battle was won, but at what cost? Only Dynaheir and Gwyn remained alive, the others had given their life for the quest and Gwyn had put a price tag on what that was worth - 5,000 gold pieces.
Gwyn arranged for the bodies to be transported to Nashkel, where they could be buried alongside their other fallen comrades.
Ok, so much for brief. It's too easy to get into the narrative. I'm going to summarize the rest to bring it up to where I am. I wanted to head to the mines, but wanted a thief. I didn't want Montaron (you'll see how that worked out), so I decided to find Safana. First I picked up Jaheira again, as well as Rasaad and Dorn, then headed out. Jaheira had her skull smashed in by an Ogre (just like Khalid, the party has doubts as to whether or not this was intentional) and Rasaad died from a Sirine's poisoned arrow (he was also charmed, so that didn't help). We cut our losses and gave up on finding Safana.The party buried Jaheira next to Khalid and Rasaad with the other fallen comrades.
After that we picked up Monty (yeah, I know right) and ditched his crazy friend in a house at the Friendly Arm. We rescued Viconia from an overzealous member of the Flaming Fist and recruited Kagain for the third time (he was sober by now). Our party is now complete (again) though in worse shape than it began before trying to tackle Bassilus. We'll be doing the first part of Dorn's quest, then heading at last down to the mines!
This has been a blast so far, it has really been tough at times to not reload, to undo some mistake after seeing the devastating consequences. Also, the RP aspect has forced some tough decisions. I'll admit, I do a bit of meta-gaming when it comes to engineering my party, but I've tried my best to stick to the CG alignment of my character in her decisions. I hope that I don't run out of NPCs!
The Party
Gwyn - Level 4 Archer
Kagain - Level 2 Fighter
Viconia - Level 2 Cleric
Dorn - Level 3 Blackguard
Montaron - Level 1/1 Fighter/Thief
Dynaheir - Level 3 Invoker
The Fallen
Neera - Level 1 Wild Mage
Khalid - Level 2 Fighter
Edwin - Level 2 Conjurer
Minsc - Level 3 Ranger
Branwen - Level 2 Cleric
Imoen - Level 4 Thief
Garrick - Level 4 Bard
Jaheira - Level 2/2 Druid/Fighter
Rasaad - Level 4 Monk
I can't wait to try this challenge again sometime with a clear mind ready to soak in the nostalgia ...
@Sirk8 Nice run man. Glad to see you are enjoying it
This really caught me off guard and tested my resolve not to reload. I've never had a fallen class before. Does this mean basically I'm now playing a fighter w/out the benefits and still have all the restrictions of my kit (without the benefits?) as well as XP progression of a ranger? Is there anyway to recover from this? I've since atoned by doing good deeds and even donated to the temple in hopes of restoring my class, but to no avail. I'm discouraged by this turn of events, but determined to press on with the challenge.
We killed Dorn's necromancer easily enough and took Samuel back to FAI for healing. We easily defeated Greywolf and turned in the bounty on Prism. After that the party was finally ready for the mines! And so they delved into the mines, and made quick work of Mulahey and his minions.
Feeling quite encouraged now, the party decided to take on the group of Amazons. Dynaheir shined in this fight, they didn't stand a chance between her web, exploding potion and Viconia's hold person, they only managed to get one poison arrow off on Kagain, which was neutralized by Dynaheir. They were unstoppable!
That is until they got over confident and began to explore the area bit carelessly. The party was ambushed by an Ankheg (?!) and Dorn gave his life in defense of the others.
A bit in shock, the party decided to scout around a bit more (they had this dagger some lunatic gave them and was raving about returning it). They came upon a mad wizard experimenting with jellies. Dynaheir expressed a bit too much interest in his spell and he attacked. They easily killed the wizard, but the jellies were another matter. Constantly poisoning and slowing Kagain, but taking no damage themselves. The party was forced to retreat lest they lose another member. This is a good example of how no resurrection and no reload really changes your decision making
The party returned to Nashkel and buried poor Dorn next to the others. He seemed to be an evil man... er Half-orc rather... but Gwyn had spoken with him often of his past and betrayal of his former companions. She believed that he had a core of good that had been overshadowed and corrupted by his circumstances. She couldn't help but to shed a tear at his passing, and hoped that whatever dark pacts that he had alluded to had no more hold over his soul. May he rest in peace.
The party picked up Kivan as a replacement. They were in High Hedge to get some scrolls for Dynaheir (she leveled) and ran across him. He seemed hell bent on revenge against some bandits... and well the party just happened to be hunting down bandits, so the arrangement was quite convenient.
The party is now in Beregost where they plan to confront Tranzig and rest a bit before deciding their next move.
The Party
Gwyn - Level 4 Archer
Kagain - Level 3 Fighter
Viconia - Level 3 Cleric
Montaron - Level 2/2 Fighter/Thief
Dynaheir - Level 4 Invoker
Kivan - Level 4 Ranger
The Fallen
Neera - Level 1 Wild Mage
Khalid - Level 2 Fighter
Edwin - Level 2 Conjurer
Minsc - Level 3 Ranger
Branwen - Level 2 Cleric
Imoen - Level 4 Thief
Garrick - Level 4 Bard
Jaheira - Level 2/2 Druid/Fighter
Rasaad - Level 4 Monk
Dorn - Level 3 Blackguard
Also, what is breaking the immersion for me at this point is that I lose the ability to hide/move silently... does this really make sense? A ranger "falls" and then suddenly can't hide or move silently. Suddenly all of their class abilities are stripped and it is irreversible... my class is not granted powers by a a God right?
Also what is frustrating to me is that now I am faced with either 1) rerolling, 2) pressing on with a character that has no class, basically I'll just get HP every level and a standard THAC0 bonus a far as I can tell, 3) Coming up with my on RP way of redeeming the PC and then using EEKeeper to remove the fallen status.
What are your opinions? I'm liking this play through and I'm not keen on giving it up. Nor does the prospect of going through the game classless sound like fun. After all this game is about fun. So I'm leaning toward EEKeeper, but I fear this would disqualify me from this challenge. What are your thoughts on this?
The game offers no way to get rid of the fallen status, so you will have to fix it yourself. That being said, I thing you should have to get to at least 12 reputation (very easy by the way or grant it back after doing one of the major quests, for example killing Daevorn and saving all the miners in the Cloakwood Mines).
CG alignment could possibly do things that would make them seem criminals to the established law, but would agree with their morals.
This time around things got off to a great start. The group rescued a talking chicken that turned out to be an apprentice of the sulky wizard in High Hedge (not that rescuing his apprentice netted them any reward from the high and mighty Thalantyr).
With Kivan pressuring the group to track down the bandits the group confronted Tranzig and managed to get him to spill the beans on the operation, or at least what he knew of it. Gwyn was going to let him go, but Kivan was worried that he would warn the others if they did so. While the rangers discussed the moral and ethical implications of killing him, Monty ran his new magical shortsword through Tranzig's ribs and into his heart, settling the matter for them. (Actually what really happened here, is I was going to let him go, but he stayed red even after the dialogue and he was dead before I could call of the group). Sorry no screenshot of this encounter
With the information from Tranzig they party set off to confront the bandits. While tracking the bandits in Peldvale, they came across one of the leaders. Gwyn was going to try and infiltrate the camp by posing as recruits, but Kivan was already yelling things about vengeance and Deheriana. He let an arrow fly at the leader and the fight was on. The party came out victorious, but their chance for subtlety was gone. Gwyn will need to have a few words with Kivan about not becoming blinded by revenge. However, for now they had a job to do. They eventually found the camp, stormed it and assassinated the leaders, as well as uncovered more information regarding the iron crisis and who was really behind it.
While heading back to Beregost to turn in some scalps for bounty money they came across a group of Red Wizards. It looked like they were involved in some sort of ritual, but the party had no chance to inquire, as the wizards were not happy to have been interrupted and attacked. A well placed web and a hail of arrows and stones put the wizards down fairly quickly. Kagain charged in gulping down a potion of freedom (he'd been wanting to do this for a very long time and now was his chance). However the dwarf was promptly sent running scared by a horror spell.
Here is Kagain posing with the bodies like he actually did something:
Still heading back to Beregost the group was ambushed by a pack of spiders and a triggered a web trap. Karma caught up to Dynaheir and she was stuck good in the web. She fell quickly to a sword spider and the group didn't even have a chance to try and save her (oh the irony!). After a very bloody battle the group managed to avenge her and kill all of the spiders.
They then made the pilgrimage to Nashkel to bury her alongside the others.
And now they are 5. I may pick up Baeloth for my caster, but that is really tipping the balance of this party toward evil. Gwyn is not too choosy about her companions but the others I think are becoming a bad influence on her. The other choice is Xan... hmmmm yes, I may go for him instead.
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The Party
Gwyn - Level 5 Archer
Kagain - Level 4 Fighter
Viconia - Level 4 Cleric
Montaron - Level 3/4 Fighter/Thief
Kivan - Level 4 Ranger
The Fallen
Neera - Level 1 Wild Mage
Khalid - Level 2 Fighter
Edwin - Level 2 Conjurer
Minsc - Level 3 Ranger
Branwen - Level 2 Cleric
Imoen - Level 4 Thief
Garrick - Level 4 Bard
Jaheira - Level 2/2 Druid/Fighter
Rasaad - Level 4 Monk
Dorn - Level 3 Blackguard
Dynaheir - Level 4 Invoker
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The Party
Gwyn - Level 6 Archer
Kagain - Level 6 Fighter
Montaron - Level 5/6 Fighter/Thief
Xan - Level 6 Enchanter
Eldoth - Level 5 Bard
The Fallen
Neera - Level 1 Wild Mage
Khalid - Level 2 Fighter
Edwin - Level 2 Conjurer
Minsc - Level 3 Ranger
Branwen - Level 2 Cleric
Imoen - Level 4 Thief
Garrick - Level 4 Bard
Jaheira - Level 2/2 Druid/Fighter
Rasaad - Level 4 Monk
Dorn - Level 3 Blackguard
Dynaheir - Level 4 Invoker
Kivan - Level 5 Ranger
Yeslick - Level 4/5 Fighter/Cleric
Coran - Level 5/6 Fighter/Thief
Viconia - Level 7 Cleric
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Every single time I've picked up Yeslick he dies in the mines. I seriously don't remember getting out of the mines with that guy, he's fated to die there I'm pretty sure
This was the fastest I made it through the Catacombs though, with those two down there was no playing around, exploring and looting, I didn't want to risk it (another example of how this challenge can really affect your gameplay decisions, I love it!). We made it out ok and then sought out some replacements. We picked up Shar-Teel and Faldorn.
After some wandering around BG (especially the sewers) we finally got enough info pointing us to the Palace and an invitation to the party. We're ready to head inside and expose Sarevok for who he is!
I'm starting to worry at this point though. There is a big experience gap between Gwyn, Kagain and the rest of the party. All spell casting is low level and doesn't seem to be sufficient for this point in the game. At the same time I don't want to go out on an XP spree since that will break immersion for me. Also I'm running pretty low on NPCs now, especially meatshields!
Any recommendations? Wish me luck.
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The Party
Gwyn - Level 7 Archer
Kagain - Level 7 Fighter
Eldoth - Level 6 Bard
Skie - Level 7 Thief
Shar-Teel - Level 6 Fighter
Faldorn - Level 5 Druid
The Fallen
Neera - Level 1 Wild Mage
Khalid - Level 2 Fighter
Edwin - Level 2 Conjurer
Minsc - Level 3 Ranger
Branwen - Level 2 Cleric
Imoen - Level 4 Thief
Garrick - Level 4 Bard
Jaheira - Level 2/2 Druid/Fighter
Rasaad - Level 4 Monk
Dorn - Level 3 Blackguard
Dynaheir - Level 4 Invoker
Kivan - Level 5 Ranger
Yeslick - Level 4/5 Fighter/Cleric
Coran - Level 5/6 Fighter/Thief
Viconia - Level 7 Cleric
Xan - Level 6 Enchanter
Ajantis - Level 6 Paladin
Montaron - Level 6/6 Fighter/Thief
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Does anyone know if she is gone for good? Or can I find her somewhere and either get her to join again (rep is OK now) or kill her for her betrayal? Something like this would usually cause me to reload or hack her back into my game somehow, but I've decided to see it through.
We replaced Skie with Tiax (my first time ever having him in my party) and we buried Faldorn in Cloakwood at her druid's circle:
Next we're going to recruit Baeloth... I'm running out of NPCs!!!
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The Party
Gwyn - Level 7 Archer
Kagain - Level 7 Fighter
Eldoth - Level 7 Bard
Shar-Teel - Level 6 Fighter
Tiax - Level 5/6 Cleric/Thief
Baeloth* (on my way to get him)
The Fallen
Neera - Level 1 Wild Mage
Khalid - Level 2 Fighter
Edwin - Level 2 Conjurer
Minsc - Level 3 Ranger
Branwen - Level 2 Cleric
Imoen - Level 4 Thief
Garrick - Level 4 Bard
Jaheira - Level 2/2 Druid/Fighter
Rasaad - Level 4 Monk
Dorn - Level 3 Blackguard
Dynaheir - Level 4 Invoker
Kivan - Level 5 Ranger
Yeslick - Level 4/5 Fighter/Cleric
Coran - Level 5/6 Fighter/Thief
Viconia - Level 7 Cleric
Xan - Level 6 Enchanter
Ajantis - Level 6 Paladin
Montaron - Level 6/6 Fighter/Thief
Faldorn - Level 5 Druid
Skie* - Level 7 Thief *Skie is still alive but I don't think I can get her back
Remaining Recruitable NPCs
Let me know if I'm missing any
Alora - Thief
Quayle - Cleric/Illusionist
Safana - Thief
Xzar - Necromancer
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As for the fallen status, it gets cured in BGII when you do the ranger stronghold. Personally, I'd say if you fall due to your rep dropping that low, you've failed your duties as a ranger and should have to live with the consequences until you can cure it in BGII.
Tazok never appeared, so it was down to Gwyn and Sarevok, unfortunately she could not stand up to his physical damage and ended up dying.
This is only like the 3rd or 4th time I've done the final fight in all the times I've played BG, and the first in BG:EE so I feel I did pretty well overall. There are some things I would have done differently. I thought about reloading just to try out the fight to see if I could do it w/this group, but I don't have the motivation to today.... perhaps another day, I have the save.
I must say this is the most fun I've had playing BG. Doing a no reload no res has brought much anticipation to the game, knowing each fight could be the last if I screw up. It has forced me to play differently, calculate risks better and push on even if things went really bad. It also forced me to join up with just about every NPC in the game. Usually I stick to a few out of habit and due to the fact they are available early on or have quests, etc.
For now I will finish my SCS playthrough (minimal reload only), but I will definitely be giving this playstyle another go in the future.
@Blackraven - I highly recommend this challenge, it is a brand new way to experience the game. I started it many times but usually died pretty early, this is the furthest I've gotten.
Also, I may do this challenge again after my SCS game using the BG1NPC mod. I'm really enjoying the mod so far and would make the losing of party members even more intense in an RP way, as well as gaining a lot of benefit from having each of the different NPCs in your party.
I think a mix of the 2 methods would be ideal. You can write your role-playing part, add some pictures for flavor, especially the different or funny instances that occur sometimes.
I would suggest to make a video only for the more significant fights like Mulahey, Bassilus, Bandit Camp, Davaeorn etc. I wouldn't miss a recording of a good fight for the world!!
Making a likable video is a hard thing, viewers can get bored very fast especially if you record the whole run. If you prefer the latter you will have to be a great and also a funny speaker maybe, in order to keep your audience attached!
@EnterHaerDalis Thank you for sharing this video. I'd love to see more videos of this challenge. I think it would definitely help to have a mic though, just watching someone play w/out commentary can get boring fast.
That was a glorious death for Dana may she rest in peace!