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First SCS playthrough- Will Try to beat Trilogy Hardcore with a full group on First Try

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  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    I hope you can post about your druid, or bard, or bounty hunter hehe. I'd be interested to read about either one of them.
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    We´ll see how far I get. I just started them this past week and have only put a couple hours in on each, compared to the 60-70 hours I put in on Aurorus. I really moved through the game methodically with Aurorus, trying to learn the AIs tendencies. I took great care in every battle, pausing after almost every round in the major battles. I really need to do that with the others (or I will die as I have a tendency to get careless after a string of easy battles). So once I get to Cloakwood and the pressure to complete the game starts to build, I tend to take more care and pay better. Once I get there, I will probably start a new log. BTW found this bug with the shapeshifter... check it out... really exploitable...

    Notice anything unusual about Jaheira in this screenshot?
    JuliusBorisov
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Yep, carelessness is a common fault in the no-reloader. Tends to happen to me as well, I think I'll need to make it to SoA which I haven't played in a while, to become careful again....
    Jaheira the pseudo-Shapeshifter, very strange. You didn't install ay mods?
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    After Action Report- To Candlekeep

    In raiding the Iron Throne base, Aurorus discovered that their leaders had gone to Candlekeep to hold a meeting with others in the Iron Throne. Aurorus reported these findings to Scar, who asked Aurorus to return to Candlekeep and continue the investigation. Aurorus immediately agreed. If some evil influence had penetrated those sacred halls of learning, Aurorus wanted to put a stop to it. So after resting up at the Elfsong, the band set out for Candlekeep.

    [spoiler]

    Arriving at the keep, Aurorus and company were set upon and surprised by a band of Ogre Mages (without Jenkal for once). There were 5 en total and the situation grew serious quickly as the Ogre Mages got off several spells on the opening round. Imoen and Safana were blinded, quickly removing 2 of the most effective anti-mage weapons of the party. Khalid was dire-charmed in the initial onslaught of spells, and Quayle ran off in terror. Aurorus immediately chugged a potion of Invulnerability, then blowing the Horn of Kazgaroth, pulled out his emergency stock of arrows: Arrows of Dispelling to quickly tear down the ogre mages´defenses. Jaheira summoned a nymph, then cast summon insects on the nearest ogre mage (the 3rd level version, not the 5th level version). The nymph opened with miscast magic on one of the ogre mages, then hold monster on another. 1 ogre mage lit off after Quayle, another after Safana and Imoen. The situation stabilized rather quickly as 1 ogre mage was surrounded by insects, another impaired by the nymph´s miscast magic, and Aurorus, having stripped the defenses of 3 of the ogre mages, lighting into the other 2 with fire arrows.

    image
    JuliusBorisov
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Well done, I often rush past them to the relative safety of Candlekeep (it's no-reload after all...)
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    At Candlekeep, all was not well as Aurorus had suspected. The Iron Throne leaders were indeed there, including Rieltar, who was the head of the local chapter. Aurorus learned more than he expected to among the old tomes of the library, however, and much of what had been transpiring along the Sword Coast began to make sense.

    After perusing some prophecies of Alaundo, Aurorus learned that Alaundo had prophesied that the Lord of Murder, Bhaal, would have a score of moral children, who would bring chaos to the land in their bid to replace their father and become a new God of Murder. It appeared that Sarevok, the son of Rieltar, was one of these Bhaalspawn and was at Candlekeep under the guise of Koveras. It also appeared that Aurorus himself was one of these Bhaalspawn, which would explain the death of his mother at his birth, why Gorion never spoke of his father, his dark thoughts, and dark dreams. It also explained the attempts on his life and why this Sarevok wanted him dead: a sibling rivalry.

    Well, son of Bhaal, though he may be, Aurorus was first and foremost an Elven ranger, bound by a sacred oath to his bow and to Sylvanus, the Treefather, to protect the innocent and guide the peaceful along safe paths. He was certainly no murderer and no Lord of Murder; which is why he was surprised when Ulraunt, head of Candlekeep and a man who had never liked Aurorus, confronted him and accused him of murdering the leaders of the Iron Throne. Aurorus proclaimed his innocence and submitted to incarceration prior to trial in Baldur´s Gate.

    Aurorus had no objections to trial in Baldur´s Gate, where Scar and Duke Eltan, he was certain, would see that his name was cleared, but when his old friend the sage Tethtoril insisted that Aurorus flee, making his escape through the catacombs under Candlekeep, Aurorus submitted to the wisdom of the sage. Tethtoril teleported Aurorus into the catacombs, and the band quickly and easily made their escape from Candlekeep, killing a few dopplegangers, spiders, basilisks, and another band of assassins that they encountered in the catacombs.

    The encounter with the 4 assassins went very smoothly. Safana had scouted them and saw that there were 3 useable entrances to their hiding spot. Jaheira summoned 2 nymphs and the group entered from all 3 entrances simultaneously with Imoen starting off with a greater malison, Quayle with a slow, and both nymphs with confusion. 3 of the 4 were confused, including the mage, who had gone invisible. Jaheira, Imoen, and Safana then charmed one who was not confused and the whole band of assassins proceeded to fight amongst themselves, while Aurorus and company continued exploring the rest of the catacombs.
    JuliusBorisovchickenhed
  • TwaniTwani Member Posts: 640
    Looking good!

    I don't often post on this forum, but I read it intently, looking for strategies for the game (especially if SCS is involved). Seems like you're doing pretty well, so cheers!
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    2 things stand out in my mind with SCS and Baldur´s Gate, at least BGI. I have not tried SCS on BGII yet (and haven´t even played BGII in 15 years beyond the starting dungeon and Nalia´s Keep where my druid died). First, the targeting priority system that SCS seems to use is not a "standard" sort of agro system such as in most MMORPGs (thank goodness... some real strategy as opposed to tank gets agro, mages CC adds, rogue dpses boss). This is where Bioware really went wrong, I think after Baldur´s Gate and Neverwinter Nights... trying to make their games (such as Dragonage) more like MMORPGs rather creating a really good, unique AI and making their games more tactical. This error really becomes apparent in Dragonage II, which is just not a very good game.

    SCS is very good and is the type of work Bioware should have done heading into Dragonage and so forth. That said SCS could be improved. It is somewhat inflexible, it seems, in its threat assessments. It does seem to reevaluate the situation, but seems to gauge threat based on the type of attack as opposed to the actual danger. So, for example, after backstabbing, Safana immediately became a threat and NPCs would turn to engage her, even a low AC target that she had trouble hitting. Yet if Safana is throwing darts of stunning, for example (potentially more dangerous than her backstab), the same enemy ignores her. The most threatening member of the group, far and away, was Aurorus. He just poured damage into every battle, yet was ignored because his type of attack was at the bottom of the priority list, regardless of the amount of damage he did or the type of arrows that he was shooting (Arrows of Dispelling, for example, are the single most threatening attack to a mage and should be dealt with immediately).

    My second impression is that, at least for these low-level encounters, the battle is decided in the first 2 rounds. The only time that I struggled was when mages did not dispel magic in the first round (as I came to expect it, and really I needed a round to get through the defenses). That said, a second change that I would make to SCS is to have it sometimes hold off on dispel magic and use more CC or combos with greater malison, which is really a powerful spell in BGI. Once Greater Malison was available to Imoen, everything revolved around it (especially since I was already forcing enemies to make a large number of saves against poison, spell, etc. from the variety of missile attacks that I was using).
    BlackravenJuliusBorisov
  • velehalvelehal Member Posts: 299
    Aurorus said:

    2
    My second impression is that, at least for these low-level encounters, the battle is decided in the first 2 rounds.

    It is true. But in BG2 things change. Some enemies are completly invulnerable for few first rounds (especially liches, who have PFMW and immunities against magic and elemental damage plus are protected by Spell Traps, Spell Imunities and Spell Shields etc.) In BG battles are relatively quick, in BG2 and especially in ToB + Ascension battles (mainly with bosses) can be very long. And my impression is that in ToB characters without access to PFMW or at least Stone Skin become very prone to quick death.
    (This is not part of SCS but aTweak Balors have 15% chance to instantly kill oppenent without possibility of resurrection + ability to cast Remove magic at will).
    Blackraven
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    I expect things to change quite a bit in BGII, which is why I think an archer will be fun to run through it on SCS for the first time. Also why I would like to run a character through it on vanilla one time to refresh my metagame memory before starting with Aurorus. I may take my bard through it on vanilla, as I think he has a good chance of completing the trilogy without reloads on vanilla. I may also try my druid, but he is on the back-burner atm as I am more interested in my bard. Both are versatile classes with sufficient defense (though the no-helm thing makes me very nervous with the bard). I am progressing nicely in BGI with the bard and am trying my best to play carefully and maintain focus and discipline. I really do not enjoy playing a game that is not no re-load as most of the suspense is removed, and I end up playing on auto-pilot and lose interest quickly. In fact, I have never played a game that was not no reload after the first time I beat SoA years ago.

    One of my few memories of BGII from years ago was liches with PFMW (which is in vanilla) and my thinking what a clever combination that was. I suspect that I will have to rely a good deal on distraction and keep enemy mages focused exclusively on my mages. Another reason I would like to play my bard through first is to see how well a blade-bard holds up so I can decide if Haer Dalis is someone I want for Aurorus or not. I will certainly go with Imoen as available and Jaheira. Nalia and Aerie seem likely for the group at least until Imoen returns and maybe for the whole saga, so I would like more dps (I always want more DPS)... Haer Dalis may be perfect, but Valygar and Mazzy stand out as well. If I go with Haer Dalis, I will probably go with Yoshima. If I go with Mazzy or Valygar, I will probably go with Jan. Either way, I will have 3 arcane casters.
    BlackravenJuliusBorisov
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    On the Lamb

    Wanted for murder and with trouble brewing in Baldur´s Gate, Aurorus decided to lay low for a while and left from Candlekeep to Durlag´s Tower, east of Nashkel, a supposed treasure trove that he had heard about during his travels. The group was broke, or nearly broke, again and had few good arrows and potions remaining, so Aurorus felt that looting the old tower would help with finances and give Imoen and Quayle a little more experience.

    The upper floors of the tower were relatively uninhabited. There was a succubus or some demonic woman that attacked the group and a few basilisks on the roof, which Safana scouted. After some deliberation, Aurorus decided to descend into the depths of the tower, at least until the point of no return, and see how the band faired against the dangers that Durlag had built into his tower.

    Safana had little difficulty with Durlag´s devious traps after drinking a Potion of Perception (she had 80% find traps; the potion got her to 100%) and the initial encounters were nothing out of the ordinary- a few flesh golems, some spiders, and skeleton warriors. The band cleared and looted the first level to find 4 warders, each requiring the group to perform a service in order to let them pass.

    The group completed the four tasks, but Aurorus was leery of these warders (I have not done Durlag´s Tower in 15 years or so, and my last memory of it was my MT running through it hasted in about 5 minutes with globes of invulnerability, lightning resistance, and 3 wands of lightning). Aurorus decided to try these warders, but expected the worst and kept the exit at his back.

    The battle did not go well. One of the warders was protected by deflect arrows and the group had no spell that could breach that defense. Another warder had a gaze attack that held Jaheira. With only 2 potions of mirror eyes, they could not hold long against the gaze attack. Love, a third warder, was a powerful warrior, the most powerful that the group had encountered to date (and probably the equal of Sarevok), who quickly drove into Khalid and forced him back, reeling. Aurorus was able to kill Love, but only after Khalid and Jaheira had fallen. With Khalid and Jaheira down and no way to penetrate the deflect missiles or defend against the gaze attack, Aurorus ordered a withdrawal and moved quickly into a hallway where he hid. Quayle and Imoen cast invisibility, and Safana drank a potion of invisibility, and they retreated as Aurorus collected Khalid and Jaheira´s bodies and belongings in stealth.
    BlackravenJuliusBorisov
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    The Battle of Ducal Palace

    Despite the setback and the inability to penetrate into the depths of Durlag´s Tower, the excavation was a success overall. The group found a large number of enchanted arrows, especially the Acid Arrows that Aurorus preferred and enough loot that their finances were secure once again. (I now felt the group had enough resources for the end-game). With the bottom of the tower effectively sealed off, Aurorus had little choice but to return to Baldur´s Gate and just in time.

    He learned upon entering the city that Grand Duke Eltan had been poisoned and was on death´s door and that Scar had been assassinated. After charming many of the Flaming Fist with the cloak that he made from the nymph´s hair, Aurorus was able to rescue Eltan and uncover a plot to assassinate the 2 remaining Grand Dukes at the Ducal Palace. Aurorus also learned that Sarevok was to be made an arch-duke and the assassinations were to take place during his coronation ceremony. With little time to spare, Aurorus headed off the assassins in the undercellar, a den of prostitution and iniquity, under the Blushing Mermaid tavern. Imoen entered invisible and detecting illusions. Aurorus and Safana hid in rooms adjacent to the central intersection. Khalid and Jaheira entered from down the hallway. The two assassins tried to attack from stealth, but Imoen´s detect illusions gave them both away. Aurorus and Safana set at the mage with poisoned darts and arrows; poisoned and taking damage quickly from elemental attacks, she tried a sequencer of mirror image and invisibility, which was of no avail against Imoen´s detect illusions. Jaheira´s nymphs entered from side rooms and began unleashing hold persons on Slythe, the other assassin, until he was held. Jaheira and Khalid then quickly killed him.

    On their persons were invitations to the coronation the next morning and instructions to kill the Grand Dukes with the assistance of dopplegangers. Aurorus and company returned to the Elfsong determined to prevent the assassinations planned for the next morning. Using the invitations that Sarevok had obtained for the assassins, the group entered the Ducal palace just as the coronation was beginning. In the entrance-hall, Jaheira summoned 2 nymphs, the whole group became invisible and them positioned themselves around the hall as the coronation commenced.
    [spoiler]

    Just as the assembled nobles revealed themselves to be dopplegangers, Imoen fired off a greater malison, followed (with perfect timing), but 2 hold monsters from Jaheira´s nymphs, freezing the 3 dopplegangers nearest the Grand Dukes. image

    Among the dopplegangers were a mage, a shaman, and an assassin, who all quickly went invisible. Jaheira immediately countered with an invisibility purge

    image

    Then Jaheira´s rampage continued as a thunderous blow from her club sent pieces of the assassin all through the room.

    image

    Without doubt, Jaheira was the hero of Ducal´s palace as her Invisibility Purge had revealed all the assassins, her nymphs had held the Dukes´ assailants, and her club did the rest of the work. Sarevok fled the battle with the help of a mage who teleported him. A mage in the employ of the Grand Dukes aided the party by tracing his whereabouts to the Thieves´ Guild and the party gave chase.
    JuliusBorisov
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Hey good job with Slythe and Krystin. She tends to cause me serious trouble. Very clever to have Imoen invest in Detect Illusions. In my current Swashmage run I've invested some skillpoints in it, so I can get it to 100 after two or three level ups in SoA. I remember one time Krystin gated in a Glabrezu who stunned and killed my charname.

    I've never tried Durlag's on SCS I think, at least not in a no-reload run (unnessecary risks).

    My version of SCS is an older one, which means no Doppelganger mages or shamans? The pics suggest these didn't cause you party much trouble. Right?

  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    No they never really got to do much other than cast defensive spells. The shaman had to resort to meleeing the guards, because his spells kept getting disrupted and he could not get invisible. He tried again after Jaheira´s purge, but Quayle caught him with a detect invisible. Any way, you see why I say it should be pretty good for a druid to do solo. Jaheira had it won from the word "go" with her nymphs and invisibility purge. A totemic druid could bring in a couple wolves for some extra holds and an avenger could cast improved invisibility on Belt, the Grand Duke. So I think a druid can solo it pretty well... better than most classes.
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Interesting. In my setup, Belt and Liia fight so improved invisibility wouldn't save them... I've thought Otiluke's Resilient Sphere for my Swashmage, though I think I'll also use summons...
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    Don´t use Otiluke´s on the Grand Dukes. It´s considered a hostile action. You will get nuked if you use it on the Dukes.
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    Into the Undercity

    Below a maze in the warrens of the Thieves´ Guild lay an undercity with a temple to Bhaal in its center. Safana scouted the entire undercity in stealth.

    There is a really nice looking suit of red and black plate +2 in there that I never knew about... may be a BGEE addition, but I am not sure.


    The city was inhabited by undead, mostly skeletons, skeleton warriors, and ghasts. Near the entrance to the temple of Bhaal along the central corridor of the city a party of 6 people, including an ogre, were camped. Since the group included an ogre, Aurorus assumed they were intent on no good. So he had the band prepare for battle and approached the group from 3 directions. [spoiler]

    image

    This was now the typical manner in which Aurorus arrayed his band for battle now when opportunity permitted the enemy to be scouted and the group had the initiative. The stealth group, which always attacked from the rear or a flank, usually included Aurorus and Safana who worked well together as a pair with their multiple APR and various poison or elemental attack forms. Then Khalid paired with Quayle in a second group and Jaheira and Imoen as a 3rd group (in part because Jaheira did not get along with Quayle, but mostly because Khalid had a bow as did Imoen, which provided each group with multiple APR and the capability to deal elemental and poison damage).

    image

    The opening round typically saw Aurorus, Safana and Khalid targetting any mages with elemental and poison damage. Quayle now typically started off many battles with an unholy blight, mostly for the 1-round blindness, but in this case used web on the opening round and unholy blight on the 2nd round. Imoen would usually start off battles with a greater malison. A nymph would often quickly follow the greater malison with confusion as in the case above or hold monster (as in the Ducal palace battle).

    Aurorus rarely used the greenstone amulet and often gave it to Jaheira as she was frequently targeted and he was rarely targeted. Mostly he relied on the Horn of Kazgarok and a Potion of Invulnerability to lower his save vs. spell to 2. In this battle, Jaheira was the first to present herself to the enemy to draw out their fire. With a ring of fire resist, Boots of Talos, the Gift of Peace as a Helm, and a prebuff of resist fire-cold, she had high elemental resist and with a large shield +1, +4 vs. missiles and a point in sword-and-shield style, she could boast an AC of -16 vs. missile weapons. With a charge from the greenstone amulet, she was virtually immune to most forms of ranged attack: magic or missile. In this battle she drew out a dispel magic from the mage, which hit only her. Since most of her buffs are innate to her gear (the AC boosts, the resistances, etc.), the dispel magic was largely wasted on her.

    The enemy fighters charged the mages. In this case, Khalid was ready to drop his bow and draw sword to shield to hold for Quayle. Jaheira´s nymph, who, in this battle, was behind Jaheira and Imoen was ready for the fighter with hold persons and a hold monster. As the image above shows, with greater malison the enemy fighter who came at Imoen fell to a hold person (the nymph has 3 hold spells). This fighter was a serious threat as he was hasted, had drank a potion of fire giant strength, had activated a kai ability, and was dual-wielding: only to be held by a nymph and then killed helplessly without ever landing a blow.

    Jaheira´s rampage continues here as she chunks Gorf, the Ogre

    image

    Then the storm that Jaheira had become struck thunder on Haseo, the buffed up, Kai-Kensai, dual-wielding wonder also was blown to bits by the humble druid and her nymph


    image
    JuliusBorisov
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    edited April 2014
    You're doing more than fine on your first SCS no-reload playthrough. I'm quite impressed with your progress, keeping my own failed attempts as of late in mind. Best of luck for the final showdown!
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    The Final Battle

    After dispatching the Iron Throne Mercenaries, Aurorus and company cleared the undercity of many of its undead and besieged the Temple of Bhaal, resting outside its entrance (no sign of Tamoko... not sure why). After resting, they prepared for a final confrontation with Sarevok. [spoiler]

    Aurorus did not know what to expect, so he was literally prepared for anything, and with the money from the tower looting, Aurorus had nearly bought out the good potions in Sorcerous Sundries to prepare for this battle.

    image

    Imoen came a close second to the Bhaalspawn in the buff battle that commenced within the group they used every last item in the potion and scroll cases.

    Upon entering the temple, Jaheira summoned her nymphs, and Imoen set up a teleport field.

    image

    This proved just too much technology for the SCS-scripted final battle to handle. Tazok and Angelo were afraid to enter the field. Semaj played coy for most of the battle and kept going invisible at the first sign of danger. Diurmid seemed to trap Sarevok near the throne and they both stood in place as Tazok and Angelo wandered helplessly around outside the teleport field dying quickly to arrows from Aurorus, Imoen, and Khalid. At one point Tazok started to wander off, and Khalid had to leave the teleport field to draw him back into bow range, where he promptly followed Angelo to death.

    image

    With the teleport field down, Semaj seemed to grow a little bolder and stopped running into to the corner every time Jaheira, Quayle, or Imoen dispelled his invisibility (either that or he finally ran out of invisibilities) and after Diurmid died to Aurorus´bow, Sarevok finally entered the battle.

    image

    But it was far too late to make a difference as all but 1 of his compatriots had already died before Sarevok braved leaving his throne, so the group could focus all their attention on him, which consisted of just summoning a few wolves and turning him into a pin-cushion of arrows. Imoen did cast greater malison on him, and as the archers killed him, Quayle tried 4 times with the wand of polymorphing to turn him into a squirrel. Alas, however, Sarevok made his save all 4 times, and I do not have a really cool screenshot of Sarevok as a squirrel. The attempt to humiliate him did enrage Sarevok, however, and he began chasing Quayle all around the room, as Aurorus killed him.

    image
    JuliusBorisov
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    Final Thoughts on this playthrough and SCS for BGI

    First 2 awards... The Award for Best Perfomance by a supporting NPC (MVNPC) clearly goes to Jaheira who just took over the game after reaching level 7 as a druid and fighter, demonstrating that druids are far-and-away the most powerful class in the late stages of BGI. Call Woodland Being is the best spell in the game as 2 of these give the druid 3 casters and 3 actions to cast powerful 4th and 5th level CC spells at the beginning of each battle including confusion, hold monster, and mental domination. Combining summons with druid buffs: strength of one, bless, and so forth make druids one-person wrecking crews. The ability to control visibility with invisibility purge just adds to this already powerful mix of abilities. For these reasons, Jaheira and Faldorn are always my choices as the best available NPCs in BGI: better than Kagain, Coran, Yeslick, and Edwin. No image shows the power of the druid more than this one of the Battle in Ducal Palace, where Jaheira´s nymphs froze the dopplegangers in their tracks and her invisibility purge prevented the mages from getting off spells while invisible and the assassin from backstabbing the Grand Dukes.


    image

    The Award for 2nd Best Performance by a Supporting NPC goes to Safana. I hope that I showed in this account that rogues have a much wider set of abilities than simply disarming traps and picking locks. While she could never deal anywhere near the damage that Aurorus could (nothing can match an archer for pure damage in BGI), Safana was the equal of Aurorus in many other aspects. Her ability to scout enemies allowed Aurorus to wear the Ankherg plate for much of the late stages. With Legacy of the Master gloves, her backstabs became lethal, and the darts allowed her to mix up all types of damage: elemental and poison, including darts of stunning. With 3 attacks per round (4 when hasted), she got through mirror images and stoneskins as quickly as Khalid or Aurorus and forced enemies to make a lot of saves against powerful effects such as poison and stun.

    imageimage
    BlackravenJuliusBorisovchickenhed
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    My Thoughts on SCS

    I highly recommend this mod for BGI to anyone who has beaten the vanilla game even once. Allowing mages and clerics to prebuff evens the playing field, so to speak, and provided much of the challenge in this playthrough. While not perfect (the scripting seemed to fail on the final battle, for example, as the enemies never came more than 1 or 2 at a time), the improvements that SCS makes to the AI provides for battles that are much more tactical as the NPCs react in a more reasonable fashion to the threats that the group presents. This is especially true for group play, as opposed to solo play, which tends to involve making 1 character immune to everything and then trying to manage the available resources to auto-win as many battles as possible regardless of enemy tactics or abilities. So I recommend playing SCS with a full group, trying to keep your people alive, and really interacting with the improved SCS. I think anyone who has not tried the mod will agree that the experience is both enjoyable and rewarding.
    BlackravenJuliusBorisovSionIVchickenhed
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Congratulations! A very solid playthrough, and you shared some insightful views, e.g. regarding druids. (I never liked druids, probably thanks to Jaheira's personality, so I never really explored the class until I rolled Aya the Avenger.) Am looking forward to reading about new playthroughs.
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    My druid died again to the same thing... a sleep spell when he was 200 XP away from lvl 5 and immunity to sleep. So I have died 4 times in a row now, but my rogue soldiers on. He completed the bandit camp last night and is ready for Cloakwood. I just started a new druid and am doing things a little different- a little more Blackraven-style. I am running him with just Imoen to start and he is already 3rd level after about an hour of play. I am going to try to get him to level 4 before meeting up with Jaheira then avoid all mages until level 5.
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    edited April 2014
    Great playthrough! I really enjoyed reading that.

    Safana is a great character, wouldn't have given her the gloves but she is a great thief, second only to Imoen. She got a bit better distribution early game when it comes to thief skills, but Imoen will take over mid game.

    Druids are AWESOME in BG1 and call woodland being is just brutal here. I would have to mention that Edwin -> Druids in BG1 sadly. While druids are powerful, Edwin as an arcane caster still tops the druids.
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Aurorus said:

    My druid died again to the same thing... a sleep spell when he was 200 XP away from lvl 5 and immunity to sleep. So I have died 4 times in a row now, but my rogue soldiers on. He completed the bandit camp last night and is ready for Cloakwood. I just started a new druid and am doing things a little different- a little more Blackraven-style. I am running him with just Imoen to start and he is already 3rd level after about an hour of play. I am going to try to get him to level 4 before meeting up with Jaheira then avoid all mages until level 5.

    Blackraven-style haha. I find it easier to do the first portion of BG1 solo (or with Imoen) to get advance few levels, and then recruit other NPCs, like I did with Aya the Avenger. Sorry to hear about your other druids, and hope to see your next one prevail. Are you still trying out Shapeshifters?
    I've got two projects now: Aya (whose no-reload playthrough evolved into a roleplayed playthrough once I started recruiting other NPCs, haven't played her in a week though) and Ocker the NG dwarven Skald I hope to post about. Like you I've decided to first try and get my charnames well underway rather than posting about them from the outset. Ocker is going to be a roleplayed run as well, with a warrior-heavy party for maximum effect of the bard song (probably Jaheira, Branwen, Imoen, Kivan, Yeslick).
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    SionIV said:

    Great playthrough! I really enjoyed reading that.


    Druids are AWESOME in BG1 and call woodland being is just brutal here. I would have to mention that Edwin -> Druids in BG1 sadly. While druids are powerful, Edwin as an arcane caster still tops the druids.

    I have Edwin in my rogue group, which is really an all-stars of evil group (though I dumped Shar Teel for Dorn, because she kept getting critically hit and one-shot after I dualed her to rogue. I think Shar Teel is better than Dorn, but his Aura combos nicely with Viconia´s chant, blindness, and doom). No question that Edwin is a monster. As we get ready to enter Cloakwood, he is level 6 and really starting to come into his own. However, the ability to get 3 AoE spells off at the start of many battles is really powerful. That said, Edwin was certainly the MVNPC of the bandit-camp battle, however, pumping out AoE effects and surviving a few attacks thanks to his nice HP total, which at 26 is already higher than Quayle ever reached.

    SionIV
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    My first druid was an avenger; he made it to Nalia´s keep, but I died to Torgal when I tried to tank him for a moment while Jaheira healed. I played it badly, however, not having played BGII in many years (and took Nalia´s keep for granted). Then my totemic druid died to a sleep spell. Then I made Shapechanger, who died. Then I made another totemic druid, who died to sleep spell. So having lost every kit of druid now, I am going to play my rogue for a bit and decide if I want to make 1 more go with a druid (probably a fighter dualed to druid or a half-elf fighter-druid) or try something else for my neutral play-through.
    Blackraven
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    A berserker dual classed to druid at level 9 with a focus on quarter staff is a nice character. His rage will protect you against all the nasty stuff (Level drain, Imprisonment, Sleep, Confuse, etc) and you'll be able to pick up a great druid staff early from the bonus vendor in cooper coronet.
  • AurorusAurorus Member Posts: 201
    Beserker seems the obvious choice and seems likely for a druid... in touch with his bestial nature and so forth, but doesn´t quite fit from a role-playing perspective, what I want my druid to be. I want him to be more contemplative and circumspect, wise above all things. I think a Kensai fits with this, but I really do not want to give up helms (having had a bad experience with my bard and crits). So I may just play a fighter-druid, or I may play a shapeshifter druid to 13 then decide if I want to dual-class to fighter or continue on as a straight druid. Have you had any experience with shapeshifters dual-classed to fighters after getting greater werewolf? Does it hold up in the end-game? I know in BGEE, you get your bonuses from equipped items in shapeshifted form, but it does not appear that you can boost your magic resistance above 40% as a greater werewolf.
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    The problem with the greater werewolf is that it's claws are only a +2 weapon so you won't be able to hit most things in mid-late SoA and it's completely useless in ToB.

    I'm using BG2 tweaks which opens up the option to dual class a barbarian. This is the base class i normally use for most of my druids. It makes sense that a Barbarian would go over to druidism (?), probably ending up with something like the barbarian shamans in IWD. The moment you dual class over from your Barbarian class could be the stage your character gets 'Enlightened'. Another good thing with the Barbarian druid combination is that you'll only be able to wear up to splint mail, so in other words you'll probably end up in a leather armor which makes more sense on a druid instead of the full plate you'll use with your fighter/druid.

    I wouldn't dual class a Kensai to a druid as it just doesn't make any sense imo. You have a 'sword saint' that end up picking up druidism? Not to mention you'll be stuck with scimitar as druids can't use any of the other swords, unless you'll go for war hammer /mace or club.

    I would pick one of the following.

    Avenger (play him properly and he'll be very powerful backline caster)
    Berserkr -> Druid
    Barbarian -> Druid

    JuliusBorisov
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