@Grond0, that monk challenge sounds extraordinarily difficult... I'll wish you some luck to supplement your intelligence
Let's hope that it DOESN'T run out.
Meanwhile Selûna and party finished Ice Island with ease. They were however rather careless and Neera got killed by the Ankhegs. It was an extended version, but nowhere near as challenging as the SCS version. Neera has been raised again.
I'd like to enter Amestris (human Priest of Lathander) into the challenge. I'm running BG:EE with SCS installed.
Why a cleric? Because I enjoy playing divine casters and because there's much versatility to be found in their abilities. I find them to be the true jack-of-all-trades of the saga (instead of bards), with melee, ranged, buffs, de-buffs, stealth (I'm looking at you Sanctuary) and damaging spells all available in one package. And although dual/multi-classing offers some very interesting combinations, I tend to prefer single class characters for my playthroughs.
Amestris starts with one pip in warhammers and one in slings, hoping to invest the future points into staves and two-handed weapons style. There are no specific self-imposed limitations in this run, however, I'll try not to take advantage of recharging magical items in shops (i.e. only revert to it as a last resort solution). Also as a matter of style, Amestris shall not be using the Animate Dead spell (as this would seem rather inappropriate for a follower of Lathander).
After having completed several chores around the Sword Coast, Amestris has now reached level 6 and gathered enough supplies to take on the Nashkel mines. I'll post some highlights from the early adventures soon.
Regards,
B.
Note: That slightly sub-optimal allocation of stats is due to RP reasons.
@Borco, sounds like an exciting run! I'm eager to see how it goes.
As an interesting observation, although maybe common knowledge, I just cast silence on Mulahey first thing at the bottom of the mines, which prevented him from calling for his SCS reinforcements. Made the fight much easier than any other time I've tried it...
@Borco, sounds like an exciting run! I'm eager to see how it goes.
As an interesting observation, although maybe common knowledge, I just cast silence on Mulahey first thing at the bottom of the mines, which prevented him from calling for his SCS reinforcements. Made the fight much easier than any other time I've tried it...
There are many ways to make it easier.
Method 1 Web him from a position from which you cannot be seen. Follow up with wand of frost or area spells. The area spells (fireball etc) are safest.
Method 2 He can be charmed with the Cloak of Algernon or a spell and then he will be killed by the summons.v (This is the method I would use for a minimum experience game or one where party members are not allowed to kill.)
I hadn't thought of your suggestion though. That is ideal for a solo cleric.
@Grond0, that monk challenge sounds extraordinarily difficult... I'll wish you some luck to supplement your intelligence
Thanks - I could have done with a bit more though
I knew I potentially needed a bit of luck when trying to clear the area north of the Carnival, where there's a possibility of encountering a random ogre mage. At level 5 an ogre mage would not normally be a problem, but this one starts invisible and then spends a bit of time buffing before attacking. The result of that delay is that someone engaged in battle with other enemies can be stunned by a chromatic orb when uncomfortably close to the ogre mage - and that happened to Wraith. To prevent the ogre mage from finishing her off immediately most of the others piled in trying to stun it in return. They got a dozen attacks in, but none scored a hit and meanwhile the ogre mage had used spells and attacks to damage several of them. Spirit was down to 23 HPs which made her vulnerable, but I decided to risk leaving her there until the monks' second lot of stunning blows had run out before everyone would attempt to run and lead it away from Wraith. Unfortunately a critical from the ogre mage put paid to that ...
Edit: when shutting my computer down for the night a couple of hours after posting the above I realised the game was still paused at the point Spirit died. I unpaused it and within half a second the next attack on the ogre mage had stunned him - so close ...
I've promised a brief coverage of Amestris' exploits prior to Nashkel mines so here it is. After a quick start involving FAI, High Hedge, Shoal and Beregost, she decided to take upon Bassilus at lvl 5.
Strategy: Knowing that Invisibility spell works wonders against Hold Person, I've tried to replicate the same strategy with Sanctuary (and thus try to save a Potion of Freedom for later encounters). Casting speed of 4 (as compared to that 5 of Hold Person) means that Amestris might be able counter the spell entirely, while on the other hand the 1 turn duration should provide sufficient protection in the case of a failed saving throw. Avoiding the hold effects should then create a window of opportunity for her own spells (Hold/Silence/Midcast Magic). If this fails than buff up (Chant, DUHM, Strength of One, Boon) and sling the enemy from distance.
Outcome: Bassilus starts big, almost getting an insta-kill with his Unholy Blight (and interrupting Amestris' Midcast Magic). Ouch, time to fall back.
Shaken by the first round, my reflexes are too slow to be able to avoid the Hold Person projectile. At least Amestris is safely sanctuaried for the turn. Personal note: do not forget that the aura does not clear while held.
Bassilus' second attempt at holding Amestris is successfully countered and we are waiting for his next move. No enchantment animation on his next spell means it's her turn to go into offense -> Hold Person -> success -> win.
We proceed to collect the reward at the temple, purchase some magical consumables at High Hedge and make a detour en route to Nashkel via Firewine Bridge to obtain certain powerful bracers. Once in Nashkel, another cleric fight ensues. Repeating her earlier strategy, Amestris is able to outwit Neira without having to use any valuable supplies.
Note: The mines have been cleared and are to be covered soon.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 112 - (5th and final update) Pole, human totemic druid (Grond0) & Dorral, elven archer (Gate70)
In a bad day at the office this run also came to an end. While my monks challenge is difficult, this was a pretty easy run let down by carelessness.
The session started off in Umar Hills working through the undead hordes. The initial attack on Thaxy faltered when he proved to be immune to +2 arrows, but Dorral managed to get just enough melee attacks in thanks to his mirrors, some summons and a bit of ironskins tanking from Pole.
The Shade Lord looked a bit dodgy when the insect plague cast on the altar failed to spread to him and he survived a sun ray from Daystar. Fortunately Dorral's follow up in melee finished him off almost immediately after his buffs fired along with a symbol stun that caught Pole (Dorral had chaotic commands to protect him).
Back in Athkatla Valygar's dead body was stuffed through the letter box in the Planar Sphere before a trip to the Bridge District saw Dracandros and his crew suffering mosquito bites.
We were in that area hunting for an ankheg shell in the next building and soon had that converted into armour, along with the shadow dragon scale. The former is counted as non-magical and allowed Pole to improve his armour while continuing to wear a ring of protection. The latter doesn't allow a ring, but gave a nice AC boost to Dorral while still allowing him to stealth.
The better AC allowed Pole to tank the trolls at Trademeet without difficulty. The druids didn't put up much of a fight either and Pole soon shut down Faldorn with an insect plague.
He did the same to the Challenge Master as well to get himself appointed as Grand Druid and lots of resting and a few more insect spells later had finished work at the Grove and provided Dorral with a lion figurine for another summoning option.
That completed our intended session for the day, but we were also due to play in a trio later. Some computer problems for Corey though meant that wasn't possible so we decided to do a bit more of this run. Regrettably that probably exacerbated our normal tendency to make things more difficult and when we arrived at Windspear Hills dungeon we attacked the golems without having rested recently. Both of us had already had to use invisibility potions when being chased, but with only a nearly dead clay golem left and both of us invisible the battle was all but won. At that point though I decided that one more hit would kill it and attacked without waiting for HPs to regenerate much. One hit (at least from a weakling druid) didn't kill it and the golem retaliated immediately taking Pole's HPs into the danger area. He tried to run while Dorral attacked, but the speedy golem was too quick and crushed Pole to the floor just before Dorral's attempted rescue turned into a spot of revenge.
Back in the sewers once again, the party entered the old tunnels. A couple of fights later, and Goibniu talked to Gaal, soon entering the lower levels. Shadows and spiders are not a huge threat for my party right now, though while fighting a yuan-ti group, Anapa got confused and decided to attack one of Luna's aerial servants - he was hit once, but killed the summon before it could attack again (otherwise, this propably would've meant his death):
After solving a riddle, Donar dealt with the beholder/gauth group via the Shield of Balduran. After healing the emphatic manifestation, it was time to enter ghoul city, where Anapa used a protection from undead scroll and Daystar:
To defeat the blind priests, invisible stalkers and aerial servants were summoned, and the party used their buffs, charged and disrupted any spellcasting they could with ranged weapons and spells:
Once again, Donar used his shield to defeat any remaining beholders, and it was time for the Unseeing Eye itself - a simple matter of using the rod and attacking, with only a well protected Goibniu and the summons in range:
[spoiler]
Now, only Gaal himself and his guards remained. Due to the number of physical damage dealers with haste among the opponents, I had Owain, buffed with stoneskin and MI, tank this one:
The Adventure of Kythran: Part 7 - Xvart Villages, and Sword Coast Legends.
Whilst exploring a wilderness area, Kythran found an Xvart village, cleared it out, and amazingly when Nexlit, the leader of the village, summoned Ursa. Ursa went and attacked him instead!
In a different wilderness area, Kythran found a hobgoblin that told him all about a mercenary band called the Chill. Kythran also let this Hobgoblin live.
Then, in the same Wilderness Area, Kythran found some bandits, and easily destroyed them. Apparently their mage's morale broke, and so did one of the enemy's plate armor. So arrows, and magic missiles were used. The mage ran so far, but was found, and killed. Now, Dynaheir has a Mage Robe of Fire Resistance!
Lastly, the group found a drow fighting some gnolls and helped him out! It turns out it was Drizzt Do'Urden! Of course, no dastardly deeds were done to the drow in question. Even though Drizzt took out most of the gnolls by himself.
Cavan, male human lawful-good inquisitor. (Randomly chosen character type.)
Mods: SCS, item randomiser, BG1 NPC, some options from aTweaks, and I'm realizing I've made it easier by installing a mod that allows Thalantyr to modify items, some of which are overpowered. (I'll be uninstalling that one after this run, but for now I'm going to charge ahead.)
Cavan's had quite a run so far. Mulahey went down without a struggle. The bandit camp wasn't too bad after Branwen dominated Taugosz and got him to smash down his allies. The assassins did poorly against Cavan's innate ability to dispel illusions.
Branwen's skelly warriors were indispensable at the bottom of the Cloakwood mines -- we summoned three, buffed everyone up, Branwen went invisible, and then we parked the skellies in the entry way to give the reinforcements that flood down the stairs something to chew on. Meanwhile, Cavan used a PFM scroll and just hammered Davaeorn with poison arrows until he died, ignoring the battle horrors. It worked beautifully... I think I have this battle's number now.
We picked up Alora to help deal with some traps in the Firewine ruins. Now the trio is in the middle of rousting some dopplegangers out of Baldur's Gate.
This is record progress for me in a no-reload. Now I have to be careful and keep up the momentum!
I return, after several months. Second attempt here, entering with my Chaotic Good Pure-Thief Cedvar. Gotten up to the Gnoll Stronghold so far. Khalid and Jahiera were sent to the Friendly Arm Inn to wait while I deal with Edwin, Dynahier, and Minsc. Cedvar hasn't quite made up his mind as to whom would make for better travelling companions. Imoen is along with them, staying alongside Cedvar.
Got SCS, multiple expansion mods, unfinished business, npc project, and more. Didn't munchkin the rolls , and keeping a journal in-game to help add roleplay depth to the play. Might throw more effort into the thread itself if I stay alive past Chapter 3. We'll see.
We had to fight our way past some drows and mushrooms but Hexxat is immune to clouds.
The village head man asked us to help them out of a jam and we survived the soul trap quest... He kept attacking after we healed him so no anti-poison sword this time.
The fish caves has some undead guarding a room... The loot includes a belt of strength for katarina but Hexxat bugged after dying here so we returned to the inn and used raise dead spells to fix the glitch.
Bug; The soul trap heal sub quest failed, Hexxat refused to raise back up and the 'Oliluke's Resilient Sphere' is still not working which is the one code thing I repaired before playing on.
Leaving the monks for another day I decided to have a go with this party of archers. I rolled them up quite a while ago, but can't remember how many attempts I had with them (though there was at least one, which I think failed to get to BG2). They're using the same BGT + SCS + Ascension setup as the monks.
This party only has the standard restrictions on healing and antidote potions. Their higher HPs and critical protection and far higher damage with missile weapons allows much quicker and easier progress than with the monks. The boys have done a decent amount of work this morning and just subdued the Bandit Camp - getting up to level 6 in the process.
One item of interest was that I had expected that battle horrors would be subject to the THAC0 adjustment from called shots. Although they are immune to missile damage they are still hit by missiles and I confirmed that the effect does indeed occur - meaning that a few hits could require battle horrors to need a critical to hit Robin wearing ankheg armour. That allowed the boys to make rare use of melee weapons to beat up the battle horrors (none of them had any melee weapon proficiency, but their overall APR advantage still allowed them victories even though they also needed criticals).
Stats: Robin (longbow) - L6, 69 HPs, 162 kills William (crossbow) - L6, 64 HPs, 72 kills, 0 deaths Legolas (longbow) - L6, 54 HPs, 107 kills, 0 deaths Cupid (shortbow) - L6, 57 HPs, 124 kills, 0 deaths Artemis (shortbow) - L6, 59 HPs, 99 kills, 0 deaths David (sling) - L6, 56 HPs, 49 kills, 0 deaths Legolas is an elf, but took the constitution tome, so average HPs for everyone would be 61.5. Overall they're thus a bit below average, but that's not the concern it would be for the monks.
Amestris, human Priest of Lathander: Cloakwood Nashkel Mines
Once in the mines, Amestris used Sanctuary (2x) to sneak past the pesky kobolds and to reach Mulahey's cave unnoticed. Prior to revealing herself to the enemy, she took a Potion of Freedom and buffed with Chant, DUHM, Strength of One and Boon. The priest has fallen in a just few rounds to her Ashideena and Holy Smite, while afterwards his minions received pretty much the same treatment.
Amestris then looted the tombs on the surface (avoiding any confrontation with the Revenant due to his stun ability) and continued to Ulgoth's Beard to do some extensive shopping (Greenstone Amulet, Martial Staff +3, Cloak of Displacement and Wand of Heavens). She also took some time to clear the ankegh lair, putting her Wand of Sleep charges to a good use.
En route back south, Amestris had to defend against Lamalha and her amazons. By opening with Sanctuary (it's no secret what's her favorite spell) she managed to counter their initial spells while gaining some breathing space for buffs.
Once these were in place (including Greenstone Amulet charge), she came up with a successful Command followed by a combined range/melee offence and topped that with Holy Smite. The girls did not have the chance to do any real harm.
After that, she was already due to report her success in Nashkel which, of course, also meant a confrontation with Nimbul. And this one had a peculiar outcome. Although Amestris did silence him, she completely forgot about his spell sequencer through which he was able to release two Chormatic Orbs. The combat log then reported "Stun" which would indicate a failed saving throw, however, Amestris was not affected in any way and managed to win the fight.
I assume that Nimbul is lvl 9 caster which would translate to paralyzation for 2 turns (and effectively ending Amestris' run). I have no idea why this happened, because Amestris was not running Greenstone Amulet (which reportedly does not prevent some effect icons) at the time. Therefore, I am strongly inclined to abandon the run due to failure.
@Borco I think that you meant Nashkel Mines not Cloakwood Mines. I am also wondering why you used potion of Mirrored Eyes against Nimbul. Do you know something that I don't?
@Borco I think that you meant Nashkel Mines not Cloakwood Mines. I am also wondering why you used potion of Mirrored Eyes against Nimbul. Do you know something that I don't?
Of course Wise, thanks for pointing that out (post edited).
As for the Potion of Mirrored Eyes, I initially thought (before consulting the Internet) that Nimbul has a casting level high enough to inflict petrification with his orbs. This was supposed to be a desperate attempt to block at least that...
@Borco for what it's worth I would continue in that situation. I've often noted apparent discrepancies between the stated result and actual effects, e.g. text reporting that creatures have saved, but in fact they are clearly blinded or the sort of rogue status notification you've seen. Given the frequency that seems to happen to me I suspect it's unlikely that I would be able to complete a trilogy run without that type of event, so see little option but just to accept actual results.
Seluna and her party had no problems at Candlekeep even against Prat and co who have caused problems in the past. Web, Fireball Holy Smite and finally Cloudkill were sufficient. The only injuries there were due to friendly fire. A bit careless, letting Neera get too close to the action. The party wasn't even buffed.
Upon returning to Baldur's Gate did some shopping including a miss-click on a rather expensive item which only a bard can use. Had to sell it back at a loss of nearly 1000 gold pieces.
The party is now short of gold so they are heading to Beregost to take on the Section. All but Neera have now passed 161000 experience, but will not level up to prevent being overpowered.
@Grond0: Glad to see some Archers in this thread! I ran a party of Archers partway through BG2 and found it quite fun. They were very much glass cannons, as they could kill stuff very quickly from afar, but had few means of blocking instant death effects and disablers (no Death Ward, Chaotic Commands, Spell Immunity, or shorty saving throws).
You may want to go nab the Cloak of Stars early in BG2, as those +5 Darts will be one of the few ways to get past both Stoneskin and the ever-common SCS Improved Mantle in a single round.
Cavan's run continues apace. The team is now pretty tough -- armed with lots of goodies that item randomiser had stashed away in the big city, plus a full stock of potions, protection scrolls and a solid variety of good ammunition, and with both Cavan and Branwen at the XP cap. Nothing in Baldur's Gate or in the Catacombs ever really threatened us.
Onward to save the Dukes... I picked up Quayle for this part. His job will be to disable as many SCS dopplegangers as possible with wands of fear and paralyzation, while Cavan dispels haste, Branwen positions skelly warriors around the dukes, and Alora shoots from the sidelines.
However it turns out, this is a run for the record books (for me anyway).... Watch out, Sarevok. I'm coming.
Run type: BG 2/ToB no-reload only, Core Rules, Gore on (characters can be chunked) Install: vanilla BG 2 and ToB with official patches, no mods
For my birthday I got a new computer. This week-end I finally got to the task of installing Baldur's Gate onto my computer. I installed all the original BioWare titles from 1990's but not EE. All these years I've had yet to do a run where all romance characters for a male (Viconia, Aerie, Jaheira) are all in the same party for the entire run. I also almost never play a F/M/T as I find the very slow leveling (later on) not very fun. But decided will give it a go with him. Also in mood to play BG 2, in part to the above. Note that Corey the dwarven fighter is still alive, but putting run on hold for the moment.
Therefore entering Hax the Half-Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief:
To help a little bit with the leveling of a multi-class of 3 classes and also to leave a spot for Imoen, going to be 5 party members at first. This also easily allows adding NPCs for temporary quests (like Valygar). From a RP perspective, I almost never like killing Valygar, but he gets killed a lot in my runs no room in the party. But with 5 party members won't have to. I might also decide to do the personal quests of all 16 possible NPCs, to get a little bit extra experience.
Usually, Irenicu's dungeon is unremarkable, but not this time. Due to Grond0's influence Jaheira died - Jaheira was injured badly (about 1/3 life) when fighting a lesser clay golem and rather than use an extra healing potion I tried to "save" it and had her run away - but the golem was too fast and killed her.
I thought I had a great screenshot, but noticed I had no screenshots - didn't know I have to do FN + Print screen not Print Screen on this new computer, so didn't have any.
Party was having both Thac0 and armor issues, so for harder fights, Imoen used lots of Animal Summoning I to make it safer. Hax's only backstab was of the Cambion for 28 dmg.
Because the party was killing enemies slowly, unless Imoen or Hax threw the odd magic missiles, Hax eventually resorted to dual-wielding axes even though he doesn't have stoneskin to protect himself with, yet to speed things up - that worked pretty well. He has -3 AC when buffed with spirit armor, so he's better than Minsc at the moment.
Eventually Hax, Minsc, Imoen and Yoshimo made it out of the dungeon - though of course Imoen was arrested and we needed to resurrect Jaheira for 800 gold. Our gold isn't great, in part because we had to be choosy on what to loot with Jaheira dead.
Will recruit Aerie and Viconia as soon as we can. Hax doesn't need Yoshimo, since Hax is a much better thief than Yoshimo (well for traps/locks anyways). So will let go of Yoshimo soon. Whenever we get the gauntlets of dexterity might swap out Minsc for Korgan. Will keep at it.
@Corey_Russell Looks like it could be interesting. Your problems with carrying loot is the main reason why I installed a mod that gives Imoen a bag of holding. I tend to do the majority of the dungeon with just Imoen in the party. This also helps with levelling up. Imoen usually goes up a level in the dungeon.
Having just four party members instead of five also helps with levelling up.
I tend to concentrate on having good remove traps at the start for a F/M/T as hiding is not such an issue. You can use invisibility spell, and knock to open chests.
It's been a couple weeks since my last update on Dante's progress. Unfortunately, NPCs in Cloakwood started spouting item descriptions instead of their dialogue so it looks like I have some incompatibility in the mods I have installed.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a minimum install that works?
I thought I had a pretty minimal install going this time with:
BGTutu G3 NPC Pack Hard Times Unfinished Business SCS
I'm thinking next attempt will just be:
BG Tutu G3 NPC pack SCS
Has anyone installed Unfinished Business or Hard Time with those 3? Also, what order did you do the installs?
@Corey_Russell Looks like it could be interesting. Your problems with carrying loot is the main reason why I installed a mod that gives Imoen a bag of holding. I tend to do the majority of the dungeon with just Imoen in the party. This also helps with levelling up. Imoen usually goes up a level in the dungeon.
Having just four party members instead of five also helps with levelling up.
I tend to concentrate on having good remove traps at the start for a F/M/T as hiding is not such an issue. You can use invisibility spell, and knock to open chests.
@Wise_Grimwald I don't mind the problem of not being to loot properly - maybe the inconvenience will make me more careful next time and not do a false economy.
As for the F/M/T thief skills, I only immediately concentrate on stealth if solo/duo. Otherwise, all my thieves get locks/traps then snares. Lots of experience in my install for locks/traps for example - also being able to safely loot nearly all chests is also helpful for my money.
Finally, when in the dungeon, if not MP run (e.g. with Grond0/Gate70), then I am either solo or party. If party then I get all the NPCs (helps with looting).
Once more unto the breach dear friends with this latest random class pairing. With both arcane and divine spells available they've pretty much got everything covered, but that of course assumes we get around to making full use of their capabilities ...
As usual this duo got an early XP boost from Shoal and more levels from the basilisks - allowing Ozzy to learn Mutamin's stinking cloud scroll for use on Kirian's crew. The potion of clarity from Candlekeep allowed Toriac to tank the sirines while taking minimal damage. He was also keen to get up close and personal with the golems in the pirate cave and took a bit more damage there.
Some reputation quests ended with pushing that up to 20 by returning Farmer Brun's son after Toriac emerged unscathed from the ankheg nest.
Meilum's bracers gave Toriac's attacks even more bite on the way to the Nashkel Mine. Mulahey tried a rigid thinking initially on Toriac, but he saved - rendering Mulahey's final action with an attempted hold person totally useless.
The first difficult battle of the session was with the amazons outside the mine. This time Ozzy did get confused and as he wandered off Ozzy also ran to ensure he was well out of sight when a following hold person arrived. The intention was that if any of the amazons followed they would be distracted by Toriac, but no-one did follow anyway.
A stinking cloud aimed to calm things down, but resulted in Toriac taking a nap despite apparently being outside the area of effect.
Ozzy was once more held, but Toriac wasn't out of action long and soon finished things off.
Moving up to the Bandit Camp Toriac cut down some basic bandits before Taugosz realised he should have brought a white cane along. Ozzy used invisibility for the first time to allow the duo to sneak into the tent and they quickly overcame the enemies there.
The Adventures of Kythran: Part 8 - Talking Chickens?! Oh my!
Kythran found a crazy cleric out in the woods, and he seemed to be demolished easily, though, his undead army didn't really attack either. Dynaheir used her magic missile, and Imoen used her wand of Magic Missile.
Then, Kythran found a talking chicken! . . . At first Kythran thought it was because he was a ranger, but no, everyone else could hear him talk too. So, the group took Melicamp to The High Hedge and his Master Thalantyr. After retrieving a skull from a skeleton, Thalantyr cast a spell, and Melicamp turned back into a man!
Lastly, Kythran went back to the previous wilderness area, took on a Hobgoblin by the name of Zargal. Dynaheir cast her magic missile. Minsc quaffed some Elixirs of Healing to cure his poisoning, and at the end of it all Imoen got a new sword!
Note: Last update until the weekend, and maybe more updates on the Weekdays now too, as my work schedule is changing.
After skipping through the Cloakwood the boys used stealth to get into position, then got out their best ammunition to deal with Drasus & co before the mages could cast anything. In the mine they did the same to Davaeorn - restricting his damage to use of MMMs and killing him before too many guards arrived in support.
Killing an innocent took reputation from 20 to 10 before a spot of theft reduced it by 1 (need to be careful not to take it down too much or the boys would lose their ranger status) before resting to get horror. Moving on to the City some donations and a few more quests restored reputation before the boys suffered their first fatality. Above Sorcerous Sundries I had misremembered which mage did the talking with the result that most of the boys were fireballed. While all 5 affected survived that, Legolas had been scouting ahead and both the two surviving mages released minor sequencer magic missiles on him, which was just too much for him to bear.
After a temple visit the boys carried on working through the City encounters. They successfully prevented Lothander getting away and acquired his boots of speed.
A number of mages failed to deal with their weight of shot, but they got to level 7 by taking the peaceful route against Ragefast.
They finished their work in the City by attacking the Iron Throne, where exploding arrows were used for the first time. I had a surprise there after forgetting the invisible Shannaras added by SCS
and Robin was also backstabbed while running up and down the stairs before William set himself up as a target to help draw out the last enemy.
After resting for a while to heal up they sold junk and reported to Duke Eltan for duty in Candlekeep. They didn't use any protections on arrival and Robin was stunned by a chromatic orb,
though by that time several ogre magi had been dispelled in return. The stun on its own would probably have been not too bad, but a follow up horror from one of the ogre magi showed up the poor archer saving throws as all but one of them were scared.
SCS was originally designed to not prioritise attacking disabled creatures (with the odd exception like spiders attacking webbed creatures), but in later versions enemies are likely to go for the kill and all but one of the ogre magi headed to finish Robin off. In a last throw of the dice William looked in his backpack and made a first use of a scroll of protection from magic - successfully giving Robin the chance to run before he died.
William followed up with a potion of magic blocking for himself and the 2 of them shot down the ogre magi very quickly after that.
After resting in the inn to heal up the boys went into the library where they had to speak sternly to the Iron Throne leaders about the need to be quiet.
They turned themselves in and then looted the catacombs - again using no protection, but Robin took a fire giant strength potion (with DUHM) to get the strength tome.
None of the dopplegangers lasted more than moments and Prat's gang didn't do much better.
Back in the City the boys were feeling the call of Amn and quickly went to track down Slythe - shooting him down and leaving immediately.
Krystin though followed them through the inn and outside, so they thought it would be rude not to give her a taste of the same medicine.
At the palace Belt and Liia are far less fragile in BGT than BGEE, so a party of archers was never likely to have a problem in shooting down the dopplegangers - and didn't. The mage disappeared for a while, but when he showed himself again he was taken down before he had a chance to cast anything.
A short, sharp exchange of exploding arrows went in the boys' favour in the Undercity.
In the temple they buffed with magic protection before warming things up for Sarevok.
It's a long time since I did this combat with a party and I was surprised that Angelo and Semaj were buffing with protection from magic weapons. That meant they couldn't be killed quickly and resulted in David taking Sarevok for a walk to get him out of the action.
Moments later Diarmid was shot down, though he'd poisoned Robin as a parting gift, forcing the use of a green scroll to cure him.
Tazok was next before David managed to take another potion of magic blocking just in time to prevent a magic missile minor sequencer claiming another victim.
With the skeleton warriors out of the way, Angelo wasted a minor sequencer invisibility by trying a useless lightning bolt and he paid the penalty. Semaj's death soon followed leaving Sarevok exposed. For a bit of fun everyone used called shot on him to see if they could reduce him down to needing a critical to hit. However, just as they broke off the attack to see what the result was Sarevok decided he'd had enough.
Comments
Meanwhile Selûna and party finished Ice Island with ease. They were however rather careless and Neera got killed by the Ankhegs. It was an extended version, but nowhere near as challenging as the SCS version. Neera has been raised again.
I'd like to enter Amestris (human Priest of Lathander) into the challenge. I'm running BG:EE with SCS installed.
Why a cleric? Because I enjoy playing divine casters and because there's much versatility to be found in their abilities. I find them to be the true jack-of-all-trades of the saga (instead of bards), with melee, ranged, buffs, de-buffs, stealth (I'm looking at you Sanctuary) and damaging spells all available in one package. And although dual/multi-classing offers some very interesting combinations, I tend to prefer single class characters for my playthroughs.
Amestris starts with one pip in warhammers and one in slings, hoping to invest the future points into staves and two-handed weapons style. There are no specific self-imposed limitations in this run, however, I'll try not to take advantage of recharging magical items in shops (i.e. only revert to it as a last resort solution). Also as a matter of style, Amestris shall not be using the Animate Dead spell (as this would seem rather inappropriate for a follower of Lathander).
After having completed several chores around the Sword Coast, Amestris has now reached level 6 and gathered enough supplies to take on the Nashkel mines. I'll post some highlights from the early adventures soon.
Regards,
B.
Note: That slightly sub-optimal allocation of stats is due to RP reasons.
As an interesting observation, although maybe common knowledge, I just cast silence on Mulahey first thing at the bottom of the mines, which prevented him from calling for his SCS reinforcements. Made the fight much easier than any other time I've tried it...
Method 1
Web him from a position from which you cannot be seen. Follow up with wand of frost or area spells. The area spells (fireball etc) are safest.
Method 2
He can be charmed with the Cloak of Algernon or a spell and then he will be killed by the summons.v (This is the method I would use for a minimum experience game or one where party members are not allowed to kill.)
I hadn't thought of your suggestion though. That is ideal for a solo cleric.
I knew I potentially needed a bit of luck when trying to clear the area north of the Carnival, where there's a possibility of encountering a random ogre mage. At level 5 an ogre mage would not normally be a problem, but this one starts invisible and then spends a bit of time buffing before attacking. The result of that delay is that someone engaged in battle with other enemies can be stunned by a chromatic orb when uncomfortably close to the ogre mage - and that happened to Wraith. To prevent the ogre mage from finishing her off immediately most of the others piled in trying to stun it in return. They got a dozen attacks in, but none scored a hit and meanwhile the ogre mage had used spells and attacks to damage several of them. Spirit was down to 23 HPs which made her vulnerable, but I decided to risk leaving her there until the monks' second lot of stunning blows had run out before everyone would attempt to run and lead it away from Wraith. Unfortunately a critical from the ogre mage put paid to that ...
Edit: when shutting my computer down for the night a couple of hours after posting the above I realised the game was still paused at the point Spirit died. I unpaused it and within half a second the next attack on the ogre mage had stunned him - so close ...
I've promised a brief coverage of Amestris' exploits prior to Nashkel mines so here it is. After a quick start involving FAI, High Hedge, Shoal and Beregost, she decided to take upon Bassilus at lvl 5.
Strategy:
Knowing that Invisibility spell works wonders against Hold Person, I've tried to replicate the same strategy with Sanctuary (and thus try to save a Potion of Freedom for later encounters). Casting speed of 4 (as compared to that 5 of Hold Person) means that Amestris might be able counter the spell entirely, while on the other hand the 1 turn duration should provide sufficient protection in the case of a failed saving throw. Avoiding the hold effects should then create a window of opportunity for her own spells (Hold/Silence/Midcast Magic). If this fails than buff up (Chant, DUHM, Strength of One, Boon) and sling the enemy from distance.
Outcome:
Bassilus starts big, almost getting an insta-kill with his Unholy Blight (and interrupting Amestris' Midcast Magic). Ouch, time to fall back.
Shaken by the first round, my reflexes are too slow to be able to avoid the Hold Person projectile. At least Amestris is safely sanctuaried for the turn. Personal note: do not forget that the aura does not clear while held.
Bassilus' second attempt at holding Amestris is successfully countered and we are waiting for his next move. No enchantment animation on his next spell means it's her turn to go into offense -> Hold Person -> success -> win.
We proceed to collect the reward at the temple, purchase some magical consumables at High Hedge and make a detour en route to Nashkel via Firewine Bridge to obtain certain powerful bracers. Once in Nashkel, another cleric fight ensues. Repeating her earlier strategy, Amestris is able to outwit Neira without having to use any valuable supplies.
Note: The mines have been cleared and are to be covered soon.
Regards,
B.
Pole, human totemic druid (Grond0) & Dorral, elven archer (Gate70)
In a bad day at the office this run also came to an end. While my monks challenge is difficult, this was a pretty easy run let down by carelessness.
The session started off in Umar Hills working through the undead hordes. The initial attack on Thaxy faltered when he proved to be immune to +2 arrows, but Dorral managed to get just enough melee attacks in thanks to his mirrors, some summons and a bit of ironskins tanking from Pole.
The Shade Lord looked a bit dodgy when the insect plague cast on the altar failed to spread to him and he survived a sun ray from Daystar. Fortunately Dorral's follow up in melee finished him off almost immediately after his buffs fired along with a symbol stun that caught Pole (Dorral had chaotic commands to protect him).
Back in Athkatla Valygar's dead body was stuffed through the letter box in the Planar Sphere before a trip to the Bridge District saw Dracandros and his crew suffering mosquito bites.
We were in that area hunting for an ankheg shell in the next building and soon had that converted into armour, along with the shadow dragon scale. The former is counted as non-magical and allowed Pole to improve his armour while continuing to wear a ring of protection. The latter doesn't allow a ring, but gave a nice AC boost to Dorral while still allowing him to stealth.
The better AC allowed Pole to tank the trolls at Trademeet without difficulty. The druids didn't put up much of a fight either and Pole soon shut down Faldorn with an insect plague.
He did the same to the Challenge Master as well to get himself appointed as Grand Druid and lots of resting and a few more insect spells later had finished work at the Grove and provided Dorral with a lion figurine for another summoning option.
That completed our intended session for the day, but we were also due to play in a trio later. Some computer problems for Corey though meant that wasn't possible so we decided to do a bit more of this run. Regrettably that probably exacerbated our normal tendency to make things more difficult and when we arrived at Windspear Hills dungeon we attacked the golems without having rested recently. Both of us had already had to use invisibility potions when being chased, but with only a nearly dead clay golem left and both of us invisible the battle was all but won. At that point though I decided that one more hit would kill it and attacked without waiting for HPs to regenerate much. One hit (at least from a weakling druid) didn't kill it and the golem retaliated immediately taking Pole's HPs into the danger area. He tried to run while Dorral attacked, but the speedy golem was too quick and crushed Pole to the floor just before Dorral's attempted rescue turned into a spot of revenge.
The Unseeing Eye:
Back in the sewers once again, the party entered the old tunnels. A couple of fights later, and Goibniu talked to Gaal, soon entering the lower levels. Shadows and spiders are not a huge threat for my party right now, though while fighting a yuan-ti group, Anapa got confused and decided to attack one of Luna's aerial servants - he was hit once, but killed the summon before it could attack again (otherwise, this propably would've meant his death):
After solving a riddle, Donar dealt with the beholder/gauth group via the Shield of Balduran. After healing the emphatic manifestation, it was time to enter ghoul city, where Anapa used a protection from undead scroll and Daystar:
To defeat the blind priests, invisible stalkers and aerial servants were summoned, and the party used their buffs, charged and disrupted any spellcasting they could with ranged weapons and spells:
Once again, Donar used his shield to defeat any remaining beholders, and it was time for the Unseeing Eye itself - a simple matter of using the rod and attacking, with only a well protected Goibniu and the summons in range:
[spoiler]
Now, only Gaal himself and his guards remained. Due to the number of physical damage dealers with haste among the opponents, I had Owain, buffed with stoneskin and MI, tank this one:
Next stop: The Planar Sphere.
Good luck to everyone,
Enuhal
Whilst exploring a wilderness area, Kythran found an Xvart village, cleared it out, and amazingly when Nexlit, the leader of the village, summoned Ursa. Ursa went and attacked him instead!
In a different wilderness area, Kythran found a hobgoblin that told him all about a mercenary band called the Chill. Kythran also let this Hobgoblin live.
Then, in the same Wilderness Area, Kythran found some bandits, and easily destroyed them. Apparently their mage's morale broke, and so did one of the enemy's plate armor. So arrows, and magic missiles were used. The mage ran so far, but was found, and killed. Now, Dynaheir has a Mage Robe of Fire Resistance!
Lastly, the group found a drow fighting some gnolls and helped him out! It turns out it was Drizzt Do'Urden! Of course, no dastardly deeds were done to the drow in question. Even though Drizzt took out most of the gnolls by himself.
Cavan, male human lawful-good inquisitor. (Randomly chosen character type.)
Mods: SCS, item randomiser, BG1 NPC, some options from aTweaks, and I'm realizing I've made it easier by installing a mod that allows Thalantyr to modify items, some of which are overpowered. (I'll be uninstalling that one after this run, but for now I'm going to charge ahead.)
Cavan's had quite a run so far. Mulahey went down without a struggle. The bandit camp wasn't too bad after Branwen dominated Taugosz and got him to smash down his allies. The assassins did poorly against Cavan's innate ability to dispel illusions.
Branwen's skelly warriors were indispensable at the bottom of the Cloakwood mines -- we summoned three, buffed everyone up, Branwen went invisible, and then we parked the skellies in the entry way to give the reinforcements that flood down the stairs something to chew on. Meanwhile, Cavan used a PFM scroll and just hammered Davaeorn with poison arrows until he died, ignoring the battle horrors. It worked beautifully... I think I have this battle's number now.
We picked up Alora to help deal with some traps in the Firewine ruins. Now the trio is in the middle of rousting some dopplegangers out of Baldur's Gate.
This is record progress for me in a no-reload. Now I have to be careful and keep up the momentum!
Got SCS, multiple expansion mods, unfinished business, npc project, and more. Didn't munchkin the rolls , and keeping a journal in-game to help add roleplay depth to the play. Might throw more effort into the thread itself if I stay alive past Chapter 3. We'll see.
carefully;
Hear text as mp3,
We had to fight our way past some drows and mushrooms but Hexxat is immune to clouds.
The village head man asked us to help them out of a jam and we survived the soul trap quest... He kept attacking after we healed him so no anti-poison sword this time.
The fish caves has some undead guarding a room... The loot includes a belt of strength for katarina but Hexxat bugged after dying here so we returned to the inn and used raise dead spells to fix the glitch.
Bug;
The soul trap heal sub quest failed, Hexxat refused to raise back up and the 'Oliluke's Resilient Sphere' is still not working which is the one code thing I repaired before playing on.
Leaving the monks for another day I decided to have a go with this party of archers. I rolled them up quite a while ago, but can't remember how many attempts I had with them (though there was at least one, which I think failed to get to BG2). They're using the same BGT + SCS + Ascension setup as the monks.
This party only has the standard restrictions on healing and antidote potions. Their higher HPs and critical protection and far higher damage with missile weapons allows much quicker and easier progress than with the monks. The boys have done a decent amount of work this morning and just subdued the Bandit Camp - getting up to level 6 in the process.
One item of interest was that I had expected that battle horrors would be subject to the THAC0 adjustment from called shots. Although they are immune to missile damage they are still hit by missiles and I confirmed that the effect does indeed occur - meaning that a few hits could require battle horrors to need a critical to hit Robin wearing ankheg armour. That allowed the boys to make rare use of melee weapons to beat up the battle horrors (none of them had any melee weapon proficiency, but their overall APR advantage still allowed them victories even though they also needed criticals).
Stats:
Robin (longbow) - L6, 69 HPs, 162 kills
William (crossbow) - L6, 64 HPs, 72 kills, 0 deaths
Legolas (longbow) - L6, 54 HPs, 107 kills, 0 deaths
Cupid (shortbow) - L6, 57 HPs, 124 kills, 0 deaths
Artemis (shortbow) - L6, 59 HPs, 99 kills, 0 deaths
David (sling) - L6, 56 HPs, 49 kills, 0 deaths
Legolas is an elf, but took the constitution tome, so average HPs for everyone would be 61.5. Overall they're thus a bit below average, but that's not the concern it would be for the monks.
"Unlike some Robin Hood's, I have an English accent."
CloakwoodNashkel MinesOnce in the mines, Amestris used Sanctuary (2x) to sneak past the pesky kobolds and to reach Mulahey's cave unnoticed. Prior to revealing herself to the enemy, she took a Potion of Freedom and buffed with Chant, DUHM, Strength of One and Boon. The priest has fallen in a just few rounds to her Ashideena and Holy Smite, while afterwards his minions received pretty much the same treatment.
Amestris then looted the tombs on the surface (avoiding any confrontation with the Revenant due to his stun ability) and continued to Ulgoth's Beard to do some extensive shopping (Greenstone Amulet, Martial Staff +3, Cloak of Displacement and Wand of Heavens). She also took some time to clear the ankegh lair, putting her Wand of Sleep charges to a good use.
En route back south, Amestris had to defend against Lamalha and her amazons. By opening with Sanctuary (it's no secret what's her favorite spell) she managed to counter their initial spells while gaining some breathing space for buffs.
Once these were in place (including Greenstone Amulet charge), she came up with a successful Command followed by a combined range/melee offence and topped that with Holy Smite. The girls did not have the chance to do any real harm.
After that, she was already due to report her success in Nashkel which, of course, also meant a confrontation with Nimbul. And this one had a peculiar outcome. Although Amestris did silence him, she completely forgot about his spell sequencer through which he was able to release two Chormatic Orbs. The combat log then reported "Stun" which would indicate a failed saving throw, however, Amestris was not affected in any way and managed to win the fight.
I assume that Nimbul is lvl 9 caster which would translate to paralyzation for 2 turns (and effectively ending Amestris' run). I have no idea why this happened, because Amestris was not running Greenstone Amulet (which reportedly does not prevent some effect icons) at the time. Therefore, I am strongly inclined to abandon the run due to failure.
Regards,
B.
I am also wondering why you used potion of Mirrored Eyes against Nimbul. Do you know something that I don't?
As for the Potion of Mirrored Eyes, I initially thought (before consulting the Internet) that Nimbul has a casting level high enough to inflict petrification with his orbs. This was supposed to be a desperate attempt to block at least that...
Regards,
B.
Upon returning to Baldur's Gate did some shopping including a miss-click on a rather expensive item which only a bard can use. Had to sell it back at a loss of nearly 1000 gold pieces.
The party is now short of gold so they are heading to Beregost to take on the Section. All but Neera have now passed 161000 experience, but will not level up to prevent being overpowered.
You may want to go nab the Cloak of Stars early in BG2, as those +5 Darts will be one of the few ways to get past both Stoneskin and the ever-common SCS Improved Mantle in a single round.
Onward to save the Dukes... I picked up Quayle for this part. His job will be to disable as many SCS dopplegangers as possible with wands of fear and paralyzation, while Cavan dispels haste, Branwen positions skelly warriors around the dukes, and Alora shoots from the sidelines.
However it turns out, this is a run for the record books (for me anyway).... Watch out, Sarevok. I'm coming.
Run type: BG 2/ToB no-reload only, Core Rules, Gore on (characters can be chunked)
Install: vanilla BG 2 and ToB with official patches, no mods
For my birthday I got a new computer. This week-end I finally got to the task of installing Baldur's Gate onto my computer. I installed all the original BioWare titles from 1990's but not EE. All these years I've had yet to do a run where all romance characters for a male (Viconia, Aerie, Jaheira) are all in the same party for the entire run. I also almost never play a F/M/T as I find the very slow leveling (later on) not very fun. But decided will give it a go with him. Also in mood to play BG 2, in part to the above. Note that Corey the dwarven fighter is still alive, but putting run on hold for the moment.
Therefore entering Hax the Half-Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief:
To help a little bit with the leveling of a multi-class of 3 classes and also to leave a spot for Imoen, going to be 5 party members at first. This also easily allows adding NPCs for temporary quests (like Valygar). From a RP perspective, I almost never like killing Valygar, but he gets killed a lot in my runs no room in the party. But with 5 party members won't have to. I might also decide to do the personal quests of all 16 possible NPCs, to get a little bit extra experience.
Usually, Irenicu's dungeon is unremarkable, but not this time. Due to Grond0's influence Jaheira died - Jaheira was injured badly (about 1/3 life) when fighting a lesser clay golem and rather than use an extra healing potion I tried to "save" it and had her run away - but the golem was too fast and killed her.
I thought I had a great screenshot, but noticed I had no screenshots - didn't know I have to do FN + Print screen not Print Screen on this new computer, so didn't have any.
Party was having both Thac0 and armor issues, so for harder fights, Imoen used lots of Animal Summoning I to make it safer. Hax's only backstab was of the Cambion for 28 dmg.
Because the party was killing enemies slowly, unless Imoen or Hax threw the odd magic missiles, Hax eventually resorted to dual-wielding axes even though he doesn't have stoneskin to protect himself with, yet to speed things up - that worked pretty well. He has -3 AC when buffed with spirit armor, so he's better than Minsc at the moment.
Eventually Hax, Minsc, Imoen and Yoshimo made it out of the dungeon - though of course Imoen was arrested and we needed to resurrect Jaheira for 800 gold. Our gold isn't great, in part because we had to be choosy on what to loot with Jaheira dead.
Will recruit Aerie and Viconia as soon as we can. Hax doesn't need Yoshimo, since Hax is a much better thief than Yoshimo (well for traps/locks anyways). So will let go of Yoshimo soon. Whenever we get the gauntlets of dexterity might swap out Minsc for Korgan. Will keep at it.
Having just four party members instead of five also helps with levelling up.
I tend to concentrate on having good remove traps at the start for a F/M/T as hiding is not such an issue. You can use invisibility spell, and knock to open chests.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a minimum install that works?
I thought I had a pretty minimal install going this time with:
BGTutu
G3 NPC Pack
Hard Times
Unfinished Business
SCS
I'm thinking next attempt will just be:
BG Tutu
G3 NPC pack
SCS
Has anyone installed Unfinished Business or Hard Time with those 3? Also, what order did you do the installs?
As for the F/M/T thief skills, I only immediately concentrate on stealth if solo/duo. Otherwise, all my thieves get locks/traps then snares. Lots of experience in my install for locks/traps for example - also being able to safely loot nearly all chests is also helpful for my money.
Finally, when in the dungeon, if not MP run (e.g. with Grond0/Gate70), then I am either solo or party. If party then I get all the NPCs (helps with looting).
I do SK a bag of holding if solo.
Ozzy, elf fighter/mage (Grond0) & Toriac, human undead hunter (Gate70)
Once more unto the breach dear friends with this latest random class pairing. With both arcane and divine spells available they've pretty much got everything covered, but that of course assumes we get around to making full use of their capabilities ...
As usual this duo got an early XP boost from Shoal and more levels from the basilisks - allowing Ozzy to learn Mutamin's stinking cloud scroll for use on Kirian's crew. The potion of clarity from Candlekeep allowed Toriac to tank the sirines while taking minimal damage. He was also keen to get up close and personal with the golems in the pirate cave and took a bit more damage there.
Some reputation quests ended with pushing that up to 20 by returning Farmer Brun's son after Toriac emerged unscathed from the ankheg nest.
Meilum's bracers gave Toriac's attacks even more bite on the way to the Nashkel Mine. Mulahey tried a rigid thinking initially on Toriac, but he saved - rendering Mulahey's final action with an attempted hold person totally useless.
The first difficult battle of the session was with the amazons outside the mine. This time Ozzy did get confused and as he wandered off Ozzy also ran to ensure he was well out of sight when a following hold person arrived. The intention was that if any of the amazons followed they would be distracted by Toriac, but no-one did follow anyway.
Moving up to the Bandit Camp Toriac cut down some basic bandits before Taugosz realised he should have brought a white cane along. Ozzy used invisibility for the first time to allow the duo to sneak into the tent and they quickly overcame the enemies there.
Ozzy, fighter 5 / mage 5, 48 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 152 kills
Toriac, undead hunter 6, 76 HPs, 102 kills, 0 deaths
Kythran found a crazy cleric out in the woods, and he seemed to be demolished easily, though, his undead army didn't really attack either. Dynaheir used her magic missile, and Imoen used her wand of Magic Missile.
Then, Kythran found a talking chicken! . . . At first Kythran thought it was because he was a ranger, but no, everyone else could hear him talk too. So, the group took Melicamp to The High Hedge and his Master Thalantyr. After retrieving a skull from a skeleton, Thalantyr cast a spell, and Melicamp turned back into a man!
Lastly, Kythran went back to the previous wilderness area, took on a Hobgoblin by the name of Zargal. Dynaheir cast her magic missile. Minsc quaffed some Elixirs of Healing to cure his poisoning, and at the end of it all Imoen got a new sword!
Note: Last update until the weekend, and maybe more updates on the Weekdays now too, as my work schedule is changing.
After skipping through the Cloakwood the boys used stealth to get into position, then got out their best ammunition to deal with Drasus & co before the mages could cast anything. In the mine they did the same to Davaeorn - restricting his damage to use of MMMs and killing him before too many guards arrived in support.
Killing an innocent took reputation from 20 to 10 before a spot of theft reduced it by 1 (need to be careful not to take it down too much or the boys would lose their ranger status) before resting to get horror. Moving on to the City some donations and a few more quests restored reputation before the boys suffered their first fatality. Above Sorcerous Sundries I had misremembered which mage did the talking with the result that most of the boys were fireballed. While all 5 affected survived that, Legolas had been scouting ahead and both the two surviving mages released minor sequencer magic missiles on him, which was just too much for him to bear.
After a temple visit the boys carried on working through the City encounters. They successfully prevented Lothander getting away and acquired his boots of speed.
They finished their work in the City by attacking the Iron Throne, where exploding arrows were used for the first time. I had a surprise there after forgetting the invisible Shannaras added by SCS
After resting for a while to heal up they sold junk and reported to Duke Eltan for duty in Candlekeep. They didn't use any protections on arrival and Robin was stunned by a chromatic orb,
After resting in the inn to heal up the boys went into the library where they had to speak sternly to the Iron Throne leaders about the need to be quiet.
Back in the City the boys were feeling the call of Amn and quickly went to track down Slythe - shooting him down and leaving immediately.
At the palace Belt and Liia are far less fragile in BGT than BGEE, so a party of archers was never likely to have a problem in shooting down the dopplegangers - and didn't. The mage disappeared for a while, but when he showed himself again he was taken down before he had a chance to cast anything.
A short, sharp exchange of exploding arrows went in the boys' favour in the Undercity.
In the temple they buffed with magic protection before warming things up for Sarevok.
Stats:
Robin (longbow) - L7, 79 HPs, 241 kills
William (crossbow) - L7, 76 HPs, 132 kills, 0 deaths
Legolas (longbow) - L7, 60 HPs, 181 kills, 1 death
Cupid (shortbow) - L7, 62 HPs, 192 kills, 0 deaths
Artemis (shortbow) - L7, 72 HPs, 141 kills, 0 deaths
David (sling) - L7, 64 HPs, 80 kills, 0 deaths