I'll give a more thorough report on Hax after the Trio this morning. Suffice to know Hax and team (Minsc, Mazzy, Anomen, Aerie, Imoen) have defeated Irenicus in Hell and stand before some statues per direction from Ellisime. Once again I messed up when confronting Bodhi 2nd time. She abducted my love, Aerie, and I always forget she drops all her stuff - so by the time I resurrect her, all her stuff is gone.
Fortunately, she didn't have much valuable stuff, so that was good. There was, however, one item we are going to miss - the reflection shield. But the quest must continue...
I do MP parties a lot, so no one gets abducted, and many times my love has been chunked, thus haven't done the "love gets abducted" bit enough to remember to pick the stuff up.
He has more than one...funny enough, first one got absorbed by spell turning, mazing him. I rebuffed, SI:Conjuration, and the bastard comes out of maze with broken morale, turns red again, uses Pierce Shield to remove it, followed by Maze. I think he had 10HP left...bleh.
@aldain, that was a fun update! I don't think I've ever seen anyone take on the SCS mines at level 1... I'm amazed you lived to tell the tale!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! There's really not much danger if you just keep your protagonist to the back, as you always have a clear escape route (and if you have to abandon gear, it doesn't matter at this stage, since you have... nothing of any real value). Occasionally you'll get a kobold that slips past the front lines somehow, but that's why you keep a Command in reserve.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 2 Previous update found here Next update found here
Onward! We head for Drizzt's area. Gnolls, Half-ogres and bandits stand nary a chance, although there is a frightening moment where a hasted Teyngan runs off in Aldain's general direction (Jemby chose to pre-cast Haste instead of PfNM)! Fortunately, Xan's Charm Person takes, and we run Teyngan right back to Khalid, where he soon after fails his save against Hold Person and drops. Ah, Enchantment spells...
We move north to Bassilus' area. The local hobgoblins fall to a Sleep spell, and we prepare to do battle with the fiend himself... This battle is quite iffy at these levels. We have no real archer, so no one that can reliably hit Bassilus. He also tends to (as he does this time) pre-cast Free Action, rendering Hold Person ineffective. This means we are reduced to Command, against which he frequently makes his save, and direct damage spells/scrolls/wands, which are not guaranteed to interrupt. Unfortunately, as you may recall, we used up our only magic missile wand on the uncharacteristically beefy kobold chieftain... and are now down to 2 Magic Missile scrolls kicking about. RNG, don't fail us now.
Great success! As you can tell by the spell effect, he was trying to cast Aerial Servant (Yep. SCS Bassilus can cast 6th level Cleric spells! And we're trying to take him down with a level 2 party). Had he succeeded, we'd have no choice but to run for it: Aerial servants have seriously scary stats, and are quite capable of chunking a L2 Khalid in one hit. But now we can stay and fight!
And fight, and fight, and fight... again our very bad THAC0 is our main adversary. Bassilus fails his save against one Command, but survives the accompanying barrage of sling bullets, and gulps a potion of greater healing. But we catch yet another break; Xan once again lands Charm Person, which at least lets us waste Bassilus' Flame Strike. Finally, after way too long (and with a Bassilus that is about 1/2 second away from casting Sanctuary and healing himself back up...) Khalid lucks out.
Hooray! We gather up the loot, thank our lucky stars Bassilus didn't get his summon off, and depart, picking up Melicamp on the way. The latter promptly exploding when Thalantyr tries to restore him, of course. C'est la vie.
Other than this close brush with humiliating defeat, nothing untoward really occurs. We head back down to Nashkel and take care of Greywolf, leading to both Aldain and Xan hitting level 3. This is one of two downsides to having 2 primary casters; scrolls are not cheap. We had built up a nice little nest egg, but now we're broke again.
The second downside is that you have to be very careful with using potions of mind focusing/genius if you have 2 mages that need them. There are just about enough throughout the game to be able to have your mages at 24 intelligence for 4 scribing sessions each. Maybe a little more if you get lucky with drops, but not much more. Which means Aldain and Xan only get to scribe new spells when they reach a new spell level, since we don't want to risk loosing important spells to scribing failure.
Anyhoo, Xan gets the Red Potion from the Nashkel merchant, and among other things scribes Identify and Invisibility. Aldain can travel in style from here on out, ever under the effects of Invisibility when moving between areas (this is probably being a little more cautious than is absolutely necessary, but still, I've had runs ended by that ridicolous 8 bandit ambush...).
Finishing up for now, we swing by Ulcaster and descend into the dungeon. We are not here to take on the Wolf of Ulcaster. That would be stupid. We might be able to do it, but we'd be far more likely to see our entire party paralysed by the Ghouls the damn thing summons (which we simply cannot kill quickly enough), and our run ended. So, we settle for clearing out all other denizens of the dungeon, including a nice 2000 experience Mustard Jelly. Levels, ho!
We are of course here for one other reason: There is an 8 charge Wand of Fire just outside the room with the wolf. Imoen moves in stealthed and swipes it, and we bugger back to Nashkel.
So, the party is at level 3+ all around (Khalid rolled a 13 for hitpoints! I'm so happy), we've finally gotten almost all of our stuff identified thanks to Xan, we have Invisibility/Horror available, and a Wand of Fire burning a hole in our pocket. Literally. It's quite hot to the touch. Things are looking up!
Aldain is now a level 3 Human Conjurer, and rolled a 5 for hitpoints at his levelup (hooray!)
Steinarr is angered by pesky thieves who can disappear. His mighty sling bullets can't hit them when they hide like cowards!
He barged into a house on the north end of the city and asked the butler to see the master of the house. The butler, however, was a rude thief! And a mage! He put up a spell that stopped Steinarr's bullets of pain completely. And he kept going invisible... both depriving Steinarr of potions that could be handy for the endgame, and causing much damage. Neither Branwen nor Yeslick could dispel his protections. Meanwhile, he almost killed half the party with backstabs.
Steinarr's rage wore off and he started to regain some of his (often impaired) intellectual faculties... soon he realized that this enemy was not one he could sling! So he pulled out his sword and felt a satisfying "thunk." With no more need to think, he raged again and smashed the annoying butler into the fireplace.
At the Iron Throne, Branwen and Yeslick entered the 5th floor under Sanctuary, went into a back room and summoned skelly warriors for the flunkies to play with.
Most of the flunkies went down to web and exploding arrows.
But that last pesky thief... she killed Imoen and Dynie before Steinarr managed to prick her with a dart of stunning.
Steinarr mad at cheap-shot thieves. Maybe Steinarr should learn spells to flush them out of hiding, so he can better smash them with his sling....
Magastar is grateful for the warmth of the Friendly Arm Inn and of her new-found friends, Jaheira and Khalid. The proprietor, however, was less than thrilled about dealing with her (must be why the other big ½-orc stays way over there). But Bentley became bright and boisterous when Imoen sauntered up to the bar. We got our much needed supplies at a great price.
Jaheira insists that Magastar travel with her to Nashkel, straight away. Apparently there's something amiss with the mines outside the town there. Something that could have disastrous effects across the whole Sword Coast, no less! Along the way Magastar's heart aches with the tragedies witnessed. Raided caravans with bodies strewn about. Nearby children, barely old enough to speak, giving lessons on morality!? It's times like these when she silently wishes to be back in Candlekeep, to wake up from this horrible nightmare. The world's just gone bat-crazy!!
Ahhh, Beregost! Magastar had heard stories about this place from travelers. Town!? This place is a city!! Imoen almost disappears into the first shop they see before a loud, "ack-hmm!" from Jaheira, reminds her of our plans to continue quickly to Nashkel. As they picked their way through the crowd Magastar couldn't stop herself from looking in windows and generally gawking at the bustle of city life.
"Is that...?? It is! Firebeard!!" Magastar practically leaps through the door to greet her old friend! After some solemn words and condolences Firebeard asks if Magastar can retrieve a book for him from the local store. "No, Jaheira! We are doing this small favor for Firebeard." Surprisingly, Jaheira simply smiles and nods. Firebeard's small task turns out to be a great boon - he gives Magastar an ornate scroll case as a gift! Magastar barely has time to inspect the gift before Imoen practically rips it from her hands. Caught by surprise, Magastar almost lashes out but then holds her tongue when she sees how Imoen respectfully starts arranging the scrolls she's been carrying around, in their new home. She insisted on carrying the dead mage's scrolls, saying they were, "delicate" and that we'd, "ruin them." Magastar knows Imoen's been sneaking peaks, trying to figure out their arcane language, when she thought no one was watching. *sigh* Gods preserve us if she ever learns to read magic!
Magastar and crew leave Firebeard with heartfelt goodbyes, agreeing to visit again soon. As they walk into the street Magastar can't help but feel revived. "So this is ADVENTURING!" Magastar says, in one huge breath. A sidelong glance from Khalid and snort from Jaheira tells Magastar EXACTLY how they feel about her 'adventure'. But, just as Magastar turns to give them a piece of her mind she hears a loud sob coming from the house next door. She notices the front door half open. As Magastar moves to investigate Jaheira, predictably, starts to complain. She never sees the quick smile cross Magastar's face. In an instant Magastar whirls around, coming face to face with the druid. "YOU would walk away? ...from someone right in front of you? ...in obvious distress!? What kind of a person are you??" Almost as the words left her mouth, Magastar knew she crossed the line. She wasn't going to back down, though. She couldn't back down. If she was going to do this, if she was going to be the adventurer, if she was going to avenge Gorion's death, SHE must be the leader. This was her stand! If she wasn't so scared senseless Magastar would have surely laughed at the sight. Jaheira's face turning as red as wizard's robes. Khalid fumbling to diffuse the situation, having to tell Jaheira to close her mouth, twice! Without a retort of any sort, Magastar knew she had the upper hand and, since she didn't want to show just how scared she really was, she quickly turned back around, saying matter-of-factly, "Being the noble, good, adventurers that we are, it is our duty to check on civilians who appear to be in distress." Upon cautiously entering the home, she immediately regretted that decision. The man sobbing barely registered their presence. Magastar thought she heard the name 'Colquetle' in between sobs. Seeing this nice man in such a hopeless state, distraught over his missing family, reminded Magastar of her own recent loss. She begins to cry. "No!" Quickly wiping the tears away, Magastar apologies for coming into the man's home unannounced and takes her leave, promising to keep an eye out for his family.
Determined to keep her sadness in check she marches quietly south towards the edge of town. She needs space, and time to think. After a day's uneventful travel, the forest lifts her spirits and conversation in the group gets back to normal. That's when they noticed the hobgoblins or, more truthfully, were noticed BY the hobgoblins. Fortunately, the lumbering brutes posed little trouble and were dispatched at quickly as they appeared.
The last couple hobgoblins proved slightly more difficult. One of them caught Khalid in the leg with an arrow. He retreated, pulled the arrow out, and quaffed a healing potion just as the last of them fell. It was then that Magastar noticed the bodies. "Poor people. They really shouldn't have been traveling without an armed...wait, that looks like, no, no, no, no, NO!" As much as Magastar wanted to disbelieve it, she knew the victims of this tragedy. They perfectly matched the descriptions given by Mr. Colquetle. This was his son. This was his son's family. Pent-up emotion overtook Magastar. She went to her knees in front of the bodies as tears streamed down her cheeks. She almost gave in to the despair and would have fallen over if Jaheira hadn't steadied her. "THIS is adventuring," Jaheria said. A flash of anger boiled through Magastar's sadness. She whipped her head around preparing to scream at the top of her lungs but froze mid-breath - Jaheria, was crying. She didn't say it to be mean. That's when the realization hit Magastar. Almost sending her reeling for the second time. Strength of arm, strength of magic, even the strength of Magastar's connection with nature, all pale in comparison to the strength needed here. The strength to, to carry on. They silently decide to make the trek back to Beregost. Mr. Colquetle deserves to know what happened here. After all, they are noble and good 'adventurers'.
One thing different about this run compared to other runs is any time the battle looks difficult, or I just need more hitting power, Hax will put a mislead clone in a side room then backstab his way to victory, which has been a big help for the party when he does that. He doesn't usually do that as he usually wears armor (currently the haste leather).
Screenshots from the adventure:
I've modified the spells for Aerie and Imoen for a lot of single target and party friendly spells, and turned on AI - this has worked pretty well in fact. We swapped out Minsc for Sarevok a while ago and this swap has worked out well so far.
Mazzy often dual-wields, though for giants AC seemed more important so she used a shield there. Sarevok been using that two-hand sword you get way back in the demon knights area in the Kua-Toa lair, and it has worked well for him.
We are just about to turn in the hearts to Nylee, then we'll go after Yaga.
Mazzy often dual-wields, though for giants AC seemed more important so she used a shield there. Sarevok been using that two-hand sword you get way back in the demon knights area in the Kua-Toa lair, and it has worked well for him.
I find the mirror image shortsword handy for giant hunting as well... give Yaga an extra kick for me please.
Krystin was cold to the ladies of the night in the underworld:
Then Steinarr noticed a strange chromatic orb flying at him. It looked scary and dangerous, kind of like a basilisk's gaze, or a ghoul's touch. He quickly uncorked a magic shielding potion just to be safe.
In return, he pricked Krystin with his barbarian darts of stunning, and skelly warriors beat her down.
In the Ducal Palace, Steinarr asked his companions to summon all of the help they could get. Three skelly warriors and two spiders surrounded the Dukes while Yeslick tried to dispel haste from the doppelgangers. The battle was crowded and messy, but both Belt and Liia survived with no damage taken.
Winski Prerorate saw Dynaheir at the end of the Thieves' Maze
and the mage summoned a nabassu!! to attack us. That looked like bad news when half the party got confused. But with rage, Steinarr managed to keep enough of his wits about him that he could hit the thing with his blade.
(BG1 NPC content I assume)
The undercity party proved troublesome. Steinarr sent Imoen ahead to blow them out of the way with exploding arrows. But both mages were having none of that, and shadow-doored themselves to the back of the party, where they destroyed Dynaheir. Then Imoen got smashed by an aerial servant that one of the party must have brought in from somewhere...
Steinarr took the extra time to go back to the city, resurrect the fallen, rest and heal.
In the temple, things got off to a bad start when some exceptionally tough skeleton warriors followed the party inside, nearly killing half of us.
Steinarr then asked his friends to stay in the corners, hidden by invisibility potions, after they summoned and buffed. He himself got out a protection from magic scroll, boots of speed, a potion of heroism, and a potion of speed. And antidotes and invisibility potions in case of emergency.
Diarmid went down first, pricked by a Barbarian-hurled dart of stunning:
Tazok took multiple bullets to the face, but posed no problems. Dynaheir cast invisibility purge to reveal Angelo, who then found himself stunned by a well-thrown dart.
Yeslick came out of hiding to lure Semaj into the open, where Steinarr hit him through his stoneskins with multiple poison darts.
Steinarr attempted to finish off Sarevok with darts of stunning. He hit often, but the big warrior just shrugged off any ill-effects. Losing patience, Steinarr raged and finished off Sarevok with several powerful strikes with Varscona, ending the threat of war with Amn and sending his half-brother's essence back to whence it came.
[2nd successful no-reload of SCS BG1.... barbarians are kinda fun!]
Hax the Fighter/Mage/Thief - FINAL Update! Traveling with: Mazzy, Sarevok, Anomen, Aerie, Imoen
I'm pleased to report that Hax has confronted Melissan, and forced her defeat. He became mortal to live with his wife, Aerie, who had his child within her.
The team did well, but there were a few issues:
* Thanks to group haste, the entire party was fatigued fighting Balthsazar. Mazzy was taking a massive beating, but somehow the party won anyways.
* Draconis and Abazigal basically died to Hax's spike traps.
* Sendai battle was intense, but the party had the upper hand for much of the battle. There was one very scary moment when Aerie had a sliver of health and was surrounded by enemies - I turned off her AI and had her gulp an invisibility potion - she then used heal potions to get to full strength, and ended up being OK. She didn't help much as she got silence during the battle.
* Hax did most of the work against Yaga-Shura. He only had a single WW and single GWW (rest are spike traps), but that plus haste and the blackblood club were enough to burn Yaga down.
* For Melissan battles, we had some dispelling arrows (not many 3) and lots of breaches - we tried time our GWWs with the breaches and for the most part this succeeded. Area effects and the cleric bolts of glory were also very important for these battles - we were able to keep up our summons for all 7 battles. We used skeletal warriors for the pools, then Anomen turned and destroyed them so we could summon summons that Melissan couldn't just dismiss. We only had one planetar available. We tried not to use GWW for pool battles, but the 3rd battle was getting critical so we went all out, the enemies were very hard to kill.
Screenshots from the adventure:
Note this run is NOT a Trilogy, but a BG 2/ToB no-reload run only.
What's next: Want to do a small party, maybe PC, Jaheira, Imoen for entire trilogy. I can win full party, but can I win with a small one? So thought'd I give it a go.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 3 Previous update found here Next update found here
I'll keep this short, since nothing of much interest occured this time around.
Aldain and intrepid associates did the Nashkel tour, i.e. all those low-level areas out west by Gnoll Fortress. These monsters are typically dangerous only by virtue of their numbers, but we have such amounts of Sleep/Command/Hold Person available that they really don't stand a chance any more. The only mild danger is presented by a pair of Ogre Berserkers guarding a bridge, but after a hit of Scorcher from our Wand of Fire they don't last long. Pictured below: Hopeless Gnolls (and they know it).
On our return to Nashkel, we rest for a day while Xan identifies some lovely equipment, and since we're closing on levels, head out east (Argain area). Here, Aldain finally reaches the tipping point!
Khalid and Xan both hit L4 a little bit earlier. On that note, Xan is remarkably effective. That -2 save penalty for Enchantments really make a difference; his Charm Person seems much more likely to actually work, and there's now a reason to cast Ray of Enfeeblement (it too actually works!). Not to mention nothing ever saves against his Sleep. I'm really looking forward to casting Dire Charm/Confusion/Chaos/Domination with him...
We finish up the area, and just for kicks, carry Samuel back to the FAI to be cured. Sorry about the lack of excitement. Next update should be more interesting, as now seems a good time to clear out the Ankheg den (we've got enough HP on Khalid, and enough Sleep/Command to go around), after which time I'll probably feel confident enough to recommence the main plot.
Aldain is now a level 4 Human Conjurer, and rolled a 6(!) for hitpoints on levelup. Khalid also rolled a 13 for hitpoints when he hit level 4... I had to check twice to make sure max hitpoints was actually turned off, but it really is.
I killed my half brother with ease, opened with 'cloudkill' which bugged him into sending the peons out alone and Imoen kept feeding fresh summons as we dispatched them.. with the guards dead I sent Sarah to get him to charge my summons, Coran dispel arrowed him, Yeslick 'Doom', Quayle 'Malisom' then its polymorph time.
The Bad news is my money went to purchasing gear and now Imoen has stepped out so I'm down to five for this next dungeon crawl.
Note: I may edit my Sod game to repair 'turn'... the option is there now but I'm undecided.
The Bad news is my money went to purchasing gear and now Imoen has stepped out so I'm down to five for this next dungeon crawl.
That is normal I'm afraid. It is better to face Sarevok with a lot of equipment rather than a lot of gold, as you lose most of your gold upon entering SoD. (For those with mods such as the Drittz Saga which raise the experience cap, you lose experience over 161000 too ) As younow know, it is probably better to take a thief other than Imoen to face Sarevok. (I haven't checked that out.
'Long-life challenge' - fighter dualled to thief {50} (update 1)
Yep - this really is my 50th attempt to get a wizard slayer dualling to thief through BGEE and BG2EE (and I've also failed 33 times with various other solo characters in that challenge to date ). Sometimes that's due to the game doing things which are not possible to counter - an archer ambush on the first area transition and the fight at the palace come to mind - and sometimes due to major mistakes. Most often though it's a result of not wanting to play entirely risk-free and then either the odds eventually catching up or little mistakes triggering the risks.
I know I keep saying it, but I will see if I can steel myself to play risk-free this time - 50 is another of those nice round numbers it would be good to finish on .
For this character (with armour, HPs and a helmet) archer ambushes aren't really a problem and the couple of levels gained from Shoal just underscored that.
A bit more axe throwing in Beregost pushed me up to level 4 before heading down to Nashkel. The ankheg armour provided a nice upgrade there before I rested at the Carnival to get Bhaal horror. Arghain handed over his magic 2-handed sword on the way to Firewine Bridge where I had to run away once from Bentan's spell when an axe was missing. The next time the axe was thrown truly and Bentan was about to die, but I still needed to run to avoid a last second charm person
- fortunately his magic protection scroll had not yet been eaten when I got back. The reputation loss from that will also provide future evil Bhaal powers - horror is essential for a solo wizard slayer to give any realistic chance of success at the palace in the EE.
While in the area Meilum was axed before moving on to find some basilisks. The lesser basilisks in the area were meleed, while the greater ones were axed (the lesser ones have a slower attack so it's possible to retreat before they attack if they switch from gaze to melee attack). Once they were all dead Korax was recruited to sort out Mutamin and then paralysed Baerin.
Normally I don't attack him first, but in line with my risk-free policy I had already used the scroll of PfM there, so the casters were no threat (up to this point I've also not taken any damage at all, though a few kobolds have missed with shots in travel ambushes, and was protecting that record). The others were then soon shot down.
GL Grond0. Fwiw, I've tried a solo WS (24-hour challenge), albeit a dwarf, got up to level 7 and died a scripted death (I wanted to join the bandits, but Tazok had different ideas it seems). In non-Fixpack installs he can use Claw of Kazgaroth, but I doubt that's true for EEs.
Fyi I didn't want to edit the game (feels wrong) so I've dialed the difficulty back to insane for Sod... that should still gave Puk a challenge
@Wise_Grimwald I was expecting Safana but didn't know about the experience cap... hopefully I'll live and learn. @Aasim "Claw of Kazgaroth" is all but wizard slayer in EE
In Amkethran, Goibniu completed all of the minor quests, saving Vongoethe for last. The lich did some damage to the party via his dragon's breath spell and managed to kill Marlowe, but in the end, he was defeated:
Goibniu approached Sendai's Enclave, survived various ambushes and fought his way to Thelynn'ss:
I cleared the slave tunnels using mass invisibilty to skip past the various hostile groups, and also killed the spiders with the help of a dragon's breath spell:
Odamaron was defeated by a fallen deva:
And now, my first major mistake in ToB: I wanted Helios to lure Ogremoch towards the party. However, during an earthquake, the earth elemental caught up to him, smashing him two times before he was able to flee - two hits were enough to kill the lowly thief:
I tried to have the magical sword take Ogremoch's attacks, though he sometimes changed targets and hit Anapa two times - luckily, the Kensai survived what Helios could not:
A quick use of the Paladin's Bracers, and everything was back to normal. Diaytha was defeated with the help of some summons, though she managed to infect the party with an insect plague:
Goibniu easily won the duel against Captain Egeissag, and the mind flayers stood no chance against the party. Time for Sendai herself:
With full party buffs (and changing various spellbooks, thus including more high level summoning spells), I decided to focus my attentions on the incoming drow, while the current Sendai copy was kept busy by planetars, devas, fallen devas etc. Usually, after killing the next drow group, the party would join to battle Sendai, mostly with ranged weapons, breach spells or Carsomyr:
No problems occured during the battle, everything worked as planned. Eventually, the party fighters started spamming HLA's at Sendai's final form:
Another bhaalspawn dead. Before taking on Draconis, however, I want to finish Watcher's Keep.
Heading down to the Nashkel Mine I axed Greywolf before venturing in. My luck held in avoiding damage as far as the corridor traps, but there was no way to prevent those causing a first injury for this character (and not long after that a kobold finally hit the target anyway).
Taking that damage resulted in me dropping my concentration slightly and nearly ended the run. In Mulahey's cave I was trying to shoot him while running round his pond, but that's not easy with axes as there's not necessarily enough time to get a shot off before he gets close enough to talk. A bit of impatience led to a slight movement error there - resulting in the talk occurring, in a position where I had no way to avoid or protect against spells being cast. I had to save against both rigid thinking and hold person before cutting down Mulahey and then dispatching his support crew.
I took a break there to get concentration back before using the Amnian soldiers to get the drop on Nimbul after dodging into the shop to avoid a horror spell.
Neira's first spell was interrupted and she died before she could complete a second, so there was no need for dodging against her. There didn't seem much point in dodging an acid arrow from Tranzig as he was about to die anyway.
Moving up to the FAI there was another potential candidate for dodging, but Tarnesh needed to improve a bit on that himself .
At the Bandit Camp run and shoot tactics disposed of Taugosz and resting cured the sting from various bandit arrows. Stepping into the main tent just long enough to throw an axe at Venkt persuaded Raemon and Britik to follow outside to their doom. After dodging a horror, Venkt also followed - and failed to complete another spell
- leaving Hakt alone and helpless. As usual Ender Sai was pushed into the lightning trap, but he survived the blast this time.
Going back to the supposed risk-free approach I bought a green protection from poison scroll before going into the Cloakwood. I got up to level 7 fighting spiders and ettercaps there, but the only poison received was a pretty harmless variety from a huge spider when I had the option of running anyway.
At the mine I inched into Drasus' sight to trigger his conversation then withdrew before he could move to attack. Several horrors (resting in between) were then used to disable and kill the enemies. In the mine I bypassed Hareishan before battling through guards and battle horrors (retreating back up through the mine to rest and heal). Normally I taunt Davaeorn by running away from his spells up to the previous level, but there's quite a lot of potential to make mistakes doing that over and over again, so this time I used scroll protection to make sure of him.
After resting to get a second Bhaal horror I flooded the mine and left.
A new run with another barbarian like Blind Visionary, I like them. I had more throws than usual as I am wanting to dual class. A pretty good roll even if not quite as good as the excellent one that was rolled recently. The background of my large portrait is where I was raised. I thought that the scenery had always been like that, but due to an archaeological dig that I took part in, we discovered that it was covered in birch trees, admittedly small ones due to the climate, but trees nontheless. Perhaps those druids are right about the environment. Those illegal immigrants from Europe, the romans, the anglo-saxons, the jutes, the vikings and suchlike have a lot to answer for, but it was those Normans from Normandy who have the most to answer for as they introduced sheep farming. Sheep and trees don't mix well. P.S. My ancestors were Normans.
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Fortunately, she didn't have much valuable stuff, so that was good. There was, however, one item we are going to miss - the reflection shield. But the quest must continue...
I do MP parties a lot, so no one gets abducted, and many times my love has been chunked, thus haven't done the "love gets abducted" bit enough to remember to pick the stuff up.
Waaaaaaaaaaaahahaahaha...
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 2
Previous update found here
Next update found here
Onward! We head for Drizzt's area. Gnolls, Half-ogres and bandits stand nary a chance, although there is a frightening moment where a hasted Teyngan runs off in Aldain's general direction (Jemby chose to pre-cast Haste instead of PfNM)! Fortunately, Xan's Charm Person takes, and we run Teyngan right back to Khalid, where he soon after fails his save against Hold Person and drops. Ah, Enchantment spells...
We move north to Bassilus' area. The local hobgoblins fall to a Sleep spell, and we prepare to do battle with the fiend himself...
This battle is quite iffy at these levels. We have no real archer, so no one that can reliably hit Bassilus. He also tends to (as he does this time) pre-cast Free Action, rendering Hold Person ineffective. This means we are reduced to Command, against which he frequently makes his save, and direct damage spells/scrolls/wands, which are not guaranteed to interrupt. Unfortunately, as you may recall, we used up our only magic missile wand on the uncharacteristically beefy kobold chieftain... and are now down to 2 Magic Missile scrolls kicking about. RNG, don't fail us now.
Great success! As you can tell by the spell effect, he was trying to cast Aerial Servant (Yep. SCS Bassilus can cast 6th level Cleric spells! And we're trying to take him down with a level 2 party). Had he succeeded, we'd have no choice but to run for it: Aerial servants have seriously scary stats, and are quite capable of chunking a L2 Khalid in one hit. But now we can stay and fight!
And fight, and fight, and fight... again our very bad THAC0 is our main adversary. Bassilus fails his save against one Command, but survives the accompanying barrage of sling bullets, and gulps a potion of greater healing. But we catch yet another break; Xan once again lands Charm Person, which at least lets us waste Bassilus' Flame Strike. Finally, after way too long (and with a Bassilus that is about 1/2 second away from casting Sanctuary and healing himself back up...) Khalid lucks out.
Hooray! We gather up the loot, thank our lucky stars Bassilus didn't get his summon off, and depart, picking up Melicamp on the way. The latter promptly exploding when Thalantyr tries to restore him, of course. C'est la vie.
Other than this close brush with humiliating defeat, nothing untoward really occurs. We head back down to Nashkel and take care of Greywolf, leading to both Aldain and Xan hitting level 3. This is one of two downsides to having 2 primary casters; scrolls are not cheap. We had built up a nice little nest egg, but now we're broke again.
The second downside is that you have to be very careful with using potions of mind focusing/genius if you have 2 mages that need them. There are just about enough throughout the game to be able to have your mages at 24 intelligence for 4 scribing sessions each. Maybe a little more if you get lucky with drops, but not much more. Which means Aldain and Xan only get to scribe new spells when they reach a new spell level, since we don't want to risk loosing important spells to scribing failure.
Anyhoo, Xan gets the Red Potion from the Nashkel merchant, and among other things scribes Identify and Invisibility. Aldain can travel in style from here on out, ever under the effects of Invisibility when moving between areas (this is probably being a little more cautious than is absolutely necessary, but still, I've had runs ended by that ridicolous 8 bandit ambush...).
Finishing up for now, we swing by Ulcaster and descend into the dungeon. We are not here to take on the Wolf of Ulcaster. That would be stupid. We might be able to do it, but we'd be far more likely to see our entire party paralysed by the Ghouls the damn thing summons (which we simply cannot kill quickly enough), and our run ended. So, we settle for clearing out all other denizens of the dungeon, including a nice 2000 experience Mustard Jelly. Levels, ho!
We are of course here for one other reason: There is an 8 charge Wand of Fire just outside the room with the wolf. Imoen moves in stealthed and swipes it, and we bugger back to Nashkel.
So, the party is at level 3+ all around (Khalid rolled a 13 for hitpoints! I'm so happy), we've finally gotten almost all of our stuff identified thanks to Xan, we have Invisibility/Horror available, and a Wand of Fire burning a hole in our pocket. Literally. It's quite hot to the touch. Things are looking up!
Aldain is now a level 3 Human Conjurer, and rolled a 5 for hitpoints at his levelup (hooray!)
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Steinarr is angered by pesky thieves who can disappear. His mighty sling bullets can't hit them when they hide like cowards!
He barged into a house on the north end of the city and asked the butler to see the master of the house. The butler, however, was a rude thief! And a mage! He put up a spell that stopped Steinarr's bullets of pain completely. And he kept going invisible... both depriving Steinarr of potions that could be handy for the endgame, and causing much damage. Neither Branwen nor Yeslick could dispel his protections. Meanwhile, he almost killed half the party with backstabs.
Steinarr's rage wore off and he started to regain some of his (often impaired) intellectual faculties... soon he realized that this enemy was not one he could sling! So he pulled out his sword and felt a satisfying "thunk." With no more need to think, he raged again and smashed the annoying butler into the fireplace.
At the Iron Throne, Branwen and Yeslick entered the 5th floor under Sanctuary, went into a back room and summoned skelly warriors for the flunkies to play with.
Most of the flunkies went down to web and exploding arrows.
But that last pesky thief... she killed Imoen and Dynie before Steinarr managed to prick her with a dart of stunning.
Steinarr mad at cheap-shot thieves. Maybe Steinarr should learn spells to flush them out of hiding, so he can better smash them with his sling....
You can pick your friends, but...
Magastar, ½-Orc Shaman, update 1
Magastar is grateful for the warmth of the Friendly Arm Inn and of her new-found friends, Jaheira and Khalid. The proprietor, however, was less than thrilled about dealing with her (must be why the other big ½-orc stays way over there). But Bentley became bright and boisterous when Imoen sauntered up to the bar. We got our much needed supplies at a great price.
Jaheira insists that Magastar travel with her to Nashkel, straight away. Apparently there's something amiss with the mines outside the town there. Something that could have disastrous effects across the whole Sword Coast, no less! Along the way Magastar's heart aches with the tragedies witnessed. Raided caravans with bodies strewn about. Nearby children, barely old enough to speak, giving lessons on morality!? It's times like these when she silently wishes to be back in Candlekeep, to wake up from this horrible nightmare. The world's just gone bat-crazy!!
Ahhh, Beregost! Magastar had heard stories about this place from travelers. Town!? This place is a city!! Imoen almost disappears into the first shop they see before a loud, "ack-hmm!" from Jaheira, reminds her of our plans to continue quickly to Nashkel. As they picked their way through the crowd Magastar couldn't stop herself from looking in windows and generally gawking at the bustle of city life.
"Is that...?? It is! Firebeard!!" Magastar practically leaps through the door to greet her old friend! After some solemn words and condolences Firebeard asks if Magastar can retrieve a book for him from the local store. "No, Jaheira! We are doing this small favor for Firebeard." Surprisingly, Jaheira simply smiles and nods.
Firebeard's small task turns out to be a great boon - he gives Magastar an ornate scroll case as a gift! Magastar barely has time to inspect the gift before Imoen practically rips it from her hands. Caught by surprise, Magastar almost lashes out but then holds her tongue when she sees how Imoen respectfully starts arranging the scrolls she's been carrying around, in their new home.
She insisted on carrying the dead mage's scrolls, saying they were, "delicate" and that we'd, "ruin them." Magastar knows Imoen's been sneaking peaks, trying to figure out their arcane language, when she thought no one was watching. *sigh* Gods preserve us if she ever learns to read magic!
Magastar and crew leave Firebeard with heartfelt goodbyes, agreeing to visit again soon. As they walk into the street Magastar can't help but feel revived. "So this is ADVENTURING!" Magastar says, in one huge breath. A sidelong glance from Khalid and snort from Jaheira tells Magastar EXACTLY how they feel about her 'adventure'. But, just as Magastar turns to give them a piece of her mind she hears a loud sob coming from the house next door. She notices the front door half open. As Magastar moves to investigate Jaheira, predictably, starts to complain. She never sees the quick smile cross Magastar's face. In an instant Magastar whirls around, coming face to face with the druid. "YOU would walk away? ...from someone right in front of you? ...in obvious distress!? What kind of a person are you??" Almost as the words left her mouth, Magastar knew she crossed the line. She wasn't going to back down, though. She couldn't back down. If she was going to do this, if she was going to be the adventurer, if she was going to avenge Gorion's death, SHE must be the leader. This was her stand!
If she wasn't so scared senseless Magastar would have surely laughed at the sight. Jaheira's face turning as red as wizard's robes. Khalid fumbling to diffuse the situation, having to tell Jaheira to close her mouth, twice! Without a retort of any sort, Magastar knew she had the upper hand and, since she didn't want to show just how scared she really was, she quickly turned back around, saying matter-of-factly, "Being the noble, good, adventurers that we are, it is our duty to check on civilians who appear to be in distress."
Upon cautiously entering the home, she immediately regretted that decision. The man sobbing barely registered their presence. Magastar thought she heard the name 'Colquetle' in between sobs. Seeing this nice man in such a hopeless state, distraught over his missing family, reminded Magastar of her own recent loss. She begins to cry. "No!" Quickly wiping the tears away, Magastar apologies for coming into the man's home unannounced and takes her leave, promising to keep an eye out for his family.
Determined to keep her sadness in check she marches quietly south towards the edge of town. She needs space, and time to think. After a day's uneventful travel, the forest lifts her spirits and conversation in the group gets back to normal. That's when they noticed the hobgoblins or, more truthfully, were noticed BY the hobgoblins. Fortunately, the lumbering brutes posed little trouble and were dispatched at quickly as they appeared.
The last couple hobgoblins proved slightly more difficult. One of them caught Khalid in the leg with an arrow. He retreated, pulled the arrow out, and quaffed a healing potion just as the last of them fell. It was then that Magastar noticed the bodies. "Poor people. They really shouldn't have been traveling without an armed...wait, that looks like, no, no, no, no, NO!" As much as Magastar wanted to disbelieve it, she knew the victims of this tragedy. They perfectly matched the descriptions given by Mr. Colquetle. This was his son. This was his son's family.
Pent-up emotion overtook Magastar. She went to her knees in front of the bodies as tears streamed down her cheeks. She almost gave in to the despair and would have fallen over if Jaheira hadn't steadied her. "THIS is adventuring," Jaheria said. A flash of anger boiled through Magastar's sadness. She whipped her head around preparing to scream at the top of her lungs but froze mid-breath - Jaheria, was crying. She didn't say it to be mean. That's when the realization hit Magastar. Almost sending her reeling for the second time. Strength of arm, strength of magic, even the strength of Magastar's connection with nature, all pale in comparison to the strength needed here. The strength to, to carry on.
They silently decide to make the trek back to Beregost. Mr. Colquetle deserves to know what happened here. After all, they are noble and good 'adventurers'.
I better get to posting about Hax, or his run will be over. He has just made massive progress since the last post.
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One thing different about this run compared to other runs is any time the battle looks difficult, or I just need more hitting power, Hax will put a mislead clone in a side room then backstab his way to victory, which has been a big help for the party when he does that. He doesn't usually do that as he usually wears armor (currently the haste leather).
Screenshots from the adventure:
I've modified the spells for Aerie and Imoen for a lot of single target and party friendly spells, and turned on AI - this has worked pretty well in fact. We swapped out Minsc for Sarevok a while ago and this swap has worked out well so far.
Mazzy often dual-wields, though for giants AC seemed more important so she used a shield there. Sarevok been using that two-hand sword you get way back in the demon knights area in the Kua-Toa lair, and it has worked well for him.
We are just about to turn in the hearts to Nylee, then we'll go after Yaga.
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Krystin was cold to the ladies of the night in the underworld:
Then Steinarr noticed a strange chromatic orb flying at him. It looked scary and dangerous, kind of like a basilisk's gaze, or a ghoul's touch. He quickly uncorked a magic shielding potion just to be safe.
In return, he pricked Krystin with his barbarian darts of stunning, and skelly warriors beat her down.
In the Ducal Palace, Steinarr asked his companions to summon all of the help they could get. Three skelly warriors and two spiders surrounded the Dukes while Yeslick tried to dispel haste from the doppelgangers. The battle was crowded and messy, but both Belt and Liia survived with no damage taken.
Winski Prerorate saw Dynaheir at the end of the Thieves' Maze
The undercity party proved troublesome. Steinarr sent Imoen ahead to blow them out of the way with exploding arrows. But both mages were having none of that, and shadow-doored themselves to the back of the party, where they destroyed Dynaheir. Then Imoen got smashed by an aerial servant that one of the party must have brought in from somewhere...
Steinarr took the extra time to go back to the city, resurrect the fallen, rest and heal.
In the temple, things got off to a bad start when some exceptionally tough skeleton warriors followed the party inside, nearly killing half of us.
Steinarr then asked his friends to stay in the corners, hidden by invisibility potions, after they summoned and buffed. He himself got out a protection from magic scroll, boots of speed, a potion of heroism, and a potion of speed. And antidotes and invisibility potions in case of emergency.
Diarmid went down first, pricked by a Barbarian-hurled dart of stunning:
Tazok took multiple bullets to the face, but posed no problems.
Dynaheir cast invisibility purge to reveal Angelo, who then found himself stunned by a well-thrown dart.
Yeslick came out of hiding to lure Semaj into the open, where Steinarr hit him through his stoneskins with multiple poison darts.
Steinarr attempted to finish off Sarevok with darts of stunning. He hit often, but the big warrior just shrugged off any ill-effects. Losing patience, Steinarr raged and finished off Sarevok with several powerful strikes with Varscona, ending the threat of war with Amn and sending his half-brother's essence back to whence it came.
[2nd successful no-reload of SCS BG1.... barbarians are kinda fun!]
Traveling with: Mazzy, Sarevok, Anomen, Aerie, Imoen
I'm pleased to report that Hax has confronted Melissan, and forced her defeat. He became mortal to live with his wife, Aerie, who had his child within her.
The team did well, but there were a few issues:
* Thanks to group haste, the entire party was fatigued fighting Balthsazar. Mazzy was taking a massive beating, but somehow the party won anyways.
* Draconis and Abazigal basically died to Hax's spike traps.
* Sendai battle was intense, but the party had the upper hand for much of the battle. There was one very scary moment when Aerie had a sliver of health and was surrounded by enemies - I turned off her AI and had her gulp an invisibility potion - she then used heal potions to get to full strength, and ended up being OK. She didn't help much as she got silence during the battle.
* Hax did most of the work against Yaga-Shura. He only had a single WW and single GWW (rest are spike traps), but that plus haste and the blackblood club were enough to burn Yaga down.
* For Melissan battles, we had some dispelling arrows (not many 3) and lots of breaches - we tried time our GWWs with the breaches and for the most part this succeeded. Area effects and the cleric bolts of glory were also very important for these battles - we were able to keep up our summons for all 7 battles. We used skeletal warriors for the pools, then Anomen turned and destroyed them so we could summon summons that Melissan couldn't just dismiss. We only had one planetar available. We tried not to use GWW for pool battles, but the 3rd battle was getting critical so we went all out, the enemies were very hard to kill.
Screenshots from the adventure:
Note this run is NOT a Trilogy, but a BG 2/ToB no-reload run only.
What's next:
Want to do a small party, maybe PC, Jaheira, Imoen for entire trilogy. I can win full party, but can I win with a small one? So thought'd I give it a go.
Previous update found here
Next update found here
I'll keep this short, since nothing of much interest occured this time around.
Aldain and intrepid associates did the Nashkel tour, i.e. all those low-level areas out west by Gnoll Fortress. These monsters are typically dangerous only by virtue of their numbers, but we have such amounts of Sleep/Command/Hold Person available that they really don't stand a chance any more.
The only mild danger is presented by a pair of Ogre Berserkers guarding a bridge, but after a hit of Scorcher from our Wand of Fire they don't last long. Pictured below: Hopeless Gnolls (and they know it).
On our return to Nashkel, we rest for a day while Xan identifies some lovely equipment, and since we're closing on levels, head out east (Argain area). Here, Aldain finally reaches the tipping point!
Khalid and Xan both hit L4 a little bit earlier. On that note, Xan is remarkably effective. That -2 save penalty for Enchantments really make a difference; his Charm Person seems much more likely to actually work, and there's now a reason to cast Ray of Enfeeblement (it too actually works!). Not to mention nothing ever saves against his Sleep. I'm really looking forward to casting Dire Charm/Confusion/Chaos/Domination with him...
We finish up the area, and just for kicks, carry Samuel back to the FAI to be cured. Sorry about the lack of excitement. Next update should be more interesting, as now seems a good time to clear out the Ankheg den (we've got enough HP on Khalid, and enough Sleep/Command to go around), after which time I'll probably feel confident enough to recommence the main plot.
Aldain is now a level 4 Human Conjurer, and rolled a 6(!) for hitpoints on levelup. Khalid also rolled a 13 for hitpoints when he hit level 4... I had to check twice to make sure max hitpoints was actually turned off, but it really is.
Good news first,
Hear text as mp3,
I killed my half brother with ease, opened with 'cloudkill' which bugged him into sending the peons out alone and Imoen kept feeding fresh summons as we dispatched them.. with the guards dead I sent Sarah to get him to charge my summons, Coran dispel arrowed him, Yeslick 'Doom', Quayle 'Malisom' then its polymorph time.
The Bad news is my money went to purchasing gear and now Imoen has stepped out so I'm down to five for this next dungeon crawl.
Note: I may edit my Sod game to repair 'turn'... the option is there now but I'm undecided.
Yep - this really is my 50th attempt to get a wizard slayer dualling to thief through BGEE and BG2EE (and I've also failed 33 times with various other solo characters in that challenge to date
I know I keep saying it, but I will see if I can steel myself to play risk-free this time - 50 is another of those nice round numbers it would be good to finish on
For this character (with armour, HPs and a helmet) archer ambushes aren't really a problem and the couple of levels gained from Shoal just underscored that.
A bit more axe throwing in Beregost pushed me up to level 4 before heading down to Nashkel. The ankheg armour provided a nice upgrade there before I rested at the Carnival to get Bhaal horror. Arghain handed over his magic 2-handed sword on the way to Firewine Bridge where I had to run away once from Bentan's spell when an axe was missing. The next time the axe was thrown truly and Bentan was about to die, but I still needed to run to avoid a last second charm person
While in the area Meilum was axed before moving on to find some basilisks. The lesser basilisks in the area were meleed, while the greater ones were axed (the lesser ones have a slower attack so it's possible to retreat before they attack if they switch from gaze to melee attack). Once they were all dead Korax was recruited to sort out Mutamin and then paralysed Baerin.
In non-Fixpack installs he can use Claw of Kazgaroth, but I doubt that's true for EEs.
@Wise_Grimwald I was expecting Safana but didn't know about the experience cap... hopefully I'll live and learn.
@Aasim "Claw of Kazgaroth" is all but wizard slayer in EE
Goibniu, human paladin, update 34
Continued from https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/819146/#Comment_819146
In Amkethran, Goibniu completed all of the minor quests, saving Vongoethe for last. The lich did some damage to the party via his dragon's breath spell and managed to kill Marlowe, but in the end, he was defeated:
Goibniu approached Sendai's Enclave, survived various ambushes and fought his way to Thelynn'ss:
I cleared the slave tunnels using mass invisibilty to skip past the various hostile groups, and also killed the spiders with the help of a dragon's breath spell:
Odamaron was defeated by a fallen deva:
And now, my first major mistake in ToB: I wanted Helios to lure Ogremoch towards the party. However, during an earthquake, the earth elemental caught up to him, smashing him two times before he was able to flee - two hits were enough to kill the lowly thief:
I tried to have the magical sword take Ogremoch's attacks, though he sometimes changed targets and hit Anapa two times - luckily, the Kensai survived what Helios could not:
A quick use of the Paladin's Bracers, and everything was back to normal. Diaytha was defeated with the help of some summons, though she managed to infect the party with an insect plague:
Goibniu easily won the duel against Captain Egeissag, and the mind flayers stood no chance against the party. Time for Sendai herself:
With full party buffs (and changing various spellbooks, thus including more high level summoning spells), I decided to focus my attentions on the incoming drow, while the current Sendai copy was kept busy by planetars, devas, fallen devas etc. Usually, after killing the next drow group, the party would join to battle Sendai, mostly with ranged weapons, breach spells or Carsomyr:
No problems occured during the battle, everything worked as planned. Eventually, the party fighters started spamming HLA's at Sendai's final form:
Another bhaalspawn dead. Before taking on Draconis, however, I want to finish Watcher's Keep.
Enuhal
Gorvenal beat up some nasty guys in the basilisk area.
And then cleared both Mutamin and the basilisks
Then he killed more assassins at the bandit camp.
He then headed for Durlag's Tower. Where in occasionally got slightly hairy. (Slight understatement)
He then took on the bandits (Sadly only one image)
Then took on some bandits south of the FAI. Charming Aoln proved to be wise.
He then raced through Cloakwood where he killed a dragon amongst other dangerous beasts.
He didn't have the strength to open all the chests so left them unflooded to return later. He killed more wyverns:
He returned to the FAI where he fought some decieved good guys.
Heading south he killed Davenport and his allies:
Previous update at: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/819479/#Comment_819479
Heading down to the Nashkel Mine I axed Greywolf before venturing in. My luck held in avoiding damage as far as the corridor traps, but there was no way to prevent those causing a first injury for this character (and not long after that a kobold finally hit the target anyway).
I took a break there to get concentration back before using the Amnian soldiers to get the drop on Nimbul after dodging into the shop to avoid a horror spell.
At the Bandit Camp run and shoot tactics disposed of Taugosz and resting cured the sting from various bandit arrows. Stepping into the main tent just long enough to throw an axe at Venkt persuaded Raemon and Britik to follow outside to their doom. After dodging a horror, Venkt also followed - and failed to complete another spell
Going back to the supposed risk-free approach I bought a green protection from poison scroll before going into the Cloakwood. I got up to level 7 fighting spiders and ettercaps there, but the only poison received was a pretty harmless variety from a huge spider when I had the option of running anyway.
At the mine I inched into Drasus' sight to trigger his conversation then withdrew before he could move to attack. Several horrors (resting in between) were then used to disable and kill the enemies. In the mine I bypassed Hareishan before battling through guards and battle horrors (retreating back up through the mine to rest and heal). Normally I taunt Davaeorn by running away from his spells up to the previous level, but there's quite a lot of potential to make mistakes doing that over and over again, so this time I used scroll protection to make sure of him.
Wizard slayer L7, 78 HPs, 181 kills
He then tried to storm the Section HQ.
A big mistake.
Probably a visit to Ice Island and Werewolf island before the Section would have been wise.
The background of my large portrait is where I was raised. I thought that the scenery had always been like that, but due to an archaeological dig that I took part in, we discovered that it was covered in birch trees, admittedly small ones due to the climate, but trees nontheless. Perhaps those druids are right about the environment. Those illegal immigrants from Europe, the romans, the anglo-saxons, the jutes, the vikings and suchlike have a lot to answer for, but it was those Normans from Normandy who have the most to answer for as they introduced sheep farming. Sheep and trees don't mix well.