Tarnesh looked down the steps at the mailed woman and her hooded partner, comparing their faces to the crude drawing in his hands.
"Your name isn't Talanis, by chance, is it?" he crooned, already certain of the answer. Under his breath, he began an incantation.
"Mind your own business," Talanis replied.
"Oh, but I am," the mage said. "For you are very much my business."
Alarmed, Imoen dove into a pile of hay and disappeared. Talanis called on her god to provide Sanctuary as she turned and ran. Meanwhile, guards rushed to arrest the mage.
...
Outside the keep, Talanis motioned to Imoen, who stepped out of hiding.
"It seems that nowhere is safe," Talanis said.
Imoen nodded. "That's the second assassin."
"Fourth," said Talanis.
Imoen whistled. "What did you do to earn this kind of attention?"
"I have no idea," said Talanis. "The portal keeper said that the order came from Ulraunt. Ulraunt! Why now? I've spent my whole life in Candlekeep, under his very nose, and I never had even the slightest hint that he'd want to kill me. The whole world feels upside down. Tyr help us."
"I don't know about Tyr," Imoen said, "But those people Gorion told you to meet inside the keep might."
"Yeah," said Talanis. "But there also might be more killers waiting for us in there. Let's not chance it."
"OK," Imoen replied. "Where to, then?"
"Let's go to Baldur's Gate," Talanis mused. "The more people around, the easier it will be to hide."
They cleared the upper levels and the roof - where Robin showed off by killing all 3 greater basilisks using a single mirroring potion.
I haven't come across a mirroring potion. Is it from a mod?
Potion of Mirrored Eyes. It's just that everyone says potion of mirroring or whatever.
Perhaps most, but not EVERYONE. I was thinking that perhaps there was a potion for mirrored image that I hadn't come across I should have been able to work it out from the context though.
I have just finished a run that was too short to bother posting. However something happened that has happened before and I am wondering why. I speak to Tenya, blind her and fight her, and she asks for my help which I agree to. She then turns hostile. I can of course kill her, but I have a mod installed which allows you to talk to a charmed enemy. I do so and her answer is civil enough, but she won't take the bowl. Any suggestions?
I'll see if that makes any difference. The reason that I used that was that my character would probably have been killed by Tenya as my character was quite weak.
Finally managed to do the final BG1 fight without multiple party members dying and the fight devolving into charname lobbing the returning throwing axe endlessly at Sarevok while someone else kites him. Jaheira still spent the entire fight running around the arena with Sarevok chasing her. I don't see how it is realistically possible to tank the big S. But if anyone else does, I'm all ears.
Maybe with full plate + 18 dex + (+2) protection + slashing belt + II + PfE + Helm of Balduran, etc. But given his AI, it seems just as good to kite him.
Anyhow, the party is entering BG2 with charname as a level 8 Halfling Kensai.
Halfling Kensai (SCS) -- Update 4 / BG1 finished
After the shadow thieves informed us that Sarevok's corronation was "tonight", we decided to fake the time pressure and go immediately to do the Flaming fist, Iron Throne, and then Ducal palace fights in the same night. I allowed one rest in between, bringing us to hour 22 of the same day. In hindsight the rest wasn't necessary, but I couldn't remember how tough the palace fight was or wasn't.
First we went to the Flaming Fist, where I nearly got killed stupidly. I figured all the enemies were chump fighters, but they were priests!
I then saw them start casting with white/blue orbs, which I blew off, reasoning that the only priest spell that scared me was hold (yellow charge). Priests proceeded to educate me on other dangerous spells, by dropping about 5x unholy blights on my party at once.
Then I let charname absorb a hold, for no real reason, which created a very scary moment. Viccy got off a remove paralyze, and we cleaned up the rest of the mercenaries. We also pledged to be much more careful for the remainder of the run.
The party then dealt with Cythandria atop the Iron Throne headquarters. Not much to say, as a lone BG1 mage can't really do much to late BG1 parties. Her golems were killed quickly and had no real impact on the fight.
She did manage to nick Coran with a fireball + melf meteor.
Fight at the ducal palace was pretty straight forward with a full party. I was careful not to let anyone on my side get confused. Imoen continued to make good use of chaos scrolls, succesfully confusing two of the dopplegangers.
Fairly shortly all the Dopplegangers were dead and we skirmished with Sarevok. I think it is essentially scripted that the female duke dies. At least I have never managed to save her (Sarevok always cuts her to pieces once he joins the fight).
After finishing the ducal palace, we cleaned up the rest of the quests and fights in Baldur's Gate. Got the cloak of balduran, killed Sunin, got the helm of glory, etc.
Then we loaded up on ammo and potions, and went to face Sarevok.
Rahvin and co were smashed by detonation arrows.
The party then prepped for the final encounter. Plan was to distract Sarevok with one NPC by running around. Khalid and Coran would focus down Sarevok's various allies in turn. Charname, Khalid and Coran buffed with PfM, while Jaheira got a potion of invulnerability, Viccy took a potion of magic protection for 100 MR, and Imoen promised to stay out of the way and to drink an invisibility potion if things got dicey.
Fight went mostly as planned. Sarevok chased Jaheira, effectively taking both out of the fight. Imoen had to invisible + rebuff at one point, but fortunately did not die. Strong magic defenses kept the party safe, and gave us the space to take down Sarevok's allies and then Sarevok himself.
I killed Diarmid first, because he is an annoying jerk and impossible to disable due to his protection from magic. I vaguely recall he might have detonation arrows, but in either case we quickly engaged him in melee and they did not make an appearance.
Tazok was second. I had planned on paralyzing him and leaving him for last, but he drank a potion of freedom. I then decided I would confuse him. But he just would not fail a save, so eventually we just had to kill him the old fashioned way. Would have been faster to use Imoen for direct damage instead of chaos attempts. But he still went down eventually.
Angelo was third, and took forever to shoot to death. He must have very good AC. Eventually I wised up and dispelled his II, which made the fight go a lot faster. Charname snuck in a hit for the final blow.
Semaj was fourth, in large part because he spent most of the fight confused from Imoen's chaos scrolls. On the other hand, half my party was PfM, so he was less threatening than usual even without the succesful disables. Imoen confused him twice, and during the second period the party shot him to death with arrows.
In the meantime, Jaheira continued to run and run and run and run. She still burned 10 or more extra healing potions due to Sarevok getting a swing in for ~20 damage every time I slipped up and forgot to move her.
Once the four others were dead, Khalid and Coran shot Sarevok to pieces with arrows of piercing and +2, respectively. Charname hid in the back of the temple for good measure. He wasn't too excited to risk any unlucky crits.
Fin! Final blow goes to Khalid.
On to BG2!
(where we hopefully won't get killed, and can finally get some payoff for charname being a kensai)
Upon further testing, Sarevok missed Jaheira on a roll of 7 (but hit on 13) when she had -9 base AC, less 2 from PfE, less 7 from belt + full plate = -18 effective AC.
So I could add II via the scroll from Ulgoth's Beard for another -4, less another one from dexterity AC by drinking a focus potion, less another one from a potion of invulnerability.
Then as long as none of that was dispelled, Sarevok would be hitting about 1/3 of his swings. I assume he has APR from base + GM + fighter levels + haste = 4 APR, so he would still be doing about 20-25 damage a round. With very scary spikes on successive lucky hits.
I guess if a mage tanked, they would lose 5 AC from full plate + helm, but would pick up 3 from blur to be able to dodge half of swings. Could show up with a spell book full of stoneskins and mirror images, plus a backpack with some more mirror image scrolls, and could probably tank a good number of rounds.
Dispelling arrows to remove Sarevok's haste + Giant Strength would help a lot, but I remove those with SCS.
@Jabberwock congratulations! Good luck on Amn! I would have suggested Web/Grease/Entagle spam on Sarebro besides the Dispelling Arrow, but yeah tanking his damage works as well.
Upon further testing, Sarevok missed Jaheira on a roll of 7 (but hit on 13) when she had -9 base AC, less 2 from PfE, less 7 from belt + full plate = -18 effective AC.
So I could add II via the scroll from Ulgoth's Beard for another -4, less another one from dexterity AC by drinking a focus potion, less another one from a potion of invulnerability.
Well done. Best of luck in BG2.
If you're not playing with mods you can use more than one mind focusing potion in order to get dexterity up to 24 and a second AC reduction. Other sources of potential help for a fighter-type are Drizzt's scimitar, defensive harmony and chant. There's also a +2 shield available in Durlag's Tower and you can also add in the Claw of Kazgaroth. That lot is more than enough to require Sarevok to get a critical even without affecting his THAC0 directly (for instance by using the archer's called shot ability).
Even without help from others a fully buffed (potions / DUHM / kai) solo kensai has a decent chance in BGEE of killing Sarevok by just out-damaging him (Sarevok has far more HPs in BGT, so the chances in that are slim unless you wear him down a bit first). When I feel like a bit of excitement I sometimes set that sort of fight up, sit back and watch the carnage ...
@Grond0 Huh. Finally a compelling use for the claw of kazgaroth. I do have the SCS enhanced fight enabled though, so I can't 1-1 him until the other enemies are dead.
For BG2, has anyone tried using Jan as a tank? Party-wise for BG2, I'm thinking either:
Kensai Jaheira Haer'dalis OR Jan Viccy Aerie Imoen OR Edwin
I think I need some sort of arcane fighter, so one solution is to use Haer'dalis. But I've used him before and of course as a bard he doesn't get level 7-9 arcane spells, or mage HLAs. Jan does.
Edwin is just a stronger version of Imoen mage-wise.
I can't do Jan and Imoen, because then Imoen will be level 11 in spellhold. Haer'dalis and Edwin leaves me thief-less, so that doesn't work either.
Compared to Haer'dalis, Jan will have substantially worse hps (about 20 fewer by end of SoA and maybe 40 fewer by end of ToB. He also won't get ** in LS / SS, or Haer'dalis's special resistances.
But he will get level 7-9 spells, and has backstab, and has a full set of thief abilities so Imoen could be replaced by Edwin, who is a much more powerful mage...
In the dungeon the boys were keen to take everything on. Without missile weapons they weren't well equipped to deal with the ogre mage, but managed to share damage around in order to survive that combat. Elsewhere, stealth attacks and the gradual introduction of missiles made things pretty straight-forward and the boys got to level 8 at some point during the destruction of the mephit portals (Robin making that easy with a rare use of Bhaal horror). Ulvaryl was a potential problem with only one of them having a weapon that could hurt her. However, after the mage stunned her with a chromatic orb sequencer she was easy meat and Robin picked up the XP for the kill by using a firebreath potion.
After restoring the circus I thought the boys could get a flying start by killing Mencar's group, but that didn't go well! The intention was to use a stealth attack to kill the mage before retreating downstairs. However, as soon as they attacked Mencar's dialogue triggered - but didn't freeze the action (I've tended to use mods to prevent that happening in BGT, but this installation doesn't have that tweak). I was admittedly listening to cricket and was slow to react, but even if I had been expecting that I think it would have been hard to survive as Robin was dead within about 3 seconds (I guess Brennan got a quick backstab in though I didn't see it happen) and it wouldn't have been easy to get through all the conversation screens quicker than that.
@Jabberwock Not that it matters as far as the game is concerned, but it's quite possible to save Liia (the female duke). She typically survives if you have a wall of summons between her and the Dopplegangers/Sarevok. It doesn't change anything though if she does (I find it a bit odd that she's supposed to be a powerful mage, but can't even be bothered to throw up a Stoneskin / Mirror Image when about to be assassinated...).
Aldain, Human Conjurer, BG2EE Update 4 Previous update found here Next update found here
Alright, we're flush with cash, and I don't want to leave Imoen too far behind us level-wise. Time to man up and tackle some vampires...
But before that, we must of course be ambushed, because SCS is all about random bandit ambushes that almost wipes your party (this along with SCS Mages going so overboard on protections they have nothing but Magic Missile and Chaos left to hit your party with are my two pet peeves). We are as ALWAYS traveling invisibly, but decide to take a party of 2 Mages and a bundle of stealthed Thieves on regardless. Should've just sneaked off instead...
That's Jaheira at 2 HP. Before that she was, in order, Confused, Horror'd and finally Enfeebled. Eh, we would've been fine if she dropped though (I keep a Raise Dead memorized on Anomen permanently now, bad things do happen on a persistent basis). We were also helped by the stronger Bandit Mage opting to dominate Jan, quite possibly the least dangerous choice he could've made. Our reward for laughing bandit-induced death in the face? Some Excellent Short Swords that sell for 30 gold each. Yaay.
Thankfully, after a bit of healing we finish Aran's tasks without any real problems. The entire party goes invisible while Minsc (using the Amulet of Power) kills off [whatever the name of that hopeless Vampire that does Mook in is]. Killing the Guild Contact for his Potion of Invulnerability likewise goes smoothly.
Alright, so vampires. They're not the improved version, and I'm mighty happy about that, because the improved ones are serious pains. Not because they're dangerous (they are), but because there's really no way to counter their abilities that I've found. They're gonna con drain you, they're gonna turn to bats when hurt, regenerate fully, and come back at you with full HP ad nauseum, and there is nothing you can do about it.
We'll take down Pai'Na on the way too. As I have no real idea what SCS Pai'Na does, I prepare a few Free Action on Anomen, along with a Lesser Restoration in case a vampire attacks the wrong target. Also memorized: PfNE x3 and Chaotic Commands x2 on Jaheira, a boatload of summons (because of Tanova), and some run-of-the-mill helpful stuff (Fireball along with Protection from Fire, Glitterdust, Slow, 3x Invis 10' etc).
We clear a path to Pai'Na's little hovel. Fortunately, she turns out to be a complete pushover: She's a Druid, prebuffs with Ironskins and some other (more cruddy) Druid buffs, but her Magic Resistance fails her and the damage from Aldain's Fireball interrupts her initial spell. Minsc and Mazzy are completely safe from fire damage thanks to our spell selection, and rush forward. Why did I Fireball the entire area? Because Pai'Na spawns around 20 tiny spiderlings. They have almost no HP (a single sling bullet will kill them), but decent THAC0 and an incredibly nasty poison. Better to clear them out ASAP.
Jaheira was a little out of position and caught the Fireball too, but she can take it. For our troubles, we get a Spell Immunity scroll and the Black Spider Figurine. Which isn't that awesome, really, but it's a once-per-day extra summon, and summons are always useful.
Now then, the vampires. I take no chances here: Most of the party will be invisible. Minsc will handle lone vampires (immune to level drain and domination thanks to Amulet of Power and Lilarcor), while a PfNE'd/CC'd Mazzy will join in for the larger groups. Interestingly, I apply Invis 10' with Haz (the Mage that opens the door) within the spell radii. This means Haz is also invisible, and then apparently none of the Doom-whatchamacallits that guard the door will approach and kill him. So, we don't get his Staff Mace +2. Rather a bummer, actually... Jaheira could've used that, although she has the Staff Spear +2 so I suppose it's alright anyway.
The vampires are total pushovers by now: They can barely hit Minsc, and when they do, they deal 5-8 damage. We carve a path to the sarcofagi, guarded by a Clay Golem. SCS Clay Golems have Cursed Wounds (anyone hit by a Clay Golem can't be healed until they receive a Remove Curse), so we let a couple Skeleton Warriors soak up the blows. Thankfully we've got plenty of magical blunt weapons laying around (Flail of Ages, Ardulia's Fall, Ashideena etc).
Engaging the last large group on this level, we do run into a small complication. Minsc and our two Skeleton Warriors move to kill them off, but the Greater Ghoul (permanently hasted) gets a quick swipe at Minsc in, and of course Minsc is paralyzed. I was a bit worried here, and so Jan is dispatched to turn Minsc invisible. I needn't had bothered, though: Our Skeleton Warriors successfully clear the room by themselves. And these are just the 7 HD version! Seriously powerful summons, these fellas.
We go downstairs, and clear everything without incident, Mazzy joining Minsc in handling the Fledling Vampires and their invisible helmeted friends. Back upstairs, and it's time for Tanova.
As I remembered it, Tanova is massively dangerous. However, this time, she wasn't... because she spent almost all her spell slots and both sequencers on protections. Seriously, the only offensive stuff she did was an Emotion, two Remove Magic and a lot of Magic Missiles/Chromatic Orbs. I had to laugh a bit when she cast her fourth (!) Stoneskin. We just keep sending Skeleton Warriors at her, and she falls without having accomplished anything more than killing some summons.
I let Jan's Stoneskin absorb the unavoidable traps in the room where Durst runs off to. Durst himself is rapidly dispatched, and we prepare for Bodhi. Certainly a difference between Improved and Regular Bodhi: This version is beaten to a pulp within one round by a few hasted Elementals.
Everything looted, the party retreats invisibly to the Copper Coronet, to prepare spells before speaking with Aran and departing for Brynnlaw. Here we shall leave them for now.
A fair while earlier, what with all the quest experience you get when doing main storyline quests, Aldain leveled up. Aldain is now a Level 12 Human Conjurer, and as I indulged in a scribing session (assisted by gulping 2 Intelligence potions to get 24+ Intelligence) has a fairly large assortment of level 6 spells to choose from. Though being level 6 said spells are not exactly earth-shatteringly powerful... although a PfMW is always a good idea to keep memorized, and I set up an Improved Invisibility contingency on Helpless status.
I suppose, but if you get mobbed and someone got through the stoneskin, then it is a cringe fest waiting to see if chunks start flying...
But if your role is specifically to tank you can just keep your aura clear. Stoneskin only has a casting time of 1, so is unlikely to be interrupted - though you could put on the AoP or Vecna to make sure of that.
Mirror Image has a cast time of 1 also, but I interrupt it fairly often. In fact, stopping the enemy mage from getting his off will make the difference between life and death in the early part of BG. Tarnesh was a wimp if I managed to shank him before he gets the damned mirror image off. Otherwise, it is either death by MM or a minute or two of watching my party wander around the FAI after the guards chunked him.
Mirror Image has a cast time of 1 also, but I interrupt it fairly often.
Agreed that you can interrupt mirror image fairly easily (though that has a casting time of 2, which makes it significantly easier to interrupt), but you're specifically holding back attacks with the aim of interrupting spells - the AI isn't. If you time the start of your own spells correctly you will very rarely have casting time 1 spells interrupted.
Tarnesh walks up to you, talk and then start casting. My guy shanks him after the conversation or it gets hairy. Holding back would be disastrous. Imoen has no chance with her bow. Same with that dude in the Xvart area, the fella who tries to sell you cursed potions and scrolls. Either hit him fast or you die from more magic missiles than you can shake Khalid at.
The problem when you are mobbed is that there are a number of bad guys around you all with different attack timing and rates. There is an excellent chance of someone hitting you before you even realise your stoneskin dropped, what with all the movement, and if you are using Jan, he is likely to be literally covered in bad guys. And even if you realise it fast, the number of blows means that there is a good chance that someone will interrupt you, especially if they can hit you reliably enough to take down your stoneskins in the first place.
I agree it depends how closely you monitor the progress of the battle and whether you allow positioning where multiple enemies can attack at once. If you don't want to micro-manage then using PfMW gives an alternative later on, but it would be a while before Jan can use that. As I said though, Jan can also make use of the AoP or Vecna to get the casting time of stoneskin down to 0 - while it is still possible for that to be interrupted it's very unlikely even in the thick of battle.
OrcThief the half-orc fighter/thief - FINAL Update!
I had thought 44 HP and shield amulet would be enough to take on a two ogre mage ambush - I was wrong. : P An aganazer's scorcher did massive damage.
I was thinking about doing a wild mage party. So will be a gnomish berserker to lead the way, 4 wild mages and a gnomish fighter/thief protagonist (so his saves and HP might be enough to survive the occasional wild mage sunfire). Will get to rolling.
I came across an image on the web that I thought must be a halfling lass and I rolled for a fighter/thief.
Journal of Sneaky Blueskin
Twice I got caught stealing in Candlekeep.The punishment the first time was a fine of one gold piece. The second time a whipping. The first two assassins were not two dangerous, the third was much more so and I needed a potion of healing to survive. I set off with Gorion who to my dismay was killed in an ambush. I fled and after ariving at the Friendly Arms cleared the area of hobgoblins. I headed north and helped a widow who was being pestered by her undead husband. I agreed to help some fishermen fight a priestess. Tenya, the priestess cast Command and put me out of action for a while.
However, upon hearing the whole story I agreed to help her, and she has now promised to help me in due course.
Corewild the Fighter/Thief entering no-reload challenge... SETUP: EasyTutu Core Rules at all times
Corewild has 4 wild mages in his party, so to increase his odds, he is a gnome for saves. A gnomish berserker leads the way. So without further ado here is Corewild - click spoiler button for his groupmates.
A short session today saw this pairing continue to make good progress. On starting the session Prit saw his inventory jam-packed with potions and led the way to Watcher's Keep to buy a potion case. The top level there was also looted fairly easily (in the absence of vampiric wraiths), though the statues were left alone for now.
Back in Athkatla Parisa tried an ambush. Using chaotic commands and the AoP Prit was able to hold her attention while Gorn gradually cut her down from behind, but that combat would have been much easier if Prit had had a decent weapon.
As a result the next item on the agenda was to go to the vampire hide-out in the Graveyard and pick up the Mace of Disruption. That quickly proved its worth when Prit took off his armour briefly to sneak up on Tanova and give her a taste of destruction.
The remaining vampires were cut down before taking a rest in order to provide a full range of summons for Bodhi. She did manage to get one draining attack in on Gorn before being ignominiously held by Kitthix.
Reporting back to Aran Linvail that they would go to Brynnlaw 'very soon' got both Prit and Gorn a level. They've just seen off Neb and picked up the illithium with the aim of upgrading the MoD next time.
Prit, cleric 10 / ranger 9, 109 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 75 kills (+151 in BG1) Gorn, stalker 11, 116 HPs (incl. 10 from ioun stone), 147 kills (+143 in BG1), 0 deaths
Aldain, Human Conjurer, BG2EE Update 5 Previous update found here Next update found here
Having prepared carefully (and as it turns out, overdoing it slightly), the party sets sail for Brynnlaw. Minsc handles the ambushing 3 vampires on his own, though there's an interesting moment when one of them tries to Dominate Jaheira, despite Jaheira being well outside the vampire in question's visual range. We roam around town, killing the handful of hostile Pirates (one of whom quaffs a total of no less than 3 Invisibility Potions... I still haven't gotten any! Where are all these Invisibility Potions coming from?!). Also, Jan is nearly disintegrated by a trap because I got impatient, but thankfully he made his save.
Keeping up the proud tradition of overdoing it on the defenses, the Front Fighter/Mage in Lady Galveena's Feasthall takes the biscuit so far. He doesn't even have any Remove Magic memorized; he casts a single Emotion which fails to affect anyone, and then resorts to.. Magic Missile. And a sequencer with 2x Magic Missile, which unfortunately Jan suffers the brunt of (but he lives). Really Front, you couldn't at least have skipped ONE defensive spell for a Flame Arrow or whatever?
Next up, Lady Galveena and her Mage pet, Vadek. I dislike Mage fights in general. I especially dislike Mage fights in confined spaces. We do what we always do: If we're not forced into a frontal attack, we send the skeletons. It works OK; Vadek for some reason runs off towards the stairs (?) and stays there as we send 4x Skeleton Warriors to entertain him, while Lady Galveena is almost killed off by Kitthix (Minsc steps in to finish her off). That poison was unexpectedly potent.
Vadek actually pulls a surprise on me! At first I thought he had cast Teleport Field (which would've been uncharacteristically clever and immensely irritating), but it turned out to be Sphere of Chaos! Which I as a player would never ever use given that you run the risk of disintegrating the enemy and their precious loot, but SCS AI cares not for such things. Anomen is actually caught in the area of effect, which could've ended badly, but he's only rendered unconscious and scuttles away as soon as he wakes back up. Meanwhile, Vadek has almost no offensive spells, and so resorts to bludgeoning the Skeleton Warriors with his quarterstaff. The outcome is what you'd expect.
We rescue Claire and get what information we can out of Captain Golin. We will have Minsc convince the Pirate Lord to have us committed. Normally I'd be all for killing Perth the Adept, but he's grotesquely dangerous with SCS, what with his incessant summoning of Fiends and Simulacra (and again... a confined space!). We might give him a try once we come back this way with Imoen in tow, as the Book of Many Spells can be quite useful. It's hardly a critical item though, but maybe we can lure Perth out into the streets, where he'll be less of a danger to the party. We'll see! We go to Spellhold, and the ritual begins.
SCS Bhaal is annoying. He quaffs a Potion of Freedom, then a Potion of Fire Giant Strength. I have to resort to some scrolls (Vampiric Touch x2... I knew there was a reason I kept those things around), Stoneskin, Mirror Image and all my Magic Missiles to bring him down, as he even downs a healing potion midfight. But, down he goes, and we are in the clear! Well, not really, as Aldain is now without a soul and dying, but figuratively speaking.
Upon coming to, we recruit Imoen and drop Jan. Sadly, it's impossible to tell Jan to go to the Copper Coronet, or return to the Slums: The only dialogue option we get is to tell him to stay put. Which is a bit stupid the way I see it; if Imoen gets permanently killed, we're done for as there's no more thief to be had, now that the game is forcing us to shanghai Jan like this. Well, there's one, but even if I liked Hexxat (which I don't) she's evil and so a bad fit for our party. Sigh. We'll have to be very careful with Imoen then.
Speaking of Imoen: Upon joining she gets a MASSIVE xp boost! She joins as her L11 self, but immediately goes up to 1 million XP. Sweet! I guess this is intended as we saw the same behaviour with Mazzy. I kind of like it, too: It always irked me that the reward for rescuing Imoen was having her be permanently far behind the rest of the party, XP-wise. This is more fun: She'll be a potent force once we have her scribe some scrolls.
We embark on the somewhat perilous task of finding our way out of this maze. The initial area is cleared without much trouble, just a crapload of damage suffered from the half-dozen Mephits and their accompanying Ruhk (my Skull Trap bugged out and didn't explode when the Mephits ran over it...). We of course pick up all the lovely items here, including the Ring of Regeneration for Mazzy. This spectacular item will drastically reduce how many spell slots we need to devote to healing.
The second area to the south is a little more challenging. Of course we want the Ring of Freedom, but that means tackling first a Mind Flayer, then a Beholder. We've come prepared, though: Jaheira has 2x Chaotic Commands and a Wondrous Recall. Minsc and Mazzy are protected by CC and so kill the Mindflayer without much trouble, though Mazzy has to quaff a Potion of Genius when the Mindflayer manages to land a hit (we bought 3 of those potions before leaving Brynnlaw, just for this occasion and to help Imoen scribe scrolls later). The Beholder then? We'll use our patented tactic. Invisible Jaheira (who quaffs a Potion of Hill Giant Strength beforehand) and sanctuaried Anomen (who casts DUHM beforehand) are standing by. When the Beholder pops up, Jaheira casts Harm, attacks... and rolls a critical miss. Aaaaah crap. But wait! The dumb ol' Beholder for some bizarre reason hits her with his Anti-magic Ray! I guess he wanted to get rid of her potion buff. This means she is protected from all magic for 1 round! Can we make it? Anomen casts Harm... moves to attack... and hits! Yaaay!
I'm glad I went for redundancy. If that had failed as well, we'd have had to charge it, and that has a tendency to backfire with Beholders. Anyway, we proceed with the level. Kobolds are cleared out and we help ourselves to their stake and crystal fragment. A Vampiric Mist is exploded by turning Anomen. We get a pretty serious spawn of undead down by Dace's library though (1x Bone Golem, 1x Greater Mummy, 2x Skeleton Warriors where one is an archer). Wanting to conserve our more potent spellworks for later on, we summon a few, rather pathetic I'll grant you, meatshields with Monster Summoning I (courtesy of Imoen's initially memorized spells, and Aldain popping a scroll). I actually find a use for that magic ammunition we keep finding down here; Improved Invisible Mazzy does a stellar job tanking the entire group (our poor meatshields didn't last more than a few rounds) while she and Minsc (because they have +3 weapons) batter the Greater Mummy. The rest of the party plinks away at the Skeleton Warriors and the Bone Golem, and eventually, they all drop. The undead, not our party.
Following this, Dace and ambushing Umberhulks stand no chance. We open the path to the next part of the maze, and here we leave our party for now. Aldain is still a Level 12 Human Conjurer, but only some 20k away from leveling once again. The party as a whole is becoming quite powerful; we seem to have a good mix of arcane/divine options, brute melee potential and an excellent, regenerating tank in Mazzy (who will soon be L12 and thus finally get to ++ in Axes).
Is the Imoen XP thing a mod? Or maybe something new in EE v2? I have alway used EE and SCS, and had a run where we spawned her at level 11 with 400k XP. Since then I have taken great pains to show up with average party level 13. But I've also only played EE 1.3.
Which while I'm on the subject, is because my SCS chunk / perma-death resistance doesn't work with EE v2. Anyone else had a similar issue?
--
Also: WOW SCS HARM DOES CRUSHING DAMAGE? That's terrifying. I'm glad I leave it with the default magic damage -> 1hp.
Comments
Talanis
Priestess of TyrTarnesh looked down the steps at the mailed woman and her hooded partner, comparing their faces to the crude drawing in his hands.
"Your name isn't Talanis, by chance, is it?" he crooned, already certain of the answer. Under his breath, he began an incantation.
"Mind your own business," Talanis replied.
"Oh, but I am," the mage said. "For you are very much my business."
Alarmed, Imoen dove into a pile of hay and disappeared. Talanis called on her god to provide Sanctuary as she turned and ran. Meanwhile, guards rushed to arrest the mage.
...
Outside the keep, Talanis motioned to Imoen, who stepped out of hiding.
"It seems that nowhere is safe," Talanis said.
Imoen nodded. "That's the second assassin."
"Fourth," said Talanis.
Imoen whistled. "What did you do to earn this kind of attention?"
"I have no idea," said Talanis. "The portal keeper said that the order came from Ulraunt. Ulraunt! Why now? I've spent my whole life in Candlekeep, under his very nose, and I never had even the slightest hint that he'd want to kill me. The whole world feels upside down. Tyr help us."
"I don't know about Tyr," Imoen said, "But those people Gorion told you to meet inside the keep might."
"Yeah," said Talanis. "But there also might be more killers waiting for us in there. Let's not chance it."
"OK," Imoen replied. "Where to, then?"
"Let's go to Baldur's Gate," Talanis mused. "The more people around, the easier it will be to hide."
Maybe with full plate + 18 dex + (+2) protection + slashing belt + II + PfE + Helm of Balduran, etc. But given his AI, it seems just as good to kite him.
Anyhow, the party is entering BG2 with charname as a level 8 Halfling Kensai.
Halfling Kensai (SCS) -- Update 4 / BG1 finished
After the shadow thieves informed us that Sarevok's corronation was "tonight", we decided to fake the time pressure and go immediately to do the Flaming fist, Iron Throne, and then Ducal palace fights in the same night. I allowed one rest in between, bringing us to hour 22 of the same day. In hindsight the rest wasn't necessary, but I couldn't remember how tough the palace fight was or wasn't.
First we went to the Flaming Fist, where I nearly got killed stupidly. I figured all the enemies were chump fighters, but they were priests!
I then saw them start casting with white/blue orbs, which I blew off, reasoning that the only priest spell that scared me was hold (yellow charge). Priests proceeded to educate me on other dangerous spells, by dropping about 5x unholy blights on my party at once.
Then I let charname absorb a hold, for no real reason, which created a very scary moment. Viccy got off a remove paralyze, and we cleaned up the rest of the mercenaries. We also pledged to be much more careful for the remainder of the run.
The party then dealt with Cythandria atop the Iron Throne headquarters. Not much to say, as a lone BG1 mage can't really do much to late BG1 parties. Her golems were killed quickly and had no real impact on the fight.
She did manage to nick Coran with a fireball + melf meteor.
Fight at the ducal palace was pretty straight forward with a full party. I was careful not to let anyone on my side get confused. Imoen continued to make good use of chaos scrolls, succesfully confusing two of the dopplegangers.
Fairly shortly all the Dopplegangers were dead and we skirmished with Sarevok. I think it is essentially scripted that the female duke dies. At least I have never managed to save her (Sarevok always cuts her to pieces once he joins the fight).
After finishing the ducal palace, we cleaned up the rest of the quests and fights in Baldur's Gate. Got the cloak of balduran, killed Sunin, got the helm of glory, etc.
Then we loaded up on ammo and potions, and went to face Sarevok.
Rahvin and co were smashed by detonation arrows.
The party then prepped for the final encounter. Plan was to distract Sarevok with one NPC by running around. Khalid and Coran would focus down Sarevok's various allies in turn. Charname, Khalid and Coran buffed with PfM, while Jaheira got a potion of invulnerability, Viccy took a potion of magic protection for 100 MR, and Imoen promised to stay out of the way and to drink an invisibility potion if things got dicey.
Fight went mostly as planned. Sarevok chased Jaheira, effectively taking both out of the fight. Imoen had to invisible + rebuff at one point, but fortunately did not die. Strong magic defenses kept the party safe, and gave us the space to take down Sarevok's allies and then Sarevok himself.
I killed Diarmid first, because he is an annoying jerk and impossible to disable due to his protection from magic. I vaguely recall he might have detonation arrows, but in either case we quickly engaged him in melee and they did not make an appearance.
Tazok was second. I had planned on paralyzing him and leaving him for last, but he drank a potion of freedom. I then decided I would confuse him. But he just would not fail a save, so eventually we just had to kill him the old fashioned way. Would have been faster to use Imoen for direct damage instead of chaos attempts. But he still went down eventually.
Angelo was third, and took forever to shoot to death. He must have very good AC. Eventually I wised up and
dispelled his II, which made the fight go a lot faster. Charname snuck in a hit for the final blow.
Semaj was fourth, in large part because he spent most of the fight confused from Imoen's chaos scrolls. On the other hand, half my party was PfM, so he was less threatening than usual even without the succesful disables. Imoen confused him twice, and during the second period the party shot him to death with arrows.
In the meantime, Jaheira continued to run and run and run and run. She still burned 10 or more extra healing potions due to Sarevok getting a swing in for ~20 damage every time I slipped up and forgot to move her.
Once the four others were dead, Khalid and Coran shot Sarevok to pieces with arrows of piercing and +2, respectively. Charname hid in the back of the temple for good measure. He wasn't too excited to risk any unlucky crits.
Fin! Final blow goes to Khalid.
On to BG2!
(where we hopefully won't get killed, and can finally get some payoff for charname being a kensai)
So I could add II via the scroll from Ulgoth's Beard for another -4, less another one from dexterity AC by drinking a focus potion, less another one from a potion of invulnerability.
Then as long as none of that was dispelled, Sarevok would be hitting about 1/3 of his swings. I assume he has APR from base + GM + fighter levels + haste = 4 APR, so he would still be doing about 20-25 damage a round. With very scary spikes on successive lucky hits.
I guess if a mage tanked, they would lose 5 AC from full plate + helm, but would pick up 3 from blur to be able to dodge half of swings. Could show up with a spell book full of stoneskins and mirror images, plus a backpack with some more mirror image scrolls, and could probably tank a good number of rounds.
Dispelling arrows to remove Sarevok's haste + Giant Strength would help a lot, but I remove those with SCS.
Anyhow, yikes.
If you're not playing with mods you can use more than one mind focusing potion in order to get dexterity up to 24 and a second AC reduction. Other sources of potential help for a fighter-type are Drizzt's scimitar, defensive harmony and chant. There's also a +2 shield available in Durlag's Tower and you can also add in the Claw of Kazgaroth. That lot is more than enough to require Sarevok to get a critical even without affecting his THAC0 directly (for instance by using the archer's called shot ability).
Even without help from others a fully buffed (potions / DUHM / kai) solo kensai has a decent chance in BGEE of killing Sarevok by just out-damaging him (Sarevok has far more HPs in BGT, so the chances in that are slim unless you wear him down a bit first). When I feel like a bit of excitement I sometimes set that sort of fight up, sit back and watch the carnage ...
@Grond0 Huh. Finally a compelling use for the claw of kazgaroth. I do have the SCS enhanced fight enabled though, so I can't 1-1 him until the other enemies are dead.
For BG2, has anyone tried using Jan as a tank? Party-wise for BG2, I'm thinking either:
Kensai
Jaheira
Haer'dalis OR Jan
Viccy
Aerie
Imoen OR Edwin
I think I need some sort of arcane fighter, so one solution is to use Haer'dalis. But I've used him before and of course as a bard he doesn't get level 7-9 arcane spells, or mage HLAs. Jan does.
Edwin is just a stronger version of Imoen mage-wise.
I can't do Jan and Imoen, because then Imoen will be level 11 in spellhold. Haer'dalis and Edwin leaves me thief-less, so that doesn't work either.
Compared to Haer'dalis, Jan will have substantially worse hps (about 20 fewer by end of SoA and maybe 40 fewer by end of ToB. He also won't get ** in LS / SS, or Haer'dalis's special resistances.
But he will get level 7-9 spells, and has backstab, and has a full set of thief abilities so Imoen could be replaced by Edwin, who is a much more powerful mage...
Previous updates at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/829465/#Comment_829465
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/829612/#Comment_829612
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/829894/#Comment_829894
In the dungeon the boys were keen to take everything on. Without missile weapons they weren't well equipped to deal with the ogre mage, but managed to share damage around in order to survive that combat. Elsewhere, stealth attacks and the gradual introduction of missiles made things pretty straight-forward and the boys got to level 8 at some point during the destruction of the mephit portals (Robin making that easy with a rare use of Bhaal horror). Ulvaryl was a potential problem with only one of them having a weapon that could hurt her. However, after the mage stunned her with a chromatic orb sequencer she was easy meat and Robin picked up the XP for the kill by using a firebreath potion.
After restoring the circus I thought the boys could get a flying start by killing Mencar's group, but that didn't go well! The intention was to use a stealth attack to kill the mage before retreating downstairs. However, as soon as they attacked Mencar's dialogue triggered - but didn't freeze the action (I've tended to use mods to prevent that happening in BGT, but this installation doesn't have that tweak). I was admittedly listening to cricket and was slow to react, but even if I had been expecting that I think it would have been hard to survive as Robin was dead within about 3 seconds (I guess Brennan got a quick backstab in though I didn't see it happen) and it wouldn't have been easy to get through all the conversation screens quicker than that.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, BG2EE Update 4
Previous update found here
Next update found here
Alright, we're flush with cash, and I don't want to leave Imoen too far behind us level-wise. Time to man up and tackle some vampires...
But before that, we must of course be ambushed, because SCS is all about random bandit ambushes that almost wipes your party (this along with SCS Mages going so overboard on protections they have nothing but Magic Missile and Chaos left to hit your party with are my two pet peeves).
We are as ALWAYS traveling invisibly, but decide to take a party of 2 Mages and a bundle of stealthed Thieves on regardless. Should've just sneaked off instead...
That's Jaheira at 2 HP. Before that she was, in order, Confused, Horror'd and finally Enfeebled. Eh, we would've been fine if she dropped though (I keep a Raise Dead memorized on Anomen permanently now, bad things do happen on a persistent basis). We were also helped by the stronger Bandit Mage opting to dominate Jan, quite possibly the least dangerous choice he could've made.
Our reward for laughing bandit-induced death in the face? Some Excellent Short Swords that sell for 30 gold each. Yaay.
Thankfully, after a bit of healing we finish Aran's tasks without any real problems. The entire party goes invisible while Minsc (using the Amulet of Power) kills off [whatever the name of that hopeless Vampire that does Mook in is]. Killing the Guild Contact for his Potion of Invulnerability likewise goes smoothly.
Alright, so vampires. They're not the improved version, and I'm mighty happy about that, because the improved ones are serious pains. Not because they're dangerous (they are), but because there's really no way to counter their abilities that I've found. They're gonna con drain you, they're gonna turn to bats when hurt, regenerate fully, and come back at you with full HP ad nauseum, and there is nothing you can do about it.
We'll take down Pai'Na on the way too. As I have no real idea what SCS Pai'Na does, I prepare a few Free Action on Anomen, along with a Lesser Restoration in case a vampire attacks the wrong target. Also memorized: PfNE x3 and Chaotic Commands x2 on Jaheira, a boatload of summons (because of Tanova), and some run-of-the-mill helpful stuff (Fireball along with Protection from Fire, Glitterdust, Slow, 3x Invis 10' etc).
We clear a path to Pai'Na's little hovel. Fortunately, she turns out to be a complete pushover: She's a Druid, prebuffs with Ironskins and some other (more cruddy) Druid buffs, but her Magic Resistance fails her and the damage from Aldain's Fireball interrupts her initial spell. Minsc and Mazzy are completely safe from fire damage thanks to our spell selection, and rush forward. Why did I Fireball the entire area? Because Pai'Na spawns around 20 tiny spiderlings. They have almost no HP (a single sling bullet will kill them), but decent THAC0 and an incredibly nasty poison. Better to clear them out ASAP.
Jaheira was a little out of position and caught the Fireball too, but she can take it. For our troubles, we get a Spell Immunity scroll and the Black Spider Figurine. Which isn't that awesome, really, but it's a once-per-day extra summon, and summons are always useful.
Now then, the vampires. I take no chances here: Most of the party will be invisible. Minsc will handle lone vampires (immune to level drain and domination thanks to Amulet of Power and Lilarcor), while a PfNE'd/CC'd Mazzy will join in for the larger groups. Interestingly, I apply Invis 10' with Haz (the Mage that opens the door) within the spell radii. This means Haz is also invisible, and then apparently none of the Doom-whatchamacallits that guard the door will approach and kill him. So, we don't get his Staff Mace +2. Rather a bummer, actually... Jaheira could've used that, although she has the Staff Spear +2 so I suppose it's alright anyway.
The vampires are total pushovers by now: They can barely hit Minsc, and when they do, they deal 5-8 damage. We carve a path to the sarcofagi, guarded by a Clay Golem. SCS Clay Golems have Cursed Wounds (anyone hit by a Clay Golem can't be healed until they receive a Remove Curse), so we let a couple Skeleton Warriors soak up the blows. Thankfully we've got plenty of magical blunt weapons laying around (Flail of Ages, Ardulia's Fall, Ashideena etc).
Engaging the last large group on this level, we do run into a small complication. Minsc and our two Skeleton Warriors move to kill them off, but the Greater Ghoul (permanently hasted) gets a quick swipe at Minsc in, and of course Minsc is paralyzed. I was a bit worried here, and so Jan is dispatched to turn Minsc invisible. I needn't had bothered, though: Our Skeleton Warriors successfully clear the room by themselves. And these are just the 7 HD version! Seriously powerful summons, these fellas.
We go downstairs, and clear everything without incident, Mazzy joining Minsc in handling the Fledling Vampires and their invisible helmeted friends. Back upstairs, and it's time for Tanova.
As I remembered it, Tanova is massively dangerous. However, this time, she wasn't... because she spent almost all her spell slots and both sequencers on protections. Seriously, the only offensive stuff she did was an Emotion, two Remove Magic and a lot of Magic Missiles/Chromatic Orbs. I had to laugh a bit when she cast her fourth (!) Stoneskin.
We just keep sending Skeleton Warriors at her, and she falls without having accomplished anything more than killing some summons.
I let Jan's Stoneskin absorb the unavoidable traps in the room where Durst runs off to. Durst himself is rapidly dispatched, and we prepare for Bodhi. Certainly a difference between Improved and Regular Bodhi: This version is beaten to a pulp within one round by a few hasted Elementals.
Everything looted, the party retreats invisibly to the Copper Coronet, to prepare spells before speaking with Aran and departing for Brynnlaw. Here we shall leave them for now.
A fair while earlier, what with all the quest experience you get when doing main storyline quests, Aldain leveled up.
Aldain is now a Level 12 Human Conjurer, and as I indulged in a scribing session (assisted by gulping 2 Intelligence potions to get 24+ Intelligence) has a fairly large assortment of level 6 spells to choose from. Though being level 6 said spells are not exactly earth-shatteringly powerful... although a PfMW is always a good idea to keep memorized, and I set up an Improved Invisibility contingency on Helpless status.
The problem when you are mobbed is that there are a number of bad guys around you all with different attack timing and rates. There is an excellent chance of someone hitting you before you even realise your stoneskin dropped, what with all the movement, and if you are using Jan, he is likely to be literally covered in bad guys. And even if you realise it fast, the number of blows means that there is a good chance that someone will interrupt you, especially if they can hit you reliably enough to take down your stoneskins in the first place.
I had thought 44 HP and shield amulet would be enough to take on a two ogre mage ambush - I was wrong. : P An aganazer's scorcher did massive damage.
I was thinking about doing a wild mage party. So will be a gnomish berserker to lead the way, 4 wild mages and a gnomish fighter/thief protagonist (so his saves and HP might be enough to survive the occasional wild mage sunfire). Will get to rolling.
Journal of Sneaky Blueskin
Twice I got caught stealing in Candlekeep.The punishment the first time was a fine of one gold piece. The second time a whipping. The first two assassins were not two dangerous, the third was much more so and I needed a potion of healing to survive. I set off with Gorion who to my dismay was killed in an ambush. I fled and after ariving at the Friendly Arms cleared the area of hobgoblins. I headed north and helped a widow who was being pestered by her undead husband. I agreed to help some fishermen fight a priestess. Tenya, the priestess cast Command and put me out of action for a while.SETUP: EasyTutu
Core Rules at all times
Corewild has 4 wild mages in his party, so to increase his odds, he is a gnome for saves. A gnomish berserker leads the way. So without further ado here is Corewild - click spoiler button for his groupmates.
Prit, half-elf cleric/ranger (Grond0) & Gorn, elf stalker (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/825770/#Comment_825770
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/826405/#Comment_826405
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/827797/#Comment_827797
A short session today saw this pairing continue to make good progress. On starting the session Prit saw his inventory jam-packed with potions and led the way to Watcher's Keep to buy a potion case. The top level there was also looted fairly easily (in the absence of vampiric wraiths), though the statues were left alone for now.
Back in Athkatla Parisa tried an ambush. Using chaotic commands and the AoP Prit was able to hold her attention while Gorn gradually cut her down from behind, but that combat would have been much easier if Prit had had a decent weapon.
Reporting back to Aran Linvail that they would go to Brynnlaw 'very soon' got both Prit and Gorn a level. They've just seen off Neb and picked up the illithium with the aim of upgrading the MoD next time.
Prit, cleric 10 / ranger 9, 109 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 75 kills (+151 in BG1)
Gorn, stalker 11, 116 HPs (incl. 10 from ioun stone), 147 kills (+143 in BG1), 0 deaths
Previous update found here
Next update found here
Having prepared carefully (and as it turns out, overdoing it slightly), the party sets sail for Brynnlaw. Minsc handles the ambushing 3 vampires on his own, though there's an interesting moment when one of them tries to Dominate Jaheira, despite Jaheira being well outside the vampire in question's visual range.
We roam around town, killing the handful of hostile Pirates (one of whom quaffs a total of no less than 3 Invisibility Potions... I still haven't gotten any! Where are all these Invisibility Potions coming from?!).
Also, Jan is nearly disintegrated by a trap because I got impatient, but thankfully he made his save.
Keeping up the proud tradition of overdoing it on the defenses, the Front Fighter/Mage in Lady Galveena's Feasthall takes the biscuit so far. He doesn't even have any Remove Magic memorized; he casts a single Emotion which fails to affect anyone, and then resorts to.. Magic Missile. And a sequencer with 2x Magic Missile, which unfortunately Jan suffers the brunt of (but he lives). Really Front, you couldn't at least have skipped ONE defensive spell for a Flame Arrow or whatever?
Next up, Lady Galveena and her Mage pet, Vadek. I dislike Mage fights in general. I especially dislike Mage fights in confined spaces. We do what we always do: If we're not forced into a frontal attack, we send the skeletons. It works OK; Vadek for some reason runs off towards the stairs (?) and stays there as we send 4x Skeleton Warriors to entertain him, while Lady Galveena is almost killed off by Kitthix (Minsc steps in to finish her off). That poison was unexpectedly potent.
Vadek actually pulls a surprise on me! At first I thought he had cast Teleport Field (which would've been uncharacteristically clever and immensely irritating), but it turned out to be Sphere of Chaos! Which I as a player would never ever use given that you run the risk of disintegrating the enemy and their precious loot, but SCS AI cares not for such things. Anomen is actually caught in the area of effect, which could've ended badly, but he's only rendered unconscious and scuttles away as soon as he wakes back up.
Meanwhile, Vadek has almost no offensive spells, and so resorts to bludgeoning the Skeleton Warriors with his quarterstaff. The outcome is what you'd expect.
We rescue Claire and get what information we can out of Captain Golin. We will have Minsc convince the Pirate Lord to have us committed. Normally I'd be all for killing Perth the Adept, but he's grotesquely dangerous with SCS, what with his incessant summoning of Fiends and Simulacra (and again... a confined space!). We might give him a try once we come back this way with Imoen in tow, as the Book of Many Spells can be quite useful. It's hardly a critical item though, but maybe we can lure Perth out into the streets, where he'll be less of a danger to the party. We'll see!
We go to Spellhold, and the ritual begins.
SCS Bhaal is annoying. He quaffs a Potion of Freedom, then a Potion of Fire Giant Strength. I have to resort to some scrolls (Vampiric Touch x2... I knew there was a reason I kept those things around), Stoneskin, Mirror Image and all my Magic Missiles to bring him down, as he even downs a healing potion midfight. But, down he goes, and we are in the clear! Well, not really, as Aldain is now without a soul and dying, but figuratively speaking.
Upon coming to, we recruit Imoen and drop Jan. Sadly, it's impossible to tell Jan to go to the Copper Coronet, or return to the Slums: The only dialogue option we get is to tell him to stay put. Which is a bit stupid the way I see it; if Imoen gets permanently killed, we're done for as there's no more thief to be had, now that the game is forcing us to shanghai Jan like this. Well, there's one, but even if I liked Hexxat (which I don't) she's evil and so a bad fit for our party. Sigh.
We'll have to be very careful with Imoen then.
Speaking of Imoen: Upon joining she gets a MASSIVE xp boost! She joins as her L11 self, but immediately goes up to 1 million XP. Sweet! I guess this is intended as we saw the same behaviour with Mazzy. I kind of like it, too: It always irked me that the reward for rescuing Imoen was having her be permanently far behind the rest of the party, XP-wise. This is more fun: She'll be a potent force once we have her scribe some scrolls.
We embark on the somewhat perilous task of finding our way out of this maze. The initial area is cleared without much trouble, just a crapload of damage suffered from the half-dozen Mephits and their accompanying Ruhk (my Skull Trap bugged out and didn't explode when the Mephits ran over it...).
We of course pick up all the lovely items here, including the Ring of Regeneration for Mazzy. This spectacular item will drastically reduce how many spell slots we need to devote to healing.
The second area to the south is a little more challenging. Of course we want the Ring of Freedom, but that means tackling first a Mind Flayer, then a Beholder. We've come prepared, though: Jaheira has 2x Chaotic Commands and a Wondrous Recall. Minsc and Mazzy are protected by CC and so kill the Mindflayer without much trouble, though Mazzy has to quaff a Potion of Genius when the Mindflayer manages to land a hit (we bought 3 of those potions before leaving Brynnlaw, just for this occasion and to help Imoen scribe scrolls later).
The Beholder then? We'll use our patented tactic. Invisible Jaheira (who quaffs a Potion of Hill Giant Strength beforehand) and sanctuaried Anomen (who casts DUHM beforehand) are standing by. When the Beholder pops up, Jaheira casts Harm, attacks... and rolls a critical miss. Aaaaah crap.
But wait! The dumb ol' Beholder for some bizarre reason hits her with his Anti-magic Ray! I guess he wanted to get rid of her potion buff. This means she is protected from all magic for 1 round! Can we make it? Anomen casts Harm... moves to attack... and hits! Yaaay!
I'm glad I went for redundancy. If that had failed as well, we'd have had to charge it, and that has a tendency to backfire with Beholders.
Anyway, we proceed with the level. Kobolds are cleared out and we help ourselves to their stake and crystal fragment. A Vampiric Mist is exploded by turning Anomen. We get a pretty serious spawn of undead down by Dace's library though (1x Bone Golem, 1x Greater Mummy, 2x Skeleton Warriors where one is an archer). Wanting to conserve our more potent spellworks for later on, we summon a few, rather pathetic I'll grant you, meatshields with Monster Summoning I (courtesy of Imoen's initially memorized spells, and Aldain popping a scroll).
I actually find a use for that magic ammunition we keep finding down here; Improved Invisible Mazzy does a stellar job tanking the entire group (our poor meatshields didn't last more than a few rounds) while she and Minsc (because they have +3 weapons) batter the Greater Mummy. The rest of the party plinks away at the Skeleton Warriors and the Bone Golem, and eventually, they all drop. The undead, not our party.
Following this, Dace and ambushing Umberhulks stand no chance. We open the path to the next part of the maze, and here we leave our party for now. Aldain is still a Level 12 Human Conjurer, but only some 20k away from leveling once again. The party as a whole is becoming quite powerful; we seem to have a good mix of arcane/divine options, brute melee potential and an excellent, regenerating tank in Mazzy (who will soon be L12 and thus finally get to ++ in Axes).
Which while I'm on the subject, is because my SCS chunk / perma-death resistance doesn't work with EE v2. Anyone else had a similar issue?
--
Also: WOW SCS HARM DOES CRUSHING DAMAGE? That's terrifying. I'm glad I leave it with the default magic damage -> 1hp.