Well, I'm playing with a very light install mod wise for this challenge, so I don't know. It must have happen to me at least 4 or 5 times with Caligula.
Maybe it was bad luck ? Very small percentage ? Let just say that Caligula relied HEAVILY on the goblet. If it has only a small chance of happening, then maybe it was bound to happen to me sooner or later. Just want to give a warning based on my experience.
Edit : Maybe it has something to do with the interaction between the Greenstone Amulet and the Kiel's helmet (which I was ALWAYS wearing). When the Amulet's effect wears off, maybe it sometimes takes the fear protection from the helmet with it. Just like you have to put the Boots of Speed back on when you took off the Ring of Free Action so you can have the haste effect again. It's only speculation though and I will try to run some tests tonight.
Yeah, it might be the interaction between Greenstone Amulet and Kiels Helmet @Arctodus . When fighting enemies with fear i always relied on only one item with Fear Immunity - mostly the Helmet. That worked perfectly fine and even after 1k+ uses of Durlags Goblet it never triggered the fear - unless i forgot to equip the Helm.
Okay, i tried a no-reload-run with a Fighter/Thief but the first enthusiasm turned quite quickly into aversion. Not because it was too hard but for instance all the waiting until stealth finally works makes me mad. What a waste of time.
Yeah this will get better later but - damn - i am used to play the game from the opposite direction: Restrict your items/skill to the maximum - like in my No-Items- or Level-1-Challenges and cheese the hell out of the game - including very much reloads. At the moment i would rather play the challenge with a Level-1-Char than going for no-reload... sorry i have failed so soon @Grond0!
EDIT: Maybe i should take a little break from the challenge to calm down again and refresh my motivation!
- Tenya and the fishermen (2.5k XP), - Marl (900 XP), - Firebead (300 XP), - 8 out of 10 Basilisks in Mutamin's garden and if Korax does a good job all 10 plus Mutamin himself (16.8-26.1 XP), - the Coquetle family amulet (250 XP), - Noober (400 XP), - Albert and Rufie (1k XP), - Drienne (200 XP), - Brage (1k XP), - Samuel the Deserter (500 XP),
are early quests and encounters that don't require any killing at all other than the risk-free pelting of 6-8 of the Basilisks with a green scroll of protection from petrification, so that Korax can take care of Mutamin and the remaining Basilisks before he turns hostile. This could be done in less than an hour of actual game play. You'll be a level 5/5 Fighter/Thief by then. If you get the boots of stealth south of Beregost, your Dwarf can have 210 points in stealth at that point. That's more than enough really. I'd suffice with circa 140 aggregate innate stealth points, which you can achieve by level 4 if you allocate all your level 1 skill points to stealth. With the boots of stealth and the shadow armor you can have 50 extra stealth points for free, giving you pretty good stealth checks even during the day if you seek out the shades.
Pick up a good backstabbing weapon such as Drizzt's scimitars or the martial staff that you can buy in Ulgoth's Beard, and also a good ranged weapon, and you can start fighting the enemies that are worth killing. Think Meilum, Greywolf, the rogue ogre (whom I'd honestly kite and kill immediately after leaving Candlekeep for the protection of the Elves' bane girdle), the Hobgoblin with the boots of stealth, the Ogrillons that have Mirianne's letter, Landrin's Spiders, Shoal the Nereid (if you don't finish her earlier on) etc.
Well, you should of course do as you please. But with your encyclopedic knowledge of SCS/LoB play I, and several others with me, would love to see you do some no-reload butt kicking.
If you don't dig the Fighter/Thief, I can give you a really cool character type, and quite suitable for this challenge: the Mage dualled to fighter. You could dual as early as level 2. Or better, you can farm some XP up to say, level 5 (20k XP), which shouldn't be hard at all what with Durlag's Tower's Battle Horrors - easily slain with the wand of fire that you can pick up from the ankheg nest under invisibility - accounting for 16k XP alone. You could even aim for level 6 (40k XP), though that would require more planning. A level 5 Mage can cast two level 1 spells (four with the ring of wizardry), two level 2 spells and a level 3 spell. This means: free friends for good bargains and rewards; identification of items; knocking open locked chests; invisibility while traveling; webbing enemies; mirror image, minor spell deflection or protection from fire to deal with traps; hasting your summons etc. In addition you'll be able to use wands and scrolls, and other useful mage-only items. I've called this dual a low level UAI for fighters. Oh and you'll have as many or more HPs than a regular Fighter thanks to your Familiar. A pseudo dragon nets you 34 HPs. So if you dual at level 5 you'll only be 4 HPs behind a non-dualled fighter with max CON. In SoA you get to summon a new Familiar, and you'll be far ahead of a single class fighter in terms of HPs. Your only disadvantage will be having to play as a human and therefore having inferior saves compared to the shorties.
Thanks for all the input @Blackraven - i appreciate that a lot!
The Mage/Fighter Dual Class sounds supercool - never thought of that one. So many options!!! Maybe i should give this a try - after some resting. Playing the challenge for several months now has drained a lot of energy...
You've certainly earned a rest Harpagornis . Sadly it's inevitable that the euphoria of achieving a hard target is followed by something of a let-down, but @Blackraven has given plenty of useful advice there for when the bounce is back in your bungee! I agree that the early mage dual has a lot to recommend it and would probably suit you as an alternative way to make use of scrolls in the end game (BBoD doesn't suit pure thieves, but can be a nice addition for a fighter-type). I would add that if you're playing a thief no-reload you could get into the habit of resting until dark on arrival in a new area - even with decent stealth you'll save more time than you spend resting if you're doing much work on the map.
Meanwhile, Frew is nearing the end of his BG1 adventures. In the Cloakwood he picked up Spiders' Bane (not sure why really as it's no good to him ) before moving on to the mine. Genthore and the mages were charmed and pulled away separately for disposal to leave Drasus outgunned (even before being held). Frew used sanctuary to get down to Davaeorn's level, but I again couldn't think of any tactic that would give a decent chance of a quick win. Instead Frew waited for the guards to arrive and then used successive waves of domination and skeletons to whittle them away between rests (Davaeorn's area spell damage being helpful there). Once left on his own the mage was no problem.
In the City Frew wanted the tomes, together with Helm & Cloak of Balduran, the 2 Necklaces of Missiles and the Nymph Cloak. They were all obtained without real problems, though there were a couple of slightly disconcerting moments: - first when one of Shandalar's daughters started chucking MMMs at him while in sanctuary and I wondered if she would follow up with a nasty spell as well. - second when I fought up Ramazith's tower and the game ending screen came up as Frew entered the kobold commandos chamber. For an instant I thought 4 or 5 of them must have hit with criticals, but it was just the standard bug of the character portrait disappearing. I couldn't be bothered to do all those fights again though, so just killed Ramazith and used sanctuary to grab the loot upstairs.
After just sneaking into the Iron Throne Frew was sent to Candlekeep. I was unable to pause the game until the ogre magi had already launched attacks, but fortunately chromatic orbs and charm persons could be defeated by his spell saving throw of 3 without the need for potions. After robbing the tombs Frew used sanctuary to get past the dopplegangers, but then decided he wanted Prat's throwing axe. That wasn't entirely straightforward with all the spiders running interference and Frey had to withdraw and rest to get some more skeletons to finish him off.
Back in Baldur's Gate Frew recharged various items (despite them having had virtually no use) before seeking out Slythe. With wisdom now up to 21 Frew had 5 skeleton warriors available and they made short work of Slythe.
Krystin was a tougher proposition though and Frew had to rest before more skeletons took her down.
At the palace Frew charmed some of the Flaming Fist guards and buffed them with PfE, chant and bless in addition to his 5 skeleton warriors. Most of the party attacked the shaman to start with - as he's easier to bring down quickly than the mage. The assassin and the standard dopplegangers didn't do too much damage and both dukes were comfortably alive when the mage finally fell.
Sarevok killed Liia, but Belt was safely oblivious in a side room.
Frew spent most of the remaining cash he had available on recharging Liia's invisibility ring, before diving into the maze. Skeletons led there as usual and also did most of the killing of the Undercity party (though Gorf took revenge on Rahvin for being caught in an explosion). Frew's currently sitting outside Sarevok's temple wondering if there's anything he's forgotten that would be useful in SoD (Durlags is not a temptation for me as I don't use healing items) ...
Yeah, thats how i wanted to see you rolling @Grond0 - gogogo!!
@Blackraven has planted a pretty cool idea in my mind - maybe i should give it a try in the next days. But wouldnt it be even smarter to go for a specialized Mage? If i dual at 3 the Illusionist seems pretty cool - more Invisibility, more Mirror Images. Or are there even better choices? Or should i settle for plain Mage to stay as flexible as possible?
Morale failure confirmed with the Kiel's helmet on :
My theory was right : if you take a sip of the Durlag's Goblet after the effect of the Greenstone Amulet wears off, you'll have a morale failure, even if you wear the Kiel's helmet. The tricky part is that your character's sheet indicate that you're still immune to the fear effect, which isn't true. And I thought I had to test the effect for a long time for an occurrence to show up, it did in the very first try in the end.
@Grond0 : Since Frew is a fighter type, watch out : don't use the helmet in conjonction with the Greenstone Amulet if you plan to use the Goblet !!
For a specialized mage you're ruling out high level spell use from some scrolls in order to get 2 or 3 extra low level spells. Whether that's worth it depends on how you value the different spells ...
In the temple Frew took no chances. First, he stuck everyone except Angelo in a corner. Angelo has a lot of defensive capability, but not quite enough to fend off 5 skeleton warriors.
After waiting for Diarmid's PfM scroll to expire Frew got his Necklaces out and rained fireballs on his enemies from out of sight. His summons and some kiting finished off the skeleton warriors before he showed himself to Sarevok. He used some potions and commenced shooting him up. That took a while, but there was only ever going to be one result there .
Great work @Grond0! Good luck with BG1's last hurdle Congrats, and have fun in SoD!
@Harpagornis, glad you like the idea! Of course I'd completely understand it if you took a break, but I wouldn't mind seeing a Wizard turned Fighter join the challenge one of these days. I've thought of convenient mage specializations, but I find it impossible to recommend a specialization school. I'll leave that up to you. I advise against Abjurer, Transmuter, Necromancer, or Enchanter. But if you're willing to dual a specialist at level 3 then why not level a generalist at level 5?
Arriving in the SoD dungeon Frew used his wand of fear for the first time to break up the Followers of Sarevok into manageable chunks for his skeletons. Porios died, but not before making Frew retreat long enough for the enemies to kill all the Flaming Fist.
Moving on to the undead, Frew produced some skeletons and watched from sanctuary as they struggled to kill a single enemy. A bonebat then attacked him, which is fair enough (as they see through invisible), but all the rest of the undead followed as well despite never having seen him - thus meaning he had no chance to work through them piecemeal. That really only left the option of using a PfU scroll and he duly did so. However, I didn't want to take the time to try killing them all so bypassed several groups on the way to find some more elite mercenaries. I think that was a mistake as it meant Frew couldn't easily rest and was extremely vulnerable to remove magic. When the mercenaries followed him back to the exit point he buffed up and tried to see if he could wear them down with fireballs. However, he had only used one of those when a shadowdancer hit him with a backstab - meaning one further hit could be fatal. His second fireball was just about to launch though, so he stuck around for a second longer (or as it turned out a second too long).
I think next time I'm going to have to take the time to kill all the undead to give a more realistic chance of picking off the attackers at the exit point.
The added bonus of going specialist Mage is also the saving throw penalty that enemies receive from spells from your specialised school. @Blackraven, I thought an enchanter would be a good choice because of spells like hold, domination and chaos (with chaos already having a large saving throw penalty).
I've rolled up an enchanter to dual to a thief and see how that would fair. I'd imagine it would be pretty op once UAI is obtained but I really like the idea of dialling a Mage to a fighter. I imagine it would be very similar to a bard.
Holy cow @Grond0 - thats hurting even when only reading it...
But why making the starting dungeon that hard - especially in a no-reload-run? As @billbisco said: With PfU and Invisibility you can get to Korlasz without any fighting! It cant get safer than this...
@Grond0 why not just skip all the undead with the scroll and go straight for the final battle? Seems much safer.
I'm not certain where dispel magic traps are, which is one concern. The main issue though is that I thought Korlasz will fight unless you have a good encounter reaction - and Frew's charisma is only 9. He'd have no chance on his own in a stand up fight even with just Korlasz and co and I suspect that the other human enemies nearby would also join in if there was a fight (so if his retreat route back is blocked by other enemies he's going to have a problem ...)
Having quickly looked at an autosave, one possibility would be to go into the room with the door opening mechanism and summon / buff skeletons to take on the elite mercenaries before opening Korlasz' door. If that fight could be won and Frew successfully rested (which is not guaranteed) for more skeletons, then I'd be happy to fight Korlasz.
There is only one Dispel Magic trap right before Korlasz but with careful moving the guards in the room before will not see you. This means from now on its only Korlasz - and her guards. Arrows of Dispelling and Detonation are working wonders here. Summons also can be a lot of help to distract the nasty backstabbers. I fear Dispel Magic into the fog of war will not work as she is a Level 20 Mage. Thanks to Stoneskin and Protection from Fire it might be hard to take her down to "injured" before getting overwhelmed. Algernons Cloak on the other hand works quite well as her Save vs Breath is only 13...
Okay i have started Braxx II. - Dwarven F/T - for another no-reload-try after Braxx I. died early to the infamous Bandit ambush!
So far things are working pretty smoothly as i am solving mostly all of the minimal-risk-quests first.
Kited the thievish Ogre for the Girdle of Piercing ----- convinced Marl in Beregost ----- nooberized Noober ----- rejoined Albert and Rufie ----- helped Brage to get out of his Rage ----- brought Firebead another book ----- kited two Half Ogres and took the letter back to Mirianne ----- picked up Samuel and brought him to the FAI ----- solved the problems between Tenya and the Fisherman ----- helped Prism and kited Greywolf to death ------ enabled Thalantyr the Conjurer to restore his fowl apprentice Melicamp to human form ----- kited some Hobgoblins for Boots of Stealth -----
Kiting is just a matter of patience as long as the enemies have no ranged attack. So far Braxx had put nearly all points into Move Silently to make sure that he (nearly) always can get away unseen. The biggest difference to a normal run so far: I avoid resting in the wilderness and skip traps completly. Oh, and i already grabbed many defensive potions - maybe they will be useful later on. Who knows! After some resting it might be time to take on the Basiliks - for another push.
@Grond0, very sorry about another loss in the starting dungeon. I hope you're willing to try again, and follow our fellow players' advice. Your own idea of gathering an army of skeletons at the entrance sounds like a good backup plan too. I think it's quite feasible to make some good progress in SoD without reloads, once the starting dungeon is out of the way. @Harpagornis, Braxx II is looking good! With Mutamin and his Basilisks dealt with he'll be sitting on about 40k XP (level 5/6). With good Thac0 and stealth, and a x3 backstab modifier, backstab time is drawing near
The added bonus of going specialist Mage is also the saving throw penalty that enemies receive from spells from your specialised school. @Blackraven, I thought an enchanter would be a good choice because of spells like hold, domination and chaos (with chaos already having a large saving throw penalty).
I agree that specialists' saves penalties are a nice perk for some of the specialization schools, especially if you can cast Greater Malison first. This will make your Enchanter's Charm/Enchantment spells pretty reliable in BG1, in SoD (insofar as enemies are susceptible to enchantment spells), and in early BG2, despite LoB enemies' huge +5 bonus to saves. Nevertheless, their opposition school, Invocation, does have lots of good spells. In a no-reload context missing out on the sequencers and contingencies will be particularly harsh. A simple Minor Sequencer with Invisibility and Mirror Image, or a Contingency with a Stoneskin or an Otiluke's Resilient Sphere can be life-savers. If you've installed the SCS component that makes sequencers and contingencies learnable by all mages, your Enchanter won't miss out on those spells though.
I've rolled up an enchanter to dual to a thief and see how that would fair. I'd imagine it would be pretty op once UAI is obtained but I really like the idea of dialling a Mage to a fighter. I imagine it would be very similar to a bard.
This sounds like fun. Are you willing to share your experiences here?
For a mage dualled to thief getting UAI won't be all that consequential because the mage levels already make a lot of items available before you get the HLA. Still, the added flexibility and survivability will impact the early and mid game in a good way of course. And being a specialist mage won't be as detrimental for a thief character, because UAI will eventually allow to cast from scrolls of their opposition school.
Still, in the long run a mage/fighter dual gains more from their mage levels than a mage/thief dual in my opinion. Not only because the former will never get UAI but also because thieves have some very useful built-in perks that fighters lack and that magic can make up for. I'm thinking of stealth and find traps. A thief will sneak through the Nahskel Mines without having to worry about the many kobolds there, whereas a fighter will probably rely on finite resources (invisibility potion) to avoid having to fight the kobolds. I also think that Irenicus' dungeon with the many duergar and some potentially deadly traps is a horrible place for a single class fighter. Having some arcane magic at your disposal will make such a big difference there.
On her way from Durlag's Tower back to Baldur's Gate, Mordica stopped at the Firewine Bridge to pickpocket Bentan's PfMagic scroll and to loot the ruins (in particular for another free wand of fire). Back in the city she fully buffed for her encounter with Slythe, charmed the undercellar guard and summoned monsters. She tried to separate Slythe from Krystin, so that she would actually stand a chance in melee. Alas, Krystin stood by her man, and that made the encounter pretty tricky. Krystin had two Remove Magics, a Secret Word, and a Breach, so Mordica was never going to keep her buffs. A critical backstab from Slythe would instantly kill her. She retreated to the exit and just kept summoning with her wand, making Slythe waste his invisibility potions on them, and Krystin her spells. As Krystin stayed back a bit, Mordica could fight Slythe with ranged attacks.
When he was at near death, Mordica vanquished him in melee under Offensive Spin.
She dispelled Krystin's buffs with arrows of dispelling, and finished her with more summoned help.
At the Ducal Palace, Mordica went all out with her buffs (lots of potions), hoping to stay off the Remove Magic casting Doppelganger Mage's radar for as long as possible. She summoned two skeleton warriors from scrolls that she had bought in Ulgoth's Beard and at the Sorcerous Sundries, and Hasted them. She didn't summon with her wand yet, fearful that the Doppelganger Mage's confusion spells might cause summons to attack Belt or Flaming Fist mercenaries, which could make the Dukes go hostile. In our eagerness we tried to cast Invisibility on Liia with a turbid aura. Mordica retreated to attack the Doppelgangers with arrows of dispelling, witnessed an Unholy Blight from the Shaman descend on Liia, and then cast Invisibility on Liia from out of sight of the Mage (who usually hangs back in the southeast corner of the room). She hit all the Doppelgangers with her dispelling arrows, except the Mage, who spotted her and cast Remove Magic at her. Mordica had to retreat and rebuff. With almost all Doppelgangers debuffed, the skeletons and later repeated wand summons were too strong for the Doppelgangers. They fell one after the other. The Mage was the last to fall. Mordica hit it with dispelling arrows and finished it in melee with her summons.
We went straight after Sarevok, and beat him with minimal effort. She lured Angelo out of invisibility with wand summons, and dispelled his buffs with an arrow, but when he took a hit he went invisible again. Mordica went invisible as well and went looking for him to cast Detect Invisibility. However she inadvertently talked to one of the bats as she was approaching Sarevok's platform, causing her to become visible again. I didn't immediately notice that, but Diarmid did. He launched a poisoned arrow at her. Sarevok and the others too came after Mordica. The Blade used potions to get rid of the poison and of her pursuers. She then killed Semaj, Tazok, and Diarmid with wand fireballs cast from without their visual range. When she found Angelo, she gave him the same treatment. Finally, Mordica dispelled Sarevok's haste (which took her several arrows actually) and wand scorchered him to death.
Mordica has just arrived in Kolasz's lair with much less XP than I expected (173.8k). I hope I can soon give you all good news about Mordica's progress in SoD.
@Blackraven, as much as I'd love to try that character in a LoB solo challenge, I just don't have the patience! I just completed SoD with a solo blade without mods and on normal difficulty and I found that challenging as it is! I do have a half-elf ranger/cleric set up and chilling in Nashkel on a LoB run but I've become distracted with this blade I'm running with in SoA. No doubt restartitis will kick in and I'll roll up a Mage>fighter soon enough!
Killed Meilum for the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise ----- took Hentolds Dagger to the Revanant ----- returned Mr. Colquetle Family Amulet ------ helped the Dryad of Cloudpeak and kited Caldo and Krumm down ----- brought back the lost cat to Drienne ----- grabbed Joias Ring from some thievish Hobgoblins ---- reputation @20
After doing mostly trivial talk-and-walk quests with some kiting in between Braxx II. reached level 4/4 and felt strong enough to face the Basiliks. The strategy for clearing the area was clear: Scout first to make sure that he will not run into Gnolls or Tasloi groups. After that he lured Korax near the first group in the south to delay the talking and joining as much as possible. Korax went in face-to-face with the beasts while Braxx used a Protection from Petrification scroll and shooted arrows with his newly aquired Composite Longbow +1 that hurts for 8-13 damage each hit. Once Korax managed to stun one of the Basilisks Braxx immediately switched to dual-wielding Longsword +2 / Longsword +1 to maximize the damage. With this supersafe tactic they cleared the south area and finally moved on to Mutamin. After several seconds of trembling Korax managed to land his stun through the Mirror Images so Braxx joined in with his Longswords and both started to drain Mutamins life away. After another stun landed it was clear that the main danger was gone and shortly after the second Greater Basilisk followed into oblivion – as well as the rest. 26K XP earned in nearly no time that pushed Braxx to level 5/6 – wonderful.
P.S. Another thing that Braxx II. is always doing before he pushes the travel button: Equip the Ankheg Armor to push his Missile AC to -10. You never know IF the Bandit Archers will strike again - lol.
Yeah, things went two times badly wrong after getting to level 5/6. First: The one time Braxx forgot to take on his Ankheg Armor the Bandit Archers ambushed him. ARGH!! But unlike Braxx I. this time luck was on his side and all of them missed their shots - *phew*!
Next trouble happened in the Nashkel Mines where he sneaked through the Goblin infested levels without problems. But before getting to the Magic Missile Trap and the lots of Kobold Commandos Braxx failed his roll and lost his stealth nearly immediately. Normally there is some delay once stealth finally breaks but this time: No! Braxx was suddenly surrounded by a dozen Kobolds that started attacking. The first Fire Arrow landed for 16 damage. "Ah, no problem" Braxx thought for a second before the next one landed hitting him for 18 damage. As he was already wounded from one of the traps before his HP dropped to 19 - damn it!! This could have been the end so Braxx pressed his SOS-button and used the one and only Invisibility Potion. Another *phew*!
After that things went pretty smooth again! As he had succesfully stolen Algernons Cloak earlier (70 points in Pick Pocket + 20 from Potion of Perception) he charmed one Kobold and used this distraction to backstab the hell out of the rest. Once the area around Mulahey was clear he shooted an arrow from max distance and immediately went into stealth again. He waited until all Skeletons and Goblins gathered around Mulahey and started his burning using Necklace of Missiles. He could have tried to get in some backstabs but the shocks from before let him choose the absolute safest path - *Boom*!
Time to collect some more invisibilty options - damn. Looks like death is only one step away...
EDIT: After tricking Tranzig with the up-and-down-stairs Braxx will farm some Ankhegs to get enough gold for the Sandthief Ring!
After killing four Ankhegs and returning Brun´s dead son Braxx bought the Santhief Ring and moved on to the Bandits Camp. Thanks to Tevens introduction and some smart talking he was able to move freely through the Camp.
To get in and out of the big tent without harm Braxx pushed his resistance against electricity to 100% and stealthed up to the chest and the prisoner. Thanks to the Sandthief Ring he immediately went invisible and moved out again. This could have been the end of the show but Braxx was attracted by all the precious loot of the named ones.
Therefore he charmed Taurgosz Khosann outside after several tries (resting seems to be safe here!) and positioned him right in front of the tent. All Braxx had to do from nowon was: Stealth in, wait until stealth breaks and run out again to restealth immediately while Taurgosz bashed anyone apart that was foolish enough to step out. Hakt was the first the go down - Venkt the second. His Chromatic Orb was saved and hasted Taurgosz hacked easily through his Mirror Images. Britik was the third and also had no chance against the heavy bruiser.
After some more tent visits – without getting anyone out – the camp was swarmed by Bandits so Braxx moved to the outer circles – with a devilish plan in his mind. Still in stealth he sacrificed the nearly dead Taurgosz only to grab all of his fine equipment (i wasnt sure if a backstab might kill him before he turns hostile and hacks Braxx apart so i preferred the safe option). Thanks to all of the loot his gold moved up from nearly zero up to 16k – superb!
Was their any danger of dying? Not really! Thanks to the charmed Taurgosz plus being untouchable due to stealth or invisibility the enemies had no chance to hit him. Braxx always made sure that he was standing right at the exit point so he could move out of the tent immediately – even before any arrow or Chromatic Orb might hit him. Big thanks to the Space Button!
After some restocking the Cloakwood and the Mines should be next – we will see!
One more thing to point out after fighting my way through ToB and all of the Big Five. This one should especially please @Victor_Creed_SFV:
The "Harm"onization works wonders even against the bosses:
Illasera? "Harm"onized with ease! Gromnir? "Harm"onized after several tries as his magic resistance can be annoying! Yaga-Shura? The tough one gets "harm"onized with ease - if you can hit him! Sendai? Reduce her Magic Resistance and she will be "harm"onized in no time! Abazigal? One "Harm"onization switches this battle from hard to supereasy! Balthazar? No need to fight him - but it should work too, no?
As you can see Harm is (most probably) working against all of the Big Five! This spell absolutely rocks the house and the only enemy so far that is constantly resisting it is big bad Kangaxx. But there are other ways to beat him, no?
VERY BIG EDIT: Tested Harm against Amelyssan and - what can i say: It worked. LOL! Just some Lower Resistances before and the "Harm"onizer triggered on the sixth try! Should remember this one for my next Druid!
That's great news, shame only Druid/Dual Druid can use it in SoD because of priests different level progression.
Sorry for my absence, I'm back to the grind in Durlag's tower, I was very demotivated by the fact I'll either have to invis potion cheese or if it works wand of monster summoning in SoD's final battle, I really hoped there would be a F/M/C specific thing I can do and it's kinda frustrating this class will only shine in SoA/ToB which is already easier than SoD.
Welcome back to the action @Victor_Creed_SFV! Hope there will be several new videos soon!!
Yeah, its quite cool that Harm works against nearly anything. Have i already stated that even big bad Melissan can be dropped from 100 to 1 once her MR is gone? This was the reason why i wanted to play a pure Druid - until i realized that all of the Big Five (including Sarevok) have to die before - damn!
One another note I just managed to remove some self created frustration. As some of you might remember polymorph was kinda broken for me, as in not being able to remove the "claws" of polymorphed creatures with fist spells I double rechecked my ScS install and for some reason I installed "improved shapeshifting" which if I'm perfectly honest idek what it does, but removing that component fixed my polymorph and now casting ghoul touch from scrolls (and similar spells) works as intended and doesn't dispel my polymorph anymore which is huge for my personal motivation of playing the F/M/C since I want to use character specific spells as often as possible and neither wands nor invis potions are specific at all and I wouldn't feel accomplished if I finish the game because I kept spamming those to win wile I play a caster class.
Strange things happening in the Cloakwoods or "Run Braxx - Run!"
The first area on his travel through the Cloakwoods was quite funny as Aldeth Sashenstar was tricked badly after Braxx charmed both of his guards - with one rest in between! Worth to remember: Stealth remains even when you get ambushed while resting so you can easily retreat – or flank the enemies for some nasty backstabs! However: Braxx and his new friends used their superior numbers to crush Aldeth quite easily. Poor guy!
After traveling to the next area three Phase Spiders jumped at Braxx only one (or two?) seconds later. A quick pause plus one more invisibility charge from the Sandthief Ring saved him from any harm. Invisible and with the Ring of Free Action from Dushai on his hands he moved on the next area. Well at least he tried cause Molkar ambushed him. But – thanks to the good gods - his invisibility was still up. LOL!
Not used to the dangerous nature around Braxx disturbed a Cave Bear that ran after him with lightning speed. As he did not want to use another invisibility charge he pressed the travel button again before another hit could land...
Now Lamalha ambushed him – unbelievable! Braxx immediately ran to the map border before any spell or arrow could land. No need for invisibility or haste this time – phew! After all of these escapes Braxx finally managed to reach the Cloakwood Mines – time for Drasus and his party!
Before he charmed one of the guards with Algernons Cloak (two tries with one safe rest in between) so they could hack down each other. He killed the survivor with one backstab and put on his fully charged Necklace of Missiles to start the Cheese of Burning!
The result this time was quite bad -> Rezdan: 16 charges, Kysus: 18 charges. Drasus and Genthore both survived the burning even though they were down to „nearly dead“. Braxx started another cheese program sniping Drasus with his new Longbow +2 out of stealth. After the first 7 damage hit Drasus searched for him – without success. Thanks to good timing another 8 damage shot landed and Drasus stopped – knowing what was coming: Braxx sniped him down with a final 10 damage shot and immediately grabbed his boots! With Haste still active Braxx rushed in to Genthore and backstabbed him down with a mighty 52 damage blow – boom!
Quite cheesy but - as i always claim: Safety first! I am starting to like no-reload-runs. LOL!
Here I talked about not wanting to wand cheese so much, but I just cheesed the heck out of the Durlag's Wardens. Precast skeletons. (would also work with monster summoning I believe) Go invis, when the wardens attack, lure them into their own cloudkill with the skeletons. Avarice dies to the cloudkill, the other three are either injured or badly injured. Cast wand of cheese aka fire from out of sight. Pick up wardstone.
@Harpagornis, nice no-reload work sir! It's great to see Braxx doing what needs to be done in order to survive And he's come up with some clever tactics as well. Keep up the good work. Because of the no-reload character of your run I wonder with every post: did Braxx make it? Quite thrilling! @Victor_Creed_SFV, welcome back! I agree that the considerable difficulty of SCS coupled with LoB limits one's options. Hopefully you can enjoy your run, even if it means using common tactics every now and then.
Mordica, 1st SoD report
Mordica has made quite a bit of progress, but it's been a very bumpy ride so far... I'll focus on the larger quests.
Korlasz's lair Mordica summoned monsters with her wand to draw some of Korlasz's guards away from the door leading to Porios's room. She retreated, snuck invisibly past the guards, and intimidated Porios into surrendering. Upon arrival at the second level Mordica read a PfUndead scroll. A first "oh no!" moment occurred soon after: the spectral undead attacked Mordica despite her protection.
She instinctively rushed past the creatures, but that only gave her more trouble. She ran straight into a group of Korlasz's adherents. SoD treats invisbility in a rather peculiar way: if you go invisible in front of any enemies they will follow you around. This meant that Mordica had to choose between fighting the adherents first, and Korlasz later, or accepting that the adherents would join the fight with Korlasz. The Blade went with the second option. She buffed extensively, relying on several potions and a few scrolls she still had from BG. She then Malisoned many members of Korlasz's massive following,
and confused the majority of them, including Korlasz, with a Chaos. This gave Mordica some measure of confidence that her buffs wouldn't be stripped within a round or two. She then pulled an Algernon on Korlasz.
The wizard was soon killed by her own followers. Unfortunately Mordica couldn't finish all of the minor quests, simply because the insane amounts of enemies hampered her movement too much.
Baldur's Gate There were no irregularites here other than Ithyl Calentryn, a woman at the Three Old Kegs, and one of Mordica's many pickpocket marks, going hostile and proving to be a mage, but this didn't result in any bloodshed.
Coastway There were several "oh no!" moments in this area. Mordica still had three PfUndead scrolls left, so she decided to help the Dwarves of Dumathoin. Sadly, she failed to keep Brother Deepvain and his comrades alive. Brother Deepvain didn't drop the anti-lich stone, but he and his fellows did drop their coldhearth necklaces. Mordica picked up those necklaces plus one more from a corpse in one of the corridors for a total of five, or so we believed. We found our way to the Coldhearth Lich, which wasn't much of an achievement as only the Bronze Sentry (which she slew with her wand of frost at one point) and the Elementals weren't impacted by Mordica's PfUndead. The idea was to recruit the Lich against the Crusaders. However, it turned out that Mordica had only four necklaces, she was one short. This enfuriated the Lich. Thanks to Mordica's PfU, the Lich didn't really do anything other than casting Stoneskins. Mordica could finish it quite easily. She picked up the phylactery, and ran off to throw it into the elemental pit. But hordes of undead were blocking her path at every turn and summoning monsters from wand caused one of the Mummies to instil fear in those summons and in Mordica.
Thankfully she was still protected, but she didn't make it to the portal on time. The Lich recovered and reappeared, this time it cleverly cast Remove Magic on itself twice. Mordica initially kept her distance though, wary of the creature's tricks. She slew it a second time in melee combat, and managed to timely destroy the phylactery. At the Coastway Crossing, there was some sort of bug with Crommus. He wouldn't speak to his Aline, and he wouldn't point Mordica to his grave, denying her a number of nice items. When Mordica lured Teleria's Stone Golem to the camp, a number of spiders joined the golem in its pursuit. Mordica destroyed the golem,
but a Gargantuan Spider I hadn't noticed (probably because they seem to be slower) rendered her unconscious,
while some of the Phase Spiders killed Soralis, Edwin, and a Flaming Fist Mercenary with their poisons. Mordica was lucky there were so many allies around to keep the spiders busy. She survived.
Troll Claw Woods and Forest of Wyrms In the Troll Claw Woods and nearby ambush areas, Mordica did all of her scouting and looting of treasure under the cover of invisibility. She beat the Half-Orcs in a dual using her wand of fire. In the Forest of Wyrms, she continued with her stealthy approach until she reached the Temple of Bhaal. She found Ziatar and had the Half-Dragon and two wizard minions waste spells on her wand summons while staying back herself.
This worked until Ziatar scared some summons, causing the latter to flee in Mordica's direction. Ziatar cast an Unholy Blight at Mordica, and the Blade was too late to escape its AoE.
Mordica chose to go invisible to heal. When she returned she Malisoned Ziatar and one of the mages from afar and confused them with a Chaos. With more summons, she managed to kill both mages and to bring Ziatar down to near death status, but the latter then cast Sanctuary a few times, and healed herself with three Cure Critical Wounds. Mordica and her summons brought Ziatar back to near death, but the Blade was fortunate to have gone invisible again shortly before Ziatar instilled Dragon Fear in her summons and in Mordica.
The Blade returned, hoping to finish her foe in melee, but was put off by the amount of poison damage the Half-Dragon dealt.
Yet another pack of summons and some well-placed arrows eventually meant the end of Ziatar.
Mordica's next target was Akanna, who had the wardstone that could activate the teleport circle near Bridgefort. Akanna is a Cleric/Thief with invisibility potions. She simply disappeared after she'd gone hostile, probably confiding in the deadliness of her Aerial Servants and of the Neothelid. Unintentionally, Mordica baited the Aerial Servants away, into the ritual room where the Neothelid had spawned. She had to be on the move the whole time because of the Neothelid with its poisonous puddles, its castings of Domination, and its mordyesque swords summons. A lot of running around, healing, thinking, trying and failing to somehow get rid of the Neothelid nearly led to Mordica dying to a combination of Neothelid poison and Akanna's Holy Blight and sling bullets.
For Mordica, her pight warranted a sip from Durlag's Goblet, although this meant that she was going to have to keep her Greenstone Amulet active in order not to panic. The Blade further buffed with haste, a potion of defense, and a potion of magic shielding. The latter potion ensures that all saves are made. Since the Neothelid poison allows for a save vs death, this made the monster a lot less dangerous (even though its physical attacks were still very damaging). Mordica Malisoned and Algernoned Akanna.
For some reason this did not make the Neothelid lose interest in Mordica. Just as puzzling was the fact that Akanna was (temporarily) blue-circled again after casting one spell for Mordica. The Blade was baffled for one second, but reacted the next with a paralyzation with her wand. Akanna failed her save (got a green circle for a moment again, and then a red one). Mordica, running around to stay out of the Neothelid's reach, finished Akanna with wand scorchers.
Since her antics with Ziatar, the Neothelid, and Akanna had cost Mordica many charges of her Sandthief rings, she swiftly looted Morgentherene's lair on her way out.
Mordica is currently enjoying some time off at the camp in the Troll Claw Woods. I think she's earned it as she's done a lot of work. Despite her working alone, gold might become an issue for Mordica because she uses so many consumable items (wands, scrolls, potions, two Sandthief's rings). And Belegarm still has lots of items that Mordica wants to buy, more than she can currently afford.
@Blackraven Have you tried Polymorph with your Blade yet? I just realized the sword spider form retains 5 attacks even if the claws are removed and your original weapon reappears. I wonder how well a blade would do in tanking melee attacks while in sword spider form, you get to -9 AC with DuHm and Potion of Defense or the like, with def spin that would be a whopping -19. Usually on loB that's not enough, but with 5 Attacks using a regular weapon you kill foes a lot quicker.
edit: tested it with a blade level 10 and with blur + def spin + sword spider fully buffed you get -21 with potion and -20 with the armor spell you can buy 20 scrolls in BG city.
Comments
Maybe it was bad luck ? Very small percentage ? Let just say that Caligula relied HEAVILY on the goblet. If it has only a small chance of happening, then maybe it was bound to happen to me sooner or later. Just want to give a warning based on my experience.
Edit : Maybe it has something to do with the interaction between the Greenstone Amulet and the Kiel's helmet (which I was ALWAYS wearing). When the Amulet's effect wears off, maybe it sometimes takes the fear protection from the helmet with it. Just like you have to put the Boots of Speed back on when you took off the Ring of Free Action so you can have the haste effect again. It's only speculation though and I will try to run some tests tonight.
Yeah this will get better later but - damn - i am used to play the game from the opposite direction: Restrict your items/skill to the maximum - like in my No-Items- or Level-1-Challenges and cheese the hell out of the game - including very much reloads. At the moment i would rather play the challenge with a Level-1-Char than going for no-reload... sorry i have failed so soon @Grond0!
EDIT: Maybe i should take a little break from the challenge to calm down again and refresh my motivation!
- Tenya and the fishermen (2.5k XP),
- Marl (900 XP),
- Firebead (300 XP),
- 8 out of 10 Basilisks in Mutamin's garden and if Korax does a good job all 10 plus Mutamin himself (16.8-26.1 XP),
- the Coquetle family amulet (250 XP),
- Noober (400 XP),
- Albert and Rufie (1k XP),
- Drienne (200 XP),
- Brage (1k XP),
- Samuel the Deserter (500 XP),
are early quests and encounters that don't require any killing at all other than the risk-free pelting of 6-8 of the Basilisks with a green scroll of protection from petrification, so that Korax can take care of Mutamin and the remaining Basilisks before he turns hostile. This could be done in less than an hour of actual game play.
You'll be a level 5/5 Fighter/Thief by then. If you get the boots of stealth south of Beregost, your Dwarf can have 210 points in stealth at that point. That's more than enough really. I'd suffice with circa 140 aggregate innate stealth points, which you can achieve by level 4 if you allocate all your level 1 skill points to stealth. With the boots of stealth and the shadow armor you can have 50 extra stealth points for free, giving you pretty good stealth checks even during the day if you seek out the shades.
Pick up a good backstabbing weapon such as Drizzt's scimitars or the martial staff that you can buy in Ulgoth's Beard, and also a good ranged weapon, and you can start fighting the enemies that are worth killing. Think Meilum, Greywolf, the rogue ogre (whom I'd honestly kite and kill immediately after leaving Candlekeep for the protection of the Elves' bane girdle), the Hobgoblin with the boots of stealth, the Ogrillons that have Mirianne's letter, Landrin's Spiders, Shoal the Nereid (if you don't finish her earlier on) etc.
Well, you should of course do as you please. But with your encyclopedic knowledge of SCS/LoB play I, and several others with me, would love to see you do some no-reload butt kicking.
If you don't dig the Fighter/Thief, I can give you a really cool character type, and quite suitable for this challenge: the Mage dualled to fighter. You could dual as early as level 2. Or better, you can farm some XP up to say, level 5 (20k XP), which shouldn't be hard at all what with Durlag's Tower's Battle Horrors - easily slain with the wand of fire that you can pick up from the ankheg nest under invisibility - accounting for 16k XP alone. You could even aim for level 6 (40k XP), though that would require more planning.
A level 5 Mage can cast two level 1 spells (four with the ring of wizardry), two level 2 spells and a level 3 spell. This means: free friends for good bargains and rewards; identification of items; knocking open locked chests; invisibility while traveling; webbing enemies; mirror image, minor spell deflection or protection from fire to deal with traps; hasting your summons etc. In addition you'll be able to use wands and scrolls, and other useful mage-only items. I've called this dual a low level UAI for fighters.
Oh and you'll have as many or more HPs than a regular Fighter thanks to your Familiar. A pseudo dragon nets you 34 HPs. So if you dual at level 5 you'll only be 4 HPs behind a non-dualled fighter with max CON. In SoA you get to summon a new Familiar, and you'll be far ahead of a single class fighter in terms of HPs.
Your only disadvantage will be having to play as a human and therefore having inferior saves compared to the shorties.
The Mage/Fighter Dual Class sounds supercool - never thought of that one. So many options!!! Maybe i should give this a try - after some resting. Playing the challenge for several months now has drained a lot of energy...
Meanwhile, Frew is nearing the end of his BG1 adventures. In the Cloakwood he picked up Spiders' Bane (not sure why really as it's no good to him
In the City Frew wanted the tomes, together with Helm & Cloak of Balduran, the 2 Necklaces of Missiles and the Nymph Cloak. They were all obtained without real problems, though there were a couple of slightly disconcerting moments:
- first when one of Shandalar's daughters started chucking MMMs at him while in sanctuary and I wondered if she would follow up with a nasty spell as well.
- second when I fought up Ramazith's tower and the game ending screen came up as Frew entered the kobold commandos chamber. For an instant I thought 4 or 5 of them must have hit with criticals, but it was just the standard bug of the character portrait disappearing. I couldn't be bothered to do all those fights again though, so just killed Ramazith and used sanctuary to grab the loot upstairs.
After just sneaking into the Iron Throne Frew was sent to Candlekeep. I was unable to pause the game until the ogre magi had already launched attacks, but fortunately chromatic orbs and charm persons could be defeated by his spell saving throw of 3 without the need for potions. After robbing the tombs Frew used sanctuary to get past the dopplegangers, but then decided he wanted Prat's throwing axe. That wasn't entirely straightforward with all the spiders running interference and Frey had to withdraw and rest to get some more skeletons to finish him off.
Back in Baldur's Gate Frew recharged various items (despite them having had virtually no use) before seeking out Slythe. With wisdom now up to 21 Frew had 5 skeleton warriors available and they made short work of Slythe.
At the palace Frew charmed some of the Flaming Fist guards and buffed them with PfE, chant and bless in addition to his 5 skeleton warriors. Most of the party attacked the shaman to start with - as he's easier to bring down quickly than the mage. The assassin and the standard dopplegangers didn't do too much damage and both dukes were comfortably alive when the mage finally fell.
Frew spent most of the remaining cash he had available on recharging Liia's invisibility ring, before diving into the maze. Skeletons led there as usual and also did most of the killing of the Undercity party (though Gorf took revenge on Rahvin for being caught in an explosion). Frew's currently sitting outside Sarevok's temple wondering if there's anything he's forgotten that would be useful in SoD (Durlags is not a temptation for me as I don't use healing items) ...
@Blackraven has planted a pretty cool idea in my mind - maybe i should give it a try in the next days. But wouldnt it be even smarter to go for a specialized Mage? If i dual at 3 the Illusionist seems pretty cool - more Invisibility, more Mirror Images. Or are there even better choices? Or should i settle for plain Mage to stay as flexible as possible?
My theory was right : if you take a sip of the Durlag's Goblet after the effect of the Greenstone Amulet wears off, you'll have a morale failure, even if you wear the Kiel's helmet. The tricky part is that your character's sheet indicate that you're still immune to the fear effect, which isn't true. And I thought I had to test the effect for a long time for an occurrence to show up, it did in the very first try in the end.
@Grond0 : Since Frew is a fighter type, watch out : don't use the helmet in conjonction with the Greenstone Amulet if you plan to use the Goblet !!
In the temple Frew took no chances. First, he stuck everyone except Angelo in a corner. Angelo has a lot of defensive capability, but not quite enough to fend off 5 skeleton warriors.
Good luck with BG1's last hurdleCongrats, and have fun in SoD!@Harpagornis, glad you like the idea! Of course I'd completely understand it if you took a break, but I wouldn't mind seeing a Wizard turned Fighter join the challenge one of these days.
Moving on to the undead, Frew produced some skeletons and watched from sanctuary as they struggled to kill a single enemy. A bonebat then attacked him, which is fair enough (as they see through invisible), but all the rest of the undead followed as well despite never having seen him - thus meaning he had no chance to work through them piecemeal. That really only left the option of using a PfU scroll and he duly did so. However, I didn't want to take the time to try killing them all so bypassed several groups on the way to find some more elite mercenaries. I think that was a mistake as it meant Frew couldn't easily rest and was extremely vulnerable to remove magic. When the mercenaries followed him back to the exit point he buffed up and tried to see if he could wear them down with fireballs. However, he had only used one of those when a shadowdancer hit him with a backstab - meaning one further hit could be fatal. His second fireball was just about to launch though, so he stuck around for a second longer (or as it turned out a second too long).
I think next time I'm going to have to take the time to kill all the undead to give a more realistic chance of picking off the attackers at the exit point.
I've rolled up an enchanter to dual to a thief and see how that would fair. I'd imagine it would be pretty op once UAI is obtained but I really like the idea of dialling a Mage to a fighter. I imagine it would be very similar to a bard.
@Harpagornis I am really hoping you will beat Mellisan! Please don't give up! I want to see you crush that Demon summoning cheapskate!
But why making the starting dungeon that hard - especially in a no-reload-run? As @billbisco said: With PfU and Invisibility you can get to Korlasz without any fighting! It cant get safer than this...
Having quickly looked at an autosave, one possibility would be to go into the room with the door opening mechanism and summon / buff skeletons to take on the elite mercenaries before opening Korlasz' door. If that fight could be won and Frew successfully rested (which is not guaranteed) for more skeletons, then I'd be happy to fight Korlasz.
So far things are working pretty smoothly as i am solving mostly all of the minimal-risk-quests first.
Kited the thievish Ogre for the Girdle of Piercing ----- convinced Marl in Beregost ----- nooberized Noober ----- rejoined Albert and Rufie ----- helped Brage to get out of his Rage ----- brought Firebead another book ----- kited two Half Ogres and took the letter back to Mirianne ----- picked up Samuel and brought him to the FAI ----- solved the problems between Tenya and the Fisherman ----- helped Prism and kited Greywolf to death ------ enabled Thalantyr the Conjurer to restore his fowl apprentice Melicamp to human form ----- kited some Hobgoblins for Boots of Stealth -----
Kiting is just a matter of patience as long as the enemies have no ranged attack. So far Braxx had put nearly all points into Move Silently to make sure that he (nearly) always can get away unseen. The biggest difference to a normal run so far: I avoid resting in the wilderness and skip traps completly. Oh, and i already grabbed many defensive potions - maybe they will be useful later on. Who knows! After some resting it might be time to take on the Basiliks - for another push.
Braxx II. after his first session:
@Harpagornis, Braxx II is looking good! With Mutamin and his Basilisks dealt with he'll be sitting on about 40k XP (level 5/6). With good Thac0 and stealth, and a x3 backstab modifier, backstab time is drawing near
Nevertheless, their opposition school, Invocation, does have lots of good spells. In a no-reload context missing out on the sequencers and contingencies will be particularly harsh. A simple Minor Sequencer with Invisibility and Mirror Image, or a Contingency with a Stoneskin or an Otiluke's Resilient Sphere can be life-savers. If you've installed the SCS component that makes sequencers and contingencies learnable by all mages, your Enchanter won't miss out on those spells though. This sounds like fun. Are you willing to share your experiences here?
For a mage dualled to thief getting UAI won't be all that consequential because the mage levels already make a lot of items available before you get the HLA. Still, the added flexibility and survivability will impact the early and mid game in a good way of course. And being a specialist mage won't be as detrimental for a thief character, because UAI will eventually allow to cast from scrolls of their opposition school.
Still, in the long run a mage/fighter dual gains more from their mage levels than a mage/thief dual in my opinion. Not only because the former will never get UAI but also because thieves have some very useful built-in perks that fighters lack and that magic can make up for. I'm thinking of stealth and find traps. A thief will sneak through the Nahskel Mines without having to worry about the many kobolds there, whereas a fighter will probably rely on finite resources (invisibility potion) to avoid having to fight the kobolds. I also think that Irenicus' dungeon with the many duergar and some potentially deadly traps is a horrible place for a single class fighter. Having some arcane magic at your disposal will make such a big difference there.
On her way from Durlag's Tower back to Baldur's Gate, Mordica stopped at the Firewine Bridge to pickpocket Bentan's PfMagic scroll and to loot the ruins (in particular for another free wand of fire). Back in the city she fully buffed for her encounter with Slythe, charmed the undercellar guard and summoned monsters. She tried to separate Slythe from Krystin, so that she would actually stand a chance in melee. Alas, Krystin stood by her man, and that made the encounter pretty tricky. Krystin had two Remove Magics, a Secret Word, and a Breach, so Mordica was never going to keep her buffs. A critical backstab from Slythe would instantly kill her. She retreated to the exit and just kept summoning with her wand, making Slythe waste his invisibility potions on them, and Krystin her spells. As Krystin stayed back a bit, Mordica could fight Slythe with ranged attacks.
At the Ducal Palace, Mordica went all out with her buffs (lots of potions), hoping to stay off the Remove Magic casting Doppelganger Mage's radar for as long as possible. She summoned two skeleton warriors from scrolls that she had bought in Ulgoth's Beard and at the Sorcerous Sundries, and Hasted them. She didn't summon with her wand yet, fearful that the Doppelganger Mage's confusion spells might cause summons to attack Belt or Flaming Fist mercenaries, which could make the Dukes go hostile.
In our eagerness we tried to cast Invisibility on Liia with a turbid aura. Mordica retreated to attack the Doppelgangers with arrows of dispelling, witnessed an Unholy Blight from the Shaman descend on Liia, and then cast Invisibility on Liia from out of sight of the Mage (who usually hangs back in the southeast corner of the room). She hit all the Doppelgangers with her dispelling arrows, except the Mage, who spotted her and cast Remove Magic at her. Mordica had to retreat and rebuff. With almost all Doppelgangers debuffed, the skeletons and later repeated wand summons were too strong for the Doppelgangers. They fell one after the other. The Mage was the last to fall. Mordica hit it with dispelling arrows and finished it in melee with her summons.
We went straight after Sarevok, and beat him with minimal effort. She lured Angelo out of invisibility with wand summons, and dispelled his buffs with an arrow, but when he took a hit he went invisible again. Mordica went invisible as well and went looking for him to cast Detect Invisibility. However she inadvertently talked to one of the bats as she was approaching Sarevok's platform, causing her to become visible again. I didn't immediately notice that, but Diarmid did. He launched a poisoned arrow at her. Sarevok and the others too came after Mordica. The Blade used potions to get rid of the poison and of her pursuers. She then killed Semaj, Tazok, and Diarmid with wand fireballs cast from without their visual range. When she found Angelo, she gave him the same treatment. Finally, Mordica dispelled Sarevok's haste (which took her several arrows actually) and wand scorchered him to death.
Mordica has just arrived in Kolasz's lair with much less XP than I expected (173.8k). I hope I can soon give you all good news about Mordica's progress in SoD.
Killed Meilum for the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise ----- took Hentolds Dagger to the Revanant ----- returned Mr. Colquetle Family Amulet ------ helped the Dryad of Cloudpeak and kited Caldo and Krumm down ----- brought back the lost cat to Drienne ----- grabbed Joias Ring from some thievish Hobgoblins ---- reputation @20
After doing mostly trivial talk-and-walk quests with some kiting in between Braxx II. reached level 4/4 and felt strong enough to face the Basiliks. The strategy for clearing the area was clear: Scout first to make sure that he will not run into Gnolls or Tasloi groups. After that he lured Korax near the first group in the south to delay the talking and joining as much as possible. Korax went in face-to-face with the beasts while Braxx used a Protection from Petrification scroll and shooted arrows with his newly aquired Composite Longbow +1 that hurts for 8-13 damage each hit. Once Korax managed to stun one of the Basilisks Braxx immediately switched to dual-wielding Longsword +2 / Longsword +1 to maximize the damage. With this supersafe tactic they cleared the south area and finally moved on to Mutamin. After several seconds of trembling Korax managed to land his stun through the Mirror Images so Braxx joined in with his Longswords and both started to drain Mutamins life away. After another stun landed it was clear that the main danger was gone and shortly after the second Greater Basilisk followed into oblivion – as well as the rest. 26K XP earned in nearly no time that pushed Braxx to level 5/6 – wonderful.
P.S. Another thing that Braxx II. is always doing before he pushes the travel button: Equip the Ankheg Armor to push his Missile AC to -10. You never know IF the Bandit Archers will strike again - lol.
Yeah, things went two times badly wrong after getting to level 5/6. First: The one time Braxx forgot to take on his Ankheg Armor the Bandit Archers ambushed him. ARGH!! But unlike Braxx I. this time luck was on his side and all of them missed their shots - *phew*!
Next trouble happened in the Nashkel Mines where he sneaked through the Goblin infested levels without problems. But before getting to the Magic Missile Trap and the lots of Kobold Commandos Braxx failed his roll and lost his stealth nearly immediately. Normally there is some delay once stealth finally breaks but this time: No! Braxx was suddenly surrounded by a dozen Kobolds that started attacking. The first Fire Arrow landed for 16 damage. "Ah, no problem" Braxx thought for a second before the next one landed hitting him for 18 damage. As he was already wounded from one of the traps before his HP dropped to 19 - damn it!! This could have been the end so Braxx pressed his SOS-button and used the one and only Invisibility Potion. Another *phew*!
After that things went pretty smooth again! As he had succesfully stolen Algernons Cloak earlier (70 points in Pick Pocket + 20 from Potion of Perception) he charmed one Kobold and used this distraction to backstab the hell out of the rest. Once the area around Mulahey was clear he shooted an arrow from max distance and immediately went into stealth again. He waited until all Skeletons and Goblins gathered around Mulahey and started his burning using Necklace of Missiles. He could have tried to get in some backstabs but the shocks from before let him choose the absolute safest path - *Boom*!
Time to collect some more invisibilty options - damn. Looks like death is only one step away...
EDIT: After tricking Tranzig with the up-and-down-stairs Braxx will farm some Ankhegs to get enough gold for the Sandthief Ring!
After killing four Ankhegs and returning Brun´s dead son Braxx bought the Santhief Ring and moved on to the Bandits Camp. Thanks to Tevens introduction and some smart talking he was able to move freely through the Camp.
To get in and out of the big tent without harm Braxx pushed his resistance against electricity to 100% and stealthed up to the chest and the prisoner. Thanks to the Sandthief Ring he immediately went invisible and moved out again. This could have been the end of the show but Braxx was attracted by all the precious loot of the named ones.
Therefore he charmed Taurgosz Khosann outside after several tries (resting seems to be safe here!) and positioned him right in front of the tent. All Braxx had to do from nowon was: Stealth in, wait until stealth breaks and run out again to restealth immediately while Taurgosz bashed anyone apart that was foolish enough to step out. Hakt was the first the go down - Venkt the second. His Chromatic Orb was saved and hasted Taurgosz hacked easily through his Mirror Images. Britik was the third and also had no chance against the heavy bruiser.
After some more tent visits – without getting anyone out – the camp was swarmed by Bandits so Braxx moved to the outer circles – with a devilish plan in his mind. Still in stealth he sacrificed the nearly dead Taurgosz only to grab all of his fine equipment (i wasnt sure if a backstab might kill him before he turns hostile and hacks Braxx apart so i preferred the safe option). Thanks to all of the loot his gold moved up from nearly zero up to 16k – superb!
Was their any danger of dying? Not really! Thanks to the charmed Taurgosz plus being untouchable due to stealth or invisibility the enemies had no chance to hit him. Braxx always made sure that he was standing right at the exit point so he could move out of the tent immediately – even before any arrow or Chromatic Orb might hit him. Big thanks to the Space Button!
After some restocking the Cloakwood and the Mines should be next – we will see!
Sorry for my absence, I'm back to the grind in Durlag's tower, I was very demotivated by the fact I'll either have to invis potion cheese or if it works wand of monster summoning in SoD's final battle, I really hoped there would be a F/M/C specific thing I can do and it's kinda frustrating this class will only shine in SoA/ToB which is already easier than SoD.
Yeah, its quite cool that Harm works against nearly anything. Have i already stated that even big bad Melissan can be dropped from 100 to 1 once her MR is gone? This was the reason why i wanted to play a pure Druid - until i realized that all of the Big Five (including Sarevok) have to die before - damn!
As some of you might remember polymorph was kinda broken for me, as in not being able to remove the "claws" of polymorphed creatures with fist spells
I double rechecked my ScS install and for some reason I installed "improved shapeshifting" which if I'm perfectly honest idek what it does, but removing that component fixed my polymorph and now casting ghoul touch from scrolls (and similar spells) works as intended and doesn't dispel my polymorph anymore which is huge for my personal motivation of playing the F/M/C since I want to use character specific spells as often as possible and neither wands nor invis potions are specific at all and I wouldn't feel accomplished if I finish the game because I kept spamming those to win wile I play a caster class.
The first area on his travel through the Cloakwoods was quite funny as Aldeth Sashenstar was tricked badly after Braxx charmed both of his guards - with one rest in between! Worth to remember: Stealth remains even when you get ambushed while resting so you can easily retreat – or flank the enemies for some nasty backstabs! However: Braxx and his new friends used their superior numbers to crush Aldeth quite easily. Poor guy!
After traveling to the next area three Phase Spiders jumped at Braxx only one (or two?) seconds later. A quick pause plus one more invisibility charge from the Sandthief Ring saved him from any harm. Invisible and with the Ring of Free Action from Dushai on his hands he moved on the next area. Well at least he tried cause Molkar ambushed him. But – thanks to the good gods - his invisibility was still up. LOL!
Not used to the dangerous nature around Braxx disturbed a Cave Bear that ran after him with lightning speed. As he did not want to use another invisibility charge he pressed the travel button again before another hit could land...
Now Lamalha ambushed him – unbelievable! Braxx immediately ran to the map border before any spell or arrow could land. No need for invisibility or haste this time – phew! After all of these escapes Braxx finally managed to reach the Cloakwood Mines – time for Drasus and his party!
Before he charmed one of the guards with Algernons Cloak (two tries with one safe rest in between) so they could hack down each other. He killed the survivor with one backstab and put on his fully charged Necklace of Missiles to start the Cheese of Burning!
The result this time was quite bad -> Rezdan: 16 charges, Kysus: 18 charges. Drasus and Genthore both survived the burning even though they were down to „nearly dead“. Braxx started another cheese program sniping Drasus with his new Longbow +2 out of stealth. After the first 7 damage hit Drasus searched for him – without success. Thanks to good timing another 8 damage shot landed and Drasus stopped – knowing what was coming: Braxx sniped him down with a final 10 damage shot and immediately grabbed his boots! With Haste still active Braxx rushed in to Genthore and backstabbed him down with a mighty 52 damage blow – boom!
Quite cheesy but - as i always claim: Safety first! I am starting to like no-reload-runs. LOL!
Precast skeletons. (would also work with monster summoning I believe)
Go invis, when the wardens attack, lure them into their own cloudkill with the skeletons.
Avarice dies to the cloudkill, the other three are either injured or badly injured.
Cast wand of cheese aka fire from out of sight.
Pick up wardstone.
@Victor_Creed_SFV, welcome back! I agree that the considerable difficulty of SCS coupled with LoB limits one's options. Hopefully you can enjoy your run, even if it means using common tactics every now and then.
Mordica, 1st SoD report
Mordica has made quite a bit of progress, but it's been a very bumpy ride so far... I'll focus on the larger quests.
Korlasz's lair
Mordica summoned monsters with her wand to draw some of Korlasz's guards away from the door leading to Porios's room. She retreated, snuck invisibly past the guards, and intimidated Porios into surrendering.
Upon arrival at the second level Mordica read a PfUndead scroll. A first "oh no!" moment occurred soon after: the spectral undead attacked Mordica despite her protection.
Unfortunately Mordica couldn't finish all of the minor quests, simply because the insane amounts of enemies hampered her movement too much.
Baldur's Gate
There were no irregularites here other than Ithyl Calentryn, a woman at the Three Old Kegs, and one of Mordica's many pickpocket marks, going hostile and proving to be a mage, but this didn't result in any bloodshed.
Coastway
There were several "oh no!" moments in this area.
Mordica still had three PfUndead scrolls left, so she decided to help the Dwarves of Dumathoin. Sadly, she failed to keep Brother Deepvain and his comrades alive. Brother Deepvain didn't drop the anti-lich stone, but he and his fellows did drop their coldhearth necklaces. Mordica picked up those necklaces plus one more from a corpse in one of the corridors for a total of five, or so we believed. We found our way to the Coldhearth Lich, which wasn't much of an achievement as only the Bronze Sentry (which she slew with her wand of frost at one point) and the Elementals weren't impacted by Mordica's PfUndead. The idea was to recruit the Lich against the Crusaders. However, it turned out that Mordica had only four necklaces, she was one short. This enfuriated the Lich. Thanks to Mordica's PfU, the Lich didn't really do anything other than casting Stoneskins. Mordica could finish it quite easily. She picked up the phylactery, and ran off to throw it into the elemental pit. But hordes of undead were blocking her path at every turn and summoning monsters from wand caused one of the Mummies to instil fear in those summons and in Mordica.
At the Coastway Crossing, there was some sort of bug with Crommus. He wouldn't speak to his Aline, and he wouldn't point Mordica to his grave, denying her a number of nice items.
When Mordica lured Teleria's Stone Golem to the camp, a number of spiders joined the golem in its pursuit. Mordica destroyed the golem,
Troll Claw Woods and Forest of Wyrms
In the Troll Claw Woods and nearby ambush areas, Mordica did all of her scouting and looting of treasure under the cover of invisibility. She beat the Half-Orcs in a dual using her wand of fire.
In the Forest of Wyrms, she continued with her stealthy approach until she reached the Temple of Bhaal. She found Ziatar and had the Half-Dragon and two wizard minions waste spells on her wand summons while staying back herself.
Mordica is currently enjoying some time off at the camp in the Troll Claw Woods. I think she's earned it as she's done a lot of work.
Despite her working alone, gold might become an issue for Mordica because she uses so many consumable items (wands, scrolls, potions, two Sandthief's rings). And Belegarm still has lots of items that Mordica wants to buy, more than she can currently afford.
Have you tried Polymorph with your Blade yet?
I just realized the sword spider form retains 5 attacks even if the claws are removed and your original weapon reappears.
I wonder how well a blade would do in tanking melee attacks while in sword spider form, you get to -9 AC with DuHm and Potion of Defense or the like, with def spin that would be a whopping -19.
Usually on loB that's not enough, but with 5 Attacks using a regular weapon you kill foes a lot quicker.
edit: tested it with a blade level 10 and with blur + def spin + sword spider fully buffed you get -21 with potion and -20 with the armor spell you can buy 20 scrolls in BG city.