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[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 17 - (update 2)
Choler, elf wild mage (Grond0), & Maris, elf wild mage (Gate70)

The attempt to prove that wild mages are to success as the Titanic is to unsinkable continues ...

An excellent extended session today ended with Daveorn defeated and the duo en route to the city - with no deaths as yet.

Early encounters included Mirianne, Zhurlong, Karlat and Perdue.  There was an error with the Dryad of the Cloudpeaks when I clicked the wrong option and sent her hostile - Caldo & Krumm made themselves scarce taking their belt with them.  Killing the Dryad also caused a reputation loss.

Greywolf was blinded, Melicamp revived and Bjornin revenged before tackling the basilisk area.  Maris used her own protection from petrification spells to protect both characters and there were several rests while the basilisks were dealt with.  Mutamin chased each character in turn desperate to talk, but was never able to catch up.  All the party except Kirian were blinded, but she still caused problems by summoning several kobolds whose arrows were a real pain.  Eventually the summons disappeared though and so did Kirian's chances - finished off by her own party's fireball potions.

The reputation rebuild continued with aid provided to Charleston Nib, Brage, Drienne and Ardrouine.  There was also a trip to High Hedge around here to buy some spells.  Those obtained by both mages included skull trap and they were soon put to use against the sirenes - the constitution tome being picked up using invisibility.  Skull traps also featured, along with magic missiles, to clear the battle horrors from the path to Durlag's Tower to get a wisdom tome (even though this is useless to both of us).

A bit more reputation was on offer to solve the mystery at the Nashkel mine.  Having fingered Mulahey as the culprit it seemed only reasonable to skull trap him to death without ever showing our faces.  With the web scroll from Mulahey's cave learned the treatment of the amazons was even more merciless as they were webbed and slept as well as skull trapped.  That did cause a slight problem as Choler's skull trap killed the last of them, leaving Maris' skull trap, which arrived a fraction later, still active over the bodies.  Maris pulled a wild dog back to be greeted by a vampiric touch from Choler to give her confidence she could survive the trap.

Nimbul died of an overdose of MM before the most dangerous combat of the session with Bassilus.  There were a number of skeletons that didn't die and their shots forced Maris to run, exposing her to being held by Bassilus.  Choler came to attract the attention of the skeletons, but had to work hard to look after herself as well - switching skeletons regularly between missile and melee fire to try and get the best combat option.  Eventually the skeletons were reduced to bones and, shortly afterwards, so was Bassilus.

The ankheg treasure was raided invisibly on the way to Ulgoth's Beard.  Coming back to Beregost Tranzig was attacked and some spiders cleared out of Landrin's house.  After reporting the good news to him Maris also picked up a new pair of pantaloons.

At the bandit camp the basic bandits were dealt with by spells from one mage guided in by the other scouting ahead invisibly, while Taugosz was paralysed by wand.  Inside the tent a web and skull traps put the bandits out of their misery quickly - Hakt getting off a single shot in response.

After going invisibly through the Cloakwood the party at the mine were swiftly accounted for.  A couple of webs and a stinking cloud immobilised everyone and skull traps and magic missiles soon left Drasus standing alone.  Already stuck in the web and coughing his guts out it was adding insult to injury when he was stunned by a chromatic orb - he didn't survive the embarrassment!

There were quite a few surges in that session  - I noted down 9 for Choler and 7 for Maris.  There were 2 or 3 sunfire type surges, but fortunately (and thanks to a bit of care as well) never when friends or innocents were exposed.  Maris was held once, but again that was when casting from outside visual range of enemies so no real danger.  A couple of the more amusing ones were when Maris tried to sleep herself, but was already level 5 at this stage and immune.  At Durlag's Tower Maris made a costly mistake when trying to finish off one of the battle horrors.

Choler, wild mage L7, 48 HPs (12 from familiar), 96 kills, 10 surges
Maris, wild mage L7, 35 HPs, 80 kills, 7 surges

Edited by Grond0, 08 April 2013 - 05:30 AM.

[Blind_Visionary]

Alain dreamed that he was back in Candlekeep again. He decided to set up Imoen at the Jovial Juggler while he ran some errands alone. Eventually Greywolf stuck a fork in him and he was done.

He dreamed again of Candlekeep, reliving the formative moments of his youth, Gorion's death in an ambush, setting Imoen up with a room at the Juggler, running some errands, and then facing Greywolf again. The fight spanned over several days, interrupted by unrelated ambushes - wolves, kobolds, other annoyances. Alain needed to sleep once or twice to refresh his magical ability. Greywolf, blinded, wandered around the forest and ended up somewhere where Alain could not find him. Revenge will have to wait.

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 07 April 2013 - 02:32 AM.

[Grond0]

Gruff, dwarf wizard slayer {berserk} - update 1

I thought I would have another go at a wizard slayer, but have also got seduced by the lure of the berserk sword - so this run is a combination of the two. 

I'm using the restriction that Gruff can never kill anything other than with the sword.  However, he will be allowed to attack things without it as long as he doesn't kill them.  That will make eventual success a slightly more realistic prospect as well as allowing the completion of some quests that I think would probably be extremely difficult otherwise (I may be wrong about that given I've never actually used the sword before, so there will be a steep learning curve required).

Thus far Gruff has just killed a single wolf, but talking to Firebead and Marl has helped give him a level and he's sold the ring of wizardry to get equipped with plate armour.

[corey_russell]

Good luck Grond0! Just curious, Gate70 has tried out the sword quite a few times, yet I don't remember you using the cursed sword - Corey uses it once successfully, and that makes you want to try? : )

[Grond0]

Gruff, dwarf wizard slayer {berserk} - update 2

Nothing personal Corey - just another in the list of BGT wrinkles to try out!

As Gate70 had warned me the check on whether a berserk state should apply (enemy in sight) appears to be done once each round.  That means you have a variable amount of time to take an action before losing control (depending on where in the round you happen to be).  I've tested whether taking other actions in that window affects when you go berserk  and don't think it does, so you can't rely on having time to do things (like run out of sight of innocents).

Incidentally, I was quite surprised originally how successful Gate70 was in using the +3 sword of berserking.  Part of the answer might be that it's effectively a +5 sword as the berserk state gives an additional +2 to THAC0 and damage.  This applies irrespective of whether or not you are in control of the character - as Noober found out to his cost here.

Caldo and Krumm were shot from distance to pull them away before Gruff equipped the sword to finish them off.  Hairtooth and Gnarl were swiftly chunked on the way to recover the tome of charisma.  Gruff didn't instantly fall into a rage at the sight of Rufie, so was able to escort him safely back to Albert.  Sendai was pulled away from her companions to be dealt with separately; same for Zal & Vax (level 4).

I paid for a remove curse to be able to do Prism and Greywolf safely by leading the latter away - and then clicked on the wrong conversation option and let the bounty hunter take the artist into custody anyway!  No mistakes helping Samuel, before Tarnesh was decoyed round the back on the inn; with no-one in sight he was probably a goner anyway, but it didn't help that he found casting even more difficult than usual against a wizard slayer.

Helped Joia before moving on to the ankheg area.  The problem there initially was when I lost control before being able to move close to an attacking ankheg.  At full 2-handed sword range the ankhegs were still able to spit with full effect and Gruff was lucky to survive against this one - getting a critical to finish it when one more hit on him would have killed him.  That was the first time he's taken much damage, but not the last.  After that Gruff was more cautious - always getting the ankhegs to attack round corners so he could get next to them.  Despite that this ankheg got 2 criticals in quick succession to again bring Gruff within sight of death before he got the killing blow (though he only needed an attack roll of 2 this time!) to get to level 5.  After eventually clearing the nest, Gruff reported a grisly find to Farmer Brun and got another reputation upgrade.

After recovering Umberlee's bowl Gruff tried to give it back to Tenya.  Fortunately he didn't instantly go out of control here and she had the opportunity to think better of being hostile to someone equipped with that size sword.

Unlike my last wizard slayer this one has excellent HPs at this stage, so I might well consider using the Claw of Kazgoroth despite the 2 HP per level cost.

Gruff, wizard slayer 5, 67 HPs,  70 kills

[Gate70]

& here was me thinking it was the charisma (2) of Corerage at work.

[Grond0]

Gruff - dwarf wizard slayer {berserker} - update 3

Half-ogres were killed for Bjornin and some spiders for Landrin before a wolf and a skeleton provided a new body for Melicamp.  While in High Hedge Gruff had just enough money for the Claw and Horn, though didn't equip the Claw immeidately.

Killing a few random monsters got him to level 6.  Getting another excellent 14 HPs and acquiring grand mastery in 2-handed swords persuaded Gruff to put on the Claw.  He's now well and truly cursed!

Helped Ardrouine by killing some worgs before going to the carnival area.  Gruff's high strength allowed him to bust open one of the chests in the potion sellers tent, which funded the purchase of a scroll to protect against petrification and another for stone to flesh.  Using those the basilisks were soon history and freeing Tamah got Gruff to reputation 20.  Mutamin, who had originally been decoyed away was tracked down and attacked.  He did quite well to get both a horror and an acid arrow away before being chopped down.

Reckoning that his reputation would impress Drienne Gruff went to return her cat.  Travelling in the Cloudpeaks he ran into several winter wolves and got up to level 7 on the way.  Drienne wasn't impressed enough to add to his reputation, but as that had already been maximised the last of her allowance was sufficient for Gruff to not fly into a rage.  Just the minimum 4 HPs for the level though.

After returning Landrin's goods (and Umshey's belt) Gruff was left with just a pair of pantaloons in his backpack as he arrived at the Nashkel mine.  A pattern of spreading kobold chunks showed his progress down to the final cave.  He went out of control immediately after Mulahey turned hostile, but didn't quite go far enough to be in Mulahey's sight range while chewing up his support troops.  He missed Mulahey the first couple of times and saved against confusion before getting down to serious hacking.

Back at Nashkel Nimbul was led to the back of the churchyard, but that precaution proved unnecessary as he failed to survive a single hit.  On to Beregost where Tranzig was waiting.  I was a bit worried about him as he tends to run in panic quite a bit.  He did try that, but fortunately didn't get out of sword range before being struck down.

At the bandit camp Gruff went through Taugosz with a bit to spare.  In the main tent I wanted to go outside to fight and fortunately got out at the same instant as losing control. Venkt was the only one to initially follow; his horror did not affect Gruff and 2 follow-up spells failed before he was chunked.  Back inside Raemon and Britik were also quickly chunked before Gruff briefly showed himself to Hakt and managed to get him to follow outside as well.

Next up will be the Cloakwood.  Normally I just run away from the ambushes there, but the sword is likely to prevent that so they could get interesting.

Gruff, wizard slayer 7, 73 HPs, 273 kills

Edited by Grond0, 07 April 2013 - 02:35 PM.

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

[b]Gruff - dwarf wizard slayer {berserker} - update 3

[/bNext up will be the Cloakwood.  Normally I just run away from the ambushes there, but the sword is likely to prevent that so they could get interesting.

Gruff, wizard slayer 7, 73 HPs, 273 kills

I wasn't able to run away from the ambushes myself. I was always able to enrage, if I wanted, before losing control. I wouldn't bother for spiders, but I would do so for ettercaps and/or wyverns. It helps to have maximum AC (-4), and possibly belt of piercing might help too. Full plate piercing resistance might help too.

[Blind_Visionary]

Grond, nice work with Gruff! I'm getting curious about the berserking sword. Alain has a copy of it in is pack... But I think I'm just going to sell it.

[Blind_Visionary]

[ALAIN GETS STRONGER IN HIS DREAMS. PREVIOUS POST HERE.]

Alain woke up, rubbing his eyes. He was back in the infirmary at the temple of Lathander in Beregost. Imoen slept in the chair by his side.

Fragments of his dreams still floated loosely around his mind. He vaguely remembered his face melting away under the acid spit of an Ankheg. He remembered Greywolf's sharp sword piercing his guts. But he also remembered blinding Greywolf and tearing him apart with a full volley of magic missiles, while dodging attacks from kobolds and winter wolves. Reality was becoming hard to distinguish from dream.

He gingerly stepped off of the bed, testing out his legs. He felt remarkably rested and whole. He gently ruffled Imoen's hair.

She sighed and stirred.

"How am I going to pay you back for keeping an eye on me every time this happens?" Alain said.

"Buy me a room in a palace," Imoen said, stretching, "when you become a king."

Alain chuckled.

"With a big feather bed," Imoen said as she stood up, "And a full complement of staff to serve my every need."

"Sure thing, Imoen," Alain said. "Although, right now, we don't even have enough money to buy a pet rat."

"How are we going to fix that?" Imoen asked.

"I'm going to ask Thalantyr to take me on as an apprentice."

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 07 April 2013 - 04:33 PM.

[Grond0]

Gruff - dwarf wizard slayer {berserker} - final update

Regrettably Gruff's adventures in BG have come to an end.

I decided it was worth the use of a protection from magic scroll to get the constitution tome.  Using that the sirenes were rapidly spread out over the coastline.  The golems fared a little better, managing 2 hits each before going down.

In the Cloakwood used a protection from poison scroll before starting to pull the ettercaps back from the web trap.  I have the impression that the range for enemies in sight to trigger the loss of control is fractionally less than full visual range, which means this can normally be done.  The first 2 were pulled back and killed before the remaining 3 were engaged in the trap.  All were killed before Gruff was held, so the protection scroll was a bit wasted there.  Only 2 ambushes triggered while travelling - some ettercaps where Gruff successfully ran away and 3 spiders who were beaten up.

At the mine Drasus was pulled back and dispatched.  After resting, Gruff used green scrolls to protect against fire, lightning and acid and attacked the remainder of the party.  In retrospect I would perhaps have been better to try pulling Genthore back as well, but thought his slow movement and missile attacks would probably suck Gruff in to attacking near the mages anyway.  In the event Genthore was extremely lucky - he hit regularly, while Gruff missed him several times.  Despite being immune to fire and acid damage Gruff took a bit of damage from LMD to add to the whacks from Genthore and the latter was still not dead when Gruff expired from a first magic missile attack.

I had wanted to reserve the protection from magic scroll to counter Daveorn's charm and hold person spells.  I was pretty sure that it wouldn't be possible to use it on the mine party and keep it going all the way to Daveorn given that Gruff had no way to sneak past all the enemies, so needed to keep it back.  Having looked at the dice rolls though, I think Gruff had a pretty good chance of winning that combat - sometimes you just have to accept your luck's run out.

[Gate70]

Good run though.

I find a buffed fighter can get from Drasus to Davaeorn in 10 turns or 5 with an oil of speed. Might be a bit longer than that for a wizard slayer though.

[Gate70]

Kronk - berserk berserker.
Looks like I have some catch-up to do with Corey. Decided to forgo the dwarven saving throws in pursuit of brute force, about as daft as grabbing the berserking sword.

The usual start is Candlekeep > Marl > Firebead > Brage. 7 Candlekeep rats are killed (well Carbos and Shank both chunked into rat-sized pieces) before the curse begins.

Caldo and Krumm > Gnarl & Hairtooth > Unsheys ogre > Bjornin’s ogres. Can’t remember the order from there but Drienne, Joia, Mirianne, Melicamp (failed), Samuel and Ardrouine took care of the reputation.

The xp farm went well, basilisks then Mutamin followed by sirines and flesh golem.Then back to the main plot. Here he is at level 7 taking Mulahey out with a single strike.

& a bounty notice taken on the way to Tranzig/bandit camp.


218 kills (mainly chunked).

[corey_russell]

Consolations Grond0 - being a WS really hurt that situation, as otherwise you could have done things like magic blocking potion to negate the casters' damage. My run also ended today, rolling up a new character.

[Gate70]

Kronk - berserk berserker
Kronk takes one hit from the Chill hobgoblins while Ardenor Crush is one of only two not to be chunked. Taugosz Khosann and his bandits fare better by not being chunked.

Venkt, Raemon and Britik are berserked. A brief recovery means Hakt has to be targeted and Ender Sai is unlucky enough to be standing nearby (reputation drops from 20 to 10).

A 9 bandit ambush is a chunky affair, while the journey through Cloakwood involves a four ettercap ambush, a potion of freedom to kill five ettercaps in the midst of traps (save vs poison is 7), a potion of invulnerability gifted by Laskal and a couple of spiders followed by a couple of wyverns before reaching a hidden mine.

A couple of buffs (heroism, absorbtion) precede an oil of fiery burning. Kronk retreats and enrages as Drasus arrives - but pushes past him to chunk a mirrored Rezdan. Kysus dimension doors just in time so Drasus is next followed by the mage. A squirrel is chunked and a horse is almost attacked.

Kronk switches girdles (piercing) and boots (speed), glugs a frost giant strength and  drops Genthore in three hits. Three further guards don’t last long but then Kronk gets fatigued (forgot to rest). Better push on anyway, and a few more guards are quickly eliminated.

An oil of speed, potion of regeneration and boots (avoidance) are preparation for Hareishan. Despite answering the Black Hand question correctly Kronk chunks his accuser.

After a few hobgoblins and a final guard Kronk glugs a potion of invulnerability and manages to drag one battle horror back. Once it is dead he tosses a potion of firebreath and retreats to use his second enrage.

Davaeorn has followed so Kronk loses control. Davaeorn is first to fall while the battle horror follows soon afterwards.

319 kills (greater basilisk). Speed and regeneration still active so covered Hareishan to Davaeorn in less than 4 turns.

[Gate70]

Kronk - berserk berserker.
Arghain - 2HS +1.
Kirian - golden girdle.
Helm of Balduran, Cloak of Balduran (forgot berserking - kill Degrodel, a doom guard and 2 stalkers).
Ramazith - Ring of Protection +2, tome of Intelligence.
Lamahla - Potion of Power.
Centeol (12 enemies killed with 2HS +1, then re-equipped) - Spiders Bane.

Iron Throne HQ (scroll of magic resistance, potions of defence, storm giant, oil of speed). 47/81hp left.
(Zhalimar > Doppelganger > Gardush > Casters)

Speak to Koveras. Arrested by Gatewarden. Insulted by Ulraunt. Freed by Tethtoril. Ah, home sweet home.
Glug a regeneration. Loot the 3 tombs, glug a heroism to make room.
Kill the (direct route) doppelgangers.
Enrage to kill Prat and his gang then two spiders.
Scroll of protection from petrification to kill two greater basilisks.
Escape past Diarmid and rest twice : 2xDUHM.

408 kills (greater basilisk). Speed potion 5 turns lasted from Zhalimar Cloudewulfe to Diarmid.

Edited by Gate70, 08 April 2013 - 12:45 AM.

[corey_russell]

Multi-player No-Reload (trilogy)
Coretrue (controlled by Corey_Russell) and Wewa (controlled by Dogdancing) continue their adventure...
Coretrue - Level 4 Paladin, 44 HP
Wewa - Level 5 thief, 33 HP

The duo continue to make progress. No near misses nor deaths. The most intense encounter was right at the beginning, the duo got a large ambush, about 6 gibberlings, 6 skeletons (including some archers), and a ghoul. Wewa was forced to tank with so many enemies, Coretrue did protection from evil then took out the ghoul, then he attacked the archers, then finally whittling down the enemies on Wewa, since Coretrue is mostly only getting hit on crticals with his -6 AC - victorious! Many heal potions gulped.

Wewa was quite frustrated with her magic dagger, as it couldn't hurt the skeleton, so Coretrue decided to upgrade Wewa to a long sword +1, after first returning Samuel to the Friendly Arm Inn. The duo also got a shield amulet for Wewa to use in emergencies.

To get the main story line going, the duo needs the greenstone amulet, for Coretrue needs at least one more level. That last ambush indicated the duo needed easy experience, so the duo headed to the girl with the dead cat area. The duo cleared this without any trouble, Wewa tried to practice her backstabs, and got a nice one on Krumm. On leaving the area we got a ghast ambush -- Coretrue did Protection from Evil, Wewa ran and used her bow and success - this also got Wewa level 5 so that was nice.

After selling, Coretrue still hasn't leveled yet (Paladins level slower than thieves), so the duo battled at the gnoll fortress. The duo got full pretty fast, so left to sell and returned to clear the area, which also got Coretrue his level 4 and 44 HP.

The duo sold in Beregost and got some magical arrows for Wewa, to speed up kills of the Ankhegs. Once in Ankheg country, the duo killed two of them, and also unlocked Wyrrm's Crossing! This was great news - this means we get to Ulgoth's Beard and in turn get the main quest going. But first the pair returns to Beregost to sell their ankheg shells to the smithy. Dogdancing was tired, so the duo rested at Feldeposte's Inn and ended the session here.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 17 - (update 3)
Choler, elf wild mage (Grond0), & Maris, elf wild mage (Gate70)

The wild things successfully defeated BG1 in yesterday's play, though one lot of temple assistance was necessary on the way.

In the City the first port of call was to get the Ring of Wizardry to double (again) Maris' available magic missiles.  Sunin was swiftly persuaded to hand it over.  Choler then had the bright idea of getting the ogre gauntlets to upgrade the power of his polymorphed form.  That could have been tricky, but when Desreta was overcome by emotion finishing off a nearly-dead Vay-ya seemed the cool thing to do.  I don't normally use the ogre gauntlets so didn't realise until too late that mages can't wear them anyway!

The wrong conversation option with a statue meant that Quenash would not hand over her cloak - she would pay for that later.  In getting in to talk to the statue Maris had a potentially nasty surge.  Luckily it was nighttime and the bouncing lightning bolt didn't actually cause anyone any damage.

At the Iron Throne an initial attacked consisted of a pair of webs and a stinking cloud as disablers with malison and skull trap follow-ups.  Most of the casters perished very quickly, but Alai lasted long enough to get a confusion off against Choler - resulting in Thaldorn going hostile.  A wand fireball finished Alai off immediately, but Zhalimar could still have been very dangerous with his missile attack.  However, he failed against a first use of the wand of paralysation allowing for an easy clean-up.

At Candlekeep the girls were framed for murder, but escaped through the catacombs.  The tombs were looted using Choler's MGoI and knocks, with wands helping to clean up the spiders in the way.  At this point they could have chosen to leave invisibly, but decided to kill some dopplegangers as XP was still pretty low.  Unfortunately the long arm of the lawdoppleganger reached out against Maris.  She survived one nasty critical early on, but had still not healed up fully for the second (on the plus side the emotion spell she hung around to complete did disable both the attacking dopplegangers).

Choler picked up as much equipment as possible and sneaked back to the City invisibly.  After raising and re-equipping, Slythe was persuaded to attack some summons and died quickly, while Krystin was permitted to survive long enough to cloudkill Quenash to get the Cloak of Balduran.

No problems at the palace.  Malison and emotion disabled 2 of the attackers immediately, while slow seemed to get a couple more.  Maris used MM from long range, while Choler was in the thick of it meleeing with her staff to try and attract the dopplegangers' attention.  Some hobgoblins and a couple of gnolls acted as meatshields and successfully protected both dukes.

With XP still low the original intention was to kill things in the maze.  Choler got a reminder from a mustard jelly that he didn't have a helmet on and rapidly retreated to summon some gnolls.  The doom guards were easy targets for magic missiles, but the skeleton warriors were not.  Rather than bury them in summons the girls just went invisible to sneak past.

The Undercity party got similar disabling treatment to that at the Iron Throne - none of them survived long enough to take any action.

For Sarevok Maris used a dispel magic scroll on him from the shadows before Choler attracted his attention with a long-range bullet.  Coming out on his own pretty much sealed his fate as he was seduced into attacking summons, while being subject to a hail of magic missiles.  He was very quickly taken to near death and both Maris and Choler looked to try something different to get extra style points.  Sarevok was not affected by the berries that Maris produced when casting emotion, but Choler's vampiric touch did the job.

I didn't keep a record of their final surge/kill stats in BG1, so the figures below represent the current progress having just completed Irenicus' dungeon.  I'm also not sure I was recording all the surges towards the end there, so there may well have actually been a few more than these.
Choler, wild mage L9, 55 HPs (12 from familiar), 190 kills, 17 surges
Maris, wild mage L9, 44 HPs, 102 kills, 1 death, 12 surges

Edited by Grond0, 08 April 2013 - 06:25 AM.

[Grond0]

Gruff - dwarf wizard slayer {berserker} v2 - update 1

There was a little bit of time outside MP yesterday to restart  Gruff.  I pondered whether a gnome would be a better choice for the improved AC and actually rolled one up, but in the end decided to stick with the dwarf.

Gruff took the same approach as before up to level 3, but then headed to the basilisk area for the XP boost there - that took him to level 6.  I thought the previous incarnation's HPs were pretty good, but this one's are really exceptional - 87 at level 6 equates to averaging over 9 on a d10!

There have been two nasty moments so far.  The first was when getting Zhurlong's boots from a hobgoblin; Gruff started chasing a squirrel while enraged and found himself facing a ghoul.  The ghoul fortunately missed its three opening attacks and didn't get a fourth chance.

The second problem was after Gruff had finished all the Cloudpeaks encounters without problems.  The first time he took significant damage was also nearly the last, but his high HPs saved him.  He was trying to rest and was disturbed by an ogre - that seemed pretty straightforward so he attacked rather than running away (to another area).  However, the ogre got scared and ran - leading Gruff into 2 more groups of enemies.  He eventually killed those with HPs down to single figures, just in time to apply a potion to the hobgoblin elite's poison.

Edited by Grond0, 08 April 2013 - 06:49 AM.

[Gate70]

Kronk - berserk berserker.
Corey’s choice of berserker is a good one for this challenge and better than my paladin attempts. Half orc was OK as not relying on saving throws very often in BG1, and extra strength/dexterity shouldn’t be under-estimated.

Kronk carefully selects his end-game equipment from the pile of loot (which he now stores in the Black Lily barrel) and purchases a few more items.

Slythe is first, no buffs being the plan and Kronk has located a quiet side room, if he can get there. There is just time to berserk before berserking.

The cursed sword won’t be allowed at the coronation so Kronk decides to remove it, should be easy. Or maybe not. First he rushes into two Flaming Fist mercenaries as he tries to avoid Varci Roaringhorn. Going hostile here will be a bloodfest so Kronk agrees to be arrested.

Angelo is a bit slow off the mark so Kronk makes for the door. While this seems sensible there is no risk to being arrested but trying to escape is misconstrued by Benjy who accuses Kronk of trying to break into the HQ. Kronk races for the door and gets out before losing control. Tamoko is waiting outside but Kronk needs to get away, just leaving as Benjy arrives.

Kronk decides it is better to head to Beregost temple instead, equipping Spiders Bane (THACO jumps from 1 to 4) and resting at wyverns crossing before heading to the coronation.

The buffs used include a protection from magic scroll so other buffs can be added with it active.. Belt and Kronk survive but Liia has fallen. Sarevok lands 3 hits on Kronk (uh-oh for later) then departs. Belt sends Kronk after Sarevok, and a potion of regeneration is glugged while talking to Voletta Stiletto.

Kronk re-equips the cursed sword and starts working through the maze (next level reached at doom guards but not taken). A pair of skeleton warriors are softened up by a lightning bolt and fireball but Kronk kills them both within a round or two.

Kronk stops. He planned to hit Sarevok with an arrow of dispelling but with the sword equipped this is not possible. Quickly, back to a temple behind the palace. With that done Kronk returns through the maze and glugs a potion of invisibility to nip past Rahvin and the assembled mercenaries. The regeneration wears off just as Sarevok is sighted so Kronk knows roughly how long his remaining buffs will last.

Plink, the arrow bounces. Kronk steps back and fires a second, then a third. Success. Another potion of invisibility allows excess buffing including the final use of the berserking sword (either way)..

(I built a lovely screenshot of end-game Kronk then deleted it by mistake. His AC was -12, think his THACO was -12 too. 3 APR hasted, DUHM and berserk are both activated at this point). He has ** in two handed weapon style and **** in 2 handed sword.

Then a final potion of invisibility so Kronk can start without Sarevok being aware. Kronk positions and chooses where to strike; only to lose control and attack. DUHM and berserker rage both last the duration of the battle and Kronk sends Sarevok to the afterlife with a posthumous critical for good measure.

Only afterwards does Kronk realise he forgot to glug a precautionary potion of regeneration.

I think this meant he berserking sword was used everywhere except;
- The initial 7 enemies in Candlekeep (sword not available).
- 12 or so enemies to Centeol’s lair (control is never regained here in BGT with the sword equipped).
- The duchal palace doppelgangers.

433 kills, greater basilisk.

Kronk grabs the ring of Koveras, has to head to the Friendly Arm Inn for the golden pantaloons and has a rest before returning to Belt who wants a job done in Amn. Kronk agrees, but decides he will need help.

(going for a party in SoA, believe Viconia won't romance a green giant so would be Jaheira).

[Grond0]

Well done Gate.  Hope Kronk can find a lady that tastes good is to his taste.

[Grond0]

Gruff - dwarf wizard slayer {berserker} v2 - final update

Off to the ankheg area.  This time Gruff only lost control outside close melee range once and none of the ankhegs did much damage.  Talked to Farmer Brun and then went on to Tenya to try and return the bowl.  Unfortunately (for her) she was too slow in seeing sense and Gruff was in no mood to be conciliatory.

Melicamp died, but Bjornin, Ardrouine and Prism put in good words to get reputation up to 20.  The experience from Prism also got Gruff to level 7 and his good run continued with 8 on the die roll to get him to 100 HPs at level 7 (normally I consider doing that at level 8 an extremely good result and I'm pretty certain I've never done it at level 7 before).

While collecting a scroll of magic protection thought I might as well rescue Samuel.  En route to dropping him off exterminated some spiders and collected some prized possessions for Landrin.  Also got the ogre's belt before decoying Tarnesh away to a secluded spot to receive his treatment.  In a triumph for optimism over realism Gruff also picked up the pantaloons.

Bought the Claw and Horn of Kazgoroth and equipped the former before heading back to the coast.  The magic protection scroll allowed Gruff to safely chunk some sirenes and the golems soon followed.  There was a nasty moment when a skeleton and ghoul ambush triggered on the way to get the constitution tome identified, but Gruff managed to get out of sight range of the ghoul before losing control of himself and it didn't follow.

Gruff breezed through the BNashkel mine.  This time he made sure he was well out of sight range of Mulahey before chunking his supporters.  Attacking the priest Gruff's first attack was a critical miss forcing him to save against a rigid thinking.  However, Mulahey didn't manage to get another spell off.

Returning to Nashkel Nimbul was another to be lured into seclusion for a spot of mayhem.  Once again a single love-tap from Gruff sent Tranzig running, but he was unable to move far enough to avoid the follow-up blow.  At the bandit camp it was no surprise that the bandits struggled to hit Gruff, but I was surprised that Taugosz failed to make contact at all.  There was an example outside the tent of how the sight range differs for determining if there are enemies to hit and another inside when Gruff stayed still having dealt with Raemon and Britik and came to his senses just in time to avoid a second acid arrow from Venkt.  Hakt followed Gruff outside, to his dismay, before Gruff returned to finish off Venkt.

In the Cloakwood Gruff successfully tackled the ettercaps guarding the web traps one by one.  With the next area opened up he returned to a temple to get a remove curse.  That allowed safe travel to the mine area.  The guards at the bridge were decoyed away and left stranded half-way round the map allowing Gruff to concentrate on the party.  He buffed up with green scrolls and then came round the edge of the compound and tried a dart of stunning on Genthore.  He saved and unfortunately didn't follow, but clustered together with the mages.  Coming back the other side Gruff attracted the attention of Drasus, who did follow.  Regrettably, just as Gruff equipped the sword (immediately losing control so he couldn't run away), all the others turned up.  I had loaded the autosave from the earlier Gruff's demise to confirm that he had a pretty good chance of winning a fight just with Genthore and the mages, but adding in Drasus as well always looked like too big a hurdle - and so it proved.

Incidentally, I loaded the autosave this time as well and tried going from mine party to Daveorn using the protection from magic scroll as Gate70 suggested.  I managed to run away from several combats and the scroll did just last to Daveorn, though it expired mid-way through the fight with him.  However, having tried it a couple of times now I think it would be a safer option anyway to use the scroll against the initial party and face Daveorn without - you would need to be fairly unlucky to lose control before being able to pull the battle horrors back as it's only necessary to take a couple of steps and Daveorn on his own against a wizard slayer is likely to lose control of his spells quite quickly.

[The Potty 1]

Fascinating, nice challenge.

I think this sword should never have moved straight to BG2 unmodified. In BG1 it is seriously powerful, so using it is a viable last-ditch desperate strategy. Or the basis of a challenge. In BG2 it's some extra cash. They should have replaced it with a +6 one, and added some elemental damage as well. You'd still have to be seriously berserk to use it, but .. well 'nuff said.

[corey_russell]

Grats Gate70! Good luck in Amn. Tough break Grond0.

[corey_russell]

Setben the fighter/thief entering Trilogy no-reload challenge...

Setben finally got more than 20 HP, so thought I would enter him. Here he is:


I made some rather egregious mistakes in character creation for this guy. For one, I thought "ah thief, 16 CON" - forgetting for a moment that the Fighter levels sure could use the CON! Doh! And secondly I meant to put ** in bows and ** in blunt, but somehow mis-clicked and put ** in missile weapons instead of blunt! And he beat the Candlekeep assassins with this staff...lucky guy...

He's stayed pretty safe, but not much of the harder stuff been done yet, trying to get everyone in the party in fighting shape. I might have an arcane join later, as Xzar can't cast invisibility...most of the party is level 3/4.

Edited by corey_russell, 08 April 2013 - 02:35 PM.