15228 replies to this topic

[AnonymousHero]

Serena the Monk (L22):

(This post will be a bit of a mish-mash. Sorry, but such is the nature of trying to squeeze every little scrap of experience out of the game while staying safe.)

Here's what's happened since the last time:

• Serena killed the pirates at the Sea's Bounty tavern. Improved Invisibility was enough to foil the mage -- he had no means of dispelling it.
• She also killed the minotaurs guarding Kangaxx' tomb.
• Finally went to Rejiek's basement. The Ghasts fell first, then the Rune Assassins, and finally the Bone Golem (with a little Tiger Strike mixed in for a guaranteed critical hit). This left Serena needing 3K exp for the next level.
• She killed the graverobbers in the graveyard and a few spiders for the final push to level 23. HLA pick: Solar Stance. Here she is trying it out.
• Serena went back to the Troll Mound, and killed a few trolls. Quivering Palm was useful.

Serena decided that it was time to complete the "kidnapping" bit of the Windspear hills quest, so she went back there. On the way she unexpectedly met Samia -- for some reason Samia was standing in her original location even though the ambush had definitely been triggered previously. After killing Samia, Serena separated the rest of Samia's goons (via doors; the shame!) and killed them individually, though Chak & Kaol couldn't be separated they died just the same. All that was left now was to confront Firkraag and Conster. Serena (who was already buffed with Imp. Invis. and Mirror Image) noticed that his contingency contained PfNW rather than PfMW, so she knew Quivering Palm had a chance to get through his stoneskins. It did get through. She freed Garren's son and went back to the cabin (killing a Crimson Death on the way) to make sure he got back safely.

Serena also killed the Fallen Paladins, thinking she was being clever by funnelling them through a narrow passage, but as turned out, only Anarg was able to hit Serena (immunity to normal weapons actually has its uses in Ch2/Ch3).

She also assassinated Mae'var (stealthed in and out again) and collected the reward from Renal Bloodscalp.

Afterwards, she collected a little more easy EXP from the Screaming Statue "quest".

... and leveled up to 24. HLA pick: Lunar Stance. This provides immunity to various insta-death effects, Time Stop and level drain. Unfortunately, it only lasts for four rounds -- useful in a pinch (or when someone's casting Time Stop!), but not really enough to fight off hordes of vampires.

Serena's fist were still considered +3 at this point, so Kangaxx was practically unkillable (only 1 APR from any weapon that could hit him), but Serena really want to get his ring before going off to Spellhold, so she was forced to seriously consider going after Haer'Dalis and his merry band of actors. (Meta: It seemed like the "most doable" lots-of-EXP quest at this point.). She would need non-detection first, so she'd have to kill Mencar Pebblecrusher & co...

Edited by AnonymousHero, 27 July 2011 - 02:27 PM.

[corey_russell]

The continued adventurs of Lotan the Human level 9 fighter dualed to level 12 druid

When we last heard of Lotan he was starting to work on freeing Nalia's keep. While I would have preferred her not to come along for experience reasons, we didn't have +3 2-handed weapons or ammo yet, so wanted her help on the iron golem when we get to it.

Joshua is using the Stonefire with -8 AC, he tanked great here. Lore was again an issue, so we had to quite a bit of resting to identify things - will definitely be getting the glasses of identification when finances allow. As it turned out, Nalia was quite helpful in the looting department (so we could do this in one run thru rather than multiple trips to a vendor). The battles agains the "trash" trolls went smooth. When we opened the drawbridge we got good news - Lotan leveled to 11 and Hanna to 10. We continued to go deeper into the keep. At the 2nd floor, Paja did a LOT of backstabbing, which did speed up the kills. For Glacias, doom plus hold was just too cruel (and yep Paja backstabbed to boot). Hanna received his full plate. Now everyone in the family is using full plate except Paja.

As for the golems, they aren't a problem since you can pull them one at a time. The key one was the Iron golem with needing +3 to hit. Yes I know I could use the flail of ages or the +3 axe in the golem room but then would take tons of damage. Fortunately, with Nalia in the group and using her default spell set, there's a surefire and simple and safe way to take it down. Have her cast her strength spell on herself, then polymorph self. Choose the Flind form. This form's weapon is hasted, is 2-hand (which means it can stay out of reach of the iron golem) AND the weapon can damage it! So she pulls the iron golem to the doorway, and stands like this, and just whacks away. Takes a while, since most of the damage is 2-3 at a time, but it's certain - use for bathroom break and drink and when you get back the golem is dead and the 13000 experience is yours.

Next level - the initial big trolls had tough time hitting Joshua, and I'm sure the slows and Paja's backstabs weren't helping them. Hanna sanctuaried to use the dog meat to distract the umber hulks. I didn't have chaotic commands availble (used it earler against the Yuan-ti mage) is why I did that.

Then Paja stealthed and pulled Torgal. NOW Joshua is finally tanking something that is putting quite the beat down on him. We threw everything we had, but what sped the kill the most was a few shots from Nalia's frost wand. Victory!

Of cousre, we aren't going to leave Torgal's escorts alone. Everyone fired disablers (web x2, entangle) and threw all our area effects we had and then ranged. No chance for these guys. And the loot by Nalia's father was ours.

Nalia was quite pleased and transferred the control of the keep to Lotan. We kept her in our group still because we needed to sell still and she has our stuff.

As a small group we really could use a potion bag. So we headed to Watcher's Keep. We got the potion bag, and then realized that Paja has very few slots with all her magical ammo - the ammo belt would be real handy and it's just on the first level of Watcher's Keep.

So we entered. We moved slowly, though Paja still managed to set off a trap. Luckily it wasn't of the insta-death kind. We did everything on the first level EXCEPT the statues. I can remember having a tough time with them, even with HLA's. Also remember I needed resurrection wand which I don't have yet.

Still ton of upgrades - +2 small shield for Hanna, unlimited arrows and bolts for Paja and Joshua, returning dart for Lotan, flesh golem summoming book, some +3 ammo, and of course the ammo belt. We DID have one very close call - against the vampiric mists they leveled drained Joshua and Lotan. I went to Hanna to restore them during the fight and then realized - I forgot to rest before entering, she doesn't have any - oops. Next Lotan somehow got feared and even remove fear didn't get rid of it, and he ran into the shadows in the next room. I quickly brought the party against the guys on him and saved him. Lotan has the most HP in the party so that sure helps.

We left Watcher's Keep and I realized that the shield of harmony would be great for Lotan. The reward money would also give us just enough to get the Robe ov Vecna for Paja. So we did massive buffs before engaging the genies. The most important buff is protection from petrification on all the party members, they like to cast a flesh to stone. We attacked and won (note: we did pickpocket the genie lamp before doing this). We reported our success to the guildmistress, and now Lotan using the shield of harmony and the genie's +2 scimitar. Eventually will use the Blckblood but that's 13,000 gold out of our price range at the moment.

Now that the front liners have charm protection, Hanna is next in line to get it. But first we had to deal with Prebek. Massive buffs but glitterdust and insect plague gave them no chance. Next, we tried to find Montaron - we failed, but we did get a charm immunity helmet for Hanna. I noticed we did NOT get the quest experience reward when we reported our results to Xzar - apparently you need Jaheira in the group to get that. I'll have to remember that next time.

Our next goal is to pay Gaelen. But if we do that we need to be ready for vampire ambushes (still a lot left). So we needed the Daystar. I first wanted to see if Hanna could get it via sanctuary - she has to have 25 strength to break the lock on the daystar (using holy power  > righteous magic > holy might). She could only get to 24, however. Then i figured - hey the lich's timestops/pit fiend/meteor storm is pretty cheesy, how about a little cheese of our own? So Joshua used a protection from undead and pounded the lich with the Lilacor.

We will probably deal with Maevar next, as everyone is well protected now. He's been "waiting" for us to finish him for some time now.

Edited by corey_russell, 28 July 2011 - 04:41 AM.

[corey_russell]

The continuing adventures of Lotan the level 9 fighter dualed to level 12 druid (short update)

The party needed some more cash. Also figured the party was more than strong enough to take down Tarnor's the Hatchetman's group. We tried something new this time -- I know something new caused me to fail a run not too long ago. However, in this case, it's also pretty "safe" in that all my eggs aren't in one basket.

The party summons 2 druidic fire elementals, one lesser earth elemental, ariel servant and flesh golem. We then cast remove fear and haste on the group of summons. Paja sneaks forward and orders the summons to put on the wallop on the enemies. Then Lotan came up and fired an insect plague at a visible enemy. The party members then backed off and listened to the carnage. The enemies were completely destroyed in like 4-6 rounds. By the way I say this is "safe" because if the summons failed, then the party could finish the job if it were needed. This was very smooth, I will probably do this from now on. The summons still had their haste when Tarnor's group was finished so Paja escorted them to the center and sicced them on the kobolds and the Rakashka. The cloak went to Joshua. Now both Joshua and Lotan have -9 AC.

We sold the loot and now we have enough to get the Blackblood club for Lotan. We go to trademeet to get it, and realize I want the rod of resurrection next. well with our AC, taking care of the trademeet problem will be child's play for the group. Sure enough the front liiner's did excellent against all form of troll.

As for the first two groups of shadow druids, we fired disabling spells then cloudkills via wand as in this example.

Lotan found the Belm in some hay. He will use that if he doesn't need the immunities of the shield of harmony. Next up were some colonies. Joshua donned the Lilacoar and he and Lotan took them down since they are immune to the confusion attacks.

We met Cernd and Lotan told him he would take care of Faldorn, without Cernd's help. One more shadow druid group left. We summoned some junky summons and sent them after the shadow druids. The party then lended their support. This worked out nice as the summons took the enemy's call lightning hits.

The party then rested (to refresh Lotan's spells) and entered Faldorn's domain. The party put MASSIVE buffs on Lotan, then Lotan challenged Faldorn. I did pretty much the same strategy I would have used if I controlled Cernd. Which is cast insect plague, 2 fire elementals, a nymph, then change to bear form and wallop her. 

We reported our success to the Mayor of Trademeet. Right away there was a family dispute that dragged us into it. We obtained the circlet but gave it to the Mayor as he requested.

[BelgarathMTH]

Nice work, Corey and AH. Congrats on graduating to the BG2 thread, Corey.

[corey_russell]

Thanks Belgarath. It helps to have a good "team", that is rather than using NPCs who don't have max stats for the key stats of their class. (That's right, Aerie and Anomen I am talking about you guys!). When I made my cleric/mage for example, he had 18 WIS and 18 INT - is Aerie like that? No, not even close.

[corey_russell]

The continuing adventures of Lotan the Human level 9 Fighter dualed to level 13 druid and family...

Lotan contineus his quests/tasks in Amn. We decided that maybe it was about time we returned the dryad's acorns to their queen, as we have a moment in our quest log. We head to Windspear HIlls and return it without much incident. We encountered the wolfweres in the center. I was expecting a good fight, but Hanna cast a single Holy Smite and THIS happened: she killed ALL of them? Only thing I can think of is perhaps she's higher level than Anomen or Viconia or Aerie get when I get there, because I don't remember that happening.

Speaking of Viconia, we met her in the government district. Thanks to a call lightning, a successful hold person person by Hanna, and the considerable damage dealing of Joshua and Lotan, they were killed much quicker than my parties usually do. Speaking of damage dealing, Lotan is using the Blackblood and the Belm, putting him at 4 attacks per round. He's like a Minsc in my NPC parties in terms of damage output. Joshua still using a shield and Stonefire.

We wanted to check out the price of Shield of Balduran -- 19,000, still too much. Therefore we decided to help Dalon with the problem at his village. Got some mephit blood for a mage, though we had to killl his stone golem that turned on him. He gave us the Ilbratha short sword (this is my favorite sword for my front-liners to use against dragons).

As for the Umar Temple area, lots of undead here, but the party is much stronger than the undead. Most powerful undead we encountered was a greater mummy and 2 bone golems.

Next up is the Thaxllssyllvia the shadow dragon. Lots of buffs here. I sent the genie from the genie bottle to draw out the death spell. Then we summoned 2 fire elementals, ariel servant, lesser earth elemental and single skeleton. Put negative plane protection on Joshua, activated his ilbratha, and put everyone in position and attacked. Lotan and Hanna were using their slings, Joshua tanking and Paja lightning bolts from her wand. During the battle Thaxllssyllvia did a breath attack on Paja, dropping her to level 1 mage/level 2 thief. I kept her as far back as I could. I definitely did not want her getting chunked. Also Joshua was confused at this point, so sent Lotan in to melee and hopefully distract the dragon to not level drain Paja again. Lota has the amulet of power so level drain is not a threat to him. Hanna did a in-battle lesser restoration on Paja to give Paja more HP and levels. Hanna was mad at the dragon for hurting her mama and used her wand of heavens and finished him. (leader's note: apparently forgot to loot everything, the shadow scales was lost. Fortunately no-one needs. I did get the scroll needed for the Crom Faeyr though)

Hanna had to dispel the confusion on Joshua. (leader's note: too bad I didn't remember Thaxxll did that, I would have had joshua used Lilacor this fight). Everyone's else's buffs were still running including haste so we charged the shade lord. Our melee/ranged and Hanna's two holy smites were just too much for the shade lord and his shades and we were successful.. No one gained a level doing this quest, which is unusual for me.

We met some rangers who wanted to fight us. Paja's only spell is protection from petrification since she hasn't rested yet since being level drained, don't' think that's a threat. However, Lotan's 2 call lightning sures are and a couple cloudkills from Paja's wand doesn't help them either.

After reporting our success to the mayor and selling the party was sitting at 30,000 gold. Time to get that Shield of Balduran. We had some extra cash left over, so also got the firetooth crossbow for Joshua (thinking ahead to when Joshua will be using Carsomyr for his main weapon).

I've been using Hanna's Hold Undead special ability a lot this run -- very nice ability, too bad none of the NPCs are this class. It's been a while since I posted the party status, so thought I would do it this post. I didn't think a screenie for each level up made any sense, unless there was something special about it.

Joshua the Inquisitor
Lotan the Fighter dualed to Druid
Hanna the Cleric of Lathandar
Paja the thief/mage

Going to try the Twisted Rune compound in the Temple Area next.

Edited by corey_russell, 29 July 2011 - 05:57 AM.

[BelgarathMTH]

Good work, Corey. Don't you just love four-man parties? It can be surprising how much stronger the group gets without dividing exp and treasure with two extra people.

I always wondered where that Crom Faeyr scroll was - I've never found it or bothered to look it up before, and it never occurred to me to attack the shadow dragon; I usually leave it alone.

Level-draining breath seems awfully frightening. Would you say Sylvia is harder or easier to fight than Firky?

Also, I never found a green amulet in SoA. Where does that come from? It would be awfully useful to have in a lot of scenarios.

Edited by BelgarathMTH, 29 July 2011 - 01:49 PM.

[corey_russell]

Firkraag to me is harder, the not least because hes a cleric so heals himself. Amulet of power makes the shadow dragon much easier and safer. Negative plane protection can help too. Greenstone amulet in Behodler's Lair in underdark

And yes definitetely like 4 man parties (if you can get a good combo) - the leveling doesn't take so long. And like you say you can splurge on more high-ticket items since you only have 4 to get upgrades for instead fo 6.

Edited by corey_russell, 29 July 2011 - 02:50 PM.

[Grond0]

Wasp, an elven sorceror, is joining the challenge after graduating from the BG1 no-reload challenge.

She had no problem with the dungeon - I allowed her to rest several times so that she didn't have to conserve spells too much.  XP was maximised with the exception of the vampire - who turned gaseous and ran away just before Wasp could finish her off.  Gained level 10 against the mephit portals and took sunfire as a new spell; that came in handy for turning invisible assassins crispy.

After a night's rest moved on to the circus.  Again that was straightforward; completing it got Wasp up to level 11.

[corey_russell]

Welcome to the BG 2 no -reload challenge Grond0. Here's wishing you luck that you can get farther than you've ever been in BG 2. Is there anything in particular that seems to stop your BG 2 runs, or is it just lack of familiarity with the nature of the threats (and their locations) that you are facing?

[Grond0]

On some occasions I can certainly blame lack of knowledge, but more typically it's just down to carelessness.  That can take a number of forms:
- control errors such as not pressing the pause button, or double-pressing it.  As I play the game on maximum speed it doesn't take much of a slip to cause problems.
- thinking things are too easy and switching off for a bit (even died a couple of times after falling asleep momentarily).
- not reading game text in time to spot threats and counter them.
- of course the most dangerous of all is when I get bored of using the same tactics after a while and begin to take risks.

[corey_russell]

Ah ok thanks for the info. That last point, I do that too. Fortunately sometimes the change of tactics is wildly successful (such as my new strategy vs. Tarnor and his gang), other times equals end of the no-reload. I've also done the 1st point especially "letting things happen" rather than pausing and taking control of everyone to do their best tactics in a potentially dangerous situation.

[corey_russell]

Lotan the Human level 9 fighter dualed to level 13 druid, his adventure continues...

As described in my last update, my party decided it was ready to take on the twisted rune compound in the Temple District. For the first floor we made a bunch of summons and hasted them. Paja stealthed and moved forward triggering the "trap " of monsters spawning and she backs off while the summons duke it out. This succeeded in winning, BUT we lost a lot of experience this way because somehow my summons would get charmed and turn red circle and then kill something not giving me experience. No biggie, the run didn't end and that was the important thing.

On the "real" battle, the twisted rune group upstairs. Paja managed to lay 2 traps downstairs (normal ones). We will only withdraw to downstairs as a "backup" plan. Next we did lots of buffs, see preparation.. The buffs are pretty standard, EXCEPT one -- I had Lotan cast find traps - why? This way I don't have to "wait" for Paja to find them, and in fact once Lotan finds them she can disarm them. Saves me a step and I think is a bit faster.

We the move upstairs. Joshua opens with True Sight (forgot to cast downstairs), Lotan with insect plague, Hanna with holy smite and Paja tried emotion. Don't think I could have expected a better result - 1/2 the enemy is disabled, including the enemy mage!

Next round Paja disables a trap, Joshua already set off one (though he appeared to save whatever it was), Hanna tries a holy smite again, and Lotan tried a miscast magic at the still standing enemy cleric. The AI was doing some pretty funny things with my party. For one, Paja moved a lot closer to the enemies, and Joshua kept going toward the enemy cleric rather than being close to Hanna, as the thief is trying to get her. The battle lasted a while, Paja kept spamming her fireball wand at the enemies farthest from Hanna, the enemy thief kept tryiing to backstab Hanna (but missing), and Joshua and Lotan were meleeing the enemies down. We had to chug a couple of healing potions, then the last enemy fell.

Lots of loot, most stuff wasn't an upgrade for anyone. Lotan was keeping a small shield +2 for the few times he does sword and shield style - he upgraded to a +2 large shield. Joshua was using the helm of infravision - upgraded to a helm of defense. Paja gets the Celestial Fury, though most of the time she will have the Daystar equipped.

Speaking of Daystar, something surprising (to me) in our next vampire ambush. But getting ahead of ourselves - first the party rested for days in an inn trying to identify everything then sell. Looking at the full plate +1, it's nice it weighs lot less then full plate, but I can only use +x rings with non-magical armor. Saves are pretty important, so sold them rather than use them. Next we recruited Valygar temporarily to do his quest. We have a ton of gold now, so we went ahead and got the strength belt from Ribald for Hanna (this works well with her sling of seeking). When we exited Ribald's, we got perhaps the worst ambush (4 vampires). I readjusted the placement of the party (which somehow made 2 vampires "lose track" of us) then Hanna cast False Dawn, Paja activated the Daystar, Lotan call lightning and everyone else attacked. I was absolutely schocked at how much damage Paja did to a vampire -1050 damage! Don't remember ever hitting anything that hard before in melee or magic.

We go tthe slums and rested. Then we continued on the planar sphere. Muggers tried to hurt us, but at these levels they are just a slight distraction. Decided would let Valygar use the +3 spear we got from the Twisted Rune.

We got inside and these are the results of the important battles:

* The first two halfling groups are just weak melees, they were cut down fast. As fror the next two groups who have powerful mages, Paja demonstrated the power of a high level thief/mage. She hid in the shadows, saw them then backed up before they could get a true sight off with her in range. Then from out of range she would fire a cloudkill from her wand, stealth, cloudkill again and then come back to the party (stealthed) and wait. In each case, the halflings had no clue whatsoever who or what was killing them.

* Lavok - I think now what I did was silly (I have an inquisitor in my group!) - I should have just charged and have Joshua do dispel magic next to Lavok - he would have died fast. He might have gotten off a ADHW off, but at most would kill Paja and we just rod of resurrectio her. But instead i used a precious protection from magic scroll - oh well. Obviously doing this definitely made Lavok's defeat certain.

* Demon outside - Joshua's protection from magic scroll was still active, so put chaotic commands on Lotan and Valygar. I had Valygar temporarily borrow Paja's arbane so he couldn't be held, Hanna cast free action on Lotan, and the melees destroyed the demon simply enough.

* Tolgerias - Joshua's protectiion from magic expired the MOMENT we unlocked the lower level where the "engine" room is - of course. I wasn't too worried though. I summoned the best summons available, and sent them to "greet" Tolgerias and his mage buddy. Interestingly, Tolgerias stayed blue circle, even after the party moved up (which was a slight bummer as that meant he didn't get affected by the insect plague as that affects only enemies). He finally spoke up when he saw Valygar and then did his mojo. The enemies got a ADHW off, which killed no one. THIS time I remembered I had an inquistor in the group - I had Joshua fire a dispel magic right in between both enemy mages, which dispelled most of their protections. Our melee/ranged then quickly mowed them down.

Quite a few summons survived the altercation, so I used them to clear the ice and fire rooms. The fire room did some damage, but nothing some heal potions couldn't fix.

* Engine/Golem room - fought lots of golems here. Used ranged was possible, Joshua would use hsi Azuredge, and Lotan his +3 dart from Watcher's Keep (forget the name) on the little golems first - then the big guy and finally the clay golems. The trap detection ring that we found here would be perfect for Imoen, but useless for Paja as she's 100%. We want both of Paja's rings to be some kind of rings of wizardy in any case.

* We reported our success to Lavok. Being the only mage, Paja of course got the ring of wizardry. We traveled to the Copper Coronet, getting accosted by muggers again. The party couldn't be bothered, so Joshua soloed them all even though he was about 1/2 damaged from the golems. Needless to say that still wasn't enough help for the muggers. We identified and sold oru junk again (which means lots of resting), took anything we wanted from Valygar and sent him home.

The party is at 30000 gold again, so got the high level spells that Bernard had for Paja. The party is thinking of recruiting Jaheira next, so we can do couple of her quests and in particular get another ring of wizardry for Paja.

Edited by corey_russell, 30 July 2011 - 03:30 AM.

[corey_russell]

More adventures of Lotan the human level 9 fighter dualed to level 13 druid - Jaheira quests

We recruited Jaheira and she was immediately summoned to Harper's Hold. The party rested in Copper Coronet and we were told by Jaheira we needed to report to Harper's Hold. Jaheira was naked, not even a weapon, so Lotan equipped the staff of lightning on her since he thinks he won't use it. We also bought plate mail (we didn't' want to spend too much on her), a plain helmet, and cloak of protection +1 (which turned out to be silly as you get TWO of these cloaks from her quests). We fixed her spell set, rested and reported to Galvarey at the Harper's Hold. Lotan suspected trouble, however, so ordered party to do maximum buffs before entering.

As suspected, Galvarey wanted to be mean to Lotan. Jaheira believed in us, so it was us vs. them  Our first round play: Joshua charged, Lotan fired insect plague (of course), Jaheira fired off a lightning bolt via her staff (and would fire several during the fight), Hanna cast holy smite, and Paja emotion. The opening salvo was quite effective as you can see. The battle was so lopsided it wasn't even close - the party was almost undamaged.

After looting everything and we headed to the Sea's Bounty. An old "friend" of Jaheira cursed her there. We then headed to the slums to a derelict house. A lot of our buffs were still running. Just refreshed Joshua's true seeing, barkskin on Jaheira, and walked in.

The party won pretty easily, though Jaheira took a beating. Her being 5-6 levels behind everyone else sure isn't helping her any. We picked up a lock of her hair, rested for a day, then kicked her out of the party. She was quite upset at being kicked out, seeing she just betrayed her Harpers. We felt sorry for her, but business is business. We let her keep her staff of lightning though, call it even Jaheira?

Think we will do the Unseeing Eye next.  None of us can be killed by power word kill, so my run shouldn't end this time...

Edited by corey_russell, 30 July 2011 - 05:11 AM.

[corey_russell]

The continuing adventures of Lotan the human level 9 fighter > level 13 druid - Unseeing Eye quest

The party has completed the unseeing eye quest. Paja did excellent thief work, as usual, including stealthing, firing cloudkill wand, stealthing, firing cloudkill wand, etc. on the yuan-tis. Beholders beaten by SoB naturally. Hanna was able to "destroy" many of the undead with her turn undead ability. As usual, the most intensive healing was needed vs. the undead guarding the gauntlets of dexterity.

Oh forgot to mention, we will be doing Keldorn's personal quest, so he's in the party temporarily. No deaths at all in any battle. It's been a while since anyone has leveled, so when creating the bridge we got a pleasant suprise - 2 people leveled. Hanna leveled to 14 (one more till skeletal warriors), and Paja leveled to 14 thief.

The Unseeing Eye itself was beat with no losses this time. Battle lasted a while interestingly enough, even had to breach. Hanna spammed her wand of heavens that seemed to speed up the kill.

Gaal tried to exact vengeance. We were, however, VERY prepared for him, as you can see here.. It was a bit overkill really, but this is the final big battle before we report our success and rest again.

I'm saving spells for Imoen, but ran out of scroll cases (that is the 2 I have are full). Any know of where I can get more? I have the one from the spell merchant above Sevel Vales and the one from the spell mercant just behind Ribald's.

[Grond0]

Are you talking about the lady actually inside Ribald's shop - she has one, as does the shopkeeper above the inns and Jayes in the Promenade. Ikert in the docks has one and I think one of the merchants in the bridge district + someone in Trademeet. Not sure about the merchant who appears in the City Gates area once only.

When I'm saving up scrolls I tend to use one of the containers in the inn as a store - they have an infinite capacity.

[Grond0]

Wasp's continuing adventures:
 - liberated the Copper Coronet in order to get access to the sling of seeking.  Sunfire again proving it's worth against the beastmaster.
- carried on against the slaver stronghold.  After demolishing his guards Captain Haegan was sadly outclassed and the trolls were simple with the use of Melf's.
- returning through the sewers I was surprised to run into some assassins led by Callendous (I think from Chosen of Mystra's encounters, which I've not used before).  Their backstabs made no impact on stoneskin and they were kind enough to donate their equipment to Wasp.  Also picked up Lilarcor while in the area.

[Grond0]

Wasp update:
- A bit carelessly Wasp applied stoneskin on the streets causing the cowled wizards to attack her (she used magic missile on the guard outside the slavers earlier).  After playing hide and seek with teleporting demons for a while Wasp decided the risk/benefit equation was not favourable and travelled to the Promenade.  There she recast stoneskin and another lot of cowled wizards appeared (I had thought they would leave me alone for the rest of the day)!  Deciding enough was enough she went to the Government District and bought a license.
- A bit more travelling triggered an ambush.  An initial sunfire put paid to the mage and the remainder were easy.
- More travelling resulted in a further ambush - for the ambushers.  This time 2 sunfires were required for the mage, but the end result was the same.
- Took Renfeld back to the harper house (viewing a vampire attack and fighting off a mugging and a mad cleric on the way).  After resting did Xzar's quest - much to his regret.
- Then went off to help Nalia, clearing an Orog ambush on the way.  At the De'Arnise Keep worked through the trolls.  In addition to MMM and sunfire for killing trolls, a buffed ogre for putting them down and a flind for finishing them off also worked well.  Only significant problem was when Glaicus hit 3 times within a couple of seconds - the first removing her last stoneskin and the next 2 taking Wasp down to 11 HP.  Sunfire proved particularly useful as it was pretty much the only way Wasp had to kill the spirit trolls (doesn't have a wand of fire yet).  It was a spirit troll that gave level 12 and Torgal himself level 13.
- Used mislead for the first time in taking on the party in the Promenade Inn and it made it pretty straightforward.
- Funds accumulated have mainly been spent on some bracers AC3 and buying back a charged wand of monster summoning.

[corey_russell]

The continuing adventures of Lotan the level 9 fighter duealed to level 13 druid...

So, as stated before, time for me to do the quests/battles in the bridge district. When we attended a play we found out their actor is missing. So we headed to the sewers once again, to deal with Mekrath. I admit we "dealt" with him somewhat cowardly - we just sent summons one at a time, with Paja stealthed waving the first summon on to turn Mekrath hostile.

When we returned to the entrance, we found a bard - we let him join for now - his HP stinks tho. In the next room were a ton of Umber Hulks. Paja fired a cloudkill which killed 1/2 of them, the rest charged the party. Lotan got confused, but a quick dispel magic from Joshua got rid of it. Getting the gem then was no problem.

We returned to the playhouse and found out the gem was really used for summoning an interplanar conduit. Unfortunately before the troop could escape they were captured by bounty hunters. We followed them to the prison (after doing maximum buffs) and destroyed the initial bounty hunters. Boots of speed went to Joshua. We went right and met a few weak thralls. However the next group was pretty powerful, including numerous umber hulks. Yet again, we called on Paja to deal with them - she stealthed, fired cloudkill via wand, repeated once and went back to the party stealthed. The enemies had no clue what and who was killing them.

As for the Master of Thralls, we got 5 summons and sent them toward him. He and his air elementals died pretty fast, but a VERY nice suprise resulted - Hanna is level 15 now and her animate deads give skeletal warriors..

As for the Warden himself, Joshua just dispelled his protections and the party charged. Don't even think he lasted more than 2 rounds. The troop was glad we freed him. We passed on the bard's offer of help for now. (If this party can make it to ToB, I will probably recruit Haer'Dalis to help with our lore issues, especially with so many magical items we will find).

We did the 2 temple quests (Artist Sarles and ring of dawn) without incident. Also helped Keldorn with his issue with his wife. We told him to spend a day with his wife. In reality, he will wil stay there for quite a while, unless Joshua gets chunked in which case Keldorn will need to take his place.

What to do, what to do...I think I should try to take down Kangaxx. I don't remember when the last time I did so (leader's note: the battle and the ring were COMPLETELY unfamiliar to me, I must have never beat him before).

So first had to get his body parts (for a long time I thought I had to get 3, but thanks to Carinna's recent role playing a power game, I realized just needed the two). For each battle, the summons did all the work.

Next up was Kangaxx. I purchased two protection from Undead spells and gave to Joshua. We headed to Kangaxx's lair and Joshua gulped a haste potion talked to kangaxx and put on protection from Undead. Joshua was mostly unharmed, good, good...the party tried to assist in this first phase, but was completely ineffective. Paja got feared and killed. Decided Hanna and Lotan would hide in the doorway. About this time I realized the Daystar wasn't damaging him, it must count only as +2 - yikes! The only other melee weapon we had that could hit Kangaxx was the Hammer of Giantkin. Joshua was only doing 1 damage mostly, even with haste didn't seem to be enough. He used the Daystar's ability which did get rid of the first form of Kangaxx.

The Demi-Lich form was COMPLETELY unfamliar to me. I sent some summons to try to help Joshua but they were imprisioned...and from a distance! Yikes! Not sending the other party members to help that's for sure. I looked through my inventory again, anything else +4? Yes! Joshua's firetooth crossbow - he is specialzed so he will get an extra 1/2 attack. I removed his crossbolt ammo (so it would the use the +4 ammo), put a strength buff on him and haste again. Then he started shooting his crossbow like a machine gun. Still took a while, but success!.

Looking at the ring's stats NO WONDER the rest of you guys (especially you soloers) always take him down when you can! The ring went to Lotan.

[Grond0]

corey_russell wrote...
About this time I realized the Daystar wasn't damaging him, it must count only as +2 - yikes!

That's right - a bit unfair as you would expect the higher + to hit to count.

The Demi-Lich form was COMPLETELY unfamliar to me. I sent some summons to try to help Joshua but they were imprisioned...and from a distance! Yikes! Not sending the other party members to help that's for sure. I looked through my inventory again, anything else +4? Yes! Joshua's firetooth crossbow - he is specialzed so he will get an extra 1/2 attack. I removed his crossbolt ammo (so it would the use the +4 ammo), put a strength buff on him and haste again. Then he started shooting his crossbow like a machine gun. Still took a while, but success!.

I think it's the + to hit of the crossbow that determines what it can hit (rather than the ammo).  In fact if you load magical ammo you should get the ammo bonus damage in addition to Firetooth's normal damage - which can sometimes be handy.

Looking at the ring's stats NO WONDER the rest of you guys (especially you soloers) always take him down when you can! The ring went to Lotan.

Indeed.  I've only picked it up a couple of times, but it does look tempting doesn't it.  By the way, I can't do it in my modded version, but I remember reading something a long while ago that it is possible in vanilla to pickpocket the ring and then get a second copy after killing Gaxx.  Wearing 2 at the same time would start to provide serious regeneration ability (the same technique also works for some other similar things - like Ring of Ram and +2 ring of protection in BG1).

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

]I think it's the + to hit of the crossbow that determines what it can hit (rather than the ammo).  In fact if you load magical ammo you should get the ammo bonus damage in addition to Firetooth's normal damage - which can sometimes be handy.

I just tested it by loading a quick save prior to the battle, on my install at least that is not how it works, for ranged its always the AMMO not the ranged weapon. When I had bolts and attacked the demi-lich the bolts didn't work said "weapon ineffective". When I removed the bolt ammo then I could damage the demi-lich. You must have a mod that changes that.

[Gate70]

Well done, is that the first time you've had the ring? (as you can imagine the incentive to pickpocket a 2nd ring before the fight is pretty high)

[Grond0]

Wasp update:
- Cleared the graveyard, including the dungeon area (except vampire district).  The quest for Pai'Na provided Wasp with a pale green ioun stone - hurray, no more criticals to worry about - as well as Kitthix and a web-sack wand. 
- While picking up the sword for Pai'Na also took out the rakshasa in the sewers.  Surprisingly the rakshasa got affected by his own web / stinking cloud spells, which made him an easy target for Wasp's sling.
- Solved the skinner murders (gained level 14) and punished the dodgy grave tenders.  Picked up the silver pantaloons and realised that I hadn't got the golden ones from BG1 - oh well not much chance of getting to ToB anyway.  While in the bridge district also picked up the berserker horn.  My memory is that there is a game-ending trap there, so I made extra sure that Wasp was in jelly shape there (that's standard practice for opening things anyway).
- Took limited wish as my first level 7 spell.  Never used this before so experimented a bit.  Acquired a suit of plate mail +2 thinking that would fetch a nice price, but got a measly 30 gold for it!
- First real bit of carelessness during what should have been a routine bandit ambush.  I didn't react when Wasp was doomed (which meant she no longer had an automatic saving throw success against normal spells) and she duly got stuck by rigid thinking.  Fortunately it wasn't a charm, which automatically ends solo games, and her stoneskin and mirror image stopped her taking any damage until she came to her senses.  Probably means I've been playing too long today, but as I've been left home alone tonight the temptation to play a bit more has been strong.

[Grond0]

corey_russell wrote...

Grond0 wrote...
]I think it's the + to hit of the crossbow that determines what it can hit (rather than the ammo).  In fact if you load magical ammo you should get the ammo bonus damage in addition to Firetooth's normal damage - which can sometimes be handy.

I just tested it by loading a quick save prior to the battle, on my install at least that is not how it works, for ranged its always the AMMO not the ranged weapon. When I had bolts and attacked the demi-lich the bolts didn't work said "weapon ineffective". When I removed the bolt ammo then I could damage the demi-lich. You must have a mod that changes that.

I just tested it myself and I think I just misunderstood how it worked.  I cheated in a +2 sling that uses its own ammunition and that would hit a rakshasa without any extra ammunition, but not if using normal sling bullets.  It is still possible to get increased damage by using magic ammunition as well, but obviously magic ammunition that would hit a demi-lich will be in pretty short supply!

[Grond0]

Further adventures of Wasp:
- Got a statue for Temple of Helm and recovered ring for Temple of Lathander.  To be even-handed also helped out some paladins.
- Helped out a merchant at the city gates and while there freed a genie from a rakshasa's clutches and decided to take on the lich.  In hindsight this was a poor decision and nearly caused the end of Wasp's run (in vanilla this lich is pretty weak, but it's vicious in SCS and the inability to retreat during combat makes it very dangerous).  I wasn't too worried about the lich itself as I had two protection from undead scrolls.  Normally, when using one of these, the lich immediately responds with a remove magic, so I had spell immunity blocking that.  I was expecting a pit fiend to come in, but the lich also summoned 2 cornugons.  The pit fiend was too big to move round the tomb, but at one point Wasp got blocked in a corner by the cornugons and I'm pretty sure that only a teleport field scroll saved her.  With a bit of room to work in Wasp killed one of the cornugons with her sling and when the other one was unsummoned the danger was past - Wasp was able to finish off the lich at her leisure.

Edit:
- I've never abused the rod of terror before, so decided to have a go at that.  The pirates in the docks provided enough resistance to go from 10 down to 3 charisma - then being careful to keep the ring of human influence on went to find a mugger ambush and suddenly Wasp has charisma befitting a god.
- Also never done the limited wish quest, so started on that.  While in the sewers on the trail used mislead and mainly sunfire to get rid of a beholder + garths and 2 groups of lurking assassins.  It took a long time to hunt down Silliria because she kept going ethereal and running away and healing, but eventually a shot hit at the right time to interrupt her cast and Wasp was able to finish her off.  With lots of money from equipment sales Wasp bought Tymora's belt, which reduces magical damage nicely.
- Off to the troll mound on the next stage of the limited wish quest and a few more trolls got Wasp up to level 15. She now has access to skeleton warriors and a natty spell sequencer.  The quest went on over the bridge, but Wasp cleared out the troll mound before going there - where better to get full value for a sunfire.  Cleared out Kylend Lind and his shadow druids with mislead (picking up a staff of earth on the way) and mislead also confused the spore colonies and a few more trolls.  Then finally found an ogre mage in possession of the gong and relieved him of it.
- Mislead also helped end Ihtafeer's reign of terror and moving on I noted that the staff of earth seems able to insta-kill shambling mounds as well as earth elementals.  Killed the druids outside the grove, but the encounter with Faldorn seems to be bugged - can't get the fight to trigger whether Cernd is in or out of the party.

Edit2: managed to get the quest to trigger by reincarnating Dalok and talking to him.  Wasp then killed Faldorn and went on to claim the title of Great Druid; also killed Nilthiri for the Spirit of the Grove.  Returned to Trademeet and being acclaimed as a hero got her another level.  Also cleared the tomb and exposed Rejiek.

Edited by Grond0, 31 July 2011 - 01:07 PM.