16394 replies to this topic

[Blind_Visionary]

[THALANTYR'S GAUNTLET. PREVIOUS POST HERE.]

Alan walked out of the front gate of High Hedge, looking perplexed. Imoen stood at the edge of the stairs, staring up at the intimidating stone towers. Trees rustled in the breeze, birds chirping in the early morning light.

“So, is Thalantyr going to take you on as an apprentice?” Imoen asked.

“I’m not sure,” Alain replied. “Maybe.”

“What does that mean?” Imoen asked.

“He wants me to prove my worth first,” Alain said.

“How?” Imoen asked.

“He asked me to ‘visit Mutamin’s garden,’” Alain said. “If I can bring back proof that I was there, he said that we could talk further about apprenticeship.”

“Visiting a garden doesn’t sound so bad,” Imoen said.

“Yeah,” Alain said. “Maybe he just wants us to pick him a flower or something.”

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 09 April 2013 - 12:29 AM.

[corey_russell]

Problem Encountered!
Kagain got killed by Sendai. We paid 600 gold (twice) but he isn't resurrecting. He isn't chunked, I can still see his portrait. Can use Gatekeeper fix this? Is that kosher with other participants? Or should I just let him stay dead, and find a replacement.

Basically, the key is, is this by design? E.g., he should stay dead for some obscure D&D rule I just don't know about?

Thanks for any and all replies.

[Blind_Visionary]

@Gate - Congrats with Kronk. I love the concept of a berserk berserker. Good luck with Jaheira or whomever in Amn.
@Grond - RIP Gruff.
@Corey - I'm not aware of any design reasons that Kagain shouldn't be revivable if you can see his portrait still... Maybe the clerics at the temple just can't stand his stench. I vote that you shall be allowed to RP as you wish, with Kagain or with a replacement.

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 09 April 2013 - 02:46 AM.

[corey_russell]

Gatekeeper doesn't appear to be able to fix him, so will get my money back from the Temple stole and RP that he was chunked.

[Grond0]

Gruff - dwarf wizard slayer {berserker} v3 - update 1

I thought I would have one more go at this to see if I can get past the Cloakwood mine and try out my strategies for the later combats.  So far so good, with Gruff nearly being ready to take on the main quest line.

He went straight, avoiding any encounters, to get the cursed sword.  Then to the Friendly Arm to get the Ring of Wizardry to swap for some full plate armour.  A brief stop at the carnival and then on to the basilisk area.  He finally equipped the sword there and his choice for a first kill got him to level 3.  A few more minutes to clear the rest of the basilisks and Mutamin and he was up to level 5.

At Firewine Bridge Bentan took a battering, as did Gruff's reputation (killed him for the protection from magic scroll).  An experiment to see whether he could improve that with Hulrik's cow wasn't too successful - both the cow and the farmer dying there - so Gruff invested a few thousand gold in temple donations. 

No problems in the Cloudpeaks, where Gruff got to level 6.

On the way to Samuel Gruff was lucky with Hentold.  He didn't manage to run far enough away from the nearby enemies and Hentold came to talk to him while he was still out of control.  Fortunately he's a quick mover and managed to get away again without being chopped.  Samuel proved to be beyond help - I forgot he was in inventory and returned to Beregost to do Landrin's spiders before going into the FAI.  However, Joia, Landrin and Unshey were all pleased (though a nobleman won't be when he realises his favorite pants won't be coming back from the laundry).

While purchasing a protection from acid scroll at the carnival Gruff carved up Zordral. A further scroll was obtained at High Hedge before he headed for the ankheg area.  A bowl was retrieved from some fishermen and this time Tenya proved sensible enough to take it quickly.  Gruff then bought lots of healing potions at Ulgoth's Beard before returning to clear the ankheg nest.  No problems there - he was only hit once.  However, while exploring after talking to Farmer Brun he accepted combat with 2 ankhegs together.  They hit regularly and, despite his immunity to acid, Gruff finished the combat with only 13 HPs - including 12 HPs taken for getting to level 7 for killing the first one!  He was also slow regaining control after that fight and Farmer Brun is now short a horse as well as a son.

Melicamp, Bjornin, Tamah and Ardrouine got Gruff's reputation up to 20 after his bad start.  He had a potentially nasty encounter on the way to the coast where he was unable to run from a ghoul, but the ghoul couldn't get a hit in.  While in the lighthouse area he used one of his protection from magic scrolls to get the constitution tome.  Gruff used his stock of healing potions to rather cheesily attempt to rest in the cave - a number of flesh golems getting him up not far short of level 8.

His HPs of 80 look rather poor in comparison with v2's 100 at this stage, but are still just above the average of 78.

Gruff, wizard slayer 7, 80 HPs, 189 kills

Edited by Grond0, 09 April 2013 - 07:16 AM.

[Gate70]

Loving it Grond0, that's how it should be played (just not in no reload though!)

Corey, did you try enabling cheat mode, activating hotkeys and CTRL/R'ing Kagain. Failing that, Shar Teel can be a decent frontliner, or I've found Montaron to make a decent stab at it. I used to have Viconia front the party with fair success too but not on tougher encounters.

[Grond0]

Gruff - dwarf wizard slayer {berserker} v3 - final update

With the pirate treasure Gruff bought the Claw and Horn of Kazgoroth and equipped the former.  Greywolf handed over his sword before Gruff breezed through the mine.  As seems pretty standard Mulahey made Gruff save against a rigid thinking before being chunked.

Back at Nashkel Gruff reported to the mayor and got to level 8 (just the 2 on the die roll though pulling him below average).  Nimbul was decoyed away and one-shotted through his mirrors.  Tranzig tried, and failed, to run. 

At the bandit camp Taugosz managed a single hit.  Gruff stayed inside the main tent and took more damage than usual as a result from Venkt's acid arrows, but he still won with a bit in hand.

After opening up the second Cloakwood area Gruff went to buy some green scrolls and paid for a remove curse to unequip his sword.  Back in the Cloakwood he used protection from poison and ran through the area - he saved against both the web traps near the ettercaps anyway though, so it again wasn't actually needed.

At the mine the bridge guards were run round and left behind, allowing Gruff to approach Drasus without the sword equipped.  He ran him round for a bit to make sure the others were not following and then put the sword back on to cut him down.  After healing, he read the scroll of magic protection and then killed Genthore and the mages with minimal damage and hurried on into the mine.  He managed to retain control of himself and just ran past the guards at the entrance, saving a bit of time (with the aim of keeping the scroll going until he killed Daveorn).  At Hareishan he again had enough time in control of himself to drag the lightning bolt trap into the room and get away from Hareishan (so she stayed alive to kill her own guards with her spells).  Again he took minimal damage there (saving further time as no need to use healing potions).

However, on the next level down disaster struck.  I tried to get Gruff to run past the waiting guards to save more time, but at the last minute he decided to turn back and attack.  Unfortunately, it looks like he fixated on someone he's blocked from attacking by others in the doorway because he just stood there, doing nothing (but still berserk) until he was eventually killed.

[corey_russell]

Gate70 wrote...

Loving it Grond0, that's how it should be played (just not in no reload though!)

Corey, did you try enabling cheat mode, activating hotkeys and CTRL/R'ing Kagain. Failing that, Shar Teel can be a decent frontliner, or I've found Montaron to make a decent stab at it. I used to have Viconia front the party with fair success too but not on tougher encounters.

Nope, don't know about cheat mode for BG 1 vanilla. I've moved on though, Shar-Teel is the front-liner now.

[corey_russell]

Setben the halfling fighter/thief - Update 2
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Viconia, Montaron, Xzar
Setben and gang continue to make progress. Incidents of note:

* Algernon was slaughtered to lower the party's reputation, which was getting too high. This happened to net us a cloak as well.

* Nashkel Mines problem was solved. A lot of battles with kobolds, but Kagain (RIP) tanked well here. For Mulahey, Viconia and Kagain, stayed near the entrance, while the rest of the party went deep into the Mulahey's cave. This worked well, as Viconia and Kagain kept the skeletons busy, while Xzar, Setben, and Montaron took care of Mulahey. I did have necklace of missiles, but many party members including Setben have low HP, too risky in these tight quarters. A nearby elven prisoner was freed named Xan. The party let Xan go at the Carnival. We might recruit him if Xzar ever gets chunked.

* Assassin Nimbul defeated - he failed to resist Viconia's command, and that was that.

* Gnoll Fortress was cleared, without much incident

* Battle with Sendai and her archer friends - while Kagain died, this kind of went to plan, web at the enemies, with Kagain in the web too, to distract them - this worked. But when we came back to the Temple, the Temple was unable to raise Kagain, though it gave the impression it could. Kagain was removed from the party, and will be dead for good.

* Need another tank, so Setben purchased some mirror eye potions and stone to flesh scrolls, in case we get a basilisk ambush on the way to get/return from Shar-Teel.

* Montaron has very low HP, but didn't want to give him a STR potion, as he might chunk Shart-Teel, I just wanted him to win. So he used a haste potion instead, and his AC was -4 at that point - success! We now have a tank again...some equipment reshuffling, Viconia is in front too. Shar-Teel has AC of -5.

* We just need a little bit more money and we can get the full plate. So we headed to the gibberling area (where Samuel is), rescued Samuel, got a fire resistance ring, sapphire and a winter wolf pelt.

* Two ambushes on the way to the FAI, including one with a large # of bandit archers (10). The party won, Xzar tried to go invisible (via scroll, since he can't memorize it), but got killed just before it was going to take. So he was resurrected at the FAI Temple when we returned Samuel

* After selling everything and the winter wolf pelt, the party purchased full plate from the Thunderhammer Smithy. Shar-Teel now has -6 AC, -14 to missiles. Viconia has -5 AC herself

* Party decided to investigate Ulcaster School. They defeated all the enemies here very cleanly, Shar-Teel and Viconia tanked great, just a few heals needed. Setben himself did great trap work here as well. Got some levels here, Viconia now can cast level 3 spells, so animate dead and pro-fire were chosen. Setben finally got a nice HP roll (5), putting his HP at 26. Viconia, no the other hand, got the worst possible (1).

Edited by corey_russell, 09 April 2013 - 03:44 PM.

[Gate70]

corey_russell wrote...
Nope, don't know about cheat mode for BG 1 vanilla. I've moved on though, Shar-Teel is the front-liner now.

OK, for reference it's the same effects as debug mode in the BG2 engine, a couple of differences to use though. Cheats=1 in the Game Options section. Then CTRL/TAB. Then CLUAConsole:EnableCheatKeys()

[Blind_Visionary]

[ALAIN SURVIVES MUTAMIN'S GARDEN. PREVIOUS POST HERE.]

Imoen lay in the grass, listening to the wind. She was surrounded by beautiful statues. A bear, captured in mid-stride. A woman picking a flower. A young boy looking over his shoulder, with a look of surprise captured on his face. Even a gibberling, with stone slobber dripping from its stone jaws.

“This is not a garden,” Imoen said to Alain, “it is a graveyard.”

“Yeah, this isn’t quite what I was expecting,” Alain replied, sitting on the corpse of a giant basilisk. “It’s a good thing we decided to sneak in while invisible.”

"Can you believe how crazy that little mage was?" Imoen asked rhetorically. "Talk about a statue fetish."

"I wonder how he kept the basilisks from going rogue and killing him?" Alain asked. "I guess I don't know much about basilisk behavior, but I've never read any stories where they serve a master."

"Strange," Imoen said. "Anyway, its a good thing that you're powerful enough to blind them with your magic. If they could have seen where we were, we’d surely be stone ourselves at this point.”

Alain nodded somberly, touching the stone woman's arm and imagining what it might feel like to be frozen out of time, forever. He wondered if the petrified woman could feel anything at all.

“So, do you think Thalantyr was trying to test us,” Alain asked, “or get rid of us?”

“He’s creepy,” Imoen said. “But I suppose we should give him the benefit of the doubt, for now. He is undoubtedly powerful, and probably rich.”

“Sounds right, “ Alain said. “Let’s bring him Mutamin’s robe and staff. I suppose this will serve as proof that we were here.”

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 09 April 2013 - 09:04 PM.

[Blind_Visionary]

Editorial aside:

This last battle was the greatest success of Alain's run so far. Here's how it went down: Alain and Imoen studied the terrain while invisible. Then they cleared out the random gnolls and dogs and bears and whatnot that could be reached without triggering any encounters or engaging any basilisks. This gave the pair room to move around without distraction.

Then, Alain made Imoen invisible again. Alain read a green scroll and then approached the basilisks to the south. He fired off blindness at each of them and then left them sitting there, basically unresponsive. Alain marched up north toward Mutamin, buffing with mirror image and shield in addition to the green scroll. Mutamin flipped out and started to attack. Alain blinded him, and then blinded the greater basilisk. At this point, the green scroll ran out, and there were I think two more little basilisks attacking.

Alain drank a potion of mirrored eyes, and then pelted the basilisks with stone bullets as he beat a strategic retreat away from melee range. He needed one more potion of mirrored eyes, and nearly half a lap around the map, but eventually, the aggressive basilisks went down. Then Imoen broke invisibility and started to help Alain take out Mutamin and the five remaining blind basilisks on the map.

Mutamin was carrying some great loot. I think one of these items -- the robe of the battlemage, might have been put there by the item randomizer? Anyway, this item gave Alain a significant health boost and improved his weapons skill. I think he's turned a corner in terms of his ability to survive.... *knock on wood*

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 09 April 2013 - 09:01 PM.

[Blind_Visionary]

Ah, the robe that was on Mutamin is from the Item Revisions mod. It seems overpowered for my character to have at this point in the adventure - it boosts HP by 10 and drops thac0 by 2. It is the equivalent of one of the Robes of the Archmagi. And Alain is definitely not an archmage. Should I keep it, or discard it?

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 09 April 2013 - 10:25 PM.

[Grond0]

I'd hang on to it. Although I agree it sounds nice, it's not very likely to actually make much difference to your chance of surviving encounters - that will still require more good planning and execution!

[corey_russell]

Setben the Halfling fighter/thief continues his adventure...
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Montaron, Viconia, Xzar
Levels: everyone, including both classes of the multis, are all level 5 except Viconia who is level 6

Setben has been doing well. The only somewhat setbacks are when Xzar gets targeted by multiple archers in an ambush and died in one round or less. So he does die now and then, even from kobolds in Ulcaster when we were done with the area, and just trying to get the ghost to spawn to give it its book. Of course, being level 5 with 12 HP sure doesn't help him, though he is a powerful spell caster.

We made great progress in the Valley of the Tombs area, the best news was Shar-Teel got 10 HP, the highest she can get from a level up. We walked right up to the Amazon Assassins, and opened with web and silence, and that won the battle for us pretty much, only matter of time then. Shar-Teel beat the undead in the area with a scroll.


Ankheg area also cleared, though Setben was very careful to have Shar-Teel seen first by the Ankhegs. He only failed in this task once, and Montaron took a beating, but he lived.

in this large bandit ambush, Xzar decided the best defense was a good offense and he did a well aimed fireball at the archers locking onto him - he managed to take them out quickly, and he lived this battle - unusual for him to survive archer ambushes, he was proud of himself.


Setben met a Waterhaven band of adventurers in Basilisk country - they said they were no match for us, but Setben begs to differ.
1st Round: Viconia throws a potion of explosion, Shar-Teel darts of stunning on the archer, Montaron throws a fireball via necklace of missiles, Setben targets Kirian with his +1 composite bow, and Xzar does a fireball via wand - this was pretty devastating as you can see below.


Surprisingly, there were survivors from all of this. So 2nd round, Shar-Teel tanks the approaching melee, Seben continues to target Kirian, Montaron targets the melee with his sling, and Viconia tries to silence Kirian and the other caster. At this point, Xzar begged Setben to use a skull trap, he has been dying to use this spell, and hasn't had a chance to use it until now. Setben gave the go-ahead. Result was devastating -- Kirian and her ranged attackers all die, the wardogs she just summons, most die, one runs in fear, and the only one able to attack gets picked off by Setben's bow. The remaining melee was now 5-1 odds, and fell quickly.


Not to be outdone by a man like Xzar, Shar-Teel then does a great play shortly thereafter. She goes northward and sees a gnome caster approach - she doesn't have any magic potion, so trading blows is unwise. She then runs back to the party, luring the gnome (Mutamutin) away from his pets. Mutamatin was then slain in a single round, and was able to cast nothing. Using the green scroll, Shar-Teel then cleared the rest of the map.

There was a lady in stone that Setben freed in this area, and she said he could have her house, but he got gipped. He went to her house south of Beregost by a lake, but it was submerged, so utterly worthless. Xzar claims he will kill her on spot if he sees her again.

[corey_russell]

Setben the Halfling fighter/thief - micro-update...
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Viconia, Montaron, Xzar
Levels: all level 6 except multis level 5 fighter

Setben has been making more progress, no near misses for him, though Xzar has had a few. Xzar has been using vampiric drains in ambushes and that has helped him stay alive.

About 90% of the Sword Coast explored, pre-Cloakwood, and no TotSC areas really.
Sword Coast (Sirenes) were dealt with via skeletons and greenstone amulet. One crazy battle covered almost 1/2 the map, as Viconia got charmed and started slinging everyone. Setben and Xzar retreated northward, Shar-Teel and skeletons were battling a sirine to the east, and Montaron tried to help Shar-Teel with his sling. However, Setben got poisoned by arrow of biting! He used elixar of health, and then he used his bow on the offending sirine. Montaron and Xzar also brought their missiles weapons to bear - the sirine fell, and eventually Viconia regained her senses. Viconia did no damage to anyone, so that was well.

Bandit Camp was completely destroyed. We had a few minor buffs, but Montaron did the heavy work here. He went into Tazok's Tent alone, stealthed and backstabbed the mage Venkt. It didn't kill Venkt, but then Montaron used a firebreath potion and that did! At the same time the party charged into the tent and assisted Montaron. The hobgoblin elite archer was the next target - Montaron charged that goblin with his short sword +2, and mid-stride changed from his leather to the full plate that Khosann donated. The halberd melee went after Montaron. Shar-Teel the nearest melee, but most of the party concentrated fire on the melee on Montaron to assist him - complete victory, no casualty, and actually hardly any damage at all. Anything of any worth was looted, and after selling put the gold at 20,000.

Setben finally purchased the martial staff for himself now that they can afford it, not that he's in melee very much.

[Serg BlackStrider]

The Story of BlackStrider & The Motley Crue (Update #10 - BG1 Final):  

I'm glad to report that the Avatars just defeated Sarevok and there were no more deaths among us in the final part.
Here is a quick medley of our travels:
Back to the Candlekeep we looted as much as we could (Alesia did it from the top floor to the bottom order) and then escaped through the Catacombs. Engaging Prat & Co we approached from three sides, opened with Fire Blasts and Pot neutralized two of them with Emotion allowing him to finish the last one personally with MM.

  


I wanted to maximize our exp so Durlag's Tower was our next destination (with Silke being oneshooted with Wand of Heavens en route). The Tower was cleared/looted from the top to the bottom and the only inhabitants that remains there now are the Ghost (he is a nuisance in SCS and not worth the trouble) and the Demonknight himself (we hit level cap just before him and I remember full health Khalid being chunked with fireballs in two rounds so did not want to risk losing any of my friends in no-reload):

  

  

  

Back to the City we saved Duke Eltan, taught a lesson to Cythandria (spared her life in the end) and with skellies support Slythe/Krystine were no trouble at all. 

Duchal Palace: summons, triple Horror (only one Doppelganger resisted) => Hail of the Elements. Both Dukes survived.

  

Undercity party was promptly eliminated but when talking with Tamoko I choose a wrong answer and was forced to fight her (a pity, really...)

  

In the Temple we killed Battle Horrors beforehand (in my previous run they were triggered during the main fight by my confused party members - not a fun) and Grond appoached from the east triggering the Acolytes but not Sarevok. They were dispatched in due order: Semaj > Angelo (Pot took most of the credit here with Spell Thrust > Wand of Frost )  > Tazok (I found them much much easier this time) and then Krimlor triggered Sarevok himself. Arrow of Dispelling, some distraction and hail of arrows = dead Sarevok:

  



Final state (after Acolytes and just before Sarevok):

BlackStrider: Blade(10), 407 kills (Doomsayer);
Alesia The Curious: Mage(7)/Thief(8), 172 kills (Queen);
Grond The Pathfinder: Archer(8), 643 kills (Greater Basilsk);
Cassia The Furious: Shapeshifter(10), 284 kills (Davaeorn);
Krimlor: Fighter(7)/Cleric(7), 534 kills (Jalantha Mistmyr);
Pot The Selfless: Mage(9), 61 kills (Angelo), 7 death (1 to Shoal).

onto the Amn...


 

Edited by Serg BlackStrider, 11 April 2013 - 07:21 PM.

[corey_russell]

Congrats Serg! Best of luck in Amn! Yours are the only avatars still alive, right?

[Gate70]

Well done Serg, now go chuck Irenicus off a cliff into some lava...

Grond0, The Potty 1 and myself have died. Serg is OK, last I heard Alesia had defeated Sarevok but was unable to export/import into BG2 and was taking a break (solo games were calling by the look of it). While ussnorway had re-imported Grond due to a resurrection issue, I can't find a later update from her but could have missed it.

edit, & the links I could find.

Edited by Gate70, 11 April 2013 - 09:27 PM.

[Alesia_BH]

Congrats Serg! Best wishes in Amn!

Gate70 wrote...
 last I heard Alesia had defeated Sarevok but was unable to export/import into BG2 and was taking a break (solo games were calling by the look of it). 

That's it basically. I had finished up The Avatars BG1 portion just before my Egypt trip. When I came back I felt like soloing (I'm still feeling like soloing now I'm afraid).

Edited by Alesia_BH, 11 April 2013 - 10:11 PM.

[Alesia_BH]

Quick note everyone. I've started fiddling with a Halfling Barbarian named Azriel.


I've also rolled up a Half Elf F/M named Avi.


I've never tried either class and I'm semi-curious about both. If anyone has a preference, let me know.

Best,

A.

Edited by Alesia_BH, 11 April 2013 - 10:12 PM.

[corey_russell]

@Alesia: Either sounds interesting. While F/M is pretty common, they also seem to fail a lot (including in my own runs). It might be interesting to see a F/M solo through Melissan. I think F/M is substantially different than the F/I that the Grond0/Gate70 duo did for the Trilogy, so would be worth watching.

[Alesia_BH]

corey_russell wrote...

@Alesia: Either sounds interesting. While F/M is pretty common, they also seem to fail a lot (including in my own runs). It might be interesting to see a F/M solo through Melissan.

I can't guarantee a success, but she'd have a high probability of making it. I agree that it could be an interesting run.

I think F/M is substantially different than the F/I that the Grond0/Gate70 duo did for the Trilogy, so would be worth watching.

Agreed: The save bonus makes a difference. The extra spell slots, less so but they're relevant as well.

I'm actually leaning more towards the Barbarian now, but I'm not really connecting with her so I may very well end up switching. I'll keep your comments in mind when I decide. Thanks.

Best,

A.

[Gate70]

Halfling barbarian with dex 19 - sling & shield using movement bonus? I'd typically melee with a barbarian, find their rage helps hugely with BG1, SoA I find harder as a group of attackers (typical ambush groups) can be troublesome, then as HLA's and equipment such as Roranch become available they get a second wind.

The fighter/mage would seem to be the more flexible option. Compared to a bard they lose UAI but have better spellcasting options at higher levels. Possibly better THACO too. Compared to a pure mage you will really notice the THACO difference, current wild mage multiplayer run is seeing a lot of missed MMM's for example that a dual or multiclass would significantly reduce.

[Alesia_BH]

Gate70 wrote...

Halfling barbarian with dex 19 - sling & shield using movement bonus?

That would suit my style of course: I like shields and I like slings, and the Barbarian is fitted to that angle even though its unique strengths lie elsewhere.  

I'd likely let her dual-wield eventually with Foebane +5 and The Defender being a prominent combo.

She'd work- tactically. I'm not really connecting with her though since my playing style doesn't really jive with the Barbarian aesthetic: I'm all about caution and the Barbarian begs to be played with abandon.

The fighter/mage would seem to be the more flexible option.

Indeed. I'd expect the F/M to power through my install. The result would likely hinge on her battle plan at The Throne. Success would be probable here.

Edited by Alesia_BH, 12 April 2013 - 02:23 AM.