16394 replies to this topic

[corey_russell]

Thanks Blind_Visionary! Dogdancing was disappointed that we failed, but my BG 1 success isn't 100%, especially if not playing full party. Still learning things when playing less than a full team.

[BBMorti]

Alesia_BH wrote...

Grond0 wrote...

Sorry to see the end of your MP run Corey

Agreed. 

The Duchal Palace fight is dangerous of course: No matter how many times I do it, it still makes me nervous.

Oh yes

Sorry to see your run end Corey

[corey_russell]

Thanks BBMorti! We will try again, apparently with different characters. Wewa wanted to do a lot of things this run but she held off, since too much reputation loss would make my character fallen. So I will be a character that doesn't care about reputation, such as a fighter or fighter/cleric.

[corey_russell]

 Coretrue the Paladin (controlled by Corey_Russell, protagonist) and Wewa the thief (controlled by Dogdancing) entering Trilogy no-reload challenge (attempt #5)
We used a save made immediately after character creation to restart our attempts.

Setup:
Vanilla BG 1
Tales of the Sword Coast Expansion
Official TotSC patch
No mods
Core rules at all times
"Gore" on (Wewa can get chunked)

Coretrue Character Sheet
Wewa Character Sheet

History:
Attempt #1: killed by bears outside of Candlekeep
Attempt #2: failed at the Duchal Palace
Attempt #3: Wewa failed her pick-pocket on Firebeard, and was horrored and magic missiled to death, and Coretrue tried to avenge Wewa and slay Firebeard and Coretrue nearly did, but Coretrue had a sliver of life with no heal potions and Firebeard killed Coretrue in melee before Coretrue could do the same.
Attempt #4: Wewa tried to pick-pocket a Tutor and the Tutor went hostile - as everyone did everywhere in Candlekeep - even Gorion. It was in fact Gorion who slew Coretrue though Coretrue himself did nothing to warrant that...
Attempt #5:
Dogdancing promised to behave herself, and the duo did much better. The duo were able to purchase all the weapons and armor they needed from there, did the quests/assassins without much trouble and that was that - the duo left Candlekeep.

We took Imoen's stuff and left her on the road. Coretrue detected two evil characters on the road, and he managed to kill each of them with a single bullet each. We went East for just a moment and got a ring from a rock and went to HIgh Hedge. The duo immediately hit Beregost. We sold our stuff here, calmed Marl, gave Firebeard his book. We also rested and looted a magic sword for Coretrue from the Beregost Smithy at night - Wewa also robbed the Thunderhammer Smithy blind at the same time. We rested to sell our junk and headed south.

Two ogrillions were defeated by hit and run tactics. Wewa was a bit slow on the draw and allowed herself to get within melee range of them so she took a hit. However, eventually Coretrue got the remaining ogrillion's attention and then Coretrue kept running around a stone slab while Wewa pumped arrows into the enemy - success! There was a flaming fist mercenary who was also killed by similar tactics, resulting in upgrade for Coretrue. We went back to Beregost to get Wewa's ring from Marianne, then headed south of Beregost once more.

Hobgoblins battled for 5 heal potions in a cave and some stealth boots for Wewa. Once that was done, we headed out to sell once more, and head just north of Nashkel. A few hobgoblins, kobolds and gibberlings encountered but they were no match for the duo.

In Nashkel, Ankheg armor was obtained to sell, Noober listened too, Oublek was told the truth (Coretrue isn't Greywolf), and sold our stuff at Nashkel Store. Dogdancing starting to get tired, so the duo decided to get Coretrue's level before headed to bed.

So we found a "dog" for a "boy" south of Nashkel. Then we returned to Beregost to clear out a house of spiders. We didn't have antidotes so Wewa had to flee at one point, but since we are vanilla they spiders couldn't follow here and Coretrue finished the remaining spiders. This put Coretrue at level 2 and Wewa at level 3.

This seems like a good place to stop. so session ended here.

Edited by corey_russell, 03 May 2013 - 06:06 AM.

[Grond0]

Carpe Diem - Half-elf archer

After having exceeded my expectations with Nil Desperandum, I thought I would try another motto character.  He's off to a good start, as a total of 96 for his starting roll is the best I've had for quite a while.

The aim with Carpe is to use stealth to try and avoid any damage (apart from trap damage, which can't all be avoided with a ranger) or the need to save against any spells in BG1.

Edited by Grond0, 03 May 2013 - 08:26 PM.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 21 - (update 2)
Leery, human wizard slayer (Grond0) & various (Gate70)

Just realised that I didn't post the result of a short session we had a couple of days ago.

In contrast with the initial session Gate70 stuck with Ajantis throughout the session.  That took a certain amount of grit given that the game was not giving very helpful feedback!

The duo progressed down to Nashkel and on through the Cloudpeaks to get the tome of charisma.  Ajantis nobly refused to make use of that allowing Leery to boost his charisma by more than 33%.  Ajantis is impressive enough naturally though and persuaded a merchant to part with a spare pair of furry boots.

The final part of the session involved taking on the sirenes in the lighthouse area.  Ajantis used the potion of clarity from Candlekeep to protect against their abilities and Leery and Ajantis shared out their arrows of biting for use in killing the golems in the pirate cave.

Leery, wizard slayer 5, 56 HPs, 50 kills
Roster of discarded NPCs: Xzar, Montaron, Imoen, Kagain, Khalid, Jaheira

[corey_russell]

Corey_Russell/Dogdancing Multi-Player No-Reload (Attempt 5) Update 2
Coretrue, Level 3 paladin 40 HP, CR, Protagonist
Wewa, Level 4 thief, Dog

While Dogdancing understands the theory, she would really not being doing BG 1 again. So she asked Corey_Russell if we can speed things along this run. With that in mind, we are not looking for experience, per se, but rather moving the main story along whenever possible.

The duo does have to be ready, however. Thus, the duo gathered enough funds for Full Plate for Coretrue and shortbow+1 for Wewa. We also purchased 40 arrows of biting, 20 for Wewa and 20 for Coretrue. Coretrue got a +1 medium shield after doing a task for Bjornin. We also defeated a belt fetish ogre for a belt of piercing for Wewa. We are ready to press the story on.

We pressed into the Nashkel Mines, Wewa did fine trap work here. Coretrue took some damage from the kobold commandos but he just potioned and won the battles with Wewa's help.

Time for Mulahey himself. The plan? The duo will keep shooting arrows of biting at Mulahey until he dies - this worked - Mulahey failed to get a single spell off! The duo then mopped up his minions without further trouble. After looting everything, we were full and sold at the Carnival. Dogdancing's hands were hurting, so we saved and ended our session here.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 21 - (update 3)
Leery, human wizard slayer (Grond0) & various (Gate70)

With Ajantis as a companion at the start it didn't take long for the party reputation to soar to 20 - Charleston Nib, Brage and Prism (very briefly) all putting a good word in for him.

With his ambition satisfied for the moment the paladin was retired in favour of Garrick.  He was only level 2 at the time and nearly died immediately in the hail of arrows that is a bandit ambush.  Fortunately he just had time to take a potion of invisibility before becoming scared

and the game allowed Leery to make an area transition even while Garrick was running. 

Garrick's lack of HPs were quickly remedied with a visit to the basilisk area.  By the time the monsters were all dead he was sending off salvos of 3 MM at a time, which helped a lot to kill Mutamin.  Learning stinking cloud from that encounter allowed Garrick to give the duo an initial advantage against Kirian and her party.  Kirian died before getting a spell off and the others suffered the same fate after Garrick made use of the wand of paralysation on them.

Leery, wizard slayer 6, 70 HPs, 91 kills
Roster of NPCs:
Discarded - Xzar, Montaron, Imoen, Kagain, Khalid, Jaheira
Inactive, but still available - Ajantis
Active - Garrick

Edited by Grond0, 04 May 2013 - 04:41 AM.

[Grond0]

Carpe Diem - Half-elf archer (hour 1)

Carpe is under way, with the first hour of play providing him with a solid base to progress from.

Most victims so far have been simply shot down with his lethal shortbow, running & shooting where necessary.  They include Montaron, Shoal, Karlat, Landrin's spiders, belt ogre, Tarnesh, Oopah, Arabelle's xvarts, Meilum, basilisks.

All others have been stealth shot victims where Carpe is already out of sight before the enemy can react.  They include Xzar, Vitiare, Mutamin, Kirian & party.

He's not taken any damage so far, although I did carelessly just let him be attacked for the first time when I didn't notice he had failed his re-stealthing attempt after shooting at a skeleton (to get a skull for Melicamp - that proved to be no good anyway).  Note that if stealth is required Carpe will rest at the edge of the map until dark, which allows him a good chance of successfully hiding.

His first 3 HP rolls were all poor, but the last two have been good, bringing him back to only a little below average at this stage.

Edited by Grond0, 04 May 2013 - 05:55 AM.

[Grond0]

Carpe Diem - Half-elf archer (hour 2)

The second hour of play saw Carpe have a lucky escape fairly early on in his aim to remain undamaged when some bandit ambushers didn't have their shooting boots on.

Unfortunately, he couldn't take advantage of that reprieve.  When he got up to reputation 20 he headed for Ulgoth's Beard, but attempted to loot the ankheg nest on the way using stealth.  He failed to hide again after picking up treasure and was attacked.  I hadn't originally intended to kill the ankhegs, but they can be attacked without retaliation by taking advantage of their slow weapon speed and moving between attacks. Doing that Carpe took revenge on them for the damage he had suffered.

At Ulgoth's Beard he bought the ring of invisibility, greenstone amulet and cloak of displacement. Then headed down the coast to the pirate cave. The first group of sirenes were quite difficult because they move around so much when first disturbed. However, they were eventually safely accounted for. Sil and her friends are much easier and the golems just needed shooting with a few of the +1 arrows Carpe had picked up on his travels.

The final action was stealthing through the Nashkel mine and shooting Mulahey down without allowing him close enough to talk.

Stealth shot victims - Malkax & Geltik, sirenes
Run & shoot - Zargal, Bjornin's half-ogres, diggers (Charleston Nib), Greywolf, Sonner, flesh golems, Mulahey

Stats
Carpe Diem, archer L7, 69 HPs, 145 kills (using 449 normal arrows, plus a few magic ones)

[Grond0]

Carpe Diem - Half-elf archer (final update)

I realised after the last update that I'd made a major error.  I noticed that consitution was still only 18 and that Carpe did not have the tome in his inventory.  I think I must have had a full inventory when talking to Brage and dropped the tome there - if so it had gone before I returned.

Possibly as a result I didn't bother taking any precautions at the bandit camp.  Venkt was shot at with arrows of biting, but the first critically missed and Venkt saved against poison from the second.  He also ignored damage from a fireball and his horror spell spelled Carpe's doom.

I think I'll restart him.

[corey_russell]

@Grond0 - sorry to hear of Carpe's doom. Hope 2nd time around does the trick for ya.

Corey_Russell/Dogdancing Multi-player No-Reload Attempt #5, Update 3

The duo decide to take on Nimbul - we don't have the greenstone amulet, so as a result was rather a mess. We tried to arrows of biting Nimbul but we missed. Nimbul responds with mirror image. Corey_Russell knows what Nimbul's next spell is and Corey_Russell goes into the nearby store before he can get it off. Wewa resists the horror and dutifully keeps pumping arrows of biting in to Nimbul to no avail, however. Two sets of magic missiles quickly finish Wewa.

Coretrue tries to shoot Nimbul and go into the store, but his arrows still not connecting, and Coretrue has ran out of  heal potions. So Coretrue uses his last haste potion and runs to the Nashkel Temple. Coretrue gets 10 potions and decides to resurrect Wewa, while Nimbul is still outside waiting for him, because Coretrue just happens to have thief useable equipment for Wewa (the duo had to go back to the mines as the forgot to loot all the letters, so Coretrue had a few items from a dead kobold). Coretrue gives her some heal potions and the thief weapons, and the head outside. Nimbul puts another set of missiles into Coretrue - Coretrue uses a blue potion - oh, Nimbul using axes - we have him! Coretrue charges with his bastard sword +1 and slays the annoying Nimbul. Boots going to Coretrue.

The duo also battles the area with Krumm and hisbrother. Primarily to get the free magic halberd to sell, free undead scroll, and the gauntlets of bluntness for Coretrue - this will help Coretrue when the duo take on Ankhegs. The duo then heads to Gnoll Fortress. Getting late, so the duo ends their session here.

Edited by corey_russell, 04 May 2013 - 10:01 AM.

[Grond0]

Carpe Diem II - Half-elf archer (update 1)

The re-started archer began with Shoal as before, but this time didn't do any reputation quests in the early stages.  Meilum's gauntlets were an early target before buying a green scroll to protect against some basilisks.

The basilisks got him to level 6 and he decided to go to the Nashkel mine.  First, though, he found a couple of people in Beregost who objected to being burgled in order to get reputation down to 9.  Once Mulahey had been shot up that allowed him to rest (without reporting to the mayor) to get a LMD Bhaal power.

After shooting down Nimbul and Tranzig Carpe took the time to clear the bandit camp with stealth shots.  That allowed going in and out of the tent for more stealth shots.  Britik was the only one who reacted enough to follow Carpe out and he had soon finished off the enemies there.

Resting after his hard work got Carpe a Bhaal horror ability and he set off to report to the Nashkel mayor.  His first bandit ambush triggered on the way, but he hurriedly equipped his large shield and Nimbul's boots (for -10 to missile fire) and got away unscathed.

A mistake in the Cloakwood led to his first damage from an enemy and he was very lucky to escape with his life.  I had killed the first spider in the web-trap area and normally at that point trip the trap there.  This time though Carpe managed to miss it, but I didn't note that and then got caught when coming back with an ettercap in tow.  I expected that to be game ending, but Carpe escaped from the web at the first opportunity and quickly gulped a potion of magic blocking to ensure he wasn't caught again. 

There were no further problems in getting to the mine where stealth shots got Drasus to near death before Carpe failed a stealth attempt and had to run off the map.  Coming back, a single shot finished Drasus off and Carpe grabbed his boots before hiding and running past the rest of the party into the mine.  Stealthing down to Daveorn Carpe lured the battle horrors away and then a long succession of stealth shots wore Daveorn down.  A first use of a melee weapon killed the mustard jelly allowing a bit more looting before Carpe flooded the mine and left (avoiding the slave in order to not get any more reputation at the moment).  Resting outside got him slow poison as a Bhaal power.

He has avoided various ambushes and just arrived in Baldur's Gate.  Here's his current record. 

Just the 88 kills shows he hasn't bothered with dealing with many of the low-XP enemies around.

[Blind_Visionary]

Geoff failed to take the measure of what might have been possible. A pack of skeleton archers filled him with arrows (rolling 4 or 5 criticals in a row). He briefly regretted not running before he expired. After Geoff fell, Imoen fled into the forest and disappeared. Some say that one day, she made her way to Amn to find her destiny...

The End

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

[Blind_Visionary]

Holdren the Handsome - Sorceror - Update 1

After talking the night's events through with Imoen, almost nothing is clear to me. Why was I ejected from Candlekeep? Who were those assassins that cut down Gorion in the rain? How can I keep going in the face of danger and uncertainty? And where is my hairbrush?

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 04 May 2013 - 07:06 PM.

[Grond0]

Carpe Diem II - Half-elf archer (final update)

In Baldur's Gate he collected the dexterity tome and then went in search of the intelligence one.  Two shots dealt with Ramazith before he could buff allowing Carpe to stealth up the tower.

He picked up the Helm and Cloak of Balduran before going to see Jalantha.  She failed to complete a spell under a hail of arrows, allowing Carpe to recover the wisdom tome without the use of potions (and get level 7 in the process).  He then completed the poison quest by using LMD for the first time on Marek before finishing him off with arrows.  That encounter also provided him with the Eagle bow, which is a suitably vicious weapon for an archer!

After a stealthy investigation of the Iron Throne Carpe was sent to Candlekeep.  He rested there to get DUHM Bhaal power and looted the tombs using 2 potions of magic blocking on the traps and a storm giant strength potion.  After stealthing out he briefly returned to the city to be caught stealing before resting to get vampiric touch Bhaal power.  Then he did a brief tour to get the remaining tomes:
- Constitution.  Stealthed by sirenes and shot golems (he only had 10 arrows of cold, but now doing 20+ damage per arrow only 6 were required).
- Charisma.  Just sneaked in without bothering to kill anything.
- Wisdom.  Sneaked into Durlag's Tower and used a potion of magic blocking for trap protection.

Also rapidly finished off a number of reputation quests to get that up to 20 and picked up a pair of only slightly used pantaloons and the Claw and Horn of Kazgoroth.

Back in the City Slythe was shot down like a dog.  With potions still running Carpe moved on to the palace.  His initial horror sent 1 greater doppleganger running and the others were attacked with dispelling arrows followed up by acid arrows.  All died quickly leaving both dukes alive and Carpe at level 8.

Carpe sneaked through the maze and down to Sarevok.  He was pulled out with a dispelling arrow and shot down within a few rounds. 

Here is Carpe's character record on arrival in Jon's dungeon (I just stealthed past enemies to get a shortbow to show his abilities with that):

Edited by Grond0, 04 May 2013 - 08:08 PM.

[Blind_Visionary]

Congrats, Grond0! Keep that bow ready in Amn!

[corey_russell]

@Grond0 - grats on another successful BG 1 run...

Parden the dwarven level 2 fighter/level 3 thief entering Trilogy no-reload challenge:
Traveling with Minsc, Ajantis, Branwen, Imoen, Dynaheir

Parden hasn't died yet and has got by most of the assassins, so here is his record. Working on the southern areas at the moment...no close calls so far.

[Blind_Visionary]

Holdren never did find his hairbrush. While he was rooting around for it in some bushes, a gibberling bit him in the ankle. He tried to run, but the injury was too severe and he bled to death. Alas, handsomeness and durability do not go hand in hand.

Back to the drawing board.


P.S., I wish you better luck with Parden, Corey!

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 04 May 2013 - 09:23 PM.

[Grond0]

Hard luck B_V. What about trying one of the fighter type characters to let those gibberlings break their teeth on your plate armour?

[Blind_Visionary]

Indros - Cleric/Ranger. Update 1.

Gorion is dead. Candlekeep is closed to me, perhaps forever.

Life has taught me about loneliness. Where am I from? Who were my parents? Was it my mother who came from the Tel-quessir, or my father? Did they bond out of love? Or, dare I imagine a darker scenario? Why would my parents leave me? Gorion never spoke of these things, no matter how many times I asked him. Now I fear that the secret of who I am is lost with him.

I am so afraid of what the future holds. But fear is only a creation of my heart. It is not outside myself. I choose to act. I choose to survive.

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 04 May 2013 - 10:12 PM.

[Blind_Visionary]

Grond0 wrote...

Hard luck B_V. What about trying one of the fighter type characters to let those gibberlings break their teeth on your plate armour?

Exactly what I was thinking. I'm going to get my fighter type beefed up a little bit, then have him play with a party. He's going to stay in the back. Way in the back. Woe be to any monsters vulnerable to being pelted with little rocks from a sling!

Edited by Blind_Visionary, 04 May 2013 - 10:14 PM.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 21 - (update 4)
Leery, human wizard slayer (Grond0) & various (Gate70)

Alas for Leery, who eventually proved too easy a target at the bandit camp. 

He had already saved against rigid thinking when fighting Mulahey and against horror when fighting Nimbul.  The main bandit area wasn't too bad, but he did take quite a bit of damage while finishing off the external bandits (stinking cloud and wand of paralysation helping out with Taugosz).

The initial idea at the leaders' tent was to get 1 or 2 of them to chase Leery back out of the tent.  However, none followed him after a couple of attempts so he went back in and moved to attack Venkt - opening up a bit of space for Garrick to come in behind.

Garrick's magic missiles helped take Venkt to near death, but he was clinging on and meanwhile had put two acid arrows into Leery.  In addition Hakt had poisoned him - that was countered by a potion of healing, but Hakt immediately poisoned him again.

Deciding discretion was the better form of valour Leery ran for the door.  He got out of the tent and took an antidote as he was running away.  Unfortunately at that point Raemon decided he was going to follow outside this time and was able to fire one shot before Leery got out of range.  That connected - almost killing Leery.  It was now a race against time to see if he could take another potion before the last round of damage from the second acid arrow hit him
 - he couldn't ...

Edited by Grond0, 05 May 2013 - 04:53 AM.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 22 - (update 1)
Rose, human stalker (Grond0) & Grub, halfling assassin (Gate70)

With Leery given a swift burial there was time to generate another couple of challengers.  We haven't tried either of these classes, but thought a pair of stealthy backstabbers should go well together.

Rather than take the easy XP on offer this duo were sent off to the FAI to try their luck against Tarnesh.  He's a dangerous opponent for level 1 characters, but a single backstab would probably finish him off.  Both took a swing at him while he waited oblivious at the top of the stairs - but missed.  Tarnesh responded with a horror spell, but Rose was already on the way into the inn and made it there, albeit in a scared condition.

Tarnesh didn't follow so, once Rose felt better, the duo stealthed and had another go at a backstab.  This time Grub connected - but unfortunately what looked like a decent backstab was not treated as one.  His poison had also run out while waiting for Rose to recover, which meant Tarnesh was free to respond - and did so in deadly fashion with some magic missiles.  Rose also connected, killing Tarnesh, but just too slow to save Grub.  However, there was a nearby temple and the duo were flush with funds after looting the star sapphire from Candlekeep so Grub was back on his feet almost immediately.

Edited by Grond0, 07 May 2013 - 02:40 AM.

[Gate70]

I’ve started a dwarf kensai solo (Xikar) but also a berserker party run (Klonk who is loosely based on an earlier character Kronk). Xikar is likely to be the silent type so this is the latter, covering the search for pantaloons that fit a half orc .

Klonk (berserker 1 : 19-18-19-16-9-9. ** 2HS, ** 2 handed style, no berserking sword due to party)

Imoen (thief 1)
Klonk couldn’t find any armour large enough in Candlekeep and Imoen was holding out for pink leather until she realised how dangerous the woods were. She stole some studded leather from a halfling called Montaron but found herself unable to wear it due to the halfling odour. Klonk somehow squeezed it onto his massive frame instead.

Viconia (cleric 2)
It isn’t long before Klonk has his beady eyes on the armour and helmet of a hapless mercenary, using his berserker rage and 2 handed sword to prise them off their previous owner. A sultry drow called Viconia tells Klonk he reminds her of someone she once knew and asks to travel with him for a while.

The trip to Beregost is uneventful apart from two ambushes and Viconia is frothing at the mouth after being bitten by a wild dog; Klonk just thinks a dose of rabies makes her even more exotic than usual.

(Don’t think I will trilogy Minsc or Jaheira, not sure about Edwin. This would leave a few slots available for other characters rather than running a small party).

Edited by Gate70, 05 May 2013 - 10:16 AM.