16394 replies to this topic

[Grond0]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...
@Grond0: best of luck with Killian! btw, how is that chaotic good gnome has disliked reputation? Ate some children maybe while enraged?

He, ah, tripped over the carpet while going to talk to the merchant Algernon - he really shouldn't carry his axe up in the air like that.  I just find it mildly annoying that slow poison is an almost entirely useless ability for a solo character, whereas there are several situations that horror can be helpful.

Does that look better now Serg?


Killian {2} - gnome barbarian (update 2)

Killian has just arrived in Baldur's Gate and shouldn't take long now to finish things off.

Down at Daveorn the necklace of missiles accounted for the battle horrors.  A potion of magic blocking defeated initial spells, although Daveorn did manage to summon some ogre berserkers.  To be safe Killian was just running round to wait for them to disappear, but Daveorn chased him a bit too closely and paid the ultimate penalty.

Spent a bit of time doing reputation quests.  While in the lighthouse area also raged through some sirines (level 8 - 14 more HPs to break 3 figures) and golems to pick up the pirate treasure.  Shortly afterwards, he identified the tome and got up to 110 - I don't remember having a character with that many HPs in BG1 before.  The only moment of potential danger in this period was just after de-stoning Tamah.  When travelling away an ambush triggered with some gnolls; I was about to run to the right before deciding I should go down just in case a basilisk appeared as well - it did.

With reputation up at 20 did Bassilus just for a bit of final pocket money before spending about 40,000 of his ill-gotten gains at Ulgoth's Beard and High Hedge.  Before going to Baldur's Gate he also picked up the tome from Durlag's Tower.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Grond0 wrote...
He, ah, tripped over the carpet while going to talk to the merchant Algernon - he really shouldn't carry his axe up in the air like that.  I just find it mildly annoying that slow poison is an almost entirely useless ability for a solo character, whereas there are several situations that horror can be helpful.

Does that look better now Serg?

Aye, a way better! :happy: And he should be extremely cautious with the reflexes like that - I don't want to witness him cutting out his own leg ... or even worse...

 The only moment of potential danger in this period was just after de-stoning Tamah.

I just wonder if that Tamah is Abazigal's girlfriend perchance...? If so it would be wiser to left her here as she appeared to be not that grateful in the end...

Edited by Serg BlackStrider, 14 November 2013 - 08:52 AM.

[Grond0]

Killian {2} - gnome barbarian (3rd and final update)

In the City Killian collected the 3 tomes without trouble (a single rage was enough for Ramazith's ghasts).  Also picked up the Helm of Balduran before taking on the Mountain Maulers - his relatively poor AC meant he took a fair amount of damage there, but was still a comfortable winner.

After investigating the Iron Throne invisibly, Killian was sent to Candlekeep.  A single rage and DUHM later he had smashed open and ransacked 3 tombs.  After sneaking past the dopplegangers, he performed impressively against Prat's party - a single rage being sufficient to finish them off.  Invisible again, he left the basilisks alone and returned to Baldur's Gate.

He buffed up for Slythe, although that fight would have been easy anyway.  Then straight on to the palace: nothing fancy there, but the dopplegangers were rapidly disposed of in melee.  On to the maze - getting the XP for level 9 there, but not taking the level.  He used the 10 arrows of detonation he had on the Undercity party - only Shaldrissa surviving those to be finished off in melee (again used a single rage for that combat).

In the temple, Sarevok was pulled out with a dispelling arrow.  I tried a buffed up melee assault to see if Killian could win in a straight-up fight.  He got Sarevok to near death, but had to retreat and heal a tiny bit before coming back in to finish things off.

Here's his character record on arrival in the dungeon.


Edit: and his level up in the dungeon gave him another maximum HP roll - tasty.

Edited by Grond0, 14 November 2013 - 09:07 AM.

[Grond0]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...

 The only moment of potential danger in this period was just after de-stoning Tamah.

I just wonder if that Tamah is Abazigal's girlfriend perchance...? If so it would be wiser to left her here as she appeared to be not that grateful in the end...

Ah, but I'm not playing with SCS, so no problem for me.

[Serg BlackStrider]

@Grond: Well done! Take care of him and keep his temper under control in Amn!

Edited by Serg BlackStrider, 14 November 2013 - 09:10 AM.

[Epsil0]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...
@Epsil0: well met and welcome! Looking forward to see how divine warrior will fare solo. What is your setup? Vanilla or some extra mods maybe?

I'm running on BGEE, so no mods there: last time I tried to mod it, things... didn't end well and I had to completely redownload.  The only mods I have on my copy of BG2 are a dialogue pack and a flirt pack that I installed to test whether I could, in fact, install mods on a Wineskin-wrapped version of a Windows game on a Mac. The answer was yes, but I can't get SCSII to work; something in it causes Irenicus to freeze up during the intro of the dungeon when he's casting the first spell. Not that I'm interested in trying SCSII on my first no-reload and first solo...

Anyways, will have a real update soon, I think.

[Serg BlackStrider]

@Epsil0: Got it, thanks. Best of luck with your run!

[corey_russell]

Congrats Grond0! Take care of your character in Amn...

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 31 - (update 2)
Ivy, human blackguard (Grond0) & Derva, human inquisitor (Gate70)

With no work this afternoon, Gate70 and I had the opportunity for a decent 'good cop, bad cop' session with the paladins.

After doing a few tasks in Beregost the cops headed north via an ogre to the FAI.  Joia was helped and Tarnesh massacred, but Landrin was a bit odd: he thanked us twice for his boots, but failed to take either a dead spider or a bottle of wine.

A few more encounters were aimed at improving equipment - Arghain contributed a 2-handed sword for Ivy, while Greywolf gave Derva an upgrade.  Meilum offered up a pair of bracers.  The cops then set the Cloudpeaks to rights before heading back to civilisation with bulging backpacks.

With Samuel and Hulrik also singing our praises the next destination was the basilisk area.  There was one nasty moment when Ivy was nearly caught unaware by a basilisk that has changed position in BGEE, but she backed away in time.  Mutamin was poisoned and poison darts also proved painful to Kirian's party.

After another sales trip the cops went to the lighthouse area.  There were a few wrinkles here added by the EE that caused a palpitation or two.  First a sirine feebleminded Derva.  With no obvious way of getting her to move Ivy was sharpening her sword to cut up some handy sized pieces to put in her backpack when Derva recovered - so the sirine effect is clearly not permanent (unlike the spell).  Derva was then slightly caught out against Sil when she started talking at range rather than walking closer, but the sirines went down fairly quickly to poison anyway.  The golems were immune to poison darts, but not to the poisoned +1 arrows that Ivy was using, nor to the arrows of biting from Derva.  Once more we forgot traps have been added in the pirate cave, but fortunately there was no harm done.

The first difficult combat was against the Doomsayer.  He was immune to poison and hard to hit and quite a few potions of healing were used before eventually finishing him off.  The cops also eventually persuaded Brage to come quietly in one of the interludes in his manic rages.

Melicamp was saved, while Bassilus and Zargal were not before the cops turned their attentions north.  Ankheg armour proved not quite good enough against live ankhegs and more healing potions were needed to clear the nest.  Tenya got her bowl back (I was surprised how much damage she took before agreeing to talk) before Ulgoth's Beard provided a few goodies when shopping.  While spending money Derva also got an upgrade to full plate in Beregost.

The last action of the session was at Durlag's Tower where a couple of battle horrors were dispatched on the way to collect a tome of wisdom (not that that actually benefits either paladin).

Stats:
Ivy, blackguard 6, 69 HPs, 93 kills
Derva, inquisitor 6, 60 HPs, 101 kills, 0 deaths

Edited by Grond0, 14 November 2013 - 06:38 PM.

[Epsil0]

Second and final update:

Yep, my inexperience with soloing came to end Esymi's run: I didn't stock up on enough antidotes, and Esymi met his end to an Ettercap's poison in Cloakwood. What to try next… I kind of want to try a Wizard slayer -> Thief, just to test whether UAI overrides a WS' prohibition on using other magical items or not, while still getting that nifty 10% chance to cause casting failure. It'd have to be party-play, probably, but BG1 should still be solo-able… (Once I figure out how to solo it in the first place, that is!)

[Grond0]

Hard luck Epsil0 - you might find the green scrolls of protection from poison handy in the Cloakwood if you plan to do much fighting there.

You can do a WS to thief dual, but soloing a WS is hard. If you want to try it then consider in advance how best to make use of the green scrolls - they're the only defense you have against spell attacks.

[corey_russell]

Plixcan the Halfing Fighter - FINAL Update

Plixcan did well vs. Mulahey and the Bandit camp. But he came unstuck the same area as the poster above! I thought Plixcan's save vs. death at 2 would keep him fairly safe, and also had 6 antidotes. Well he did OK for most of the area...but ran out of antidotes and had one more phase spider left. He was very, very close to level 8. Well, as it turned out the phase spider managed to poison him - the poison was so powerful, not even blue potions could save him. He tried a Bhaal slow poison but that got interrupted. Going to have to agree with Grond0 on this point - slow poison bhaal ability for a solo player is so useless, since he rarely can get it off when poisoned, though of course that's just when you need it.


I haven't the faintest idea what to try next - any suggestions? Would like to be solo again, so whatever you suggest keep that in mind.

Edited by corey_russell, 15 November 2013 - 03:13 AM.

[Epsil0]

Yeah, well, I'm apparently crazy, since I didn't even give myself the option of Dualing, with my base race being Elf and all…

Ender the Elven Wizard Slayer. Not quite solo, traveling with Imoen because I'm already fed up with trying to kite/ranged things to death with one character. Still unmodded, stats are STR 18/35, DEX 18, CON 17, INT 14, WIS 10, CHA 12. Currently level 4 with 40 hitpoints after killing off that one Sirine and 3 things in the Basilisk area; the ghoul died to 3 Acid arrows from the mage, and I don't dare try anything further there.

The only thing I'm wondering is what the heck was I thinking when I assigned proficiencies? I have… ** Longswords, * Darts, * Longbow, *Sword-and-shield-style. This… isn't good. At least one point's going to have to be put into a blunt weapon to deal with Golems BG2, and to maximize a WS' potential APM is key to shut down casters… Any advise? Probably looking to put one into flails and then max out Longswords (assuming I get that far,) but… Hm.

[corey_russell]

@Epsil0 - mace for the improved mace of disruption is rarely wrong, the other possibility is quarterstaff so you can use the Staff of Rhynn vs. Kangaxx.

[Epsil0]

The only thing I have against Quarterstaffs is that Wizard slayers only have so many slots where they can fit effects into, and I'll generally want to have a shield or two weapons. Kind of moot, since I managed to get… maybe 10 minutes into this session before I made the really dumb mistake of encountering Basillus without remembering what sequence of speech options makes him poof his own undead. Then Rigid thinking + my main character deciding to aggro an undead, turning them all against me… Yeah. Starting again, same character, using a save that I have right outside of Candlekeep.

Edit: as for suggestions to what you should try... An archer, perhaps? Or maybe a Beastmaster?

Edited by Epsil0, 15 November 2013 - 03:37 AM.

[corey_russell]

Being an archer means running everywhere or getting a group, neither of which I want to do right now. I don't think I've ever been a beastmaster, so that sounds reasonable, will give that a shot.

[Grond0]

Epsil0 wrote...
The only thing I'm wondering is what the heck was I thinking when I assigned proficiencies? I have… ** Longswords, * Darts, * Longbow, *Sword-and-shield-style. This… isn't good. At least one point's going to have to be put into a blunt weapon to deal with Golems BG2, and to maximize a WS' potential APM is key to shut down casters… Any advise? Probably looking to put one into flails and then max out Longswords (assuming I get that far,) but… Hm.

Darts is a decent choice for a WS.  If you're looking ahead to BG2 then shortbow might be seen as preferable to longbow due to the extra attack per round available with that.

[corey_russell]

Corbeast the Solo Human Beastmaster entering trilogy no-reload challenge...

While I expect Corbeast to come to a grizzly end, since I've never played the class, thought I would try it at least once. He's working his way to Nashkel (he's just north of Nashkel) right now, and he's been pretty effective with his bow, more than usual for me.

Corbeast the level 2 CG Beastmaster, 34 HP
STR 18/92 DEX 18 CON 18 INT 11 WIS 14 CHA 9

Setup:
Easytutu
Core rules at all times
no mods

[Epsil0]

Hm, good luck with that Beastmaster; does Wisdom actually do anything for your character mechanically, by the way? I've read contradicting reports on the effect of Wisdom on rangers…

If I'm not mistaken, the spell-failure chance doesn't proc on ranged weapons on a vanilla game, so the 3 APM from the darts doesn't matter too much. Also, I seem to have 2 APM with a composite longbow anyways, the same it would be for a short bow. Not quite sure what to make of this.

Anyways, quick update: 3rd attempt at Ender. Second one was ended quickly by not knowing the layout of the Basilisks well enough and getting Feared by the mage with two Lesser's still alive and well nearby. Shoal was killed as usual, Melicamp was rescued… and then killed (I seem to have really bad luck with him. Something like 1/6 of all the non-reloads I got to that point killed him. ) A few Basilisks were taken care of, though I again had to abandon the area when Korax got killed by a bear. Made my way south to Nashkel, barely survived the assassin in the inn when Ender got held. Fortunately I had enough presence of mind to bring the fight outside before that happened, and Imoen hastily recruited Rasaad to tank Neira for me. Greywolf was defeated for his +2 longsword, and that's where I am now; probably going to head over to Captain Brage for the experience boost.

[corey_russell]

Epsil0 wrote...
Hm, good luck with that Beastmaster; does Wisdom actually do anything for your character mechanically, by the way? I've read contradicting reports on the effect of Wisdom on rangers…

No, it doesn't. 14 is required minimum for the class.

[corey_russell]

Corbeast the solo human beastmaster - update 2

Well, I have discovered/encountered some things that now make me think this beastmaster might survive after all. For one, I discovered that in my install he can use ankheg armor - this helps a lot, at least it does with my play style. The other detail is the HP gods have very kind to Corbeast with a very nice 53 HP at level 4. No near misses, although the hardest thing he has battled is Tarnesh so far. Corbeast didn't have any fear protection and was in fact duly feared. And Corbeast did not attack Tarnesh until Tarnesh was hostile. However, Corbeast protected himself with the shield amulet and with his -6 to blunt weapons was pretty sure Tarnesh couldn't hurt him - he was right, as Corbeast was running around in fear the guards were happy to kill Tarnesh for Corbeast.

With the sell of a couple rings he found and Landarin's things returned, Corbeast will try to travel to Ulgoth's beard and get a few things he needs. He has a chance, I think.

[Grond0]

Epsil0 wrote...
If I'm not mistaken, the spell-failure chance doesn't proc on ranged weapons on a vanilla game, so the 3 APM from the darts doesn't matter too much. Also, I seem to have 2 APM with a composite longbow anyways, the same it would be for a short bow. Not quite sure what to make of this.

Correct on spell failure - a component of the Fixpack can change that if you want.  2 APR is standard with bows - which makes them much more effective than slings in BG1.  The crossbow of speed can match that for someone with that proficiency.  In BG2 the shortbow from the Beastmaster in the Copper Coronet has 3 APR, which makes it an attractive early game option.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 31 - (update 3)
Ivy, human blackguard (Grond0) & Derva, human inquisitor (Gate70)

The cops had a pretty serene stint of patrolling last night.

The session started at the Nashkel mine where Derva hacked her way down to Mulahey.  He managed to confuse her, but was already dying of poison and his summons were not up to the task of getting through Derva's full plate.  Outside the mine the Amazons also fell quickly.

Back in Nashkel Derva's true seeing ability made Nimbul's mirror images even more useless than usual.  On to Beregost where Tranzig was about to expire of poison, but Derva mercifully cut his head off.

At the bandit camp Derva cut down plenty of bandits, but ran away from Taugosz for a bit until he was filled with poison darts.  More poison inside the main tent quickly eliminated the opposition - Hakt getting a taste of his own medicine.  The lightning trap seemed to operate slightly differently than in BGT and both characters took damage, though not to dangerous levels.

After selling surplus equipment the cops ventured into the Cloakwood.  Ivy steered them to a spider nest in order to get a 2-handed sword upgrade, but otherwise encounters were limited on the way to the Mine.  Once there 3 potion fireballs killed Kysus before the duo accepted battle.  Rezdan died almost immediately of poison and neither of the fighters could cope with Derva.

Hareishan was bypassed on the way down to Daveorn.  The battle horrors there were brought back one at a time and killed off pretty easily before Derva charged Daveorn.  She soaked up a lightning bolt and fireball without difficulty and proceeded to cut him down - though he did manage to subject Ivy to the indignity of being held first. 

Stats:
Ivy, blackguard 7, 79 HPs, 162 kills
Derva, inquisitor 7, 71 HPs, 186 kills, 0 deaths

[Gate70]

corey_russell wrote...
The other detail is the HP gods have very kind to Corbeast with a very nice 53 HP at level 4.

With or without familiar?

[corey_russell]

Gate70 wrote...

corey_russell wrote...
The other detail is the HP gods have very kind to Corbeast with a very nice 53 HP at level 4.

With or without familiar?

With familiar.