16394 replies to this topic

[Alesia_BH]

Congrats, Corey!

 

Keep hope alive! And keep Minsc alive. And Jaheira. And Imoen. And Aerie. And everyone else.

 

Melissan, on the other hand, is free to die at any time.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Grond0 - if I do that, I don't be able to set off the traps on the chests. Remember I am playing vanilla BG 1. This means absolutely NO potions can be used while the PfM is active, so I can't use a storm giant potion to bash chests and set off traps on said chests. Instead, should use green scrolls vs. fire and lightning which in turn would allow a strength potion to be active at the same time. As for high thieving scroes, Imoen had 100/100 in locks/traps - since that wasn't high enough, how high did it need to be?

 

I wouldn't use PfM. Protection from electricity perhaps. Protection from fire perhaps. I might even leave that chest which has the lightning bolt. Yes you get 10 health potions, but they aren't essential.

 

The essential ones are the chests with quest items and the one with durlag's plate. If you set off the trap where you get durlag's plate immediately take a health potion before it lands. it will take effect half way through the damage that you get and could well save your life. Protection from fire is good there too. (Ring plus potion)

[Grimwald the Wise]

A quick note about Yeenter's run:

 

The foray into Durlag's Tower is currently on hold. I'm currently looking to see if I can find a suitable thief replacement. If not, then I will abort the foray into Durlag's. Reason why is Imoen got chunked by a repeating fireball trap that she could not detect with her 100% skill in trap detection.

 

The run continues...

 

To find some traps you have to approach from the opposite direction. But with that one, she just needs to be able to run away fast enough. (oil of speed)

[Grimwald the Wise]

Blackstar picked up her team for taking on the mines and afterwards realised that she should first have killed the ankhegs, then picked up Gavin, then done his quests, and then picked up the team.

 

The team is not quite as experienced as it would have been.

 

He picked up Khalid (Bladesinger) Jaheira (Lawful neutral fighter/cleric of sylvanus) Gavin (Cleric of Lathander, Imoen (Adventurer/mage).

 

They killed the Ankhegs, Basilisks and Mutamin, Bassilus, Lady Valeria. (Lady Valeria killed Imoen (Acid arrow followed up with magic missile) The temple raised her and rewarded them handsomely.

 

They cleared the area where Narcillicus hangs out and are now heading for the mines.

[corey_russell]

Picenon (attempt #6) Update 1 - entering trilogy no-reload challenge

 

Like his predecessors, Picenon will be solo, though he will let NPCs join him temporarily. In BG 1, to rob them and in BG 2 to do their quests. Here is his character sheet:

 

In case you are curious about his equipment, click the spoiler below.

Spoiler

 

No near deaths so far. He's defeated enemies many different ways - for lower levels, he used a lot of stealth shots from his composite bow.  But when he got more HP, he instead walked around in full plate, shooting enemies with his bow, and then finishing them with his +1 quarterstaff once they are in  melee range. For powerful melees like bears, he still runs around and shoots. When he was low level, he also used magical ammo to help with damage and Thac0, and this trick helped a lot and easily paid for itself. He rarely backstabs, as he can 2-3 shots at maximum range, which at the moment is more than a backstab, not to mention a lot safer. The other detail is he can do these shots in full plate, which adds some security. He's also got in/out of buildings many times (Grond0 technnique ^_tm), for assasins and also the spiders in Beregost. He uses his sleep wand sometimes, mostly in ambushes though.

 

His save vs. spells is only 9, so he is avoiding casters unless he has a safe way to engage them. He recently got his necklace of missiles, so soon his will do his fireballs-from-the-shadows technique on unsuspecting parties like Kirian's.

 

Last time I got Bassilus warhammer so I can use a shield, but now that I've seen Grond0 successfully use a staff all the time, I might do the same, as that also allows the bow to be equipped which is quite useful.

[Grond0]

but now that I've seen Grond0 successfully use a staff all the time

Of course my characters do tend to hide behind yours while whacking away ...

[Alesia_BH]

Yay, Picenon VI! May he claim the Throne!

 

Best,

 

A.

[ussnorway]

bgee run update 1.6,

help wanted; evil need not apply!

 

Hear text as mp3,

 

We had a spare slot so hired a young (very) male elf and got stuck into some shadow Druids before moving deeper into the forest where my poison immunity proved decisive against the local arachnids for a good sword and another frost wand. The elf wouldn't stop telling us about his feminine conquests so the girls briefly considered replacing him with a Bard but he wasn't suitable (do-good) material and we pushed on to the mine.

Spoiler

The entrance was well guarded so we sent the elf scouting ahead then carpet bombed the area with a standard 'web' / 'fireball' combo for some more armour and a nice mace… if only we knew some way to recruit a Cleric?

Spoiler

As luck would have it, one of the miner slaves we rescued inside the tunnels was a Fighter-Cleric looking to settle up some grudge or other… it's a Dwarf thing.

The main battle proved easy; we lured and dispatched the two battle horror sentinels with frost shots then frightened the teleports out of the head boss by sending a skellie at him… with the bulk of his spells negated by our summoned pets' resistance, I simpley walked up and did the grim chore with my trusty sword.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Blackstar and her companions cleared the Nashkel mines and returned to the Carnival for R & R. They aquired some fairly good equipment inn the process, but the only equipment better than they had already was a decent set of armour and an excellent +3 axe which gives +1 bonus to strength.

 

Imoen foolishly used her wand of frost which led to us losing a decent morningstar.

[corey_russell]

Picenon (pronounced pik-uh-non) the solo gnomish fighter/thief - update 2

 

Picenon is at the level cap, mostly due to sirines, ankhegs and baslisks. Mulahey defeated by greenstone amulet. Picenon joined the bandit camp and then defeated Tazok's tent with a magic blocking potion. Ironically, enemy partries are much easier than the general ambush - reason? Picenon's patented fireballs-from-shadows technique. He'll explore and area in the shadows, and see the enemy party (such as Kirian's in the example below). Just out of sight he will launch a fireball - THEN hide in the shadows BEFORE the fireball hits. Thus, the enemies never saw their slayer, and Picenon never gets attacked this way as well.

Spoiler

 

Cloakwood is next. This is almost going to be entirely skipped. The only planned battles are Drassus and Davaeorn. Not much will be done in the City of Baldur's Gate either, so Picenon should be able to make rapid progress in BG 1.

[corey_russell]

Picenon the solo gnomish fighter/thief - FINAL Update!

 

As expected, the Cloakwood was no problem - Drassus and pals was destroyed by fireballs from the shadows and Daveorn was killed by stealth arrow shots.

 

Upgrade-wise, only the tomes in the city were wanted, so Picenon got those but forgot to get the WIS tome from the Tymora people - oh well. The Iron Throne party on the 5th floor was skipped, invisibility to the letters in the back was all that was done there.

 

Most of Candlekeep skipped too. Picenon looted crypts, killed spiders and went invisible out of there - the invisibility ring poofed, but Picenon isn't worried.

 

Then in Chapter 7, Slythe met his match - Picenon opened with dispelling arrows then hid in the shadows. Picenon was so fast, Slythe didn't move. So then Picenon fired a few arrows of biting, poisoning Slythe - Slythe charges. Picenon runs and hides, then comes in for the coup de grace. Slythe exploded.

 

Picenon used the same buffs but also DUHM for the place. Picenon armor class was -8 while wearing studded leather, thanks to equipment and buffs. For the 1st time in the game, I turned on auto-pause when target destroyed to make sure Picenon wasted no action. As it turned out, two dopplegangers died quick, and then their morale broke - it was then easy for Picenon to pick them off with his bow.

 

Picenon loaded up on potions and went invisible all the way to the Temple of Bhaal. He buffs up before entering the temple, does DUHM and charges Sarevok - Picenon's 1st dispelling arrow connects and Sarevok charges. Picenon hides then backstabs. Semaj appears. Picenon runs behind a pillar and backstabs Sarevok again. But he can't do it again, Semaj is too close. So Picenon moves away, and dispels Semaj's buffs. Semaj responds with dimension door and does some sort of sequencer to rebuff - but now he is too far from the pillar by Sarevok! Picenon runs, hides, and backstabs Sarevok two more times by using the pillar - Sarevok defeated!

 

I thought I had a lot of screenshots, but I didn't see them in my scrnshts folder, so not sure what happened there.

 

Picenon will be solo in BG 2 - probably only Valygar will join for a moment to open the sphere, and probably to take Mazzy's short sword.

[Alesia_BH]

Congratulations to Picenon!

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

Congratulations to Picenon!

 

Best,

 

A.

Thanks! And now if I can only do that to BG 2 and ToB...

[Blackraven]

Congrats Corey to Picenon!! 
For me it's doubly cool and interesting that you're playing with him (and successfully so), because I rolled a Fighter/Mage/Thief yesterday, also a solo character, in part because I wanted to know how they work as compared to Fighter/Thieves.

Sellhana, 1st & final BG1 update

Glorydd's retirement - not death  - due to a dubious saving throw failure, left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't want to take her all the way through BG1 again and then through some early SoA quests, so I went with Dagny again. However I 'retired' her as well, when she got stuck between Landrin's Huge Spiders, before the critters could kill her hehe.

I decided to roll a Fighter/Mage/Thief, mostly out of curiosity as to how I would play such a character, and to see whether I like this triple class better than F/M, F/T or M/T. I took quite a long time rolling, hesitant to settle for a 90 roll, and was rewarded with a record roll:

Spoiler

A 99 roll on a F/M/T, that's just crazy, a powergamer's wet dream. I considered not allocating 4 stat points, but then I remembered that even a 108 roll wouldn't guarantee anything with Blackraven in charge.   

Here's Sellhana:

Spoiler

Initial weapon profs are ** Staves and **Shortbows. Pips 4 and 5 went to Flails. A F/M/T 'only' gets to spend 10 pips in the entire trilogy. Staves seemed a good choice Martial Staff +3 in BG1 and for the Staff of the Magi, Staff of Striking, and who knows Staff of the Ram in BG2. Tuigan, Tansheron's and Gesen are great shortbows. Flails for the FoA and Defender of Easthaven. The final four pips should go to TWF, and Bastard Swords (for Foebane). Occasionally other weapons, such as Slings or Scimitars might be of use. Sellhana will have to trust that the light non-proficiency penalty for warriors won't be a problem in those cases. 
Unlike Dagny and Glorydd no shorty saves bonuses. I expect that come BG2 Sellhana's spells will be largely defensive spells to make up for her unreliable saves, and that they will allow her to melee most of the time.

Sellhana had no problems during her first quests. These included most of the Coastway stuff, Brun, Tenya, Nib, Brage, Flesh Golems, Greywolf. She was lvl 4/4/5 when she slew the latter, at about 40k XP. As Unfinished Business locks Prism's emeralds in Ellesime's eyes, Sellhana quaffed a stone giant strength potion, to bash those locks. (She hadn't honed her lockpicking skills.) Unfortunately 20 Str wasn't enough for the second lock, so the Elf decided to put the potion to good use. She entered the mines. At that point she was already retty well-equipped with Girdle of Piercing, Boots of Stealth, Cloak of Deflection, Greenstone Amulet, Aule's Staff +3. Wand of fire routed Kobold hordes, and a critical backstab ended blue-circled Mulahey's life before he could say anything.

Spoiler

Narcillicus and the undead in the Valley of the Tombs suffered the same fate.

Back in Nashkel Amnish guards injured Nimbul until he panicked and fled into the inn. There, Sellhana finished him off with a backstab. Tranzig fell to a critical stab. (Lots of critical hits and misses this run for backstabs). 
Sellhana traveled to Durlag's Tower where she scorched the Battle Horrors with her wand. She intended to enter the tower, but realized that if she wanted to kill Kirinhale she'd need lasting Charm protection. She therefore returned to Beregost to purchase the helmet with the same name at Feldepost's. As she approached that inn, she was waylaid by Lamalha & Co. Sellhana decided to quaff a potion of invisibility. She then stepped inside the inn, Greenstone-protected herself and cast Detect Invisibility from scroll to reveal Telka and Maneira. She kept entering and leaving the inn to hide and stab.

Spoiler

(Sellhana had trained her stealth ability first and foremost. I was clearly playing her as a normal Fighter/Thief.)

Having bought the Helm of Charm Protection, the Elf traveled to to Durla's again, only to be waylaid once more, this time by Molkar and his gang. It was a good thing she had dealt with the two Battle Horrors before. Again she decided to go invisible first, and then to buff herself (Shield, oil of speed, Greenstone). She finished the enemy with Wand of Fire scorchers and ranged attacks. Kirinhale fell after three hits by Sellhana with her martial staff. A blue PfP scroll had been scribed successfully, meaning that Sellhana could also deal with the Basilisks.

Cloudpeaks were largely neglected. CHA tome was picked up at the Gnoll Stronghold. 

Sellhana then went looking for the Bandit Camp. She had Raiken show her the way, placated Tazok, looted chests, barrels and bags, and entered Tazok's tent buffed with no more than a potion of cloud giant strength and a potion of freedom. (I made the mistake of having her quaff freedom first, so a planned oil of speed would have no effect.) Inside the tent a Wand Fireball followed by a Web gave her a certain edge, but there were always foes who weren't Held and who would fire their arrows at her. Hakt was one of them; his arrows of biting poisoned her. Sellhana went invisible, slew venkt with a backstab, and the others with her staff as well.

Spoiler

In Cloakwood Sellhana secured a Cloak of Non-Detection, Spiders' Bane (for free action), and a Wand of Frost (for Davaeorn's Battle Horrors). Buffed with cloud giant strength, speed, and invulnerability, she vanquished Kysus with a critical stab for 100 damage,

Spoiler

bested Drasus in melee combat, and felled Genthore with another critical 100 dmg backstab. Rezdan had gone invisible, and Sellhana hid in shadows, so their paths wouldn't cross.

At the second mine level there was an uncomfortable moment when one of the guards saw Sellhana open the northern prison door. Many guards soon followed, and Sellhana saw herself forced to battle most of them in close quarters.

Spoiler

Thankfully Hareishan didn't enter the fray. Sellhana freed herself and swiftly made her way to the third floor. She reached Davaeorn's hideout invisibly. When the wizard cast Remove Magic at her, she chose to retreat upstairs, but Davaeorn followed her. She finished him with acid arrows.

Spoiler

Like Glorydd last time, Sellhana had already reached the level cap when she arrived in Baldur's Gate. She limited herself to obtaining items she wanted (scrolls, potions, Helm of Balduran, arrows of dispelling, WIS tome, DEX tome, Ramazith's goodies, including his INT tome). At the Iron Throne, she took on the acolytes, alternating between the top floor and the floor below for hiding and stabbing purposes. Oil of speed, cloud or storm giant strength potion and potions of magic shielding were her buffs. She suffered some magic damage (Magic Missile, Unhily Blight) and fire damage from a Flamestrike, but with her arrows of dispelling and her stabs, she was far more deadly than her opponents.

Spoiler

Candlekeep saw a peaceful Sellhana get unjustly arrested for the murder of the Iron Throne board. She was however guilty of stealing treasures hidden in vaults in the catacombs below the citadel.

Back in Baldur's Gate, she buffed very carefully to deal with Slythe and Krystin: mind focusing, heroism, storm giant strength, Shield, speed, invulnerability, magic shielding, PfE, Blur, MI, DUHM.

Spoiler

The reasons were low HPs and no Stoneskin. Interestingly I saw confirmed here that Haste only gave Sellhana 0.5 extra APR, rounding her melee attacks with her staff up to 2 APR. In the end the Elf's preparations proved unnecessary as she deftly hid and stabbed repeatedly until her foe fell.

Spoiler

Sellhana didn't wait for Krystin. She chose to attend Sarevok's ducal inauguration. At the palace she set two snares. (Unlike Glorydd, Sellhana had made trap-setting one of her focal points.) And she summoned four Dire Wolves (wand), and a Giant Spider (Spider Spawn scroll). She protected the summons from Fear and Hasted them (both spells cast from scrolls). With the monsters Sellhana entered the room, hidden in shadows. As a precautionary measure she cast Invisibility (again from scroll) on Liia Janneth. Arrows of dispelling slowed down the Greater Doppelgangers. The summons didn't last long (only one Dire Wolf survived), but they helped occupy the Greater Doppelgangers. Both Dukes survived the battle, and Sarevok's rage, even though Sellhana presented the evidence of Sarevok's evil schemes right in front of the brute.

Spoiler

Sellhana was teleported to the Thieves Guild, rushed through the maze, snuck past Rahvin & Co, and entered the Temple of Bhaal. It was there that she lived her most precarious moment thus far. 

 

The exciting part:

She entered the plateau where Sarevok stood, saw her arrow of dispelling miss its target, and noticed that her oil of speed had lost its effect. Sarevok, rushed toward the Elf, and three of his minions (Angelo, Semaj, Diarmid) appeared from invisibility. Diarmid's Dragon Venom Arrow (1d6 + 2d6 acid, save vs spell for half + poison 30% of max HPs unless save vs death) struck true, and Sellhana didn't make either of her saves. She was injured, poisoned, and - due to the poison - slowed.

Spoiler

She wanted to quaff an invisibility potion, but she heard one of the wizards start an Abjuration incantation; an instant later the other wizard did the same. This could only mean one thing: 2x Remove Magic. Sellhana couldn't quaff a potion of invisibility until after having undergone the two Remove Magics because those spells would (almost) certainly dispel her invisibility, and leave her poisoned and badly injured with a muddy aura, ready to be killed. Her buffs were dispelled, and Sellhana immediately went invisible. She then had to wait for her aura to become clear again, before she could gulp an elixir of health while the poison kept eating her HPs away:

Spoiler

Still poisoned, at 3 HPs...
But she made it! Still severely injured, she barely managed to retreat from her enemies, escaping a Fireball from Semaj, and a Detect Invisibility from Angelo.

Spoiler

She fully restored her health with potions, avoiding Angelo, the only one who had followed her, and also someone who might cast another Detect invisibility. Sellhana made sure to hide in shadows (and enjoy non-detection) while healing herself. She rebuffed with magic protection x2, storm giant strength, heroism, invulnerability and speed, and when she was done she repeatedly dispelled Angelo's buffs with her arrows of dispelling, and then finished him off with acid arrows.

Spoiler

Sellhana's second attempt at dispelling Sarevok's haste was successful, and she did the same with Diarmid. She then wanted to take out Semaj, but the mage went invisible after a dispelling arrow hit him. The Elf therefore focused on Diarmid, hitting him with acid arrows, a backstab for 63 damage that made him lose morale, and more arrows. (The Skeleton Warrior that rose from Diarmid's corpse fell to backstabs, as would all Skeleton Warriors.)

A Detect Invisibility from scroll revealed Semaj and Tazok.

Spoiler

Sellhana slew Semaj with Angelo's arrows (that either dispel magic or inflict electricity damage), and Tazok with acid arrows.

Spoiler

Sarevok too, succumbed to Sellhana's rain of arrows.

Spoiler

Sellhana's inventory screen at the end of the game:

Spoiler

for those who would like to know how she was equipped. The black cloak is Semaj's Cloak which Blurs the wearer. Shorties can't use it, but Sellhana can

[corey_russell]

Ran into a big problem with my new berserker/mage character game - I cannot rest or save - see my new topic I started about this. I am starting yet another run, in vanilla BG 1 this time since I am not having a problem in vanilla. 

[Alesia_BH]

Congratulations, Blackraven and Sellhana!

 

Good hunting in Amn!

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

I second Alesia's comment Blackraven - try not to find game anomalies! : )

[Grond0]

Picenon will be solo in BG 2 - probably only Valygar will join for a moment to open the sphere, and probably to take Mazzy's short sword.

Sounds like a nice clean run Corey.  Hope you can do the same in BG2.  

 

Why do you want to recruit Valygar if you are just going to open the Sphere?  I've always found that decomposing bodies provide an effective way to grease a stubborn lock .

[Grond0]

Nice job by Blackraven as well.  Watch out for poison in BG2!

[corey_russell]

Sounds like a nice clean run Corey.  Hope you can do the same in BG2.  

 

Why do you want to recruit Valygar if you are just going to open the Sphere?  I've always found that decomposing bodies provide an effective way to grease a stubborn lock .

Sometimes I kill him, sometimes I don't. Killing Valygar in his circumstances if very un-Corey-like. I don't kill some one just because they can't give me money...

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 83 - (update 4)

Pasha, half-elf druid (Grond0) & Rholfre, half-elf dragon disciple (Gate70)

 

A session yesterday saw Rholfre suffer a black out for the first time, but the run continues ...

 

Neira was the day's first victim - one of many to be blinded.  The next encounter was more interesting with Jemby falling to Rholfre's breath weapon.

Spoiler

 

Arriving at the Lighthouse Rholfre tried a glitterdust on a group of sirines, but found it was hard to tell whether they were blinded or not.  Deciding a good way to do so was to see whether she got shot she was hit by an arrow of biting and taken down to 1 HP.  No problem so far as she could take a potion of healing, while Pasha could quickly use slow poison on her.  The follow-up shot from the sirine was a problem, however.

Spoiler

 

Pasha was also hit and poisoned by the sirine, but a CLW spell kept her just alive when the poison ran out.  She used a potion of invisibility that gave her the opportunity to just grab Rholfre's gear and run,

Spoiler

but she had a Dirty Harry moment with the sirine along the lines of: "Have you shot 5 arrows of biting, or was it just 4.  Do you feel lucky punk?  Well, do you?"  In fact she decided that she was the lucky one - and that proved to be the case.  

Spoiler

 

After returning from the temple Sil and her girls were no trouble - Pasha had just acquired the ability to summon animals which helped.  Without any magical ammunition at the time though, they agreed to postpone the golems.  

 

Looking for some more quick XP the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower were soon downed by the wand of frost, MMs and call lightning.  After picking up the tome the duo ventured onto the roof - Pasha under the protection of PfP from a mage scroll.  That lasted easily long enough to chew through the basilisks

Spoiler

and Rholfre then used her innate fire resistance to pick up a +2 scimitar for Pasha - getting tired of seeing her flailing away with her fists after breaking a scimitar much earlier in the session.

 

The next area was the ankhegs.  Having picked up the Ring of Wizardry on the way Pasha had 10 sleep spells to help with those and they proved pretty effective, though Pasha did get hit a couple of times, which was a concern with her low HPs.  

Spoiler

 

Rholfre by now had learned MMMs and decided they would be a good way to deal with the golems left along earlier.  Summoned animals provided a distraction and soaked up the odd punch as the first 2 golems in the cave were killed.  

Spoiler

For the final one Pasha was out of useful spells, while Rholfre was down to her last 5 MMMs.  We agreed though that would be enough and indeed no damage was taken, although Rholfre had to inflict the fatal blow with her knife.

Spoiler

 

Stats:

Pasha, druid 8, 40 HPs, 123 kills

Rholfre, dragon disciple 6, 33 HPs, 93 kills, 1 death

After getting 6 die rolls in a row of 1s or 2s Pasha was very glad to roll a 6 for level 8, though she remains way below average.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Well done, Blackraven! Be careful in Amn!

[corey_russell]

Millen the Fighter/Illusionist Entering Trilogy no-reload challenge...

Traveling with: Ajantis, Shar-Teel, Branwen, Garrick, Imoen

 

 

Millen has assembled his team (with difficulty), but the party is together and has basic equipment and heal potions, and are ready to adventure. This is no NOT resurrection restriction this time, partly as I want to see how the interaction plays out, I haven't use this group combo before.

 

We used blindness on Silke to recruit Garrick early. Ambushes were horrible, with a lot of deaths. We had Montaron and Xzar at one point, they were just place holders until we could get Branwen and Shar-Teel.

 

It was necessary to sell the ring of wizardry, as we needed to resurrect, also almost everyone had really bad equipment - or in the case of Imoen, none! We lost Imoen's stuff with about 12 kobols and 6 skeleton ambush - was really bad, so many enemies....We lost the diamond that Imoen found in a tree too. But the party presses on...

 

The most powerful enemy we have fought so far is Zordral, but he's not too hard with a low level party if you got cleric backup.

[corey_russell]

Millen the Fighter/Illusionist - Update 2

Traveling with: Ajantis, Shar-Teel, Branwen, Imoen, Garrick

 

The party continues to make progress - they are mostly level 3, except Imoen who is level 4, and also Branwen who is only about 250 exp short of level 4 herself. Entire party has magical melee weapons now (well Branwen doesn't but she gets like 2-3 casts of her special ability to create a spiritual war hammer, so I am counting that) - Ajantis has Greywolf's sword (he fell to a hold person), Imoen filched a magical bastard sword from the Thunderhammer Smithy for Shar-Teel, Millen found his magical halberd in a cave, Imoen is using a long sword +1 that we picked up from a easy-to-kill bandit in ogre country on the coast (north of Gnoll Fortress), and finally, Garrick is fittingly using Silke's quarterstaff.

 

Money is tight at the moment, and we still have quite a few big purchases we still want to make (full plate, crossbow of speed, shadow armor, armor of the good arch magi, Ankheg armor (for Branwen - Ajantis using the one we found in the ground), greenstone amulet, and cloak of displacement.)

 

Our rep was getting pretty high (17) and Shar-Teel was complaining a lot. To make her happy we killed Algenon. This worked really good, as now Ajantis has a natural 20 CHA - money will get better later (we have about 1500 gold).

 

We have been in quite a few ambushes, including the 12 archer ambush (that one is so tough at our levels). No one except Ajantis has very good HP, so we need to keep away from hard hitting enemies like mustard jellies, ankhegs and ogres. We still have a lot of areas to explore, so we're OK there for now.

 

Will keep at it.

 

Ajantis, level 3 Paladin, 32 HP, 54 kills

Shar-Teel, level 3 Fighter, 22 HP, 63 kills

Millen, level 2 Fighter/Level 2 Illusionist, 20 HP, 112 kills

Branwen, level 3 Cleric, 20 HP, 16 kills

Imoen, level 4 Thief, 27 HP, 16 kills

Garrick, level 4 Bard, 20 HP, 13 kills

[CrevsDaak]

So I started out a new run. Here's Sarieln, Berserker/Battleguard of Tempus: Link.
And here's my WeiDU.log.

I will be going solo most of the game, save for places with too much traps or treasure (Durlag's, Candlekeep's Catacombs, et cetera), and I think I'll make a duo in BG2 with Jan, but I'm not yet totally sure.

Everything went really smooth at low levels, being the most troublesome encounter three Hobgoblins Elite that didn't stop to shower me with Poisoned Arrows. My tactic is to hit and run until a round passes, so I attack instantly instead of waiting to get attacked. This way I saved several lots of Potions. I started by doing the quests in Bergegost, since they leave you with some good XP and you don't have to fight much (except for Silke whom we'll take on later), got Mirianne her husband's letter, talked to THAT guy at the Feldepost's Inn (can't remember his name right now), hid my unidentified gems (a BG2 Tweaks component makes Gems and Potions require Identification) on a bag in Beregost and travelled wide and far, gaining Cleric level.

While visiting Nashkel, we were lucky enough to find a Ring of Energy and to get the chance to fight an exploding Ogre. We went to the Mines, but didn't yet enter. A Ghoul spawned around so we killed it with Imoen's Wand, which was later finished on Ursa while we were cleaning the Xvart village. We went through the Seaside (Lighthouse and Shipwreck) areas, but very carefully and without triggering any hard encounter for our level. Here we met with some pesky Hobgoblins Elite that really bothered us, but we used Hold and Command to deal with the situation (Poison was still a problem, lots of Potions of Healing were wasted here). Other enemies like Worgs were taken out as fodder by hitting and running. Somewhere, I levelled up by killing a Zombie (I suppose it was in the area Melicamp is, since I tried to complete that quest too, but the Antichickenator failed).

While clearing the Xvart village Sari gained another level (3rd as a Fighter I suppose) and used spells in a creative way to steal from supposedly unnoticed sleeping Cave Bears (I killed it afterwards anyway) Link.
Funniest thing, that is, I think I've forgotten the loot in the container (just remembered by looking at the image) so next thing I'll do is pick it up. Another creative strategy is to cast Sunscorch on an enemy, move away from it and use Spiritual Hammer, which in my install is a force-ranged weapon (giant ranged melee weapon) thanks to aTweaks. Anyway, the poor Wolf only lasted one hit so I couldn't determinate if the strategy is really good or if it doesn't even work.