16394 replies to this topic

[Alesia_BH]

Adele, Half-Elven Fighter/Druid: Sarevok

 

 

Good news everyone: Sarevok has been defeated!

 

But you knew that already knew, didn't you? 

 

Oh well: It's still good news- even if it isn't news in the breaking news sense. Adele has moved on. That's good.

 

This fight was tricky, if not difficult. When Adelina engaged Sarevok's she had Arrows of Dispelling, Arrows of Detonation, Aule's Staff, a case full of potions, and ranger stealth. With those assets at her disposal, there was no way Adelina could lose, save gross negligence on my part. Adele enjoyed few of Adelina's advantages. She had a potion case, true, but it was nearly empty. Adele had been dispelled by Davaeorn, Kysus, and Krystin -whereas Adelina hadn't been dispelled at all. As a consequence, Adele's endgame potion collection was far less impressive. Adele struggled where Adelina cruised.

 

The problem was Sarevok. And Semaj. And Angelo...And Diarmid. And Tazok for that matter. Adelina had an answer for all of them: Arrows, done. Adele didn't have it so easy.

 

Adele used a Protection from Magic based defensive approach in this fight. Potions were part of the equation, too. Sadly, both Semaj and Angelo succeeded in dispelling Adele. Why you ask? Because they themselves hadn't been dispelled. All of Adele's woes come back to her lack of dispelling arrows here.

 

Angelo, once again, wandered off from the pack. He was no easy kill, however: multiple Stoneskins casts, repeated Mirror Image casts, and Invisibilities kept him in the game. Of course, with Dispelling Arrows... 

 

Spoiler

 

Eventually, he went into hiding- choosing to wait out Adele's Protection from Magic scroll. A wise move, and always a risk in SCS v30. Semaj attempted the same, though with less success. He vanished, but he didn't run, and so his position was easily estimated. Adele finished him with Potions of Explosions.

 

With Semaj dead, and Angelo in hiding, Adele turned her attention to Diarmid. Diarmid, as usual, did more damage than all the other acolytes combined: there's just no stopping critical arrows. But there's also no stopping slings that stack strength damage. I'm ambivalent about EE's decision to let all slings stack strength damage. Adele is not ambivalent. She loves it. She's dreaming of Everard.

 

Spoiler

 

After using Potions of Firebreath to search the arena for Angelo, Adele resigned herself to the fact that she'd have to wait for Protection from Magic to run out. Sure enough, Angleo revealed himself as soon as Adele was vulnerable. He pulled a Magic Missile Minor Sequencer. And kudos to him for picking a rocking hiding spot.

 

Spoiler

 

Potion of Magic Shielding->Shield Amulet quelled any further threat from Angelo. With his illusions and Stoneskins tapped, he could do nothing but fall.

 

Spoiler

 

That brings us to Tazok. He too was irritating. Tazok starts the fight invisible and does not reveal himself until he launches an attack. Basically, if you want to see Tazok, you need to either cast a Divination spell or let him hit you. Since Adele had expected this fight to end before Protection from Magic ran out, she hadn't bother to stock Detect Invisibility. Bummer.

 

Ok, Tazok: you win. Take your free hit.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Well played. Do you have any other clever tricks?

 

Potion of Freedom? 

 

Spoiler

 

That's a respectable choice. What's next?

 

Spoiler

 

Huh...You might want to rethink the order there, chief.

 

Maybe a dozen sling bullets to the face will help you concentrate? What do you think? Will that help?

 

Spoiler

 

Time for Sarevok.

 

Adelina and Adele both killed Sarevok in toe-to-toe melee. Adele couldn't match Adelina's accomplishment: Adele had to disengage twice, whereas Adelina found no need. Adele did well for herself nonetheless. Potion of Invulnerability, Potion of Heroism, Potion of Storm Giant Strength, Oil of Speed.

 

Spoiler

 

Getting there...

 

Spoiler

 

Last blow.

 

Adele's adventures in Amn will begin shortly.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

 

While Corthief VI did make it, he died in Duchal Palace. Corthief VII is still in the early stages.

 

Got it: VI was the one that fell. VII is on the way.

 

Noted.

 

Best,

 

A. 

[Epsil0]

realmuzzy, very impressive progress for a first-time no-reloader in SCS. What does your kit do, anyways? It looks like it has a spell list that focuses on mental disablers... What happens against things with Chaotic Commands?

Those 6 monks looks pretty solid; go get 'em!

Good luck with Adele, Alesia; I guess one of the problems of druids lacking enough damage against things with Death Spell and regeneration is fixed by the fighter half. I note that you don't list any specific protection against the Webs found underneath Candlekeep; did you just never trigger them with the phase spiders nearby?

My solo characters, Corey, generally use ranged to defeat those spiders if I deal with them at all. There's a short period in between each Dimension Door each casts where ranged attacks can be made in complete safety, and the spider's poison is far too terrifying otherwise.   Congrats regardless on surviving!

 

Rhapsodian and co. (2), update 2:

Well, first, I'd like to officially say that my party can't hit the broad side of a barn, bonuses notwithstanding:

 

Second, after clearing fight after fight in the southwest, we get a third character to level 5 and decide that it's time for some sweet revenge. Sleep can't touch us too badly now.

 

Nashkel mines were cleared without issue: Fang cast a web in the entrance to Mulahey's little corridor to stall reinforcements, and lack of MIs = quick death against this gang. The kobolds and skeletons are then just mobs that can only hit on a critical. Narcillicus and jellies took forever as the only magical non-piercing weapons we had we had no proficiencies in, and only two of to boot. A MM sequencer almost took someone out as well, but no kills happened there. We did have an incident with the Revenant, though: I didn't realize that it had some sort of paralyzing gaze, and Tilly, Frightful, and then Captain all failed a save at some point. Only Captain died, and the others recovered and avenged him.

 

Nimbul was potentially a disaster, though luck with the random rolls got me out unscathed. He confused Frightful, and I was worried that she'd shoot a commoner or something to get a potentially awful reputation decrease. I like my Archers unfallen, thank you very much! But this was solved by Fang rushing after her and webbing both his and her feet, effectively running out the Confusion's duration. Tranzig falls to far too many missiles to have a chance of casting, ghost armor or no ghost armor. While traveling west to clear out more stuff, the amazon ambush. I have no screens, but Fang disabled two with a Web, and the backstab did all of 12 damage; the thief in question died almost immediately after. Spells were interrupted by missiles and Magic Missiles from wand, and the second backstab from the finally-free-second-thief missed.

 

Ankhegs, Sirines, Bandits, Doomsayers... All fell one way or another. I foresee trouble from range-immune creatures, though, if the Doomsayer was any proof. I'm just going to skip to the Bandit Camp, since that's actually an important fight. I've lost quite a few SCS runs here, I was kind of scared of this place. Turns out there was no need. I approach from the southwest, and upon seeing the first bandit I immediately have Fang start unloading his three Webs. First two go North east while Tilly soaks the fire from the Northwest with her effective -12 AC vs Missiles. For the heck of it, I also have Wyvern use the Cloud Kill scroll that can be found in a hole in the ground... The effectiveness of this can be seen here:

Taugosz approached from the east, got held in a web, and got focus-fired before he could get free. That's those 2k experience. The last web is in the air to the northwest... And the coup d'état is that I don't even have to fight a wizard battle as Venkt is apparently too dense to not walk through the killer vapor:

 

Fin.

 

We raid the camp, empty the potion stock of High Hedge, and start walking around to trigger the next assassin battles. Wyvern died in this one, as she couldn't get out of the radius of an Unholy Blight I didn't manage to interrupt. Rhapsodian quaffed an Invis potion immediately, since I forgot to cast Invisibility before traveling. The rest was siccing Tilly on their mage to stack the casting failure rate, and kiting with my remaining characters until eventually:

 

I've just gotten Wyvern raised, and I'm debating whether to go to Ulcaster or Gullykin before continuing to the Cloakwood. Or maybe the Red Wizard area.

 

Stats: Rhapsodian, Skald 6. 42 HP (6 from Familiar). 0 kills

Tilly, Wizard Slayer 5. 53 HP. (used the Tome of Con.) 156 kills, Mustard Jelly. 1 death.

Captain, Swashbuckler 6. 40 HP. 92 kills, Mustard Jelly. 1 death.

Fang, Avenger 6. 43 HP. 62 kills, Vampiric Wolf. 0 deaths. 

Wyvern, Dragon Disciple 5. 30 HP. 76 kills, Doomsayer. 1 death. New spells: Spook and Mirror Image.

Frightful, Archer 5. 39 HP. 247 kills, Shoal the Nereid.

 

Thoughts:

Fang has probably been the MVP of every difficult fight, with Web being a clutch spell that has no opportunity costs: what else is an Avenger going to be doing with his second level slots? (OK, I have Barkskin also memorized and Chant. So sue me.) Frightful and Tilly provide easy mob mop-up, especially with the Skald boost. Neither Captain nor Tilly have hit their full stride yet, and probably won't until BG2. Tilly, at least, is proving invaluable for tanking the easy stuff and not making me go crazy with having to kite EVERYTHING. Wyvern is very, very close to being absurdly useful with Haste coming online in a level, not to mention the fact that she's carrying every single damage scroll I've come across, since Rhapsodian is forbidden from using any of them. Still waiting for level 7 from Fang, since that's probably going to be our second higher power spike in BG1, the first being Haste from Wyvern.

[Alesia_BH]

 

Good luck with Adele, Alesia; I guess one of the problems of druids lacking enough damage against things with Death Spell and regeneration is fixed by the fighter half. I note that you don't list any specific protection against the Webs found underneath Candlekeep; did you just never trigger them with the phase spiders nearby?

 

Thank you for your interest, Epsil0.

 

I'm not worried about lack of damage. And I wouldn't be worried about lack of damage with a single class druid. Doing too little damage is rarely a cause of death. 

 

What does worry me in Adele's case is disablers (fear and stun in particular). The lack of a party friendly dispel ability is also a concern. 

 

The easiest runs are those where you have either the arcane Abjuration school or small shields + the Sword of Arvoreen + Dragonslayer + shorty saves + dispelling arrows. 

 

Adele will be able to use small shields (strange as it sounds, for my purposes, that's the biggest advantage of going F/D over D). But she'll have Half-Elven saves and she'll also lack undispellable immunity to fear. Fear effects with -4 penalties are common. Potions are limited resources. That's a problem. Power Word: Stun and Symbol: Stun will also be issues- especially if I refrain from installing PnP Free Action (I play with Free Action Protects Against Stun, but in battles where stun protection is needed, movement rate bonuses are often mission critical, too, making Free Action a less than ideal solution). Chaos is a -4, but at least Adele will have Harmony for that.

 

My characters often get personal items. I'm considering making Adele an ioun stone that will grant immunity to fear effects. With the stone, and with PnP Free Action installed, Adele's chances will improve significantly.

 

 

 I note that you don't list any specific protection against the Webs found underneath Candlekeep; did you just never trigger them with the phase spiders nearby?

 

 

Quoted from my Candlekeep post:

 

In the catacombs, Adele used the Shield Amulet, a Potion of Freedom, 100% fire resistance and 100% lightning resistance to protect herself from traps. A Protection from Poison scroll mitigated risk from the phase spiders.

 

Good hunting, Epsil0!

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

Epsil0 said...

and the spider's poison is far too terrifying otherwise. 

 

 

Corthief VI hardly worried about poison - he was of course using a green protection from poison scroll (an anti-spider scroll if I ever saw one...)  The spider's melee power, however, was plenty dangerous to a solo thief, as Corthief VI found out. VII might need to splurge on a potion of defense, as Alesia said my AC wasn't quite high enough to be safe...

[Alesia_BH]

Corthief VI hardly worried about poison - he was of course using a green protection from poison scroll (an anti-spider scroll if I ever saw one...)  The spider's melee power, however, was plenty dangerous to a solo thief, as Corthief VI found out. VII might need to splurge on a potion of defense, as Alesia said my AC wasn't quite high enough to be safe...

 

I agree that Pro Poison is a good call in Candlekeep. I always use it.

 

But just to be clear, with a solo single class thief, I'd avoid toe-to-toe melee in that encounter. There's too much incoming APR, even if you can get the spiders into critical only territory. I could imagine myself lazily trying it, but I'd only do it if I had a fool-proof exit strategy.

 

It's a good time to use rogue tricks. A thief should be able to out think a spider. There's no shame in playing it that way. 

 

Best,

 

A. 

[corey_russell]

Corthief VII is down - he got hemmed in by Neira, and couldn't escape her hold person - and of course his current save vs. spells of 7 was insufficient. Looks like it's time for Corthief VIII to come out the starting block - starting to learn how Grond0 feels when he does this.

[Alesia_BH]

Condolences, Corey. 

 

Kudos to you for fighting Neira, though: I don't remember the last time I entered that Inn!

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

Condolences, Corey. 

 

Kudos to you for fighting Neira, though: I don't remember the last time I entered that Inn!

 

Best,

 

A.

I wanted the Inn is why I fought her, lol.  I remember beating her with a thief, as it's possible to backstab - go to a room - backstab and repeat - problem? Stealth failed and then Neira penned me. The hiding must not fail for this to work...

[Alesia_BH]

 The hiding must not fail for this to work...

 

Makes sense.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grond0]

Your power party is looking good Epsil0 - nice solution to the Bandit Camp.

Those 6 monks looks pretty solid; go get 'em!

Yep - if there's one thing you can say about the monks, it's that they're dense.

[corey_russell]

Corthief VIII is level 4 - he'll keep at it. I've been playing him kind of sloppy, will try to be more focused next session. As an example, I was too fast to click with the Marl options and made him hostile! In vanilla that's no problem, but I lose reputation if I kill him in EasyTutu. So had to lead him outside in Beregost - Have to remember to stay away from him...I also tried backstabbing hobgoblins...with my bow...

 

I notice I am a bit more impatient with this new iteration - I wonder if that's why I always switch up, so I don't get stuck in a rut or anything.

[Golden28]

Nice going guys, especially RealMuzzy, good progress!

 

Alexander, Final episode BG1

 

So here's Alexander, based on myself, name and ability scores, from real life. (this website for scores: http://www.angelfire...xstattest.html)

 

They are very mediocre for the game hehe:

 

Str   14

De   14

Cox 16

Int    16

Wis  11

Cha 12 

 

But they can make me a fighter/mage .. I decided to focus on the longbow so no kit for me. 

 

I set a new record with this one, only 3.40 hours. I do the usual thing, get most experience and necessary items like wands and tomes and rush through with haste. Everything went smoothly until the siren area.

 

Sirens poison tick on damage.

 

And some more..

 

And some more..

 

And some more I wont show.. Needless to say, Alex barely survived and had to drink all his big potions he bought . 

 

Deveaorn was no trouble for Kivan with Pro magic scroll. Second trying area was with the ogre spawn, causing trouble as always. But only Edwin dies while Tiax runs around and the ogres cant get him.

 

Palace was kind of a mess but we got there with the help of Belt (who got killed) and his men (who almost all got killed). The invisible (by us) female duke got us out.

 

 

 

Sarevok falls relatively easy, with there being 2 good archers this time. We did have one close call.

 

 

See you in BG2!

 

Cheers!

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {11} - monks party (update 6)

 

The start of the session saw an immediate comedy death.  Despite all enemies being dead on Hareishan's level I still wanted to get rid of the lightning trap to ensure that didn't cause problems when the party came back upstairs to rest.  Spook was given the Boots of Grounding and walked along the passageway to trigger the trap.  I was surprised when it didn't trigger and picked up my drink prior to deciding what to do next - at which point the trap finally went off.  Normally my character would be moving and unlikely to be hit more than once by the lightning bolt, but this time I couldn't put my drink down quickly enough to move Spook and he was hit 4 times in quick succession - which was too many!

Spoiler

 

On the next level down Natasha and the ogre mage were stunned

Spoiler

before the monks went down to find Davaeorn.  He teleported to them near the entrance and, though that wasn't the original plan, they decided to have an early go at him.  They were able to do enough damage to keep him on the defensive - using his actions on healing potions, stoneskins and mirrors - and ultimately kill him before they took any casualties from the battle horrors.

Spoiler

 

They flooded the mine, but as usual avoided the slave outside in case they want to make use of the reputation increase later.

Spoiler

However, I then rested by reflex - getting a second slow poison for Chimera rather than the intended horror .

 

In the City everyone got a shiny new Wand of the Heavens before they started working their way through all the encounters there.  They haven't had any particularly difficult fights so far, although I did resort to using antidote potions against a large collection of phase spiders in the sewers - about a dozen joined in the fight there.

Spoiler

 

Their attempt to get up to the XP cap is going well and the last of them have just reached level 8 with the death of Jalantha - that illustrates their normal attack routine in the City using stealth and/or stun (there's been almost no use of the Wands of Heavens so far).

Spoiler

 

Chimera - L8, 56 HPs, 306 kills

Spectre - L8, 48 HPs, 541 kills, 1 death

Phantom - L8, 47 HPs, 272 kills, 4 deaths

Wraith - L8, 62 HPs, 351 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L8, 61 HPs, 328 kills, 5 deaths

Spirit - L8, 57 HPs, 287 kills, 0 deaths

[realmuzzy]

Aliira finds her way to the big city and is immediately in love. So much beauty and knowledge and diversity and, last but not least, people in need of help! In fact there's so many people in need of help and so many problems looking for a brave Heartwarder that she loses track of her investigation a little bit. It's not all bad though, had she rushed into the Iron Throne business she wouldn't have all the helpful items she has now: the helm of Balduran, the cloak of Balduran, gauntlets of strength, powerful protection rings, and so on.

 

It's the city guard that gets her back to the investigation, through commander Scar. She plans out her infiltration of the Iron Throne building and sanctuaries right to the top where the leadership is. She is very prepared (*all 1hour+ potions available to clerics + regeneration, freedom, shielding, amulet of armor and mind blank on the ready in the inventory to consume through the fight*)

 

Spoiler

 

She reveals herself to the Iron Throne leaders who immediately attack. Clever spell casters realize she is basically immune to their spells so they try to dispel her. She runs down the stairs, because the jerks are trying to ruin thousands of gold pieces she's invested into those potions, and they follow.

 

Spoiler

 

Running at someone who's prepared so much that she's immune to spells and her posse of magic resistant servants is not healthy for hostile spell casters

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Aliira is now in trance and goes upstairs to administer justice to the remainder of the group. Gardush has never seen anyone so perfect and switches sides, helping Aliira chunk the female rogue

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

and then Zhalimar

 

Spoiler

 

Gardush starts suspecting that their relationship might not be based on true feelings, so he attacks Aliira unsuccessfully

 

Spoiler

 

The remaining two die without threatening Aliira even a little

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

She picks up the proof that Duke Eltan needs and she is off to Candlekeep.

[realmuzzy]

Just as she is about to enter Candlekeep, a mercenary group of ogre mages ambushes her. She immediately uses a potion of invisibility and runs a good distance to summon help and prepare.

 

Spoiler

 

With her usual buffs and armor she is comfortable in slinging the ogres down while skeletal warriors take the heat

 

Spoiler

 

Finally she's back home again. She visits all the people she missed but things have changed, there's fear and talk of strange things happening at Candlekeep. Before she can even process any of this she is arrested for the murder of the Iron Throne leaders, although good old Tethoril saves her and teleports her out of prison and into the catacombs underneath. She escapes invisible all the way to Baldur's gate, only picking up some items that she found "abandoned" in the tombs.

 

By now things have gone south in Baldur's Gate as well, as Scar is dead and Duke Eltan poisoned. Aliira discovers her best chance of getting into the palace to stop Sarevok's coup is to surprise a couple of his assassins and take their invitations. It's nice to be assassinating the assassins and being the prepared one in the encounter

 

Spoiler

 

She shows herself to the rogue and sanctuaries. The rogue attacks her champions but as soon as she appears he invises and backstabs her for about 85% of her health! Thank god she thought of potions of fortitude and aid. She runs away in panic, before the rogue gets a chance to repeat that, when in a feat of extreme stupidity he does not follow but starts attacking her skeletons. This gives Aliira enough time to heal up and the rogue gets obliterated by the skeletons in straight out melee.

 

Spoiler

 

In the meantime the mage is busy fending off a couple of skeletons Aliira sent her way to distract her.

 

Spoiler

 

She gets too cocky and in the heat of combat allows herself to get dispelled

 

Spoiler

 

So Aliira decides that in the interest of preserving her beauty she'll let Krystin exhaust all her spells on the skeletons while she helps out with summons out of sight

 

Spoiler

 

Once she is confident the good spells are gone she approaches Krystin and proceeds to righteously flamestrike her every cast

 

Spoiler

 

With the invitations under her belt she rushes to the ducal palace.

 

Spoiler

 

When she sees the guests turning into dopplegangers she forms a plan. As she doesn't have an effective way to dispel the mage, fighting him would be a loss of damage time, so she orders her guard to attack the cleric while offering herself as target to the dopplegangers attacking the duke (*thanks for the helpful analysis of your palace fight Alesia_BH!*)

 

Spoiler

 

Things are going well, Aliira does not get dispelled by a dispel she DEFINITELY flamestriked

 

Spoiler

 

when disaster strikes and she fails to stop a chaos spell being cast by the mage. The outcome is demoralizing

 

Spoiler

 

although both the dukes are alive and not so close to Sarevok that she can't throw herself between them. So she prevails and Sarevok flees the scene shouting curses

 

Spoiler

[realmuzzy]

Aliira will not let Sarevok escape so easily. She tracks him down invisible to an underground temple of Bhaal. Oh how he makes her angry, especially after seeing Tamoko coming to throw her life away for him. Fortunately a fight is avoided and Aliira is free to rest and invoke every last bit of divine grace she can

 

Spoiler

 

In retrospect though it's not really divine grace that won her the fight, it's gold. She knows she will be dispelled but she's running a minimum of three of every potion and scroll and 10+ invisibilities, hastes and healers. So as a dispel lands

 

Spoiler

 

she invises and flees into a corner to reapply all of them.

 

Spoiler

 

Sarevok and his allies are at a loss after using their only invisibility purge in vain

 

Spoiler

 

Aliira goes out of sight again and starts throwing grenades

 

Spoiler

 

Angelo figures out what's going on and comes to fight her, but he's really no threat to her with her buffs on so she fights him with one hand and chucks grenades at the rest with the other

 

Spoiler

 

Sarevok wisens up and they all start chasing her but they are too slow for nimble Aliira and can't really hurt her from a distance

 

Spoiler

 

She runs circles around them throwing grenades and fireballs. Semaj is the first to fall.

 

Spoiler

 

More running

 

Spoiler

 

then another one falls

 

Spoiler

 

and another one

 

Spoiler

 

and finally the last one, although this one takes even longer because Aliira can only sling him

 

Spoiler

 

With Sarevok's defenses broken, Aliira applies a scroll of protection from undead to give herself more running options

 

Spoiler

 

prays for a good finish

 

Spoiler

 

and then like a hunter circles Sarevok for what seems like an eternity (*the whole encounter was 3 or 4 haste potion durations long*) slinging him and flame striking him

 

Spoiler

 

The outcome is inevitable and love and beauty prevail!

 

Spoiler

[realmuzzy]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone! Here's the kit description for those wondering what Veil of Djalice is

 

Spoiler

 

It's a Divine Remix kit, taken from Faiths & Avatars (2nd ed Forgotten Realms book) and adjusted to match existing kits.

 

I'm debating whether Aliira should graduate to BG2. I suck at BG2 and would hate for her to die immediately while I'm trying to figure out a safe way to survive Amn.

[Golden28]

Congratulations. Hope to see you in BG2 soon RM!

 

Cheers!

[Grond0]

I'm debating whether Aliira should graduate to BG2. I suck at BG2 and would hate for her to die immediately while I'm trying to figure out a safe way to survive Amn.

Well done realmuzzy.  If you're struggling with BG2 then the best way to address that is to go straight there and test things out!  If you avoiding disabling attacks/spells early on you should be fine.

[Blackraven]

@realmuzzy, congrats! Nice writeup and nice work!

I concur with what Grond0 says. Test things out in BG2. You could take that literally, and do a test run with another character, or just go ahead with Aliira. In the latter case I'd recommend you to pick up Imoen, Minsc, Jaheira and Yoshimo in Irenicus's dungeon. I'd also keep a Thief around after that if only to deal with the many dangerous traps (maybe the equally chaotic-neutrally aligned Jan?).

And carefully decide on quest order. There are a number of simpler quests in Athkatla (Circus, Skinner Murders if you retreat immediately after descending the stairs to the basement, Sir Sarles, the first Slavers quest). Imnesvale in the Umar Hills has some easier quests. Of the stronghold quests the Druid Grove, Thieves Guild, and Temple Ruins are suitable places to gain a few levels early on. Note that the final battles aren't easy though, especially on SCS.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Well done, realmuzzy, congrats! Now just make this first step in Amn and - onward!

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {11} - monks party (update 7)

 

The monks continued progressing through the city, starting off by completing the poison quest.  While doing that Larze provided a good demonstration of the fact that high HPs are of limited benefit if your saving throws are not good enough - Marek then found the same about stoneskins.

Spoiler

 

Everyone hid in Drelik's house before popping out to attack him.  His invisibility potions, spells and magic resistance make him a dangerous enemy, so 3 of the monks took strength potions looking for a quick kill.  Drelik's saving throws are pretty good, but in this instance proved not quite good enough.  

Spoiler

His master then went the same way.

 

The Mountain Maulers all quickly fell with the exception of Gretek.  His use of a potion of freedom meant the monks resorted to a rare use of missiles to finish him off.

Spoiler

 

They bought the equipment they wanted from Black Lily before completing the Halruuan's quest - the last few runs killing him has sent the thieves hostile, but this time they seemed quite happy about it.

Spoiler

 

The first fight where there was a general use of wands was beating off Degrodel's guards.  The mage then was shown what real monk fighting was all about.  

Spoiler

The other occasion where wands were abused was ensuring Sunin would not be chunking anyone this run using a chromatic orb sequencer!

Spoiler

 

The final encounter available in the City at this stage was the Iron Throne.  Typically I've sent 2 separate groups upstairs to throw fireballs, but one problem with that is that the damage is unlikely to kill either Shannara.  To address that this time all the characters stealthed up one side - that was one down.  

Spoiler

No-one followed them, so they went up the other side and the other Shennara couldn't stand the heat.  

Spoiler

Zhalimar survived the fiery assault, but was still holding his bow as he chased them downstairs and a couple of punches took care of him.  Upstairs again Alai was immediately struck down, but Gardush's enrage protected him from stunning and he would still have been dangerous in melee so was just shot down.

Spoiler

 

After reporting to Duke Eltan the monks reduced their reputation before resting to give Chimera vampiric touch.  Arriving at Candlekeep I decided not to go the invisibility route this time, but use mass stunning darts - here we see a nice field of statues as a result.  

Spoiler

Inside Candlekeep they've invested some funds in donations, but still have over 60k gold as they head into the library.

 

Chimera - L8, 56 HPs, 319 kills

Spectre - L8, 48 HPs, 570 kills, 1 death

Phantom - L8, 47 HPs, 293 kills, 4 deaths

Wraith - L8, 62 HPs, 362 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L8, 61 HPs, 340 kills, 5 deaths

Spirit - L8, 57 HPs, 302 kills, 0 deaths

[Alesia_BH]

Congrats, realmuzzy!

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

Corthief VIII is level 5. He has also avenged Corthief VII by defeating Neira - Corthief VIII wisely was protected by the greenstone amulet (good thing as Corthief VIII failed his save vs. hold person). It was a good fight though, as Neira then tried entangle (which worked) on Corthief VIII and also cast a good weapon spiritual hammer. However, when she charged Corthief VIII into the entangle, and caught herself in it, out of melee range of Corthief VIII. Perhaps that wasn't the best planning on her part. Corthief VIII then used his halfling saves to escape the entangle and tried to hide in a customer room - but failed. Neira then appeared - Corthief VIII took a swing, the moved a bit so she would get closer (her choice of 1 hand weapon coming back to bite her). Corthief VIII then moves to another room, hides and tries to backstab her. If hiding fails, he just moves a bit then Neira lets him move past and repeat - a few more times of this and Corthief VII is avenged.

 

 

Corthief VIII needs lots of money, so decides working on the main quest might do the trick, so Nashkel will be investigated next.