Nothing special here only failed attempts in testing the new kits
Cruella the human thiefling sorcerer - Killed by archers in an ambush
Krisvyre the human aasimar bard-beguiler - Killed by Shanks
Yllaerris the human air genasi geomantic sorcerer - Killed by Neira
Xaneak the human aasimar geomantic sorcerer - Killed in a web in Beregost
Caratra the human earth genasi fighter-amazon – Killed by the belt Ogre
After the failed solo attempts a new try: The champions of Candlekeep
The cast:
Prukain Dragonsbane, a holy avenger coming from a long history of dragonslayers. She fights dual handed with long swords. As an aasimir she has a direct link with the gods. She allways goes for the kill, getting a bonus to evil opponents at the cost of her AC.
Corvyre and Thernda Gellantara, a crusader and an holy swordsman, brother and sister, both trained in two-handed weapon style and two handed swords. Both are very skilled at using two-handed swords at the cost of casting spells.
Janus Pagason, a champion trained in dual wielding Axes who can cast smite evil instead of casting divine spells.
Nesisiries Windsailo, a paladin who can manipulate aura’s bastard swords, flails a shields. She has an aura ability like a bardsong that gets different bonuses at different levels. She starts with healing aura and protection from fire aura.
Darlove Milner, a mystic marksman trained in long and short bows. While she excels at using ranged weapons, she can’t use heavy armors, she sucks at melee and gets less spells.
New try: The champions of Candlekeep
The normal route was taken
Quests in Cadlekeep
The team is standing in front of the inn to buy some equipment. The seems to be only ONE two-handed sword in Candlekeep. Thernda is forced to fight with a staff until Beregost.
the first hard fight were the group of goblin archers near Gorion’s body. A defensive aura, two potions of healing and some protection from evil was enough to kill them all
Next was Rialto the crazy wild mage
After killing some gnolls at High Hedge the normal Beregost quests were done: help to retrieve a necklace, help Marl, buy a book, helped some adventurers share their loot, kill Silke
Then Karlat, returned a sword and helped a guy turned to slime
Then Darlove went to hunt some spiders
South of beregost were ogrillions killed, some hobgoblins, some crazy guards, a cave bear and a rabbit was returned to its owner
After returning a found letter and some boots to people in beregost, the trip went nord. Killing some bandits and help a wounded merchant.
While fighting an ogre some things went wrong and Janus got killed
After the resurrection of Janus an assassin named Tharnesh and some hobgoblins were killed. A belt, some boots, a flask and a spider body were returned.
North of the FAI the first ankheg was killed, a zombie and the group was hired to killed an evil priestess.
The priestess wasn’t evil and on their return the twins were killed by an ankheg
they were resurrected in the FAI and when they returned the bowl they all became lvl2
Prukain Dragonsbane lvl2 - 25hp – 26% exp – 16% kills – 15 kills – Ankheg
Ring of protection +1, plate mail, 2x long sword, helmet
Corvyre Gellantara lvl2 - 25hp – 25% exp – 15% kills – 14 kills – Rhialto - 1 death
Plate mail, 2-handed sword, helmet
Thernda Gellantara lvl2 - 24hp – 8% exp – 13% kills – 12 kills - Cave Bear - 1 death
Plate mail, 2-handed sword, helmet
Janus Pagason lvl2 - 20hp – 10% exp – 13% kills – 12 kills – Ankheg - 1 death
Splint mail, 2x battle axe, helmet
Nesisiries Windsailo lvl2 - 26hp – 12% exp – 13% kills – 12 kills – Ankheg
Splint mail, flail +1, small shield, helmet
Darlove Milner lvl2 - 24hp – 16% exp – 26% kills – 24 kills - Huge Spider
Studded Leather +1, composite long bow, helmet
It is actually better not to return the belt.
It saves you from a lot of injuries. Since your party seems to be Ultra-honest, you could of course return them to their owner at a later date.
If you have a ranger or thief, it is better to keep the boots of stealth as well. You don't, so returning them was a good idea.
It is actually better not to return the belt.
It saves you from a lot of injuries. Since your party seems to be Ultra-honest, you could of course return them to their owner at a later date.
If you have a ranger or thief, it is better to keep the boots of stealth as well. You don't, so returning them was a good idea.
In the modded version I play, the belt has no powers.
The party are 6 paladins, each with a different kit added by mods. So no stealth. In the modded version there's a second pair of those boots with another group of hobgoblins, so you can chose to keep one and return one at the same time.
I play the BGT recommended install
The champions of Candlekeep level 2-3
After returning the bowl and leveling up the party entered a cave filled with Ankhegs
There they found a body and returned it to the kids father. I return they received an enchanted cloak from a neighbor.
Further north they helped another farmer to clean a zombie infestation
During the exploration of Peldvale they were forced to kill a Flaming Fist mercenary. Giving Janus a plate armor in return.
In Larswood they had to kill two lunatic druids and their bears, enough to level the entire group except Prukain.
After killing some bears and bandits, Prukain also leveled.
Prukain Dragonsbane lvl3 - 30hp – 16% exp – 12% kills – 23 kills – Ankheg
Ring of protection +1, plate mail, 2x long sword
Corvyre Gellantara lvl3 - 31hp – 23% exp – 19% kills – 39 kills – Rhialto
Plate mail, 2-handed sword
Thernda Gellantara lvl3 - 35hp – 21% exp – 21% kills – 42 kills - Ankheg
Plate mail, 2-handed sword
Janus Pagason lvl3 - 28hp – 15% exp – 15% kills – 31 kills – Osmadi
Cloak of protection +1, plate mail, 2x battle axe
Nesisiries Windsailo lvl3 - 35hp – 11% exp – 13% kills – 26 kills – Ankheg
Chain mail +1, flail +1, small shield
Darlove Milner lvl3 - 35hp – 11% exp – 17% kills – 34 kills – Ogre Mage
Studded Leather +1, composite long bow
Aliah (2) is doing well for herself. She started off just fending off unwanted advances. Aliah knows she is pretty but no means no Shoal
Once she earned enough money for the necklace of mind protection she took care of all the assassins. Tarnesh got stunned by the chromatic orb, Neira got blinded and Karlat got feared leading to all of their deaths
Each one burned to a crisp in their dying moments, like poor Greywolf here
Some spells are more useful, some more damaging but shooting flame through your fingers is where it's at as far as Aliah is concerned.
She's a naughty girl and may have killed a woman on the flimsiest of pretenses for her shiny ring
Once you know how to invoke webs out of nowhere you have to have free action to go with it. Emboldened she went to kill crazy Basiluss. She opened with a blind but Basiluss has multiple cure diseases ready just for that.
Unfortunately all of his spells have long casting times and mages are very good at interrupting. Aliah finished him off by freezing him to death for style points, money be damned
She submitted the holy symbol to the temple of Lathander and then went to clear out the Basilisks. The psycho mage was scouted out of invisibility and received a double skull trap into pw:s for being the bad kind of crazy.
Sirines were webbed and skull trapped or stunned by dart while incapacitated. They were also good targets for Aliah to experiment with cold spells. All the elements make her happy.
Although burning people makes her the happiest, Zordral
The champions of Candlekeep level 3+
The group further cleaned larswood including some big groups with 6 bandits, 3 hobgoblins and 8 dogs
Afterwards the group went further south to the lonely peaks. There they killed a gang of half-ogres
The tradeway South between Beregost and Nashkell was rather boring, some goblins, some kobolds and lord forthshadow refused to give his ring.
The first person encountered in the red canyon was Bassilus and his horde of undead. While the mad priest stood no chance, he managed to disease Prukain
Bassilus holy symbol was returned and all of the found treasure was identified and sold, bringing the group from 1625gold to 19936gold. Looked like Bassilus dropped a manual to raise Constitution. This was used on Janus Pagason, who was dropping a bit behind in hitpoints. While identifying the items, they also found out that the teddy bear Rialto had was some kind of shield.
Prukain Dragonsbane lvl3 - 30hp – 17% exp – 15% kills – 50 kills – Ankheg
Ring of protection +1, Signet Ring of the Sukien, shield amulet, plate mail, 2x long sword, Helm of the Holy Guard
Corvyre Gellantara lvl3 - 31hp – 21% exp – 19% kills – 64 kills – Rhialto
Plate mail, 2-handed sword +1
Thernda Gellantara lvl3 - 35hp – 17% exp – 17% kills – 58 kills - Ankheg
Plate mail, 2-handed sword, composite long bow
Janus Pagason lvl3 - 31hp – 14% exp – 16% kills – 55 kills – Osmadi
Cloak of protection +1, plate mail, 2x battle axe
Nesisiries Windsailo lvl3 - 35hp – 10% exp – 10% kills – 35 kills – Ankheg
Chain mail +1, flail +1, Teddy bear of protection +2, +4 vs demons
Darlove Milner lvl3 - 35hp – 18% exp – 19% kills – 65 kills – Bassilus
Studded Leather +1, Holy bow of the Sukien
Note: all paladins seem to do their thing fine. Nesisiries is getting behind in kills, but the fact that she uses shield an sword gives her less hits and her aura ability has saved a lot of healing potions. Most of the strong protective items have been given to Prukain to give her a better chance to survive in the coming battles., bringing her AC to -5 with resist fear, mind shielding and protection from petrification. The other melee fighters now all have an AC of -1/-2 and the archer an AC of 2. After the next level up they will go to the Nashkell mine. I don't think they curently stand a chance in melee combat against the duergar in the Nashkel mine coming from the Dark Horizons mod.
Having seen more or less all of the Sword Coast, Aliah was ready for some detective fun. She sneaked in invisible to the bottom of the Nashkel mine. The big bad guy wasn't particularly big or scary, and even gave her time to set up. So she put up some skull traps and blinded the man
She fireballed a few times because fireballs are awesome and then burned the whiny, dying cleric
Back in Nashkel she was ambushed by an assassin, but she doesn't like rogues and wasn't about to give an assassin a fair fight so she let the guards finish him.
Tranzig the mage was mostly confused by her many protective spells and ran around until he got caught in the flames.
On her way to the bandit camp she was ambushed twice. The women she let go, partly because solidarity partly because rogues are scary. The men she charmed to distract them and then webbed them so they can more willingly help her play with fire
Once she arrived to the bandit camp she had to prove herself to the leader Tranzig. She used her only potion of haste to maintain distance and shot him with magic missiles and wand of frost until he yielded. She rested, entered the tent and stunned the mage out of invisibility (*which was pretty lucky on her part, because in this round of SCS he has dispel and a good chance of succeeding with it*). Then she webbed a few times to keep everyone nice and still and then unleashed some fiery love.
This was all quite tiresome so Aliah rested a bit before continuing on to Cloakwood. There she killed some druids who were pushing their boring ways on innocent visitors and invised the rest of the way to the secret mine (*spiders weren't worth the danger and effort for Aliah since she was already lvl 9*). The guardians of the mine were scouted out of invisibility and webbed into cloud kill
Summoning poisonous fumes isn't as much fun as fire but gets the job done. She didn't immediately continue into the mine, first she went back to sell her new possessions. Then she returned and sneaked invisible to Daveorn's quarters. His main bodyguard was stunned with the wand and his wards disabled from invisibility using protection from electricity and shield
She webbed and cloud killed Daveorn's position forcing him to use most of his healing potions before he managed to move out. Aliah followed and they engaged in a little mage duel while the guards were disabled/killed by the area of effect spells. Sadly she ran out of damage spells before he ran out of life so she was forced to try freezing him over and over while evading the guards. In the end Daveorn was icicled, and Aliah shed a single tear over the frozen robe of the arch magi.
Her next stop is Ulgoth's beard where she agreed to help a wizard retrieve an item of power (*but really to get stoneskin*)
Anomandra, halfling priest of Helm {2}:
After failing badly the first time in Beregost, I decided to take Anomandra the quick way, getting quick levels early on. Imoen, dual-classed at lvl 4, was the one to tag along.
The sisterhood was doing fine and managed to clear the first mines without much effort.
Combat-wise, they relied mostly on disabling spells such as Blindness, Command, Sleep, Hold and Silence. Buffs have been generally limited to ProEvil, Resist Fear, Chant (I'm not a big fan of Bless at all) and some situational protection spells. Heavily armored, Anomandra was able to tank almost any physical threat, whereas the Seeking Sword ability provided us with the necessary kick.
The ladies have successfully protected themselves from several pesky assassin groups...
...and not before long, justice has been brought to the Bandit Camp.
Skeletal summons allowed our duo to switch focus to a more offensive approach. They dared to proceed to Durlag's Tower.
Enemy mages generally found their defences vulnerable to Anomandra's True Seeing, however, the Ghost inside the tower proved to be a formidable foe. I did not check his stats, but it has indeed been the most challenging combatant so far, forcing Anomandra to even take a save vs. spell (Dire Charm IIRC). That said, his wide array of spells was still of little effect to our undead bodyguards.
Staple performance of the team made me curious about Anomandra's chances against Kahrk at Firewine Bridge, whom I have not dared to touch since my last BG sessions some two years ago. I honestly didn't know what to except but was hoping to wait out his protections, dispel the illusions and beat him bloody. The first part of the plan worked flawlessly, however, even with heavy buffs and a *gulp* of Speed Potion, I was simply unable to withstand his THAC0 in a single combat. Therefore, after Imoen had paid for a bad move with 1 HP (and her Invisibility spell was a close call as well), I resorted to the Wand of Heavens and finished that Alpha-Ogre with fire.
Being high on trying new things I ventured to Ulcaster (which I normally also avoid). I did remember Icharyd as a nasty hitter, however I never knew he possessed some resurrection (which would be ok per se) and was blasting lightnings form the sky! By Helm's insightful balls! Imoen became a victim of the first such lightning and since the rule was not to revive the companions I decided to abandon the run there.
All and all it was a fun run and Helm Priest proved to be a very enjoyable class (could work solo as well), albeit somewhat difficult for me from purely RP view.
B.
Being high on trying new things I ventured to Ulcaster (which I normally also avoid). I did remember Icharyd as a nasty hitter, however I never knew he possessed some resurrection(which would be ok) and was blasting lightnings form the sky! By Helm's insightful balls! Imoen became a victim of the first such lightning and since the rule was not to revive the companions I decided to abandon the run there.
Ah the joys of trying new things 
. Glad to hear you enjoyed the run.
Narva, human Totemic Druid, 1st entry:
With late Anomandra, my taste for divine spellcasters has not been fully satisfied. After a careful consideration of several multi-class options, I eventually opted for a Totemic Druid, which is something I've had yet to try. I've always ended up playing Avengers, mostly because of the variable abilities they offer, although they did always feel a bit un-druidic.
Since Narva will be a solo character, I do have my doubts as to her ability to overcome various fear effects which may come to pass. Early on, the only way to boost morale would be Bless. I'm thinking that the massive immunities of her spiritual companions might be the way to go in the future.
Anyway, she starts with * in darts and staves and will be aiming for slings and ultimately two-handed weapon style.
Full character sheet to be found here:
B.
Narva, human Totemic Druid, 2nd entry:
Just a couple of snapshots to report the progress made thus far.
The beginnings were rather difficult and slow-going. With no Sanctuary/ProEvil/Command, I'm struggling to find a useful spell in Druid's repertoire for early levels (although AoF will become a staple later on). Lvl 1 summons were of not much help either and kept loosing their modest HP to plain hobgoblins.
An early visit to High Hedge revealed a hostile flesh golem in Thalantyr's abode, which has been somehow triggered by the presence of enemy Flind (Thalantyr himself was chillin' and seemed indifferent to the mess around).
Anyway, Narva's newly purchased Wand of Sleep provided the necessary breathing space.
After expending a decent amount of darts on her foes, she made it safely to Nashkel, which allowed her to equip the mighty Ankegh armor. After using Minsc to get that rep point from Oublek and she managed the impossible...
Mutamin's garden was kind to her in terms of XP and an army has been amassed to deal with Kirian and her mates.
With accumulated fortune, Narva ventured to the north to Ulgoth's Beard to procure the Cloak of Displacement, Greenstone Amulet, Wand of Heavens and the +3 staff. Being level 8, she is currently entering the infamous Durlag's Tower. Besides the Tome of Wisdom, the goal is to obtain the +3 sling and Kiel's buckler, but we've yet to see how that goes.
So far the most useful spells have been Bless (as much as I despise it due to its casting time/duration value), Barkskin (before getting Ankegh armor) and 3rd lvl spells - Strength of One, Call Lightning and Summon Insects.
Notable enemies defeated: Karlat, Tarnesh, Zordal, Bassilus, Shoal, Mutamin, Kirian's Party
Notable monsters slain: ankegh, battle horror, greater basilisk
Encounters avoided so far: Neera and her pursuers, Silke, Neira, ogres and sirines at the Shipwreck's Coast
Apparently, BGEE developers wanted to add some flavor to the empty area north of Nashkel and (besides a small fix/side-quest) the Waterdeep fellow now treats you with the Ring of Human Influence. That said, the CHA boost is a welcomed feature, however I shall refrain from using the Charm ability (never liked it on Algeron's cloak either).
B.
Her next stop is Ulgoth's beard where she agreed to help a wizard retrieve an item of power (*but really to get stoneskin*)
Great coverage and a brilliant, clean run so far realmuzzy. Keep it rolling.
B.
The champions of Candlekeep level 3+
The group explored the entire Temple area, killing a group of hobgoblins
A group of wolves including some vampiric
And a failed attempt to turn someone to flesh
After the temple area, two assassins (Tristan and Isolde) were killed, by splitting them up
The fisherman lake was explored, helping Drizzt
Killing some bandits
and some half-ogres
Next was a Xvart Villages
On the way to the lighthouse all went wrong. A random encounter with some sirens ended this run: improved invisibility, charm person, blind and poison.
Just ran an Inquisitor who I thought was going to do well. However an unlucky reflection from one of Silke's lightning bolts brought the game to an end. 
Aliah was having a blast in Baldur's gate, pun intended. She scorched some perverts
Bombed a temple of Umberlee
and just had loads of fun, helping people with their errands when convenient.
Once she was ready to investigate the Iron Throne she went up straight to their headquarters and bribed her way to the top. Her strategy was to weave up and down the stairs while the silly thugs chase her, maintaining negative save vs spell and stoneskin. Shennara got darted to death once his invisibility was up
Alai got wand polymorphed and even though he somehow managed to still turn invisible there was no running from the fireball centered on where he was standing
Naaman got stunned by the wand
and then Aliah felt brave enough to just go upstairs and engage all the others giving them a little flame that they so very much earned.
After killing the iron throne goons, she went to Candlkeep, which she basically ran through invisible. There was nothing of interest for her there, although she did say hi to some friends. Upon return to Baldur's Gate she saved the duke and then went to kill the assassins. Slythe got wand stunned fairly quickly and ate a full salvo of fiery meteors sending him to whatever hell he's going to.
Aliah then started the mage dance with Kristen but as Kristen suddenly duplicated, she decided that with the palace tickets in her pocket there is no reason for her to engage two Kristens when one is already a pain.
Then came the fight she dreaded. She doesn't fight well around people, since her damage tends to hit indiscriminately, and without the hated enchantment spells she can't really disable foes very well. So she tried fighting dopplegangers with hasted spiders, and slows, and fear
but the mage proved a big problem, as he so often does, and Aliah's efforts fell short.
(*I had a good idea this would be the one difficult fight where the run could fail. I'm still not sure what a good, bulletproof strategy is for an invoker*)
Great coverage and a brilliant, clean run so far realmuzzy. Keep it rolling.
B.
Thanks Borco, I'm enjoying your Narva run (great portrait btw!). Keep rocking, someone finished the entire trilogy with a totemic.
sorry, realmuzzy. I was enjoying your posts.
so close... so far.
@Borco -- thanks for the posts. The Druid run is interesting. I think Druids provide a special challenge.
--BW
Act 1 Scene 2
[Curtain opens with Duno and his friend Imoen walking across a forest in an effort to flee Candlekeep... because being alone in the forest without a map is MUCH safer than being in a guarded fortress with a locked gate]
IMOEN: Mutton-mongerin' riffraff
DUNO: Huh?
DUNO: I knew those companions were good for something -- Ogrillion fodder!
DUNO: You know.. this being able to hide in shadows even while enemies are around is really handy! Now, if I could only learn to backstab... oh WHHYY did I skip that class??
DUNO: This sneaking around thing is going well.
DUNO: But I really need a healer
VICONIA: vith'ir Oloth plynn nina! So many! What shall we do??
DUNO [to VICONIA]: Ruuuuuuunnnnnn
DUNO: At least we are progressing....
--BW
Right now I'm facing a certain dilemma concerning the traps in Durlag's dungeon. Narva can effectively protect herself from anything except for petrification and I'm terrified of a Chromatic Orb or other Flesh to Stone effect waiting out there...She'll contemplate on this to see whether to go on or return to the surface.
Sounds like good progress Borco. You could use a green PfP scroll (Iron Throne and Candlekeep both have copies), or alternatively magic shielding or a couple of magic protection potions would still allow her to use her own spells.
Saphire, the gnomish Fighter/Illusionist enters the fray. Staves **, Two-handed weapons **.
She started with a charisma of 3, but that was sadly diminished to 1 by the time she left Candlekeep due to using a staff that she found on the body of Shank. By doing good deeds and selling items found on bodies and giving the proceeds to the temple, she is now quite popular. However, she was not popular with the guard in Candlekeep. In the inn she got caught stealing scrolls from a chest, and she was also caught stealing a potion of healing. She did this feeling that her need was the greater. (She is Chaotic Good after all. 
) She avoided fisticuffs with them however.
@RealMuzzy, condolences. Not sure if there is such a thing as a bulletproof strategy in the Ducal Palace for a solo character. I would have kept the summons coming, using maybe a scroll of Animate Dead (for sale at Ulgoth's Beard inn), and defintely a Wand of Monster Summoning. I agree that the wizard is hard. Did you try a Remove Magic on him? Potion buffs might help a bit too. E.g.
@BWW, nice to see Duno on his way. I'm curious to see how he'll fare. Shadowdancers are not very well-documented yet.
@Grond0, good luck with your new attempt. Hopefully your slightly more lenient approach will bring Knockout far.
@Borco, fine progress. I second Grond0's advice, should you want to venture deeper down in Durlag's Tower. In addition to the locations he mentioned, the merchant upstairs in the Elfsong Tavern also sells a PfP scroll.
@Grimwald, safe travels for Saphire!
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