Despite the dangers lurking in Durlag's Tower, Narva has pushed on bravely. She had to buff well, since looting of trapped cabintes and containers was necessary in order to proceed, and took her chances whilst being protected from any form of harmful effects other than petrification.
The elements have been avoided in style...
...which in turn allowed us to complete the chores assigned to her by the dwarven spirits. Our effort has been rewarded with an uncalled hostility, but Narva and her entourage fought well and together they were able to take down Love quickly.
Other spirits were about to follow...
...however, their regeneration rate eventually proved too overwhelming for our damage output. I decided to pick up the wardstone and flee to the lower levels under invisibility. Therein, more madness awaited.
Not before long, Narva was able to clear her way to the throne chamber where she collected Kiel's helmet. Unfortunately, that action triggered more doppelgangers, each of which has immediately released a poisonous cloud (Stinking Cloud and Cloudkill respectivelly) that filled the entire room. With her summons recently gone, Narva didn't even manage to get an appropriate protection from the gases before she got overwhelmed by the incoming attackers. For the sake of her dignity, I did quit the run before loosing that last HP.
As is often the case, bravery was once again mistaken with foolishness.
B.
ussnorway, Serg BlackStrider, Grond0 and 4 others like this
In this situation it is best to have already opened the exits before you pick up the helmet and also to have your speed enhanced by a potion, spell or boots.
Then as soon as you pick up the helmet exit the room and shut the door behind you.
Those noxious fumes will then kill or at least seriously injure the doppelgangers.
Dhanyako Manche
Svirfneblin Fighter/Illusionist/Thief Staves ** Two Handed Weapons **
Str 18/0 Dex 19, Con 17, Int 19, Wis 15, Cha 1
Candlekeep proved to be a little too dangerous for Dhanya.
With both assassins Shank and Carbos, with one blow they brought Dhanya to within 1 point of death. The first time this happened, he didn't have a healing potion so he rushed to a chest, took out three potions, consumed one, returned to the fray and won.
When he was seriously injured by the second assassin, at least he had a potion ready to use.
All the chests were opened and their contents acquired without Dhanya being caught. The bonus stealth due to being svirfneblin really helped.
Looking at him, I am sure that you can well understand why he has a charisma of 1.
However, unlike many with disfigurement, he has not let himself become bitter. He is still kindhearted and gave liberally at the temple, not to increase his reputation as an evil character might, but out of the goodness of his heart. He is however slow to make relationships because of bad incidents in the past. Hopefully his adventures will change that.
ussnorway, Blackraven, realmuzzy and 2 others like this
@Grimwald It's nice seeing people running mods you don't have
@Borco Noooo, I was cheering for Narva.
Speaking of dying to silly traps, Iolo died in the starting Irenicus dungeon in a really stupid way. I activated the hold trap in the trapped room and clicked on the healing potion. But I think it didn't register, or I didn't click it, or I'm not sure what happened so once the hold ended Iolo walked right on without taking the potion immediately dying to the next trap. Sometimes I do experince input lag but that could be my computer and not the game.
Anyway, I'll probably try one of the RR bard kits next.
Sorry to hear that Realmuzzy. But Irenicus' dungeon has claimed many solo characters, so you joined a long list of no-reloaders who went down there. One of my favorite stories is Gate70 had a solo thief who tripped a lightning bolt trap in Irenicus' dungeon and died - he commented that it was dumb for a thief to die that way, I enjoyed his comment.
Sorry to hear that Realmuzzy. But Irenicus' dungeon has claimed many solo characters, so you joined a long list of no-reloaders who went down there. One of my favorite stories is Gate70 had a solo thief who tripped a lightning bolt trap in Irenicus' dungeon and died - he commented that it was dumb for a thief to die that way, I enjoyed his comment.
Thieves with no points in detect traps unite!
corey_russell, Grimwald the Wise, Blackraven and 1 other like this
I decided to have another go at these, but this time to provide a bit of extra incentive I'll be trying to avoid any party deaths (at least in BG 1) while doing a completionist run. To make that a bit easier the monks will be allowed to use healing and antidote potions if necessary. Phantom had to do so fairly early on when hit by a critical from a hobgoblin elite and taken down to 1 HP as well as being poisoned, but that's the only potion required to date.
Spoiler
Things have gone well so far with their first level, achieved by killing Shoal and doing a few tasks in Beregost, giving everyone above average HPs. After taking the back roads to Nashkel they used their loot to date, including the ankheg armour, to buy the Necklace of Missiles, Shield Amulet and a PfP scroll. Some safe travel back to High Hedge also acquired the Wand of Sleep before they went to relieve Meilum of his bracers (stealth attacks failed to stun him, but it didn't take long to shoot him down).
Spoiler
At the basilisk area a few flind trying to prevent them resting got everyone to level 3, with average HPs gained. Spectre soloed the separated basilisks before drawing Mutamin away to be shot by the others. That got everyone to level 4 and a decent set of rolls of just above average overall. To play safe, Kirian's party were left for now.
Moving north to the FAI they returned Landrin's goods and Joia's ring before heading south again to improve reputation further. Melicamp successfully helped in that process and they've just maximised it without any particular alarms - though they haven't yet fully cleared most of the map areas visited.
Chimera - L4, 33 HPs, 35 kills
Spectre - L4, 27 HPs, 46 kills, 0 deaths
Phantom - L4, 29 HPs, 35 kills, 0 deaths
Wraith - L4, 34 HPs, 38 kills, 0 deaths
Spook - L4, 31 HPs, 42 kills, 0 deaths
Spirit - L4, 33 HPs, 42 kills, 0 deaths
ussnorway, Serg BlackStrider, Blackraven and 1 other like this
I haven't been able to play much due to being on holiday And what little time I had avaialable I spent partly on restarts, mostly because I was unhappy about my roleplaying. Examples are picking up the easter egg rings (protection +1, wizardry), going pretty much straight after Melicamp, or bringing Xzar and Montaron along to help Nurim deal with Tarnesh.
The morning was gentle on the Lion’s Way. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. But Nurim’s thoughts and Imoen’s were grim and gloomy as they walked toward the battlefield, a barren spot in the otherwise green fields, scorched the night before by Gorion’s fire magics. They encountered the bodies of some of the bandits that Nurim’s late foster father had slain as well as the corpse of the old man himself, so battered that no high priest could be deemed capable of restoring it. In one of Gorion’s pockets Nurim found a letter signed ‘E’. Its contents echoed the instruction that his foster father had given the Dwarf the night before. He had to travel to the Friendly Arm Inn to find Khalid and Jaheira, old friends of Gorion’s. It was one of very few things he knew. That and the fact that people wanted him dead.
The two explored the surroundings a bit more, wary of the warrior that had been after the Dwarf and of any surviving henchmen, but they found not a trace of them. They returned to Candlekeep to break the news of Gorion’s death and to arrange the old man’s interment. The Keeper of the Portal could not let the two back in, Ulraunt’s orders, but he gave them 100 gold for the road, and he promised to send a carriage that would bring Gorion’s remains to the citadel.
Back on the Lion’s Way Nurim was asking a big fellow named Kolssed for directions when he overheard two adventurers, a human wizard and a halfling rogue, greeting Imoen.
“What is this? Two forlorn children wandering alone in these woods?” spoke the wizard in melodic, almost hypnotic tones. “And ye look a bit scuffed too,” barked the Halfling in a hoarse voice. “I can offer you healing potions,” the wizard continued, “as a token of our good will. Perhaps as recompense you would accompany us to Nashkel?”
“We dinna be wantin’ no healing potions from …,” Nurim started, but he witnessed Imoen receive such a potion from the wizard anyway. The Dwarf used his divine powers of manticism to gauge the wizard’s intentions and saw them revealed as evil.
Spoiler
He quickly thanked the man for the potion and bade him and his companion farewell. The wizard didn’t take it very well, no doubt dismayed that his bait trick had failed, but the Halfling managed to calm him down.
Spoiler
The land between Candlekeep and the Friendly Arm Inn was full of perils. On and alongside the road bandits were a constant threat,
Spoiler
while in the woods Nurim and Imoen were forced to deal with aggressive monsters, including an Ogre, and wild beasts.
Spoiler
They met a rogue, Eldoth, who was bound for Baldur’s Gate, where he wanted to release his loved one from the clutches of her father,
Spoiler
and traveled to the Inn with him despite Imoen's female intuition telling her he was not to be trusted.
They reached the Inn in good order but were accosted by a black robed wizard in front of the entrance. Nurim had not divulged his name to Eldoth yet, so the rogue was sincere when he told the wizard there was no Nurim in his company, but the mage somehow knew better than that.
Spoiler
Nurim urged his companions to retreat, to seek the sanctuary of the temple of Garl Glittergold adjacent the Inn.
“Are we afraid of that mage my Dwarven friend?” asked Eldoth inside the temple.
“I could chop that wizard in bits and mash ‘m under ma boots, as I will with ya if ye intend to continue pestering me. ‘Twas a tactical retreat is all. I’ve lived among them sorcerer folk fer longer than I care. I know the treacherous sort well enough. They dinna fight fair. Addle one’s mind is what they do. Now keep quiet! Imoen, could ya sneak out to see what that black robe is up to?”
Imoen, a skilled sneak, had no difficulty remaining hidden from the wizard while she witnessed the wizard being struck down by a Guard.
Spoiler
When they rummaged through the wizard’s belongings, the companions found a bounty notice with Nurim’s name on it, and Imoen picked up a spellbook. The lass showed what Nurim considered a disturbing interest in the book and had difficulty persuading her to keep away from it.
Spoiler
Any other aspiring wizard he would boot from the party, but with dear Imoen it was different. He decided to keep her close to him, to protect her from herself.
In the Inn it turned out that Eldoth was a crook who had swindled the owner, the Gnome Bentley Mirrorshade. Nurim, an honorable Dwarf, would not be associated with swindlers and told Eldoth that he was on his own.
The two met a Gnome named Landrin whom they promised to bring some belongings from her spider-infested Beregost home, and finally Khalid and Jaheira, two Half-Elven warriors. Khalid was a fighter and Jaheira a warrior druid. The former was a stutterer, which made him seem nervous, the latter on the other hand was rather pedantic, criticizing Nurim and Imoen for not having arrived earlier without asking first about Gorion. After Nurim gave her an account of Gorion's fall she explained she was in a bit of a hurry to travel to Nashkel, where they were to meet the mayor, Berrun Ghastkill, to discuss with him recent problems in the Nashkel Mines.
It was agreed that the party would see to the task they had pledged to perform for Landrin, and then travel on to Nashkel.
ussnorway, Serg BlackStrider, Grond0 and 4 others like this
Condolences Muzzy (I hate dying in Chateau Irenicus) and Borco (a brave attempt soloing a Druid through Durlag's Tower).
Good luck Wise. I like the portrait and your ever amazing stat rolls.
Going to Durlag's is definitely risky, but the rewards are great, not so much so for a druid. However Muzzy did well.
It was definitely worth the trip with my Cleric/Ranger. I was surprised at how well I did without a thief. I always thought that a thief was indispensable.
I liked your write up. I almost felt that I was there. We have some good writers on the forum. Some coul actually write books IMO.
For this game the stats were indeed amazing. Admittedly I did spend a lot of time on it this time. Even so, the 18/00 for strength amazed me. I rarely get that even if I spend time rolling! I thought for this character I would need a good roll as levelling up will be VERY slow, firstly because the experience is divided three ways, and secondly because of the 30% reduction in experience for being a svirfneblin. I therefore rolled for much longer than usual. I too thought that the portrait was superb for a low charisma svirfneblin. Not a creation of mine on this occasion, but straight from the web.
EDIT
I forgot to mention that because his roll was so good, I gave him the name Dhanyako Manche which means blessed man in Nepali.
ussnorway, Serg BlackStrider, Blackraven and 2 others like this
The monks used stealth to loot the pirate treasure at the lighthouse - that does mean the first group of sirines will now be wandering round and a bit harder to attack, but the funds will buy some useful stuff to help with that. There was no similar downside to looting the ankhegs, though the monsters themselves were again left for now.
That still didn't quite give them enough funds for the invisibility ring at Ulgoth's Beard, but they bought everything else that might be useful. The Wand of the Heavens was soon in use to soften up a battle horror at Durlag's Tower and get everyone to level 5 - another slightly above average set of rolls continued their good progress there.
Spoiler
They had to retreat a couple of times to heal up damage from dopplegangers, but pushed on through a load of ghasts onto the roof. There was a problem there with the second greater basilisk which was still clinging on at near death when Spectre's mirror potion was about to expire. Three of the other monks went to try and get the final hit required - I expected them to be able to at least get an attack in from stealth before the basilisk responded, but that proved not to be the case and Wraith froze into place before the final blow was landed.
Spoiler
I don't count petrification as a death though so the monks went to get a green scroll before returning to put Wraith back into the party. After killing the final basilisk she took a couple of healing potions to ensure she would survive the trap leading back into the Tower.
At the lighthouse, the sirines proved reasonably easy, but there was a difficult fight against a group of hobgoblins when more spawned nearby and joined in the fight - Spook had to take a healing potion there when poisoned and down to 1 HP and everyone was pretty badly mauled.
Spoiler
The monks also cleared the area to the south - having to be very patient with the Doomsayer, which took at least 30 stealth attacks to finish off from near death.
Spoiler
That was still not quite enough for another level, but going to have a nice chat with Bassilus did the trick.
Spoiler
Unfortunately though a dreadful set of rolls brought the group back down to average HPs overall.
Chimera - L6, 46 HPs, 66 kills
Spectre - L6, 39 HPs, 111 kills, 0 deaths
Phantom - L6, 40 HPs, 62 kills, 0 deaths
Wraith - L6, 48 HPs, 65 kills, 0 deaths
Spook - L6, 43 HPs, 70 kills, 0 deaths
Spirit - L6, 40 HPs, 77 kills, 0 deaths
ussnorway, Serg BlackStrider, Grimwald the Wise and 2 others like this
Dhanya took a trip to the lighthouse area, on the way killing Zargal et al. There were also quite a lot of ghasts both near Zorgal and in transit. They yielded quite a lot of experience as did the sirene when we got there. The potion from Candlekeep plus oil of speed was sufficient to kill the sirene, and the arrows they had helped to kill two flesh golems. All in all a very helpful trip. At Ulgoth's Beard he bought a cowl which will make basilisks much easier to deal with. The wolves near the temple were next on the agenda. He spent a lot of time running away from them due to the danger of hold from vampyric wolves. However all succumbed eventually to his trusty sling.
Now time for the basilisks.
EDIT
Perhaps not. He only has one level 2 spell, dispell invisibility. Perhaps visiting the south and then the Ankhegs will be wiser. Hopefully he will find some scrolls rather than having to buy them.
Dhanya scoured the southern area, helping out as he had oportunity. Stopping the chopping down of a tree, helping Rufie and the like, and ending up killing a bunch of assassins at the gnoll fortress. he then headed northwards and killed a bear that was frightening a traveler. Finally went down the mines, fought some more assassins and returned to civilisation to sell and then buy a necklace of missiles. Only afterwards did he realise that a wand of fire would have been cheaper.
He is now trying to decide on whether to go back down the mines, fight ankhegs, or fight basilisks.
EDIT
In the end i went down the mines as far as the spiders and returned to the surface to get wand of fire as necklace of missiles was almost exhausted.
Whilst on the surface dealt with assassins and basilisks before clearing the ankhegs and killing the DSoSC assassins south of the FAI.
The battles went quite well. The assassins down the mine were webbed followed by two fireballs. This killed two of them. One came towards Dhanya and tried to cast spells, but the sling together with the web disrupted all his attempts. Necklace of missiles then caused panic. Battle over.
South of the FAI similar tactics with similar results.
Killing the ankhegs mean that Dhanya now has a wand of fire.
This made the mines relatively easy.
None of Mulahey's spells were effective. Whether this was because of the protections (resistance to fear, mirrored image etc), or magical resistance, I have no idea.
Phantasmic 6 {15} - monks party (3rd and final update)
Deciding it was about time the monks progressed with the main quest they cleared the Nashkel mine. Getting through the kobold hordes was no real trouble - the shaman managed to scare Spectre, but all enemies and traps had already been dealt with behind them, so that was no great problem. Mulahey was stunned too quickly to even call for help.
Back at Nashkel I forgot Nimbul would be waiting! However, he didn't get enough of a look at them to follow after the monks retreated and they finished him off once the soldiers had worn through his stoneskins.
They started to clear the Cloud Peak areas, but after doing the first of those had retreated back to the Carnival to rest when Lamalha turned up. Zeela was dominated early on though (by scroll) and helped out with a hold person - though I think the monks would have won comfortably anyway. They're a higher level than I normally use to explore the southern areas and continued working their way through the maps without particular alarms.
That process of cleaning up areas continued, including taking out the last group of sirines with no problem. The monks were hit with quite a few criticals in the 20s and 30 for damage, but no-one was hit again sufficiently quickly to prevent them from retreating when hurt.
With the loot they picked up they bought the invisibility ring, with the intention that would help them safely negotiate the web traps in the Red Wizard of Thay area. Spirit used it to trip those traps, but I then made the mistake of not using it for Spectre to monitor the large pack of spiders there when the others used a stealth shot to try and get some to chase them and break the pack up. That approach was looking promising until Spectre's stealth failed at just the wrong moment and he was immediately webbed by a giant spider and attacked by various enemies. Several potion fireballs were used which damaged the attackers, but didn't kill the 3 nearest Spectre and they refused to stop attacking him even when other monks meleed them. I'd also not equipped the monks with a protection from poison scroll and Spectre didn't last long after being poisoned ...
Spoiler
ussnorway, Grimwald the Wise and realmuzzy like this
Sorry to hear that Grond0. For your monks, poison seems to be your nemesis. Which I guess makes sense, as my Coremonk died to poison too in BG 2 before...
Their much lower HPs and lack of shorty saves means they are far more vulnerable then equivalent fighters. If you can keep them going of course they do eventually become immune to poison at level 11 ...
Their much lower HPs and lack of shorty saves means they are far more vulnerable then equivalent fighters. If you can keep them going of course they do eventually become immune to poison at level 11 ...
If your monks were allowed to use Elixars of Health, that would go a long way to keeping them together, but I know why you don't...
Dhanya sneaked through the thief camp after first killing tazok and some assassins.
Then pillaged the upper part of Durlag's Tower and has now finished Cloakwood up to leaving the spider area. Killed the dragon and just remembered that Dhanya hasn't been rewarded for that yet.
Was ambushed by Lamalha and then Molkar. For Molkar used summon monsters and then web. It was then easy as no spells cast on Dhanya.
EDIT
Found the wyverns a bit of a problem as Dhanya was poisoned over and over again. However, there were enough potions. (Just)
Tried getting to the bottom of the Cloakwood mines without engaging in conflict. That didn't work, but fortuiously some guards followed Dhanya down a level which made them easy to deal with as the mage was left behind. When Dhanya then returned to the mage, it made the battle against her easier as there were no guards blocking the route to her and she fell quickly. (No lightning Bolts)
Then down to Davaeorn.
Cast summoned monsters. One of the enemy cast a fireball at them. This resulted in them fighting each other, one of the black talon elite being killed and several badly injured.
Danya was then in a series of mini-battles only having to fight two or three enemy at a time.
Eventually the battle was won and we defeated all the other enemies on the way out. By coming from the rear, the battle against Drasus et al was much easier.
Defeated the assassins on the Baldur's gate bridge, web being particularly effective.
Took Arkion's Bloodstone Amulet and Nemphe's ring to a mage who rewarded us handsomely. Nemphre got angry when we stole her ring, bur so far without further repercussions.
I've been away from these forums and BG in generally a bit recently, but just an update that Fortuna's luck ran out, in no small part by my own choices rather than luck. Trying Tarnesh before level 4 in SCS is a complete gamble, one that I need to avoid more often... (As I said as I plan to run Benoni against him at level 2/3...)
Dhanya raced through the BG quests, as usual they went without incident. Upon arrival at Candlekeep, to avoid the problems recently against the ogre mages at the entrance, he immediately went invisible. This stopped the problems with confusion, chaos and the like. Again web was used. It didn't get all the mages, but reduced their numbers to managable proportions. Dhanya is now looking quite powerful. (Minimum stat is now 18) It is now only disabling magic that he has to fear.
The time was ripe to try out one of the warrior classes. At first, I was torn between an Undead Hunter and a Beast Master. Then I ended up picking a third class, since Berserker allowed me to go non-human. A dwarf would come with a lot of muscle (and a better utilisation of the Claw of Kazgaroth) but c'mon, how many dwarven berserkers you know?! Right? Yes, halfling feels right.
In BG1, the strategy should be rather staightforward: 1) pump-up, 2) immobilize (Sleep, Stun) and 3) cleave through. Enrage, along with shorty saves and obtainable amulets, should provide solid protection from whatever might come as a threat.
Tara is not a solo character and will be hiring some extra help from NPCs (with slight preference of those I've yet to try - e.g. bards, Alora). Keeping a small party will also help to slow the XP progression, as I did not enjoy reaching the cap with roughly 50% of the game to go during the last run with Narva.
Full sheet:
Spoiler
Weapon Pips: Axes (2) - because a berserker with swords gets laughed at by his peers; Darts (1) - because Darts of Stunning; Shortbow (1) - because it can shoot arrows (of every imaginable effect).
Regards,
B.
ussnorway, Serg BlackStrider, Grond0 and 3 others like this
Some time ago (scroll down), Marcus the Fighter/Mage and friends had been getting to know Baldur's Gate.
Well, we cleared out the Seven Suns and the Merchant's League, killed an Ogre Mage and his Carrion Crawlers, and just generally had a good time. We had a bit of a run-in with the law at once point which proved rather awkward, but I was able to flee. I then decided to go and poke around the Iron Throne.
At first, the battle went a bit pear-shaped. We buffed tremendously and ran up the stairs, but we didn't have the usual buffer of summoned monsters, and it proved difficult to summon enough in time since we were under return fire. A lot of the bad guys got quite close near the stairs and different people had to flee back down at different times. After a bit, though, we got it under control and they caved quite quickly; Faldorn's Insect Swarm proved effective vs the casters, and Marcus out-archeried the archer dude.
I decided though to go try out Durlag's Tower, so we picked up Safana and cleared out the upper levels. The Ghost is quite different in SCS, and annoyingly hit us with Remove Magic, notably getting rid of Faldorn's True Seeing. However, I sent summoned creatures one or two at a time into his room and they soaked up all his Sunfires and Magic Missiles and things, after which it was fairly easy to deal with him (Imoen hit him with a Remove Magic of her own).
Kirinhale proved to be annoying as ever, too, Charming pretty much everyone (Marcus was Invisible, Imoen had Chaotic Commands), and as fast as Immy could counter with Remove Magic. However, skellies, spells and Marcus' arrows did the trick.
Downstairs was another story, however. Imoen died at the hands of some Greater Doppelgangers (a botch job; once I hit them with Web and a wall of summoned creatures I was able to pick them off with arrows much more effectively), so I headed back to get her raised (I forgot that I had bought some scrolls, which are now cheaper than paying the temple). We then proceeded to clear the rest of the lower level without significant incident, though the Flesh Golems and Skeleton Warrior soaked up some defensive spells.
The Warders, however, were another story. I remember these guys being pretty tough, but not quite this tough. Avarice's Cloudkill did for a lot of summoned creatures, Fear paralysed Safana (but luckily then started attacking skellies) and Love and Pride started ploughing through minions. We killed Fear so that was OK, but Avarice keeps going invisible which makes it hard to deal a lot of damage, and Pride is a melee monster. Both were injured, but neither significantly so.
Immy died to a pretty nasty backstab (45 damage or thereabouts); my mistake though since I should have had her refresh Mirror Image. Faldorn was going toe to toe with Pride in melee (in werewolf form) until she got hit badly and lost her morale. More or less the same happened to Safana (I forget who landed the killing blow).
Marcus and Branwen fled, hoping to loop around and get to the exit, but Avarice pursued them. The warder was obsessed with killing Branwen but she was able to keep glugging potions (Avarice's damage was mostly quite low, actually, often dealing 4 or 8 points even at x4) whilst Marcus kept hitting back. Eventually we killed his/her/it.
I decided to have a go at Pride, too, but he hits like a machine. Branwen lost her nerve, too, and started to flee (stupid, since she fled less effectively that if I'd been controlling her, and died). Marcus took a risk to grab her Boots of Speed (and all her other gear, thanks to Davaeorn's Bag of Holding) and was thus able to flee. He's fast enough that he can actually hit-and-run, peppering Pride with arrows, but I think his renegeration is too much. Probably thanks to the Full Plate and Packing Steel mod, he doesn't take much damage, maybe 6 at most per hit, and I've already spent a lot of magic arrows on him.
Right now I'm thinking I'm going to have to flee, raise the others, and come back to fight another day. Pride should be quite doable with a little more focused fire and some summons to keep him occupied (shame about his Magic Resistance, though) and I have Spell Thrust for Love's defences. Part of the problem was I had the wrong spells prepared, but I think mostly I just underestimated how much damage Pride could soak up and didn't focus my fire enough (I forgot that they apparently regenerate). Detect Invisibility would have been handy too.
The team (no level cap, which makes this even more of a poor showing... )
Spoiler
Marcus, CG Elven Fighter 7/Mage 8
Weapons: The Dead Shot / Spider's Bane
Most Powerful Vanquished: Greater Basilisk
Branwen, TN Human Cleric 8
Weapons: Sling +2 / Ashideena
Most Powerful Vanquished: Shoal the Nereid
Deaths: 3 (Sword Spider, Kahrk, Pride)
Imoen, NG Sorcerer 9
Weapon: Darts / Staff-Mace / Magic Missle
Most Powerful Vanquished: Kirinhale
Deaths: 2 (Greater Doppelganger, Avarice)
Faldorn, N Human Shapeshifter 10
Weapons: Darts / The Root of the Problem / Claw
Most Powerful Vanquished: Greater Doppelganger
Deaths: 1 (Pride, probably)
(Almost L11! A bit ridiculous for BG1)
Safana, CN Human Swashbuckler 10
Weapons: Heart of the Golem / Throwing Daggers
Most Powerful Vanquished: Dread Wolf
Deaths: 1 (Price or Avarice, who knows?)
Deceased: Xan
We're already past the TotSC level cap, but I don't expect much more levelling up to happen anyway, the XP amounts required are so great. There might be another one for some of us before the end of the game, but I intend to stick with a reduced party and, anyway, SCS is hard!
ussnorway, Serg BlackStrider, Grond0 and 4 others like this
After completing couple of easier quests in Beregost (Marl, Firebeard, spiders), Tara and Viconia moved on to Nashkel and the carnival to upgrade their inventory with Ankegh Plate, Shield Amulet and several potions. Thereafter they proceeded to explore the Fisherman's Lake (i.e. Drizzt area), wherein they terminated Teyngan's bandit activities. Furthermore, a mysterious riddle note was retrieved from a dead gnoll...
After returning to Beregost to collect the bounty for Bassilus, the city has been deratized. Starting with Karlat...
...moving on to Thay wizards...
...and finishing with Silke.
Garrick joined our troupe and, with pockets full of gold, the entire party traveled north through the farmlands all the way to Ulgoth's Beard to purchase Greenstone Amulet/Cloak of Displacement/Wand of Heavens.
Tara is currently lvl 4 with 47 HP thanks to solid rolls. She also got her first * in two-weapon style.
Party members:
Viconia, level 4, 28 HP
Garrick, level 4, 15 HP (!)
After exiting Candlekeep, Dhanya came across yet another assasin, like many of them, this one also proved to belong to "The Section" but this one's possessions told Dhanya where their HQ was.
After killing some of their guards, Dhanya got past the first major hurdle through stealth. She killed a lot of the Section members using "Improved invisibility" web and cloudkill. It was only upon picking up their possessions that I realised how good the strategy was as their mages carried +3 staves with a 1/4 chance of petrifying anyone they hit. Even with Dhanya's high resistances, that could have been exceedingly dangerous. He lured many enemies into the web/cloudkill trap, using his own resistances to go through the webs.
There was a blockage to the route near the bottom of the HQ, but Dhanya got past that using Dimension Door. By doing this, he didn't end up being transported into the middle of the enemies as the writers of the mod expected, and he was able to pick off the enemies one or two at a time.
More webs and cloudkills decimated the enemy. However Paul Wolfe had his own magical resistances and so came and attacked. Despite his good weaponry, Dhanya prevailed, and cleared the HQ of all enemies on the way out.
This side-quest yielded a LOT of experience and a LOT of valuable equipment. The equipment however is irrelevant as with 50000 gp in his back-pack gold isn't an issue, and the equipment will get stolen as soon as he defeats Sarevok anyway.
The experience however will be most useful.
In the Ducal palace, summon monsters followed by web followed by sleep proved to be enough to succeed, though Leela perished in the battle.
At the final battle divide and conquer was the name of the game, using summoned monsters to lead enemies to where I wanted them.
Sarevok was killed by backstab/hide combo.
Now all that lovely equipment that was found in the Section HQ will disappear unused.
But then there's a lot of good equipment in Amn.
ussnorway, Serg BlackStrider, Grond0 and 2 others like this
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