16394 replies to this topic

[Epsil0]

Tarvol and benders (and a monk), update 1:

Huh, I could've sworn I updated this already. No matter.

I restarted the game fairly early on, due to my forgetting I couldn't quite do what I did with my Skald parties and take on the 10+ ogres on the coast with Shoal. So this is officially attempt number 2.

The beginning is fairly standard, killing Shoal for the 5k experience before moving to the Friendly Arm Inn. 

 

First death! Apparently my kiting technique is less than perfect. I won't have a death count this game, by the way: I'm only level 4 and I've already lost count.

Spoiler

Rigor is put to sleep by Tarnesh, but Tarnesh also fails his save vs Color Spray (as well as Rigor again)

Spoiler

 

At this point, I only have two actually viable spells, Color Spray and Grease. Situational are Charm Person and Burning Hands, both only used in the context of interrupting spell casting. I also can't fight anything that has a ranged weapon because a single critical arrow is enough to end this run, and with SCS targeting archers are frequently attacking the back line. This limits the encounters that we can safely do quite severely.

 

Neira isn't one of them, however. Burning Hands and Charm Person and the odd hit were enough to shut down her spell casting.

Spoiler

 

All sorcerers have hit level 2 here, gaining nothing but hit points and one more spell. I desperately need level 3, but easy encounters are dropping... The Dorn encounter especially reminds me of how close to death everyone is whenever archers are present. This was a 1-shot-kill, I think.

 

Spoiler

 

Greywolf shows how easy Grease can make encounters with no ranged attackers:

Spoiler

 

And now time for a couple trickier fights. My battle vs Neira gave me confidence (... a little too much confidence) that I could handle Clerics by burning their spells down with Burning Hands. With this in mind I take on Basillus. Good idea? Probably not.

 

Unholy Blight is the first spell that he gets off successfully, almost killing Rigor in a single shot if he hadn't made the two saves:

Spoiler

He still had many more spells, but fortunately no Invisible Stalker, so eventually, after running his out of spells at the expense of Lana's life...

Spoiler

/spoiler]

 

I still need experience, since I need Prof. from Petrification on Tarvol to safely do the Basilisks to get to level 4 in a fairly safe manner. Basillus financed a shopping trip to get the Wand of Sleep and of Fear, and an ioun stone for Rigor. With these, I figured I could do Tenya's quest for 2,500 experience, and getting past the Ankhegs with Sleep now in the arsenal. Surprisingly, we didn't die to acid vomit, so level 3s!

 

Spoiler

 

Had to do a bit of EEKeeper shenanigans with Lana since I accidentally gave her Grease rather than Shield. After a bit of reflection, I decided to change up Air's schedule and allowed her to take Magic Missile as the 3rd level 1 spell. To recap, Earth (Tarvol) gets Pro. from Petrification, Air (Lana) gets Magic Missile, Water (Jun) gets Grease, and Fire (Flare) gets Spook. After switching the ring of wizardry around, Tarvol can now cast 10 Pro. from Petrification and we can safely do the Basilisks! Korax is successful in his gnome-assassination:

 

Spoiler

 

And the southern basilisks are enough to get everyone barring Lana to level 4 (which I'll fix in a bit.) But this unlocked level 2 spells, so time to decide who gets what.

Fire: Agannazar's Scorcher, Horror, Resist Fear,... I'm running out of options. I'll allow MI on all of them to represent natural dodging/agility, and Knock.

Water: Ray of Enfeeblement, Blur, Mirror Image, Knock, and Luck

Air: Invisibility, Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Blur, Stinking Cloud

Earth: Detect Invisibility, Melf's Acid Arrow, Web, Strength, Mirror Image

 

Silke doesn't prebuff with Shield, or MI, so Magic Missile and Burning Hands can almost guarantee spell failure. She contributes level 4 for Lana.

Spoiler

 

A couple more encounters before heading to the mines: this was probably the most irritating, since the Doomsayer is at Near Death after quite a few damage-spell spams.

Spoiler

I answer the riddle correctly and allow the poor guy to live. We come back later and almost fry ourselves getting the kill:[spoiler]

Eventually it falls, and the Mines.

 

For the first time, I have the Dark-Side Kobold upgrade installed on SCS (by mistake...) I can definitely say it's an upgrade in difficulty, but allowing the Kobold Captain an AC of at least -1 is probably a bit of overkill. I couldn't hit the bugger without criticals with THAC0 18, so... Our health potion supply was demolished just fighting to Mulahey, and we're out of spells so we need to find somewhere safe to replenish.

 

Edit: And just as I post this, Mulahey manages to 1-shot Tarvol with Unholy Blight. If I try this again, I'm leaving out the SCS difficulty options; it limits the way and things you can play without relying on hard luck.

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {26} - monks party (update 1)

 

The monks are on the road again in their attempt to complete BG1 without healing potions, antidotes or party deaths.

 

Killing Shoal and a bit of work in Beregost got them to level 2 before a well deserved first rest.  They then made their way to Nashkel, avoiding the main roads to prevent any bandit ambushes.

 

They sold the ankheg armour to fund an expedition to the basilisks, but before that made Meilum's bracers the next target.  Spectre was nearly killed by a kobold critical there (he only had 13 HPs so was vulnerable to a one-shot kill) despite a first use of the Wand of Sleep,

Spoiler

but Meilum himself was shot down without trouble.

Spoiler

 

The monks rested up and then moved on to the basilisk area.  Spectre threw darts at the monsters there and a single lesser basilisk got everyone to level 3.  Mutamin was drawn away from his pets and shot down by the whole party without being given the chance to talk - making it easy to shoot the rest of the basilisks and get everyone to level 4.  They played safe by leaving Kirian's party for later though.

 

They then spent a while travelling around clearing a few areas while building their reputation - still avoiding the main roads though.  Chimera managed to finish off Neira during this period with a rare use of his LMD Bhaal ability,

Spoiler

but most of the time they were still dependent on missiles to claim their victims.  A good harvest of winter wolves while exploring the Cloud Peak Mountains helped everyone to level 5.

 

With reputation now up to 19 they will be heading off to Ulgoth's Beard next.  A spot of sneaking into the ankheg nest will help maximise reputation on the way.

 

Chimera - L5, 36 HPs, 68 kills

Spectre - L5, 30 HPs, 126 kills, 0 deaths

Phantom - L5, 45 HPs, 62 kills, 0 deaths

Wraith - L5, 41 HPs, 57 kills, 0 deaths

Spook - L5, 38 HPs, 63 kills, 0 deaths

Spirit - L5, 31 HPs, 51 kills, 0 deaths

[Dyara]

Hänsel & Gretel (Inquisitor / Undead Hunter) (& Imoen (Thief->Mage)) - Update 5

In the last episode the three had retrieved the Soultaker dagger from the Demon Knight at Durlag's Tower. After resting in Nashkell they went to Ulgoth's Beard but unfortunately when they arrived there they were attacked and the dagger got stolen. At first everything went well...

Spoiler

... but then Imoen became poisoned. Drinking an antidote cured it but she became poisoned again. With her HP already running low she used an Invisibility potion but then the poison killed her...

Spoiler

Also Hänsel had become seriously injured so he had to use Durlag's Goblet (and Kiel's Helmet) to fully restore his HP...

Spoiler

Unfortunately the fight went even worth as both Hänsel and Gretel became confused, Hänsel got away but Gretel died...

Spoiler

Hänsel also became blinded, he had to use all but one charges of Durlag's Goblet until he finally managed to kill the cult followers...

Spoiler

At the High House of Wonders Gretel and Imoen were resurrected, the party returned to Ulgoth's Beard. The cult members guarding the storehouse were defeated...

Spoiler

Inside the storehouse more resistance was encountered but the party prevailed...

Spoiler

After a short rest at the inn the party went down (without any buffs but a haste spell as Aec'Letec would dispel them anyway). Imoen was supposed to give the tanar'ri something to play while Hänsel and Gretel went for Tracea Carol...

Spoiler

The mage didn't last long and next the party attacked the remaining cultists while Imoen also had to renew the summons once Aec'letec had killed them. Aec'Letec used his gaze attacks only on the summons and on Imoen which was rather nice because Imoen was immune and Hänsel forgot to use the potions of mirror eyes he had bought at the inn.

Spoiler

With all the cultists dead the party used acid arrows on Aec'Letec and he went down very quickly...

Spoiler

The trio was about to return to Baldur's Gate when they met the mage Shandalar who was in real trouble as he had misplaced his cloak on an island far away. As soon as they agreed to help they were teleported to that very island. The island was very small but still had its own dungeon underneath inhabited by lots of mages. The party had to fight some...

Spoiler

... while ignoring most of them. Eventually they found Shandalar's cloak (and the Stoneskin Scroll)...

Spoiler

... and were returned to Ulgoth's Beard.

 

Name     Level                 HP        Game Kills XP     Game Kills  Strongest Kill   Deaths  Pips
Hänsel   Inquisitor(8)     105 HP (+5)  314,335 (+ 12,300)  715 (+ 19) Demon Knight     -       Two-Handed-Sword(**),Longbow(**),War Hammer(*)THWS(*)
Gretel   Undead Hunter(8)  102 HP       362,129 (+ 31,700)  753 (+ 16) Aec'Letec        5x      Longsword(**),Shortbow(**),Dualwield(**)
Imoen    Thief(7)->Mage(8)  56 HP        79,349 (+  4,775)  195 (+  6) Greater Basilisk 4x      Shortsword(*),Ninja-to(*),Shortbow(*),Dart(*),Quarterstaff(*)

 
To be continued...

[Epsil0]

Sigh. Seems I managed to lose my new character update. Regardless, here it is...

 

Quick version: SCS improved encounters are dropped in this install, as well as prebuffs. AI's still improved. I intend to go Avenger -> Fighter and have fun with fighter THAC0 + Avenger special forms. I need STR 17, and have to use the Violet Potion to achieve this dual with Avenger stat maximums.

 

Order of fights: Shoal, Melicamp (failed transformation), Bassilus

Ogrillons

Tarnesh, Tenya (I messed up here... Hopefully no repercussions for the second Wisdom Tome?)

Ulgoth's Beard for equipment, Hobgoblins, Neira

Greywolf, people attacking the Dryad's Tree, Gnarl and Hairtooth (and Gnarl is apparently hungry...)

for this:

Basilisks, Mutamin killed Korax, but I tagged Mutamin with a Miscast Magic, and I eventually won the melee. Southern basilisks granted level 7 and the idea behind this run. 5 Web spells (3 used), and...

Behold your doom, mortals.

Improved Invisibility and Sanctuary (I still don't know how this is in my Druid Spellbook; there's no mod that I can see that messes with druids at all. I'll run with it) allow safe passage against the kobolds. Mulahey.

Amazons follow the same pattern, Web and Sword Spider Form. Nimbul is attacked under II, the poison kills him through his Stoneskins. Will finish clearing the Sirenes and Ankhegs fairly soon, level 7 right now.

[ussnorway]

Good luck ussnorway.

What do you think of Neera? I thought she would be a fun and interesting companion and add some unpredictability to the game. But I found her to be mostly useless and a bit lame. The voice acting is decent. Some of the dialog is funny. But the side quests are pretty lame and the whole wild mage class seems useless to me. Of course, it could just be my bad luck. I don't think she ever got any beneficial surge ever. I think once (and I do mean *once*) she got a surge that allowed her to cast at a higher level, but... honestly, with most spells, it doesn't matter. And the rest of the surges were either negative or just plain meaningless. For me, it turned out that the unpredictability was just annoying. 

What are your experiences so far?

--BW

Sorry Biowherewolf, I missed this...

 

Neera is bgee only and wild mages got nerfed bad in that engine but you know this,

I use her as my party indentify and wand casting girl until I have two key items;

 

 

The wolf cloak from the cave with the book of con will turn you into a wolf once per day and thats a helpful wild mage item because it counters one of the possible side effects i.e if a spell goes wrong and she gets turn into a bunny then the wolf form turns her back to human... sorry half-elf.

 

The other item is her quest belt but thats more of a stop making me a bunny item...

 

Without these she is worthless until bg2ee where her levels start to get higher and she can aviod most of the nasty wild magic surges... to be honest I keep her around more for the back story.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 93 - (5th and final update)

Chris, half-elf fighter/mage/cleric (Grond0) & Gromm, half-orc cleric (Gate70)

 

This divine duo tackled their final tasks in BG1 yesterday starting with the ascent of Ramazith's tower.  Their first task was nearly almost their last there as a result of taking damage from ghasts - their touch causes disease that reduces THAC0, meaning that Chris could only hit hobgoblins on the next level up with a critical.  She therefore decided to use her wand scorcher, but overlooked that the default setting to wand fireballs had activated after the game was reloaded - resulting in a painful fireball.

Spoiler

 

The Helm & Cloak of Balduran were retrieved without fuss and the Helm of Glory was also easy enough after Drelik failed to note Gromm summoning skeletons behind a partition in his house.

Spoiler

 

Going up the Iron Throne building Nortuary overlooked how tough skeletons are (in BGEE they scale with levels rather than taking a single big jump at level 15).  

Spoiler

The party above also got a taste of skeleton power after being incapacitated with silence and stinking cloud.

Spoiler

 

The Seven Suns were restored and, despite Gromm's rather crude joke with Jhasso,

Spoiler

the duo got their expected reward along with instructions to go to Candlekeep.  It was Gromm's turn there to have a fiery bath after he didn't activate any fire resistance before running through a trap.  

Spoiler

There were no more difficulties though as the old silence and skeleton trick worked nicely on Prat and his companions.  

Spoiler

There was an oddity at the exit point though where Diarmid was struck down (I think he's unkillable there in vanilla). 

Spoiler

 

We noted around here that we didn't have the +2 ring of protection - so clearly forgot to loot Ramzith's body at the close of the previous session.  However, that was a minor issue as skeletons worked their way through Slythe and Krystin on the way to the palace.  More skeletons were buffed up there and Chris joined in a hand to hand assault on the dopplegangers.  They all saved against a slow spell though and still managed to kill Liia - but Belt survived without too much damage.

Spoiler

 

The trip through the maze was complicated when Gromm managed to step through a wall near the doom guards - resulting in him taking on the skeleton warriors on his own, while Chris used spells and wand power on the doom guards.  After resting they then sorted out the Undercity party on the way to their date with Sarevok.

Spoiler

 

In the temple Sarevok was pulled out on his own, though he was shortly joined by a teleporting Semaj.  There was an initial bit of luck when Sarevok got stuck in a web trap (Chris had used a potion of magic shielding to avoid any chance of that).  However, Semaj was unaffected by a dispel magic and the duo were unable to finish him off quickly.  Chris did manage to run Sarevok behind a pillar and ditch him, but the others had joined in the fight before Gromm got a killing blow in on Semaj.  

Spoiler

Angelo didn't take much longer

Spoiler

and Tazok was no problem on his own.  Although still hasted Sarevok then had no way to catch the duo with their boots and oils of speed and a few magic missiles and sling bullets were enough to see him on his way.

Spoiler

 

Stats:

Chris, fighter 6 / mage 6 / cleric 6, 57 HPs, 164 kills

Gromm, cleric 8, 51 HPs, 139 kills, 0 deaths

[Dyara]

Congratulations to you both

[ussnorway]

Omt- 3, 

 

Level 3-4:

 

Hear text as mp3,

 

Handing in a priest talisman gave us some spending cash which we put towards firepower then sorted out the so-called bandit HQ, only to find that they report to yet another boss somewhere in the cloakwood woods.

 

Spoiler

 

Note to self, spiders give nice experience and I'm ok with killing them by range.

 

p.s, Neera wants to visit some old guy south west of the Nashkel Mines… I wasn't keen at first but she seems to think it will improve her spell casting reliability and we could use the time to do some more shopping?

[ussnorway]

Omt- 4, 
 
Level 4-5:
 
Hear text as mp3,
 
I blew the last few fireball shots to finish off a four man guard at the mines then trekked back to the shops… With the necklace of missiles freshly recharged we returned and I swapped out my dwarf fighter for the more verite druid. I cleared the mines and countered illusions (whilst invisible myself) and Dorn did the heavy lifting with his poison attacks defeating the defences Davaeorn put up.
 

Spoiler

 
Unfortunately the belt I let Faldorn use had a drawback against fire which I remembered just after sending her against some dryads… o well, Safana was happy to step into her discarded (slightly chard) gear and told us about a nearby cave filled with treasure yippee.
 
Killing the automated guards gave me a new level and the book adds some nice health but Neera wanted the cloak bad… practically shoved me into the water in her haste to grab it… as if I'd even wear the mangy looking thing.

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {26} - monks party (2nd and final update)

 

The monks duly made their way to Ulgoth's Beard to make a few purchases there.  With the Wand of Heavens acquired there they worked through the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower.  They nearly suffered a casualty on the bottom floor there when Phantom was confused by a trap and the others only just managed to save him from a couple of ghasts he activated while wandering - Spectre making use of their first potion of the run when using a potion of freedom in an attempt to distract the ghasts with melee attacks.

 

Using a long series of rests at the Carnival to heal damage the monks worked their way up the first couple of floors of Durlag's Tower - everyone getting to level 6 while killing the basilisks on the roof.  Up to that point HPs had been decent, but a dreadful set of rolls sent them back somewhat below average.  They didn't disturb the ghost, but did stun Riggilo and take the tome before leaving.

 

Deciding it was about time to get a bit of improved healing capability the monks moved on to the Nashkel Mine.  They performed very well there, using stealth to get the drop on the kobold hordes.  They only had one lot of rests prior to Mulahey and wouldn't have even needed that if they hadn't tripped all the traps (to avoid potential casualties if anyone was horrified by the kobold shaman). As it turned out though the shaman failed to complete any spells anyway.  Mulahey managed to summon support just before being stunned, but that did him no good.

 

Resting provided a CLW Bhaal power to greatly increase their healing abilities and they went on to stun Nimbul and smack down Tranzig.  

 

Before going on to the Bandit Camp though they decided to tick off a few more areas as complete.  While doing that they were ambushed by Molkar at the Valley of the Tombs, but stunning blows helped them achieve an easy enough victory.  The mustard jellies summoned by Narcillicus in that area are always dangerous.  The first one poisoned one of the monks, but died soon after and the poison was comfortably cured by resting.  The second one got a vicious critical to poison Spook, but a CLW on him gave time to finish it off before resting.  Narcillicus himself saved against the first round of stunning blows, but succumbed to the follow-ups before he could complete his spell and disappear.

 

The monks had cleared most of the areas to the south of Beregost when they returned to the coast to finish off the Doomsayer.  I was trying to do that just using their own attacks rather than wands and had it badly injured - knowing that I could always have used running and stealth attacks to finish it off if necessary.  Unfortunately though, a slight lapse in concentration saw the monks just fail to bring up the 1,000 casualties in this run.  Spirit was being attacked by the Doomsayer and retreated when badly injured.  I thought that the Doomsayer had switched targets and was rotating the others to ensure it would not get the opportunity to attack one of the other 2 monks that had already retreated once after being similarly injured.  While doing that I took my eye off the Doomsayer for a second or two - thus not noticing that it had actually chosen to follow Spirit rather than switching to another monk and a single further attack proved fatal.

[ussnorway]

Death by Doomsayer... bugger!

[biowherewolf]

Death by Doomsayer... bugger!

Un-like

[biowherewolf]

 

Neera is bgee only and wild mages got nerfed bad in that engine but you know this,

I use her as my party indentify and wand casting girl until I have two key items;

 

The wolf cloak from the cave with the book of con will turn you into a wolf once per day and thats a helpful wild mage item because it counters one of the possible side effects i.e if a spell goes wrong and she gets turn into a bunny then the wolf form turns her back to human... sorry half-elf.

 

The other item is her quest belt but thats more of a stop making me a bunny item...

 

Without these she is worthless until bg2ee where her levels start to get higher and she can aviod most of the nasty wild magic surges... to be honest I keep her around more for the back story.

 

Agreed. I like her, actually. The voice acting is decent -- Nicola Elbro!! -- and some of her one-liners are really funny. 

Her reference to the Tenser's floating bandage cracked me up.  And her "flaming -- or possibly frosty --- death!" did too.

I didn't get through the whole back story, but what I did of it wasn't terribly interesting -- except for that little goblin was pretty funny.

 

>>The other item is her quest belt but thats more of a stop making me a bunny item...<<

 

LOL 

"Belt of Un-Bunniness"

 

--BW

[ussnorway]

Omt- 5, 

 

Level 5-6:

 

Hear text as mp3,

 

Entering the city, with its myriad of shops increased my firepower again… 3 wands of fire, the necklace of missiles and the cleric up in their face with her armour on or just shoot the peons when fireballs aren't appreciated by locals.

 

Spoiler

 

I toasted some goblins to get Neera her belt then returned to dismantle the iron throne… recharging my favoured wand sent me insolvent again but I don't care how much it costs. One book of dex,  intelligence and wisdom plus a nice spell that I really wish I could cast.

 

The duke asked me to return to candle keep were we let the leadership live only to be acquiesced as their murderers anyway but a mate of dads teleported me to the catacombs. I took liberties during my escape, collecting two more books then stopped here to rest having gained another level.

[ussnorway]

Omt- 6, 

 

Victory:

 

Hear text as mp3,

 

After fighting our way out side we rescued a Drow Cleric and kicked Branwen to make room, then we turned most of the city guards into bunnies and delivered a sick duke to his mate in the merchant warehouse… unfortunately bgee has nerfed summoning so we only managed to save Belt in the castle ambush but que sera.

 

Spoiler

 

After clearing the battle horror and some traps we opened the end fight with a web… Semaj appeared and Imoen kicked his buffs down for a quick kill. Angelo lasted long enough to bugger my pittance of summons but Sarevok & Tazok both developed a serious target fixation against Viconia who is no novice when it comes to leading men around so we won!

[Dyara]

Hänsel & Gretel (Inquisitor / Undead Hunter) (& Imoen (Thief->Mage)) - Update 6

In the last episode the trio had send Aec'Letec back to the Abyss. Also they had retrieved Shandalar's cloak and Imoen had learned the Stoneskin spell. Being hunted by the Flaming Fist made moving in Baldur's Gate somewhat difficult so Imoen had memorized lots of Invisibility spells and Hänsel had bought a certain ring at Ulgoth's Beard. Duke Eltan was saved from the clutches of a doppleganger and brought to the harbormaster. While at the docks Hänsel remembered Brielbara and her child and so the party entered the Low Lantern where they not only got Yago's spellbook but also the Gauntlets of Ogre Power. The Undercellars were the trio's next destination.

Hänsel's 'True Sight' and poisoned arrows took the winds out of the assassins' sails ...

Spoiler

Once Sarevok's diary was taken from Cythandria, the party made it to the Ducal Palace where 'True Sight' dispelled the doppelgangers' illusions...

Spoiler

One of the dukes, Liia, seemed to be paralyzed be the events, unable to move she didn't even scream when the doppelgangers hit her (and none of the guards tried to take her out of danger). So Imoen took care of that by making her invisible...

Spoiler

Once every doppelganger was dead Hänsel showed the documents the party had found on Slythe and Cythandria to the dukes. Sarevok tried to kill Belt but again it was Imoen who saved one of the dukes...

Spoiler

Then Sarevok was teleported away and the party followed him through a maze to the Undercity. There the party was attacked by a group of mercenaries. Hänsel (100% immune to fire) shot the party's two 'arrows of detonation' into the group...

Spoiler

Unfortunately the party became attacked from behind by some ghasts...

Spoiler

... but Gretel took care of them ...

Spoiler

and the remaining mercenaries were easily killed with arrows...

Spoiler

... so the party thought at least but they had forgotten about Shaldrissa who used a 'Teleport Field' spell to teleport the party right into some skeleton warriors...

Spoiler

The skeletons caused serious damage with their bows and arrows ...

Spoiler

... but fortunately some summoned wild dogs scared them away...

Spoiler

... allowing the party to deal with Shaldrissa...

Spoiler

The three then also killed the skeleton warriors, also a dark phantasm and after a final rest they entered the old Temple of Bhaal.

Everyone was equipped with a Cloak of Non-Detection (I was a little bit surprised that Hänsel had a third one in his bag of holding - no idea where I got that one from), Imoen had casted Invisibility on both Hänsel and Gretel, Hänsel and Gretel also had lots of Invisibility potions while Imoen had the Sandthief ring (with 7 charges).

Imoen summoned some wild dogs and went invisible as well...

Spoiler

The wild dogs were quickly slain but at least they had made Angelo move away from the rest. Next Gretel tried to poison Semaj but failed (at first)...

Spoiler

When Imoen joined the fight she grabbed Angelo's attention. In the meantime Gretel had successfully poisoned Semaj...

Spoiler

The poison brought Semaj close to death and also Angelo was in the right position. Everyone quaffed an oil of speed and then Hänsel and Imoen attacked Semaj while Gretel went for Angelo...

Spoiler

Two down, three to go. Hänsel and Imoen went invisible again while Gretel took care of the skeleton warrior. The two spellcasters were gone, so the archer Diarmid became the party's next target. Imoen had been able to poison him...

Spoiler

... and eventually unnoticed by Sarevok and Tazok they were able to attack him...

Spoiler

Unfortunately the trio was still wearing the 'Cloaks of Non-Detection', so their AC vs. missiles wasn't as good as it could have been and first Imoen and then Gretel became poisoned by Diarmid's arrows but they both managed to cure the poison...

Spoiler

The party had gone invisible again and now it was about time to put an end to this fight. First Sarevok got dispelled...

Spoiler

... some wolfs were summoned to distract Sarevok and Tazok...

Spoiler

... and then the party attacked...

Spoiler

Tazok went down quickly and after a while Sarevok dropped dead without saying a single word...

Spoiler

No-one really knew what (and who) had killed him, perhaps he died of a heart attack, neverthelesse he was dead. Not sure what to do now the three returned to city...

 

Name     Level                 HP        Game Kills XP     Game Kills  Strongest Kill   Deaths  Pips
Hänsel   Inquisitor(8)     105 HP       384,721 (+ 70,386)  745 (+ 30) Demon Knight     -       Two-Handed-Sword(**),Longbow(**),War Hammer(*)THWS(*)
Gretel   Undead Hunter(8)  102 HP (+5)  411,129 (+ 49,000)  774 (+ 21) Aec'Letec        5x      Longsword(**),Shortbow(**),Dualwield(**)
Imoen    Thief(7)->Mage(8)  56 HP        97,679 (+ 18,330)  218 (+ 23) Greater Basilisk 4x      Shortsword(*),Ninja-to(*),Shortbow(*),Dart(*),Quarterstaff(*)

 
To be continued (in Amn)...

 

[Grond0]

Well done ussnorway and Dyara - looks like a couple of promising runs going there.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congrats to all recent successful ones. Keep focus in Amn!

[corey_russell]

Congrats ladies (USSNorway and Dyara). Best of luck in Amn.

[Epsil0]

Milan, Avenger. Final update.

Milan fought off the Ankhegs and Sirenes with the Spider form and webs (generally; Ankhegs got smacked with the Wand of Sleep.) Bandit camp is fought off by sneaking invisibly into the back of the tent, layering down two webs since they don't go hostile unless Raemon sees you. 

No spells from Venkt + -6 AC vs the fighters = destroyed Bandit Camp

And just for the fun of it.

 

Into cloakSpider woods. There can be only one.

Pro. Magic scroll vs Davaeorn, and even then it took forever dealing with his various defensive spells. THAC0 of a Druid kind of sort of sucks. Almost died to the Mustard Jelly; one further critical would've been game over, but ran away and healed in time for the later takedown.

 

Did Belt's quests in Baldur's Gate plus a couple experience-garnering and Wisdom-tome-getting ones:

Took on Sarevok's Acolytes, easy-ish win, though there were a few mishaps and I zoned down the stairs quite a few times in bad habits.

 

Violet potion, Potion of Agility, Potion of Fortitude, Scrolls of Fire and Electricity resistance, Shield amulet for tomb-robbing. Took on Pratt and his bunch, another close call as a Charm Person was fired by Pratt while Milan had a clouded aura (!). Saved, fortunately, and killed him. Also took out the two basilisks, as the goal is to guarantee level 11 upon hitting BG2 for a single level 6 slot.

Durlag's tower is quickly raided for the last tome I want, leading to...

21 Wisdom and 17 STR. One new level 5 slot, and the prerequisites for dualing!

 

Slythe and Krystin nearly killed me twice; Iron Skins were Breached, and Slythe's subsequent backstab brought Milan to just above 10 HP. Got Slythe in the end, though. I ought to have remembered to have memorized True Seeing to deal with him, but mistakes are mistakes. Liia is turned invisible before the fight to keep her safe, though apparently there was no need as Belt survived anyways. Rested for the last time and prepared.

 

The final battle was just a mess that took forever. Remove Magic stripped away everything again, forcing a Potion of Magic Blocking. Without Arrows of Dispelling, I can't really stop to mess with the spell casting in Spider Form, since Sarevok just catches up again, so I'm forced back to Darts with my amazing 16 THAC0.

Missed Tazok's death:

And death via Tranzig's Wand of Magic Missile since apparently Milan only hits Sarevok on 18, 19, or 20. Yeesh. This battle all told took two Potions of Power, 11 charges of the Wand of the Heavens, 3 Oils of Burning, 4 or 5 Oils of Speed, 3 potion of Magic Blocking, 2 Potions of Magic Shielding, 1 Potion of Fire Breath, 2 Potions of Regeneration, 10 charges of the Wand of Magic Missiles, 2 or 3 Potions of Agility, 3 or 4 Potions of Invisibility... Some days I really miss having Arrows of Dispelling. >.>

[ussnorway]

Gratz Epsil0... solo Druid is worth bragging about.

[Grond0]

Phantasmic 6 {27} - monks party (first and final update)

 

There was an agonizing end to another monks run this morning.  They were on the cusp of level 5 and working their way through the Nashkel Mine, with nobody having been really badly injured up to that point.  They had just finished off the kobold shaman and chieftain and their supporters, with everyone taking some damage in the process.  Rather than go back to the top level of the Mine to rest immediately I thought I could safely trigger the 2 remainining traps.  Spirit, who had 20 HPs remaining, was intended to do the first one.  Phantom, with 22 HPs, would then do the magic missile trap.

 

Being careful, Spirit edged forward towards the traps - and over where I expected the first remaining one to trigger.  Nothing happened so she edged back again.  Forwards once more, but still nothing happened.  I made the (fatal) mistake this time of going slightly further than the location my memory told me the initial trap should be when the trap didn't trigger.  At the point on the screenshot she had actually stopped moving and was just standing still while I considered what to do next.  For some reason the game then decided to activate together both remaining traps - the total of which exactly equalled her 20 HPs .

Spoiler

[corey_russell]

@Grond0 - sorry to hear the end of your run. Was that monk run a role-playing run or something? You don't even need to trip the traps at all. Just walk the bottom edge, hugging the wall. At worst you trip the trap closest to the exit, but based on what you wrote that would have been OK.

 

@Everyone else: I have recently purchased BG 1 and BG 2 EE, and have a test run in BG 1. If he gets anywhere I'll post about him, but I am expecting him to fall to some change in EE that doesn't happen in vanilla. I could read the huge read-me, but that takes all the fun out of it. Corthief VIII is still going too - but I need to be mentally prepared to play him, so if I want a BG "fix" but not ready to slug it out, will do Coretest (my test run) instead.

 

Happy Hunting all.

[Dyara]

Bad luck, Grond  ...

 

However the last two traps are very, very close...

 

 

Seems to be very difficult to trigger one without the other (especially if you cannot see them ). Also trap triggering seems a little bit unpredictable... very often I've seen one of my chars standing on top of a trap without triggering the trap. But when I try to move the char away the trap goes off.

 

@Epsil0: Congratulations...see you in Amn

[Grond0]

@Grond0 - sorry to hear the end of your run. Was that monk run a role-playing run or something? You don't even need to trip the traps at all. Just walk the bottom edge, hugging the wall. At worst you trip the trap closest to the exit, but based on what you wrote that would have been OK.

My general rule with the monks has been that they should fully explore all map areas and undertake all scripted encounters - so yes I was intending all the traps to be activated.  The only area where I've not been aiming to do a completionist approach in recent runs is the underground areas of Durlag's Tower - where the sheer number of potentially deadly traps is daunting.