15228 replies to this topic

[Blind_Visionary]

Way to go Serg! You're keeping those avatars in one piece!

Sorry to see the rangers go. Time is like an arrow, and not all shots hit the bulls-eye, apparently.

[corey_russell]

Consolations Gate70 and Grond0 on your recent demises. Better luck in your guys next attempt.

[Serg BlackStrider]

The Story of BlackStrider & The Motley Crue (Update #16 - The The Mae'Var Guild):   

Before going on Mae'Var Cassia killed Neb (Rep=20) and we also got the illithium alloy from the ore merchant. After some shopping (Aeger's Hide for Grond, Strength Belt for Krimlor, Boots of Grounding for myself and Reflection Shield) we tried to help Mook and then went straight onto the Mae'Var quest line. Cassia killed Mephits under Resist Fire/Cold then (with support of Grond and Krimlor) some Golems and we prepared for Rayic Gethras. As my last experience with him when he almost wiped out my entire crew is still fresh in my memory I took very cautious approach now. (Nearly) all possible buffs were layered and we engage. Opened with two Cloudkills (disrupting some of his casting) then Pierce Magic + Breach for his Globe of Invulnerability and Improved Mantle followed by Flame Strike brought him at Badly Wounded. But even without his Demon's support he proved to be a bane for my SCS runs - Contingency (Prot from Magic Weapons + something else) followed by ADHW killed my low-hp friends Alesia (80 hp with Girdle of Fortitude but failed her saving throw) and Pot... He then fled onto the previous floor so I resurected them, Alesia cast Polymorph Self (should have done that as pre-buffs for her and Pot) followed him there and turned into the ice shards with Wand of Frost. In comparison with this fight Mae'Var himself was a lot easier - Pot set a Skull Trap, then after Mae'Var's pre-buffs fired hit with Cloudkill,  the Nymph held Priest of Cyric, Alesia revealed the hidden Assasins while I confused them with Harp of Discord and that was enough:

  

       

Current state:

BlackStrider: Blade(14), 123 kills (Shade Lord);
Alesia The Curious: Mage(11)/Thief(12), 18 kills (Gauth); (1 death);
Grond The Pathfinder: Archer(11), 117 kills (Mencar Pebblecrusher);
Cassia The Furious: Shapeshifter(13), 171 kills (Gauth); (1 death);
Krimlor: Fighter(10)/Cleric(10), 114 kills (Bone Golem); (1 death);
Pot The Selfless: Mage(12), 30 kills (Sorcerous Amon).(1 death).

to be continued...

Edited by Serg BlackStrider, 07 May 2013 - 03:47 PM.

[Gate70]

Klonk (male half orc berserker 8) / Imoen (thief 9, not dualled)
Imoen shakes Klonk awake. There is no sign of Yeslick, Kivan, Shar Teel or Viconia but a couple of strangers called Minsc and Jaheira are acting friendly in an effort to get themselves released too. Klonk opens their cages and tells them to clear off. Imoen wants to know what happened and Klonk thinks back to Candlekeep where he always had to tell her the plot of every play they ever watched. “It’s the Semaj D’Nob the 700th effect” he says (Hey, spell that guys name backwards).

After a moment or two of Imoen staring blankly he continues “You know, Belt said his teleport went wrong and we’ll keep getting cutscene inspired faints and get captured by our nemmy nhemme err the anti-heroes and left to a certain death unsupervised with no way out other than the one they overlooked”. Imoen shrugs and hands Klonk his pantaloons for the sake of decency.

[Gate70]

Klonk (male half orc berserker 8) / Imoen (thief 9 > 10, not dualled with 191814xp) / Yoshimo
Klonk grabs a 2 handed sword and some splint mail before cramming a helmet over his ugly mug.  Imoen daintily equips a buckler and the largest katana she can find. Ready for action. A short while later she upgrades to a longsword +1 then dumps the shield for a shortbow. DUHM > Enrage > Horror clears the way to a genie and a short while later Klonk is brandishing (*) the sword of chaos.

Yoshimo helps Imoen shoot down a radiant mephit portal; Klonk closes the other 3. Ulvaryl steps on a couple of special snares before Klonk chunks her and the remaining areas are easily cleared of both enemies and loot; 2 or 3 gems being left behind.

Imoen is arrested, presumably because thieves aren't allowed to cast magic missiles. Irenicus is arrested for rather more than that so Yoshimo and Klonk are left to pick up the more valuable pieces and consider their next action.

* Brandish: Klonk thinks this is to repeatedly hit something very hard until it breaks.

Edited by Gate70, 09 May 2013 - 07:11 PM.

[Blind_Visionary]

Klonk has pretty high intelligence for a half-orc, half-Bhaalspawn, half-wit. Impressive tusks, too.

[Gate70]

Klonk / Yoshimo (Viconia / Valygar / Jan / Mazzy)
Yoshimo fluffs two normal snares and fails his hide so Klonk uses DUHM > Enrage to release Viconia and kill three fanatics. Klonk needs to watch his reputation (18 drops to 16) but is pleased to see Viconia has both the skills and spells she had before he was captured.

n.b. increased her con by 1 and wis by 3 to reflect differences between BG1 and BG2.

A trip to Watchers Keep sees a potion case and gem bag purchased, then back to the Circus. Once Kalah is dead we head to Umar Hills and recruit Valygar. Then back to the government building to stick two fingers up at Tolgerias. He threatens us and Klonk says he is looking forward to it (can’t remember doing this before so will be interesting to see if it is the standard encounter or an additional one - always fun to try something new in a no reload).

The eternal turnip peddler is startled to have his offer of assistance accepted. Yoshimo asks why we didn’t pick him up at the same time as Viconia to which Klonk replies that he hadn’t decided who to recruit at that time. Yoshimo accepts this answer but is dismayed to see us head back to Umar and then on to an abandoned temple.

Klonk grants Anath a final boon, and promises to avenge her when she is killed by shadows. After clearing the area he rotates a large mirror and kills a few more shadows before descending into the temple.

A few more undead are present, a skeleton warrior taking backstabs from Yoshimo and Valygar but collapsing from a Klonk overload before Jan can try his luck. A second skeleton warrior takes the full force of a Janstab though (triple backstab, 5 damage). Valygar adds a rather larger backstab before Yoshimo finishes with a chunky critical.

Yoshimo picks a key up from the shadow jailor remains only to see Klonk refer to page 242 of this thread in what he thought was his own inimitable style but which turns out to be the standard half-orc berserker equivalent of knock.

A few enemies later Kronk Klonk kicks down a cell door plus the doorframe and half the cell wall. Oops. He stares into the darkest gloom imaginable as a loud gulp is heard and then a faint voice pipes up “You’ve come for me then, I’ll resist you until the end”. Viconia sighs in exasperation and replies for Kronk Klonk “We’ve here to loot the temple, can you carry some of this stuff”.

I don' suppose anybody knows if Klonk can turn around now or if Mazzy gets uppity?

Edited by Gate70, 09 May 2013 - 11:03 PM.

[Blind_Visionary]

I vote for Mazzy gets uppity.

[Krazy Solo]

Ok I'm working on a concept that will lead to an Entry later on, but I need some suggestions. I plan on doing Self Roleplay, by this I mean Stats and characteristics that I would have knowledge to. As you can see from my stats Str 12, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 15, Wis 14, Cha 8, class choices are slim. I can rule out Paladin, Ranger, Bard, Druid, Monk, Thief are all out of the question as they would override my stats. I also ruled out Fighter and Barbarian as i'm not a brute when it comes to combat. This pretty much leaves only Mage, Sorcerer and Cleric. Now I am faster learner, but I hate studying intensely so that would rule out Mage? If so that would leave me with Sorcerer or Cleric. Ultimately I cannot decide between the two. Dilema I'm having has to do with the lack of str to wear Plate Armor as a Cleric, would i be better suited going Sorcerer even though i would be picking spells for the situation i'm facing rather than the situations in the future? I am not Solo'ing so having the perfect spell list is not needed.

If you can give me a response before saturday I would appreciate the input.

[ussnorway]

Split it to Gnome Illusionist-Cleric or Halfling Cleric of TALOS would be my picks.

[Grond0]

Clerics find it easy to increase strength so you could carry full plate in a bag of holding and don it for battles. I seem to remember that one of the weapons Ribald has for sale also sets strength to 18, so you could use that.

Alternatively you could wear the much lighter ankheg armour and just keep that on permanently.

[Blind_Visionary]

I'd suggest sorceror, although they are squishy and I can't seem to make mine last very long. Ussnorway's suggestion of illusionist-cleric sounds intriguing. I'd go with that.

[Gate70]

Krazy Solo wrote...
As you can see from my stats Str 12, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 15, Wis 14, Cha 8, class choices are slim.

You're Biff the Understudy?

Now I am faster learner, but I hate studying intensely so that would rule out Mage?

Wild mage.

[Alesia_BH]

 Alisa, Half Elven Jester: The Dragons

Hi all. I still haven't gotten around to resuming Alisa's game, but I thought I'd take a moment to cover the segements just before her break. I'll start with the dragons and then tack on the final confrontation with Bodhi soon after.

Thaxy

Fighting SoA dragons with HLAs isn't very sporting- even with SCS upgrades. Any high level character can solve Thaxy and Firkraag with ease. Few have it easier than rogues.

Thanks to UAI, Alisa had the pleasure of wearing both the Amulet of Power and Jan Jansen's Spectroscopes against Thaxy. She was therefore immune to both effects of his breath weapon.


Dropping the wyrm was just a matter of waiting out ProMW and then luring him into a Time Trap. The Chaos Blade did the rest- with APR boosts courtesy of the Scarlet Ninja To and Improved Haste of course.



Firkraag

Firkraag met a similar end. ProMW and fire resistance declawed the beast. SI:A (for Remove) and highly negative saves (for Lower Fire Resistance) insured those defenses remained in place.



Bodhi's lair is next.

Best,

A. 

Edited by Alesia_BH, 10 May 2013 - 10:03 PM.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 22 - (update 1)
Rose, human stalker (Grond0) & Grub, halfling assassin (Gate70)

After their career in crime in BG1, Duke Belt was happy to have the opportunity to send the backstab twins to Athkatla.  Irenicus immediately took it upon himself to act as their jailer, but while he was distracted Grub picked the locks on the cells and organised a mass break-out (Minsc & Jaheira were briefly recruited to get the XP for that).

One significant problem with stealthy backstabbers is that they don't have much in the way of AC.  That was illustrated early on when a group of a few goblins made Rose drink an extra-healing potion (one of several used in the dungeon when I normally reckon not to use any) to keep HPs to a reasonable level. 

On the other hand they can hit pretty hard.  Attacking the golems in the above screenshot I was thinking that Rose would attract their attention, thus opening the way for Grub to backstab them, but Rose required only a total of 3 attacks to kill both of them - neither Grub nor the golems having a chance to respond.  Golems of course are normally immune to backstabs, but Grub doesn't believe in limiting himself to what's normal.

The elemental plane was a good illustration of another handy ability from Grub.  The steam mephit would have been exceptionally dangerous if given the opportunity to attack (even wearing Helm of Balduran and Koveras' ring, Rose had a save vs spell of 11).  However, it had no defense against a poisoned bullet from the shadows.  Poison also hastened the end of the mephit portals, though the dangerous radiant portal was the first to go when one-shotted by a backstab from Rose.

Ulvaryl escaped before she could be killed, leaving an angry mage behind.  Without SCS she would not normally be much of a danger, but Rose's spell saves made her vulnerable to attack by a chromatic orb and she had to save against one of those before being able to find the shadows and return with a backstab.

After getting out into the fresh air the duo sold / dumped equipment before ducking inside again into a Tardiscircus tent.  There were no problems there and they progressed on to the Slums after watching Hareishan consume some thieves for dinner.  Gaelan Bayle has demanded some money; we'll have to see next time whether the shadowy duo are willing to go along with him.

Stats (cont. from BG1)
Rose, stalker L8, 96 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 209 kills
Grub, assassin L11, 56 HPs, 101 kills, 2 deaths

[Gate70]

Klonk / Valygar / Viconia / Jan / Yoshimo / Mazzy (toughest at front/rear to guard Viconia & Jan)
Klonk decides not to risk upsetting Mazzy (more a case of there being no liches down here) so agrees to continue investigating the temple. Viconia and Jan stay out of combat while Mazzy, Yoshimo and Valygar make their presence known. Klonk is typically fighting another group on his own each time and his unusual swordplay (2HS seems to bash with the hilt animation) is accounting for about 50% of kills.

The shadow dragon is huge, and Klonk is talked out of attacking it because of our weapon situation (nothing particularly suitable, also a concern against the Shade Lord) and lack of experience (levels 8-9 with Yoshimo at 11). We buff before taking the stairs outside.

Viconia makes a fine start with hasted and blessed DUHM helping Arla’s Dragonsbane and a single sunstone bullet shutting down the Shadow Altar. Klonk has gone for the Shade Lord while everybody else switches from the Shadow altar to Shadow Patrick. A succession of rapid blows follow and about a round later Valygar chunks Patrick. Viconia and Jan switch to doom/malison as everybody else moves to help Klonk but he’s got it covered.

Klonk is all for heading down to tackle the dragon but is talked out of it for the time being.

Edited by Gate70, 11 May 2013 - 09:30 AM.

[Gate70]

Klonk / Valygar / Viconia / Jan / Yoshimo / Mazzy
Klonk asks for extra money and gets it but the mayor of Umar still increases the party reputation from 16 to 17 and Viconia is getting shirty (thought there was a threaten option to drop reputation, must have missed it).

Renfeld is picked up on the way back to the city, and Viconia relaxes as we pick up a pair of silver pantaloons (reputation 15). Jan has obtained a silver horn of Valhalla too. Gaelan Bayle has reduced his fee to 15000gp in the face of competition, so Klonk can either pay up or do one of the many other jobs that are rapidly lining up including those of Nalia and Firkraag.

Meanwhile Mazzy has used haste > strength to squish Gorf.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 Multiplayer attempt 22 - (update 2)
Rose, human stalker (Grond0) & Grub, halfling assassin (Gate70)

Rose 'n Grub (and Guildenstern) are not dead, though they spent most of the session hopping along the knife blade of disaster.

The tone was set early on in Gaelan Bayle's house where Grub decided to loot upstairs.  Having removed 2 traps he proceeded to open a 3rd chest and was greeted with a lightning bolt - so his find traps needs a bit more work.  Convinced it was now safe he opened the chest again - and was greeted with another lightning bolt.  Grub escaped with relatively light damage, which is more than can be said for Arledrian.

The Copper Coronet was put under new management without much trouble, though there was one oddity when Rose was unable to see a grizzly bear under his nose.  He just had to listen hard for the sound of Grub's backstabs connecting.

Before going on to the sewers the duo did a bit of travelling to try and acquire Arbane.  They arrived safely at the Docks without the sword - that could have been nasty when the mad cleric held Rose, but Grub's poisoned bullets came to the rescue.  A bit more travelling and this time the Suna Seni ambush triggered.  Rose immediately moved away to restealth, but Grub was confident his stealth was intact; unfortunately the enemies didn't seem to agree.  That led to Grub being trapped in a corner, but the enemies weren't hitting him easily and the bouncing lightning bolt did little damage so he survived handily while Rose worked his way back up the area through a few bodies.

Down in the Copper Coronet sewers Grub produced his best backstab to date on an otyugh.  The remaining enemies were cleared, although Rose got low on HPs from kobold arrows at one point.  In the slaver HQ the initial guards were defeated before taking on Haegan.  His axe seemed to have a longer range than Rose expected and she got low on HPs again before successfully hiding.  Haegan picked up a poisoned bullet and the duo watched from the shadows as he expired.  The mages got a backstab each, but both survived at near death.  That was particularly a problem for Grub, who got trapped on the stairs surrounded by lots of summoned kobolds with a number of guards queuing up to have a go at him .  However, the mage next to him was out of spells and, once more, the enemies struggled to hit him while Rose took toll of them from behind.

A side trip to Watcher's Keep produced some more containers with no trouble before the final action of the session saw the greatest of escapes.  Things didn't look good in Prebek's house when the initial attacks were not properly synchronised and both mages got spells away.  Grub was confused, while Rose was charmed.  Yet again it looked like Grub would be swiftly cut up, but he proved surprisingly resilient and still had a whole 3 HPs left when he came to his senses.  An extra-healing potion immediately made him feel better, but a critical hit in response saw him back down to 2 HPs before he could take another potion!  At this point, however, Rose also realised what was happening and started working through the summons and there were no further alarms.


Stats (cont. from BG1)
Rose, stalker L9, 103 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 279 kills
Grub, assassin L11, 56 HPs, 130 kills, 2 deaths

Edited by Grond0, 11 May 2013 - 02:50 PM.

[Gate70]

Klonk / Valygar / Viconia / Jan / Yoshimo / Mazzy
The mad cleric doesn’t put up much resistance but Klonk doesn’t expect Mazzy to melee with him. A quick check reveals she has lost the Arbane sword from her inventory, a more studied examination reveals her total lack of equipment and we head back to the Copper Coronet to retrieve it from the floor.

Lt Aegisfield is pleased to hear Rejiek Hidesman is behind the skinner murders, Viconia less so when our reputation increases (16).

Mae’Var and Edwin have a few errands for us.

Valygar is next to hear some words of wisdom.


Jan is getting to Mazzy.

After Renal Bloodscalp hands over his reward for killing Mae’Var it is time for Klonk to do something unexpected by siding with Bodhi to the disgust Valygar and Mazzy. Jan is less concerned.

Mazzy departs (rats), taking 40 arrows +1, the darkmail armour and the regenerative ioun stone. Plus a few pieces of junk (red cloth, strongbox key, Haegan’s key, shadow prison key, symbol of Amaunator) and the shadow dragon wardstone. “Oh Kronk” says Viconia “I’m warming to you. Klonk is fuming, who the hells is Kronk?

Edited by Gate70, 11 May 2013 - 03:11 PM.

[Gate70]

Klonk / Valygar / Viconia / Jan / Yoshimo
With Mazzy gone there is a need for another backpack, particularly as Klonk has found the red cloth, shadow prison key, symbol of Amaunator, strongbox key and shadow dragon wardstone have all been dumped with him.
Who is going to want to join though?

[Gate70]

Klonk / Valygar / Viconia / Jan / Yoshimo / Minsc
Klonk has narrowed party member 6 down to 2 because of their banter, finally selecting Minsc. A cheap composite longbow is purchased and Yoshimo hands down the Nights Gift armour, wearing the Shadow thief armour instead. We head to the docks and the battle starts, after killing a few thieves we reach Mook but Arkanis is with her and Klonk suddenly wishes he’d healed and buffed; more so when a 55hp frontstab lands.

He stoically glugs two healing potions as he moves back up the steps, and Viconia starts to cast a healing spell but Jan has sensed the urgency, stunning Mook with a basher and Arkanis doesn’t last much longer.

(It’s been years since I sided with Bodhi, may only have done it once so going to be interesting).

[Blind_Visionary]

Go Rose and Grub! Keep to the shadows.... and keep those hit points above single digits

And Klonk, I'm wondering if Viconia's influence is leading you into a "pain threshhold experiment." It looks to me like its jealousy over Kronk. Is that why you've decided to forge a new path by siding with Bodhi? To carve out your own unique identity?

[corey_russell]

@Gate70: I think one of the best parts of siding with Bodhi is the +3 throwing axe that neutral/evil fighters can use that drops from Arkanis Gath. Quite handy if PC is fighter and not goody-goody.

[Gate70]

Yes, got the axe but nobody is proficient yet. Minsc has it so he's likely to be the ideal high strength candidate.

Klonk / Valygar / Viconia / Jan / Yoshimo / Minsc
Uncle Lester is back, but we kill Nevin (reputation drops from 16 to 9). A few groups of spiders and ettercaps in the crypts badly injure Klonk and Minsc asks why the half-orc hasn’t got any decent arrmour. Good question Minsc.

Pai’Na and her spiders almost kill Klonk, their poisons stacking up and the party having no healing spells means he is glugging potions as much as fighting. The only way into the vampire lair is to head to the surface and back through the entrance suggested by Bodhi.

The second task suggested by Bodhi is a choice, Klonk making the wrong decision when Minsc declares his aversion and Valygar says he will leave. Klonk immediately tells Bodhi he will do the other task instead. Palern Flynn is duly rescued although a death spell hits the party and Minsc expires. He is raised on the way back to Bodhi.

She informs us that the two tasks to date were simply to test us, and the real deal is about killing Aran Linvail. We attack the guildhall before remembering to check on Gaelan Bayle so retreat only for two mages to target us with more death spells and down goes Minsc for a second time. Viconia memorises a raise dead spell, and we rest then continue on to Gaelan. He’s easily overwhelmed and Minsc briefly bites back a tear for the poor fellow.

Our second attempt at the guildhall has mixed results. Valygar finds a backstab is stoneskinned and as he retreats he falls to FoD and Viconia has used her two death wards on Klonk and Minsc. Viconia raises Valygar as Minsc moves in. The mage stuns Minsc and he survives a disintegrate, while Yoshimo has moved in to attack and Jan casts remove magic. The mage is stripped of buffs and catches a volley of missiles then Viconia raises Minsc.

It’s a terrible time for Jan to try and steal Boo from Minsc, but fortunately the ranger doesn’t flip his lid, or even flip the gnome off the rooe bridges and into the depths of the thieves training pit.

A priest of Mask flamestrikes Jan so Valygar drags him out with a pair of arrows and backstabs him as Minsc adds more arrows.

(making a mess of this but wary of sending Klonk in)

[Gate70]

Klonk / Valygar / Viconia / Jan / Yoshimo / Minsc
Jan continues looking for traps, none so far. We retreat and rest, Jan forgetting where we got to and tripping a cloudkill. Valygar has started walking in front of Jan as a spotter, and notices another archer. Minsc and Valygar team up to out-shoot him and Jan continues his exploration.

Dedral exclaims that we have walked into his trap, only for Klonk to smash him in the face as Valygar backstabs him. A malison > doom > hold monster is the last thing he needs, and the last thing he gets.

Valygar scouts for Yoshimo as he works his way across spiked rollers to find and activate a large red button. They motion for Jan to detect traps while Valygar scouts and Yoshimo hurls special snares at orcs. Minsc arrives to help Valygar shoot the helpless orcs down. One flees and Valygar catches a trap before Jan spots it - four extra healing potions glugged as a lightning bolt bounces around.

Haz is towards the end of this corridor and after softening him up with summons he catches a bunch of arrows only for Jan to bolt him to the floor. We move through another door only to find ourselves outside and unable to return. It seems a good time to rest before going back anyway.

It is a slow crawl around the rest of the guildhall and at the very end Klonk is dominated when his berserk wears off. Only Aran Linvail is left by this stage and Klonk is by far the biggest danger. The party try to wait outside but a teleport field complicates matters. Just as everybody gets outside Klonk recovers so they have to go back in again. Aran only lasts a couple of rounds in melee.