15228 replies to this topic

[Innocent Bystander]

 Hi guys.
I'm wondering about few things I'm using.
-no traps/locks (tweaks) There's like 10 traps in entire BGT that are a little more than annoyance and I prefer not to have a thief because of those. It even have its downside as girls (Imoen and Nalia) can't use cool items as single class mages.
-CTRL 8 Only difference is that I have 18/00 str in 10 seconds flat instead of several hours of clicking reroll.
-transferring items from BG1 to BG2 Int/Wis tomes are completely useless to everyone in BG1 so I'll rather use them on Aerie.
-reloading because FUBAR missclick Long story short, accidentaly clicked on wrong line (full HD) and instead of me accepting quest, NPC turned hostile. I'd continue if it wasn't recurring (mage on Isle of Balduran) one, but better safe than stuck in Spellhold.

If any of those make me dirty cheater so be it, I play for fun, but it they're acceptable I'll be happy to share my progress (at least I'll have something unproductive to do at work).

Edited by Luyza, 07 January 2014 - 07:48 PM.

[corey_russell]

Hello Luyza.

The first post in the thread outlines the rules. Mods are allowed. I could treat the CTRL-8 as a mod, main thing is just let people know that's what you are doing. Same as transferring WIS tome to Aerie. No traps, again can be treated as a mod, just need to inform others that's your setup.

Misclick - in the no reload thread, you can't reload for a misclick (e.g., just live with it). A number of runs have ended to mis-clicks.

Keep in mind you can always make what we call a "campfire" thread, those runs that started as no-reload but now are with reloads and you could post your progress there.

[corey_russell]

Corbeast the Human Beastmaster - FINAL SoA Update!
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Imoen

So Corbeast's team battles Irenicus at the Tree of Life. Almost no buffs, except a pro magic scroll used on Corbeast. Corbeast stayed at range. Almost no spells except Imoen's breach and dispel magic and True Sight by Keldorn - this in turn meant Irenicus could get almost no spells off with the constant hits he was taking, and after maybe 7 rounds victory was achieved!


Time for the Hell Trials. This time I remembered I am a ranger, and must do the good paths unless I want to be fallen (which I don't). Thus did the good routes. I'm not sure I got all the attributes, as the pro magic scroll made the tear changes get resisted (hmm...). Oh well. For the Beholders, Corbeast's scroll of magic protection was still active, so him and Korgan charged them. Korgan had the shield of balduran and berserk so that he wouldn't get imprisoned.

We did some buffs for the battle with Irenicus and his demons. Pro evil, pro fire, resist fear and invulnerability potions used by everyone but Imoen. Some summons cast and Keldorn doing true sight. The demons fell extremely quickly, I believe because Keldorn did WW with his Foebane. This seemed like a good time to use it. Once the demons were dead, then Keldorn switched to Carsomyr. Only Irenicus left. Basic melee, except Imoen did pierce magic and breach. I didn't want to use Keldorn's dispel so as not to dispel our own buffs. Took a little bit, but Irenicus could not put up meaningful resistance and Corbeast defeated him once and for all!


Next fight was Illsaera - she was defeated easily. Next was the 1st challenge. There are so many fights /enemies in ToB I finally gave Corbeast a script (standard attack). Since he usually uses his bow, standard attack shouldn't get him into much trouble. This was quite useful in the first challenge. We succeeded here without deaths.

We then did the basic tasks in Saradush - mostly auto-attack except Keldorn would do true sight against thieves and true sight vs. mages. No problems here and the party is about to enter Gromnir's Castle.

[Grond0]

Well done Corey - only the easy bit left now!

[Grond0]

Velvet {2} - halfling swashbuckler (update 3)

Velvet had a pretty serene, though productive, last session.  She started with a lich-hunt.  That began in the Temple sewers and then went via the City Gates and Bridge District to the Docks to kill Kangaxx (level 13).  With the ability to disarm traps she didn't need any preparation and there were no ambushes on the way to waste time, so she didn't even bother adding a potion of speed to the green scroll of undead protection.

Using the rod of terror on the minotaurs cost Velvet 3 charisma and some nearby pirates cost her 3 more - producing a net score of 25.

While travelling to pay Gaelan Bayle Velvet saved Renfeld and returned him to the Docks.  Prebek was one-shotted before he could talk and Velvet quickly ran through the Harper HQ and watched Xzar be cut down (level 14).  Next she revenged Mook - using Arbane and Gaxx haste to keep out of melee with Lassal and relying on her spell saving throws against domination. 

After bumping off the Guild contact, Velvet reported back to Aran, but then took up the Mae'Var quests.  They posed no problems - Rayic Gethras was initially attacked with stealth shots, but died of continuing trap damage after he moved to investigate where shots were coming from.  Reporting to Mae'Var got Velvet to level 15 and he and his cronies were unable to lay a sword on Velvet during her final assault.  She turned down the chance to take over the guild.

Moving on to the Graveyard, Velvet did the local quests before heading underground.  She got to level 16 fighting spiders before taking on Pai'Na - she failed to cast a spell, while her support largely evaporated from a couple of pre-laid traps.  She used another green scroll to make clearing the vampires easy; she didn't have a blunt weapon and her 4 traps failed to kill the clay golem initially, but she was resting anyway to get Lassal to talk to her downstairs and more traps finished the job.  Bodhi just managed to get her opening speech out before being chased away by another lot of traps.

Reporting back to Aran got Velvet to level 17.  The improvement in saving throws from that persuaded her to trade in the Claw of Kazgoroth for the +2 ring of protection.

Stats (cont. from BG1):
Velvet, swashbuckler 17, 82 HPs (incl. 7 from ioun stone), 449 kills

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congratulations on dealing with Jon, Corey! Stay focused in ToB!

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

Well done Corey - only the easy bit left now!

Hmm, I don't think I would call the Sendai fight, Draconis, or Ravager, or Melissan either for that matter "easy" - all of these fights have ended my runs at one point or another. Thanks for the well wishes regardless!

@Serg: Thanks! I hope to keep my focus in ToB as well.

[Grond0]

Velvet {2} - halfling swashbuckler (update 4)

In the Bridge District Velvet retrieved the berserker horn before dealing severely with some kidnappers.  The Rune Assassins were a potential threat, but a full complement of traps killed one of them and the other missed his backstab and was quickly finished off.  Parisa then tried an ambush.  Her speed and regeneration meant stealth shots were no use and Velvet ended up leaving her alone.

In the Government District Jan realised too late that he was standing on traps (I might make use of his equipment and didn't want to recruit him).

Moving on to Trademeet, Taquee died of a trap overdose and his efreeti got the opportunity for revenge on his former masters.  Velvet bought Blackblood for use on trolls along with BoIB, Ras and CoD.

In the Druid Grove the trolls caused no problems.  Kyland Lind and his merrie men cast one call lightning, but failed to hit Velvet with it and that encounter got her to level 18.  She picked up Belm and used that to quickly cut down Ihtafeer and her companions (a first outing for Ras there).  Cernd took a surprisingly high 7 attacks to finish eating Faldorn before Velvet returned to Trademeet to finish off tasks there.

After a quick stop in Athkatla to drop off surplus equipment, Velvet moved on to the de'Arnise Hold.  She had no problems there, being careful to only take on one or two trolls / umber hulks at a time (the yuan-ti mage was webbed by Kitthix; Torgal died in traps).  She got to level 19 by opening the drawbridge and was just a whisker short of level 20 after reporting to Nalia.

Stats (cont. from BG1):
Velvet, swashbuckler 19, 86 HPs (incl. 7 from ioun stone), 572 kills

[corey_russell]

Corbeast the Beastmaster Update
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Imoen

More progress made yesterday. Corbeast has defeated the undead guarding Nylee's place (yes Anomen's turn undead was effective once again, as most of the undead were destroyed outright), The ambush in North Forest and Yaga's guardians in Marching Mountains defeated. For the first time, Korgan used the giantkin hammer with Crom Faeyr - this was extremely effective and was killing the giants quickly. While in Yaga's temple, we would keep up our fire protection and fear protection. No one died, though a few close calls happened, especially against Imix. I foolishly opened a container on the wall (golem book page) and Imoen got hit with a save or else spell - luckily she saved, against whatever it was.

We returned to Nylee's grove and equippped non blunt weapons on everyone - this made the shambling mounds fall much faster and fairly easy victory here, didn't have to micro-manage, just control Corbeast.

Time for Yaga-Shura himself. Difficult battle, Corbeast got hit by the battle mage's spells during a time stop and got stunned - luckily, Keldorn stopped fighting for a moment to dispel the stun off Corbeast. Corbeast noticed Korgan just standing around, so sent Korgan after Yaga-Shura. Sure enough 3-4 rounds later victory was achieved!

Next mage battle was Oasis - we didn't even bother with summons,and the only spell cast was Imoen cast minor globe of invulnerability because she was getting hit with magic missiles. Battered, but we did succeed here.

Once in Amkethran, we killed Saemon's accusers and saved the Priest of Waukeen from the monk. We will venture to Sendai's territory next session.

Edited by corey_russell, 09 January 2014 - 05:02 PM.

[corey_russell]

Corbeast the Beastmaster Update - Sendai's Enclave
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Jan (Imoen)

The party has fought their way through Sendai's Enclave and defeated Sendia herself. Many fights were unbuffed, though we did buff for a few of the harder fights. The chaotic fight, as always, was the battle against Sendai and her statues. Last time I was here, Bannen got harmed and killed - this time, my PC stayed well away from any of Sendai's cleric statues so that didn't happen. However, right near the end, Sendai cast a bunch of summons which pinned down Imoen and Imoen couldn't move. A few big hits by something then chunked her. I didn't lose her equipment. The party did avenge Imoen and slew Sendai.


Whoever I get will be under-leveled but that's the breaks. We need both a thief and mage, and since Nalia is already chunked, that meant Jan. So we recruited him, had him memorize the great amount of scrolls we are carrying around, for exactly this purpose.


Next session, we will attempt Draconis and Abazigal's Lair.

[Grond0]

Velvet {2} - halfling swashbuckler (update 5)

A straightforward session saw Velvet almost up to her first HLA.

With death saving throws now negative she had no problems in clearing out the Graveyard tombs (level 20) or the Southern tombs (using Ras to distract the vampyre and a first Daystar sunray for the other level draining creatures).

The next action was in the Windspear Hills.  After a quick return trip to Athkatla to pick up the acorns, Velvet moved on to the dungeon.  Chieftain Digdag failed to run away quickly enough in the first encounter and she moved rapidly forward, using Ras to distract Ruhk and some kamikaze kobolds.  The golems were killed one at a time, the adamantite one by missiles (level 21).  A hobgoblin wizard managed a bit of damage with a bouncing lightning bolt, but only at the expense of killing himself and 2 of his comrades.

Daystar was less effective against the vampires than I had hoped and Velvet ended up resting before a mixture of sunray, traps and distracting summons allowed her to finish the rest of the vampires off without being attacked.  Pre-laid traps helped with greater wolfweres and an air elemental (level 22).

A green scroll and a potion of fire resistance made the genies and the guardian easy, while Samia was disappointed with the outcome of her ambush (level 23).  Tazok was swiftly beaten up before Conster stuck his foot (and the rest of him) into some traps.  Firkraag had just an instant to see a host of traps heading for him before he also keeled over.  After reporting the good news to Garren Windspear, Velvet has arrived safely back in Athkatla and forged the Red Dragon Scale.

Stats (cont. from BG1):
Velvet, swashbuckler 23, 95 HPs (incl. 8 from ioun stone), 729 kills

Edited by Grond0, 10 January 2014 - 04:23 AM.

[corey_russell]

Corbeast the Human Beastmaster Update
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Jan

The party had a long battle with Draconis, unsuprisingly. Keldorn spent much of the battle stunned or on his back, so Jan's detect illusions was quite useful here. Despite the many tries, the melees just couldn't finish off Draconis. Draconis then though Jan would make a tasty morsel. Jan did mirror image then flame arrow and that managed to finish Draconis.


Will investigate this Lair next...

[corey_russell]

Corbeast the Human BeastMaster Update
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Jan
Permanently dead: Nalia, Imoen

Corbeast has successfully eliminated the dragon Abazigal. Oddly, it went smoother than usual for some reason and didn't require traps.


Challenges 3 and 4 have been defeated as well. For #3, Corbeast just ran away from the Slayer while the party and summons killed it. For #4, Corbeast got into the thick of the action. With Armor of Faith and Hardiness, he was well protected, and the party prevailed here as well.

The seemingly infinite monks guarding Balthsazar's fortress is our next major challenge.

[Serg BlackStrider]

A rock-solid progress, Corey - keep it up!

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 34 - (update 2)
Spiro, half-elf beastmaster (Grond0) & Shuern, elf enchanter (Gate70)

The duo overcame a difficult start to the session to make decent progress yesterday.

The first objective was the circus.  We were experiencing severe lag there and Shuern was unable to do anything but stand there and die on arrival at the top of the tent.  Spiro took a quick revenge before going to visit the temple again.

There was another slight glitch when Shuern cast friends and got a warning from a Cowled Enforcer before moving on to the Slums.  In the Copper Coronet Spiro was surprised to find that the Enhanced Edition guard had a hold person - Shuern helped him out by making him invisible.  There were no further problems in helping Hendak.

A bit of travelling turned up the Suna Seni ambush.  Shuern was invisible on arrival and summoned up an air elemental, which occupied the enemies attention while they were killed, although Spiro did get caught in the fringes of a horror spell and went for a wander. 

A bit later another air elemental helped save Renfeld.  After returning him Spiro tried to deal with Prebek with a potion of firebreath.  Nearly all the other enemies died in it, but Prebek survived and once again Spiro found himself stuck in place.  This time Shuern came through with a skull trap to finish Prebek off.  The Harper HQ was duly looted and Xzar killed.

Stats:
Spiro, beastmaster 9, 104 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar, 5 from Helm), 104 kills
Shuern, enchanter 10, 42 HPs, 20 kills, 4 deaths (including 2 in BG1)

[Grond0]

Velvet {2} - halfling swashbuckler (6th and final update)

Yes, good stuff Corey.  Unfortunately the same can't be said for Velvet: after not having been in any trouble for a long time, a moment of inattention at the end of my session proved costly.

In the Temple sewers Velvet dispatched a rakshasa before moving on to the party.  Despite being incapacitated by stinking cloud, Gaius managed to buff up in order to save himself from an inital assault.  However, with the others dead he had no defence against stealth shots.

Moving into the illithid enclave Velvet got to level 24 in the first room - taking Use Any Item for her HLA.  A few traps set behind the door to a second room were pretty effective.  Traps also made a start on the final room, though several illithid were finished off in melee (none of them managing to suck Velvet's brain).

Mekrath died, though apparently without taking any damage from the traps surrounding him.  Velvet used a couple of charges from his cloudkill wand on the yuan-ti - getting to level 25 in the process (WW).

After sorting equipment out, including picking up the Shield of Balduran, Velvet returned to the Temple sewers to pay the Unseeing Eye a visit.  The group of beholders by the bridge lasted much longer than they should have as the SoB was just deflecting their attacks rather than reflecting them.  Retreating and re-equipping the SoB made no difference, so Velvet ended up just meleeing them all.  Having nearly got to the underground temple I realised that Velvet had brought no healing capability so went back to the Promenade to get the Staff of Curing.  Of course, once back in the temple, I saw that there were a couple of healing scrolls there that would have done the job!

The undead provided enough XP for level 26 (WW).  Velvet let the lich cast spells at him until it decided to walk into some traps.  Inside the beholder hive the SoB was still not working properly, so Velvet speeded up melee tactics a bit by using the cloudkill wand on groups.  She got to level 27 (time trap) immediately prior to picking up the other half of the wand.  Her new HLA was put to immediate use on the Unseeing Eye, but the time stop appeared to prevent the Rift Device from working properly and it survived several attacks.  However, a first use of WW by Velvet quickly put an end to it.

I took the Rift Device to be destroyed before I could forget about it and then cloudkilled Gaal and his guards before returning to the Promenade to store surplus equipment.  I was about to end the session when I remembered I could now summon a familiar - big mistake!  She hurriedly stuffed the familiar in her backpack and went invisible, but was unable to move from the spot.  PfMW meant she could only beat a blocking mage unconscious with a WW of fists (putting normal bolts into Firetooth didn't work).  I think the berserk warrior should have been able to finish him off with his normal axe, but that was surprisingly being treated as a magic weapon when it attacked.  Meanwhile Velvet had responded to a malison with a stone form potion and twice used invisibility to break up attacks.  She had also used a potion of power to try and keep above 90 HPs, but just gone below that when she was finally able to finish off the mage.  Annoyingly, within a fraction of a second of safety she was hit with a PW:stun.  That was only 1d4 rounds at her current HPs, so I thought it was still just possible she would survive - but she didn't.

There were several things I could have done (apart from killing the mages or paying for a license earlier).  Velvet had scrolls of magic protection that she could have used, but I wanted to avoid doing so.  Similarly I wasn't allowing her the use of healing potions.  I would have been happy to use the BoIB and I think I probably could have opened the chest next to her that was storing that - it's possible that would have made a difference.  A non-magic weapon would definitely have saved her, but restrictions on inventory space meant she gave up carrying one of those around some time ago.  If I'd realised where the mages would appear I could also have moved slightly after the Cowled Enforcer turned up to avoid being blocked in - the mages would have been no threat to her if she'd been able to move.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Sad news, Grond0... It's easy (at least for me) to forget about buying a licence while making a run as a thief.

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear the end of Velvet, Grond0. Those Cowleds have finished off your characters a number of times, haven't they? Maybe you should just get the license?

[Serg BlackStrider]

corey_russell wrote...

...Those Cowleds have finished off your characters a number of times, haven't they? Maybe you should just get the license?

Yup, and even for pure fighter type character - just in case...

Edited by Serg BlackStrider, 10 January 2014 - 01:22 PM.

[Gate70]

Indeed. Every wizard slayer should have one.

Edit, & Corey. Sendai casts Implosion - holds a character and does massive damage. Do you think that's what happened to Immy?

Edited by Gate70, 10 January 2014 - 06:09 PM.

[Grond0]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...

corey_russell wrote...

...Those Cowleds have finished off your characters a number of times, haven't they? Maybe you should just get the license?

Yup, and even for pure fighter type character - just in case...

In my installation that is indeed necessary.  I don't tend to use the RoAC much these days, but it is classed as casting a spell as a result of a Fixpack change - doing that accounted for Velvet's warning from the wizards much earlier in the game ...

[corey_russell]

 Corbeast the Human Beastmaster - FINAL Update!
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Jan

So Corbeast and team return to Amkethran. There were a ton of monks here, but we had some summons to assist, and di well in clearing out the riff-raff. We found a key on the dead monks and entered Balthsazar's stronghold. Balthsazar is a lot easier if you have a cleric memorize 6x CC, 6x Free Action and 6x fire resist. Indeed, Corbeast defeated him.

Next up was the Ravager battle. Before the battle, Jan laid down 4 snares. We put the summons where most of the bone blades spawn, Minsc, Keldorn (using Foe Bane) and Korgan in melee. Took a while and Corbeast did have to run to safety, but the team prevailed here.


1st Melissan Battle:

I usually find this battle the easiest Melissan battle. I did have a secret weapon to be used against her - dispelling arrows! I still have all of them we picked up from Spellhold. Indeed victory achieved.

1st Pool Battle
A lot of undead, but they were of little trouble and luckily no level drains on anyone, though Minsc and Korgan and Anomen are immune to such.

2nd Melissan Battle:
Dispelling arrows again were helpful and a breach from Jan. I forget the rest of the fight.

2nd Pool Battle:
Anomen tried a sneaky Storm of Vengeance, but it wasn't very effective. But the group with help of Skeletal Warriors defeated this group of baddies.

3rd Melissan Battle:
I find this the hardest Melissan fight with the powerful slayer shadows. Melissan left mid-fight and we were dealing with her minions, but they were endless. She time stopped twice, killing Anomen. Keldorn was chunked! Ouch, needed him to dispel Melissan's protections...The party was getting overwhelmed and eventually its only Corbeast and Minsc left with many minions left - however, Melissan was near death! Corbeast did GWW two times with his +5 Firetooth Crossbow and killed her! Whew, close...


3rd Pool Battle
I kept AI off this battle...Jan tried to use his wands but was spotted by the Fallen Planetar. He ran back to the group and our summons and he was charmed! Our summons duly killed Jan...this was a good in a way, I forgot about the succubus -8 penalty, so the fighters quickly donned our charm resist gear. Concetrated fire killed all the enemies in this pool, lots of antidotes gulped during the way.

Final Melissan Battle:
Corbeast summoned his best remaining buffs, best summons and concentrated fire on Melissan. Jan still had a breach left so used it, and Corbeast noticed Melissan was badly injured so used up his remaining GWW...yes she falls!


Epilogue:
Corbeast becomes a god. Interestingly, the Solar called him evil, and refused to be his assistant - apparently those responses you say after killing each of the five DOES have an impact on the ending, I will keep that in mind next time. This is a Trilogy No-Reload, so when get time will put in the Hall of Heroes.

[Dogdancing]

Grats Corey! Always amazing to watch you do a no-reload. You make it look easy. Now stop chunking me and lets get our multi-player duo to join the other duo in the HoH.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congratulations, Corey, with yet another Trilogy No-Reload success! Well done!

Edit: Yup, it would be great to see your MP duo with Dogdancing there as well. May be you could try to switch the leader one day so she wouldn't tend to be chunked too often? :innocent:

Edited by Serg BlackStrider, 11 January 2014 - 06:12 AM.

[Grond0]

Well done to the Beast! Perhaps that means that your next entry will have a bit of godly assistance from on high?