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[Grond0]

Inti - elf wild mage (update 6)

In Brynnlaw a couple of skeleton warriors killed Perth while Inti stayed invisible.  His book offered True Seeing as its first choice and Inti accepted that.

After being captured by Irenicus Inti lost his Bhaal powers and a point of dexterity.  On the plus side he got to level 24 during the dream.  He quickly worked through the first level of Spellhold, making a first use of energy blades against a beholder and another incendiary cloud each for the lich and some yuan-ti.  Dace Sontan fell under a hail of MMM using improved haste.  Unfortunately, although the statue said that his hand opened the way, it didn't fully move, so Inti ended up having to use ctrl-J to get to the exit.

The second level was also swifly negotiated, mainly using planetar and incendiary cloud / ADHW.  Inti got to 25th level there - picking up his final HLA - as well as getting Boot of the North / Grounding made to his specification.  Inti was nearly out of his normal summons by the end of the level, but an attempted fire elemental was successful and proved very capable against trolls.

Inti rested again before the final combats, in order to get the Slayer under control.  I was hoping that a single skeleton warrior would kill Lonk, but his fire shield and summons allowed him to fight 2 of them off and Inti resorted to an ADHW.  In the battle with Jon, Inti immediately withdrew and summoned a planetar to deal with his clone.  Jon and Inti swapped ADHW (Jon missing) before the planetar got a final hit in.  The Murderers then tried to surround an invisible Inti only to be slaughtered by the watchful planetar.

Being a forgiving sort Inti agreed to take ship with Saemon, but as with other things involving him something went wrong and Inti ended up in the City of Caverns.  Rather amusingly Kitthix managed to web an ettin there and killed it with her poison.  Persuading the Spectator to let her examine the chest got Inti to level 26 and he was soon the owner of a nice new cloak.  He ignored the rest of the rebels and went to talk to the Prince before returning to settle accounts with the king.  Soon after it was the Prince's turn to realise the danger of employing foreign mercenaries and Inti was free to descend into the Underdark.

[Gate70]

Firkraag only appeared on my screen for a fraction of a second after unpausing (I couldn't see what Grond0 was concerned about while paused) and he vanished immediately as if realising he didn't fit. Somewhere about here.


Carthusian XII in Watchers Keep.

Level 2, the four corners.
A walk in the park. right up until Carthusian wished he'd gone for more than Hardiness > GWW against the chromatic demon. Switching to the Blackblood club produced more damage and the monk had about 30% health left when the demon admits defeat.

Level 3, the maze.
I hate this level, hence the tactic is to Pocket Plane rest after most rooms. Carthusian starts off well enough but loses a level in the succubus room. He decides to push on as trying to go backwards is a nightmare - did I say I hate this level?

A few more easy encounters including picking up a demons heart, just got to return it to the first demon who had a deal to make. That means going backwards so I decide to push on instead - did I say I hate this level?

On to the Demon Wraith who is no trouble at all until he uses a mantle. Carthusian moves around the room to avoid the slave wraiths and their level drains, taking large amounts of fire damage. At one point he is down to 38hp so switches from Gaxx & +2 rings to fire control & protection rings. The Master Wraith takes some more damage but another mantle or two drag things out. After a minute or two of running around the repeating traps Carthusian kills the Master and frees the Slaves. With low hit points he PP rests.

On to Aesgareth where the game of chance works out well, and badly. First he wins Spectral Brand but is slowed. A rest sorts that out and he decides to carry on and wins the Limited Wish spell, at the cost of strength being reduced to 6. He is unable to move and a rest doesn't help, should really do something about this but... but... (I'm a reckless gambler)

So the 3rd wager is lost, as expected. Aesgareth departs and wishes Carthusian well. The monk waves back, what with being silenced and unable to reply...

Carthusian bags most of his gear to reach his 30lb target weight and heads to the exit. Oh yeah, can't leave without the other scimitar gem which is back with the first demon. I hate this level.

After going back 2 or 3 rooms with random directions a eryines appears. Carthusian kicks it into submission but a second has arrived with a bone golem. Silence prevents special abilities too so Carthusian is a slow-walking duck. He ambles to a portal and heads to another room...

At this point I realised Carthusian was up to his neck in doo-doo so returned to his Pocket Plane and after winking hysterically at a statue it summons up Viconia who somehow communicates (yeah, this is lame) and briefly joins up to memorise and cast a remove curse. Carthusian thanks her by sending her to stand with Sarevok. She starts to complain but the truth is she hates the 3rd level more than Carthusian does and wouldn't go back there anyway...

Carthusian equips his gear and after paying Sister Garlena for a resurrection (edit, nay a restoration) asks about a shortcut to level 3. She shows him a side door and suggests he go elsewhere as level 3 is horrible.

Carthusian is so annoyed by this time he forgets to use invisibility so four mind flayers ambush him near the machine of Lum the Mad. He runs and hides then returns to GWW them once he realises they are lowly flayers and not the more sophisticated ulitharid or worse.

(phew)

Edited by Gate70, 21 February 2014 - 09:21 PM.

[corey_russell]

Solo through WK lower levels? Brave soul there, Gate70. Don't let your meanderings distract you from your ultimate goal. It's a suggestion, anyways. Corbeast and Russell V want others to give Melissan in alternate universes a lesson...

[Gate70]

Carthusian XII crosses off level 4 of Watchers Keep, requiring 3 or 4 visits to Sister Garlena to remove level drains. A Protection from Undead scroll was used to avoid imprisonment from a demi-lich, and a potion of fire resistance was used against Saladrax the red dragon (plus a bit of shifty fingered ring changing as he used his fire breath twice and I've lost characters in the past to his fiery outbursts. The Dragonslayer sword was used as primary weapon to stop any dragon fear.

(n.b. Enhanced Edition adds a nifty sword to one of the Gith here, doesn't look like it features in BGT. No use to Carthusian anyway but he's a keen collector of such items, at least until a shop is in sight)

The Arbane sword made an appearance against four mimics and their glue (Carthusian might be immune but I'm not about to find out the hard way) while Rock and Garock were caught on the hoof thanks to the book of infinite spells True Seeing (snap eh Grond0).

The machine of Lum the mad sees Carthusian gain somewhat. Strength 23 and constitution 20 are the two main benefits.

Levels 5 and 6 of Watchers Keep are of less interest to Carthusian (Angurvadal, Spectral Brand and the Lum upgrades are his primary goals). A very quick foray to level 5 sees Carthusian defeat a green dragon to pick up the Hindo's Doom blade (and answer a couple of riddles from an imp when the wrong door is selected first)

edit, just seen your comments Corey. Sound advice as the last 2 levels of WK aren't my idea of fun in a no-reload (although coming back with a NPP item would certainly help). The items I've listed do really help a monk towards the end.

Edited by Gate70, 21 February 2014 - 10:41 PM.

[Gate70]

Carthusian picks up the Answerer sword at the oasis before heading into Amkethran. Once there he purchases some gargoyle boots in case the Favoured of Cyric ever pay a visit, and purchases a few items from other stores.

Abazigal will have to wait - liquid mercury and a lich skull are calling to Carthusian even if this means Sendai and her implosive harm has to be faced.

Hmm, Grond0 is in the Underdark and a typical early morning session could see him close the gap significantly. Good luck and don't get careless

[Alaestr]

Joniren, the brave blade. Update No. 6
Joniren has done the jobs for Aran Linvail, survived his first encounter with Bodhi and set out to rid Windspear Hills off lizardy plague. Returned Acorns. During mowing through the hordes of undead Joniren leveled up to 24th, which meant choosing first HLA - UAI. After defeating the Fire Guardian for Samia Joniren got his second HLA - set Time Trap. I had set it before Samia spawned and got an extra 10 second of free swinging, which proved to be fatal for the mage and Samia (i prebuffed with improved haste, DUHM = 6 attacks, every one doing about 20 dmg). Remainig members of Samia's party were no match for buffed Joniren (PfMW, mirrors, blures, sunfires). I also noticed that IH doesn't work with offensive spin (or perhaps IH has to be cast after OS, since it doesn't work the other way).

I prebuffed with II and some images befor Tazok. That proved to be sufficient.

Constar fight: IH, Breaches, Secret Words, Remove Magic, Spell Thrusts and SI:A with SI:D as well as True Sight were my weapons of choice for this fight. In the end I managed to dispel Constar's Spell Shield, SI:A and Spell Turning and managed to land a single remove magic, which did its job. Constar was no threat - his arsenal of spells was insufficient to dispel my protections (he used only Remove Magic). I swang FoA thrice and Constar drew his last breath.  

Encouraged by the succesful fight with the Shadow Dragon I started prepating for the fight with Firkraag. The setup was actually very similar to the one before Constar fight, except I made sure to have two PfMW and drunk like a jar of potions (2xfire protection, invulnerability, cloud giant strength, another one of warriors' exclusive, clarity). I prepared True Sight, which turned out to be useless, since Red Dragon didn't use invisibility once. He did cast 3 stoneskins (on top of the SI:A and SS) and repeatedly tried to dispel me (Breaches and Remove Magic), but SI:A and my high level protected me. I had set up a Time Snare in the vicinity and used it when I got a little low on health to cast PfMW in peace and hack through one of the stoneskins. In the end I drank two Superior Healing Potions and outdamaged Firkraag .Sweet Karsomyr is mine! In the meantime Joniren got the third HLA (Improved Bard Song).
Looking good now. I wonder if Illithids behind the doors are worth the risk. Might try to cheese out the Kangaxx ring. Got the strategy planned out, so maybe I will do it next.

Edited by Alaestr, 22 February 2014 - 01:55 AM.

[Alesia_BH]

@Grondo and Gate. Noted. Thanks for the info on Firkraag.

@Alaestr. Nice work! Finish stong!

@Corey. I too wouldn't mind if someone used the MLP party un-nerfed. That said, it's pretty over-powered in my estimation. Applejack is a cavalier with a stat roll of 98; Fluttershy, a totemic druid, 92; Pinkie Pie, a jester, 100; Rainbow Dash, a Fighter/Thief, 90; Rarity, a sorcerer, 89; and Twilight Sparkle, a conjurer, 95. They also have extra hitpoints, extra proficiencies, and extra thieving points. All told, it's a hacked over the top power party. I'd personally rather go a different route.   

Edited by Alesia_BH, 22 February 2014 - 02:36 AM.

[corey_russell]

@Alesia - I see what you are saying - of course I certainly won't be using the MLP party, I enjoy making my own too much (if I'm not going to accept the stock NPCs). But thanks for bringing up that MLP mod, my 7 year old daughter would probably get a great kick out it. By any chance do you know if the mod includes voice sets for the characters?

[Alesia_BH]

corey_russell wrote...
 By any chance do you know if the mod includes voice sets for the characters?

Yes: It does. The sound clips came from season 1. They were well chosen.

Best,

A.

FYI: I'm once again considering running a nerfed version of the MLP party- mostly because I love the idea of letting each of the ponies take control of one of the Ascension battles and then making videos set to songs sung by the lead ponies. Here are the ones I've chosen so far.

Gromnir: Art of the Dress (Rarity)


Yaga Shura: Raise This Barn (Applejack)


Sendai: Smile (Pinkie Pie)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LlRYLgwm30

Abazigal: Boo Hoo (Fluttershy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45I3MQPGAv8

The Throne: At The Gala (All)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBwiv_Bt3-c

Edited by Alesia_BH, 22 February 2014 - 08:38 AM.

[Grond0]

Gate70 wrote...
Hmm, Grond0 is in the Underdark and a typical early morning session could see him close the gap significantly. Good luck and don't get careless

Regrettably I had some work to do, so didn't have a lot of time left to play catch-up.  However, Inti has managed a reasonable amount of progress in the Underdark.


Inti - elf wild mage (update 7)

In the Underdark Carlig provided a few spell upgrades.  Project image is particularly useful (mainly for multiplying available summons), but freedom was also purchased to release a trapped mage.  On the way to get his spell book back Inti released the contents of a giant soul gem.  Summons did the hard work there except for Alchra Diagott who burnt up in an incendiary cloud while concentrating on a mordy sword.  Another cloud and a couple of ADHWs meant the colonies failed to release any spores and Inti moved on to the deep gnome village.  The balor there didn't stand a chance against a planetar and Inti returned to Vithal.

After defeating the elementals Vithal was left to fight some skeleton warriors.  He was able to defeat them with the help of a couple of imprisonments, but an incendiary cloud lured him into the clutches of a planetar, while Inti stayed well away. The haul from that included a timestop scroll as well as taking Inti to level 27.

The first area to be explored was the kuo-toa, where neither the prince nor the demon knights had any answer to summons.

For the beholder hive Inti entered invisibly as normal to get out of eyesight of the elder orb before true sight was cast.  A planetar then killed the drow and that elder orb.  A second planetar was imprisoned by the second elder orb - it then survived an incendiary cloud and killed one mordy sword, before falling to a second.  Inti's project images (using farsight) allowed him to finish off the rest of the area without resting.  Got level 28 in there somewhere.

The illithid area didn't start well.  In the first combat with umber hulks Inti initially brought out the berserk warrior, before following up with a planetar.  I think the former must have hit the latter while confused as it got annoyed - and was still there waiting when Inti turned up for the next combat! That meant he had to run round (using a rare potion of speed) for quite some time until the planetar finally got fed up chasing.  After that things were easy, with mordy swords occupying the attention of enemies while skeleton warriors and planetars followed up.  Rather than control any illithid Inti just got them to chase him near doorways he wanted to open.  I thought a full collection of summons would be able to kill the master brain, but the planetar had more problems than usual in vorpalling the brain golems and Inti had to refresh the attack to finish them off.  Inti got level 29 there fairly early on and releasing the slaves got him up to level 30.

[Grond0]

The MLP assault on Ascension sounds like fun Alesia - I'll look forward to seeing / hearing it!

[Gate70]

Carthusian XII had one final outing last night. His final update too.

Sendai seemed a long way off so he decided to scout out the location of Abazigal and ended up playing with Draconis. A simple task until the dragon behind the man emerged.

Carthusian took a few de-buffs and gently prised apart the dragon defences, until a heal from injured took place. Further dragon baiting took place, slightly injuring Draconis. The invisible stalkers were proving troublesome and Carthusian used hide in shadows to avoid them while Draconis used his sharp vision to take aim with buffets and dragon breath. Many stalkers died from acid exposure in this way but even more were summoned. At times it felt like there were 50 or so stalkers, unable to hit Carthusian but a serious blockage to movement whether visible or not.

Carthusian had been badly wounded once or twice by this stage and at one point was surrounded by stalkers and unable to move away. He bashed away but as quick as one stalker fell more moved into position. Draconis failed to help with a dragon breath, badly wounding the monk but eventually solved this dilemma with a wing buffet. Carthusian was thrown out of the stalker pack and moved away.

After another 30-45 minutes of this cat & mouse game Carthusian added a scroll of protection from acid and broke down several stoneskins. He then decided to use a second scroll and potions of heroism / invulnerability. As soon as they were glugged Draconis cast Remove Magic and Carthusian went back to his steady wear-down.

A back-pack check. Short Sword of Mask was unimproved, otherwise would be the ideal choice, if Draconis is susceptible to level drain. Carthusian tried the Answerer and managed 3 GWW attacks but had to retreat. He glugged a couple of extra healing potions to reduce the recovery time and headed back in. This time he stayed a bit too long and took serious damage and failed a breath save as he dodged between stalkers. Not much of a snack left for Draconis.

(managed not to hidey-hole during that combat but end result is disappointing and this brown dragon remains a significant risk for my monks with his constant de-buffs and stoneskins. I think I'd worked out how many hits to apply then GWW as the stoneskin was about to collapse last time, didn't think of that until this morning)

[Serg BlackStrider]

Feel sad of both MP duo's and Carthusian's fate, guys... 

[Grond0]

Inti - elf wild mage (8th and final update)
(stupid boy)

The usual summons triggered the drow ambush on the bridge before Inti spoke to Adalon and entered the drow city.  After doing some shopping Inti set off to rescue Phaere - a planetar dealing with one ambush before another helped with the rescue.  She was saved with the help of an ADHW.

Inside the city a beholder fell to improved haste MMM before Inti gave Phaere a second hand helmet and a second hand cloak.  At the temple she handed over her DNA samples before switching round eggs, much to the dismay of the Matron Mother and Phaere.  Adalon was pleased to get her eggs back, providing Inti with his 31st and final level, and he soon talked his way past some elves and arrived back at Athkatla.

After rearranging equipment Inti went straight to confront Bodhi - she managed to subvert a planetar, but it kept attacking her anyway (goaded on by an incendiary cloud) and she finally gave up the struggle.  After resting (to allow the planetar to disappear) Inti picked up the Lanthorn and returned to General Elhan (some dubious travellers on the way being successfully convinced that Inti was not Inti).

In Suldanesselar Inti used invisibility to bypass most encounters, though he did bring out a planetar for Raamilat and used a couple of ADHWs to save Demin.  I thought the combination of his incendiary clouds and the planetar's fire storms would kill Nizi, but the combination of magic resistance and a couple of heal's kept him going.  Deciding to rely on summons Inti started producing skeleton warriors only to get a no-save hold wild surge - the first for a long time.  Luckily Nizi did not choose that moment to start investigating where all the fire had come from.  While Nizi was occupied with a couple of mordy swords and some skeleton warriors Inti threw a helping of energy blades at him - taking him to near death.  This time he failed to heal and a skeleton warrior found a critical to finish him off.

I was conscious that I was taking a slight risk in the encounter with Nizi, but didn't learn from that - par for the course about this stage of runs!  In the temple I thought I would have another go at trying the combination of fire storm and incendiary cloud to try and get rid of Suneer, although there were lots of easier ways to do it.  That resulted in Inti using the staff to reapply invisibility whenever Suneer's true sight hit him, but I wasn't careful enough in doing that and the mage got too close to Inti - with inevitable results.

[corey_russell]

@Alesia: Good luck with the MLP assault on Ascension! I agree with Grond0, sounds fun...catchy tunes by the way...

@Gate70: Sad to hear of Carthusian's fate...I once played an all monk party (with reloads), and in my install my monks could use wands (vanilla behavior), and my monks still couldn't beat up Draconis - I actually abandoned the run at this point.
@Grond0 - If you were at your level cap, I wonder why you fought those guys - if you put the blade, goblet, and the 3rd thing in the temple center the Leaflord will destroy all the enemies for you. Oddly, you have to do this while visible for this to work. Regardless, sorry to see your run end.

Edited by corey_russell, 22 February 2014 - 01:41 PM.

[Alaestr]

Condolences for both of you, Grond0 and Gate70. Wish you better luck next time.

[Alaestr]

Joniren, the brave blade. Update No.7
I mentioned that I will cheese liches, so here it goes. The annoying thing about SCS liches is that they have Remove Magic in chain contingencies and sometimes they summon Corubru (I can't remember the correct name) - demon who can see through invisibility, teleports and casts nasty lightning bolts. If one was to attack the lich while being under the influence of PrU scroll, lich would try to dispel it by releasing Remove Magic contingency (on self). I prepared accordingly - Protection from Undead scroll and SI:A. I used Azuredge and the effects were as follow:
Gate Lich
Bridge Lich]
Temple Sewers Lich
Kangaxx]
Only Kangaxx managed to summon a Demon, which I killed from the distance (I gulped the potion of 100% resistance to lightning first). Finish was with the Daystar melee. And somehow in this run I didn't see a single Remove Magic contingency.
I cleared the planar prison next (update on that later).

Edited by Alaestr, 22 February 2014 - 04:09 PM.

[corey_russell]

Reem the solo fighter/cleric Update

Reem continues to make progress. He solved the Umar Hills murder problem. Turns out it was a lot of undead. Some undead he could destroy outright with turn undead, but the more powerful ones like greater mummies, skeletal warriors and of course bone golems required melee. Took a ton heal potions but he did clear the undead. He got lucky somehow and the 2nd group of undead didn't want to spawn - just as well, not a whole lot of heal potions left.

Time for the "rematch" with Thaxxy - I went crazy for a sec and forgot to resist fear when the fight started - I realized my mistake immediately and cast resist fear before the dragon could take advantage of it. Reem then went to the "cubbyhole" and tried to use his throwing hammer, but it appears to be bugged like the Azuredge and does no damage to Thaxxy. So instead he switched to his sling of seeking (after doing righteous magic and DUHM of course for STR 25 hits) and barreled into Thaxxy - took quite a while, but the sling did in fact win the battle!

Shade Lord was defeated basically by massive cleric buffs, most important perhaps being death ward and CC - success!

Hendak's request to clear out the rest of slavers was completed without any incident. Lilacor obtained too, though only to immediately sell it.

Money was good, so Shield of Balduran obtained and decided needed to clear the way to Unseeing Eye sewers. Thus, Tarnor's gang dealt with. Summon distractions, Reem max buffed and he used his throwing hammer almost the entire time. He had a haste potion active, so he ran around a lot to break the enemies into smaller groups. At one point it was just Tarnor throwing his returning axe at Reem, with Reem throwing his returning throwing hammer at Tarnor - Reem won that duel. More summon distractions summoned for Gaius, just in case, and rest of Tarnor's gang taken out without further ado.

When triggering the web trap trying to talk to Gaal to open up the first lich, Reem had put up free action first. The lich itself was taken out with pro undead scroll, as was the other lich in the bridge district.

Kangaxx fight/bug:
Kangaxx battle should have been smooth, Reem used the giantkin warhammer and pro magic scroll. But he ran into a BIG bug - Reem was hasted, so the warhammer hits were coming fast and furious - he got the lich form to near death, the lich tried to talk - I tried to acknowledge the dialog but the dialog disappeared as somehow my character got a hit in! Thus, the kangaxx lich form would take thousands of damage but refuse to die and didn't do the dialog. I was just going to do the run without the ring, but Kangaxx was blocking Reem's escape! Thus Kangaxx was unkillable (but should be) but same time blocking Reem's escape - I was forced to reload.

The second time around, I used almost the same strategy, EXCEPT I didn't haste until after the demi-lich spawned - this way I didn't interrupt the dialog, and thus Gaxx ring was obtained after all...

[Alesia_BH]

Grond0 wrote...
The MLP assault on Ascension sounds like fun Alesia - I'll look forward to seeing / hearing it!

corey_russell wrote...
@Alesia: Good luck with the MLP assault on Ascension! I agree with Grond0, sounds fun...catchy tunes by the way...

Thanks guys. I do think there's a lot of fun potential here.

And the songs are surprisingly good aren't they? When the idea of cutting videos with MLP songs came to mind, I surfed over to Youtube with very low expectations. The first one I clicked on was the Applejack song, Raise This Barn, and my jaw just dropped: it seemed spot on perfect for the Yaga-Shura fight. I was unexpectedly pleased with the others as well.


Best,

A.

 

[corey_russell]

Reem the solo level 14 fighter/level 14 cleric Update

So Reem continues his quest...he took care of the murders in the bridge district...well sort of, the murderer got away...before dealing with that hostile party in the bridge district (whoever they are), Reem buffed to the max - he had so many buffs, his icon was full...and he buffed like 7 more that couldn't show...it was devastating, so worth it...

Reem also took care of the Unseeing Eye cult problem...he used pro undead scroll on the large group of undead, protection from petrification on the trap, and shield of balduran on the beholders, and ariel servants x2 plus 2x silence on the blind priests group. He also used firestorm on Gaal's forces...doing all of this got Reem his first HLA - he picked Deva.

He immediately put the Deva to good use - he sanctuaried past Captain Dennis' group, put up his deva and had the deva do globe of blades and the deva attacked...the deva was devastating...

All of Reem's saves are very negative except petrify which is at 3. He's doing well, I'll try to keep it up...

[polytope]

Alaestr wrote...

I steered my deadly blady machine to DeArnise fortress and measured myself against trolls. They weren't even remotely difficult. I grabbed the Flail of Ages and descended into basement. I used Lilarcoc to defend myself against confusions, but it seems like the protection on the sword doesn't work - i still saw the saves vs spells in the log.

Lilarcor works alright, it's different from the protection provided by, say, a Globe of Invulnerability against Confusion in that you still see saving throws rolled but you don't get confused if you fail your save.

Eryx and party continued; if no-one remembers, this is the overpowered party I've made from my past no-reload candidates, none of whom made it.

Four of the party leveled up by smashing golems in the planar sphere core, with both Randolph the sorc and Leksa the swash -> cleric getting level 14 (7th level spells would be handy vs Tolgerias, not that it mattered) Aragrish the barb also hit level 14 (which was not a big deal) and Artemisia the archer 13 (which is a big deal, for warrior classes that means a nice +2 to saves and an extra 1/2 attack).

Eryx got level 17 upon returning the sphere to the city and taking Lavok to see the sun for a last time.

It must be time to give the gem back to Raelis & Haer and then rescue them from the planar prison, a usual source of frustration if not deaths for me with SCS: The prison is full of... snakes, to paraphrase Indy - why did it have to be snakes?

While fighting the first bunch of Yuan-Ti mages (actually, they were all dead, had great luck with Remove Magic this time) Eryx got moved sideways by one of the enemy mages' teleport fields (the elf mage who was still hanging around) and seen by the Master of Thralls before I wanted to. Rather than try and fight him (and the mage) in a telefield I just ran away, sure enough, he teleported to the party and didn't last long. Have to remember that one.

Now for the warden and his snakes, this was kind of awkward.

Immediately after the warden sees Eryx, his nearby Yuan-Ti mage fires a spell sequencer with Haste and Fire Shield, so Eryx throws Remove Magic at them (no point casting it at the Warden, I'm too low leveled to dispel him), but the other two mages hadn't triggered their buffs yet! So the party ended up fighting two buffed snake mages alongside the warden.

The Warden lasts long enought to cast a few offensive spells: PW:Blind on our sorc, causing his Ruby Ray to fail (the lack of Spell Turning or similar in his book is becoming a headache), followed by a spell sequencer with remove magic and malison (this spell and telefield are the reasons why I prefer proper globe to minor globe, can't spare a slot for it yet though) and spell trigger with 3x chaos (no vulnerable party members in range).



Leksa cast Holy Word in an attempt to shut down the enemy casters, but then had her buffs dispelled and the improved Yuan-Ti's (the regular ones, not the mages) managed to poison her and cast fear on her (she saved against the latter, it would be bad to be running around in fear while poisoned...) she moved out of the warden's sight, used a scroll of Neutralize poison (which has been floating around my backpack since Improved Ilyich dungeon) then on the next round cast Greater Command, incapacitating the two surviving Yuan-Ti mages - the warden bit the dust around the same time. 

The fight was over at this point, nothing to do but breach them so we don't freeze ourselves on their blue fireshields.

I can see some problems with my execution though.

Randolph would've been quite vulnerable to Finger of Death after Malison from the warden. Spirit armor and other buffs usually keep his save vs spells negative, so I didn't use Death Ward, I'm also used to relying on Improved Invisibility to protect him from single target spells but that's no good against a demon who sees through invisibility. Leksa was moving slowly after getting dispelled + poisoned and could've easily been permakilled by say a Dragon's Breath spell (warden didn't survive long enough to use any HLAs though). Aleks the PoL -> fighter was in one hit-kill range from wilting after getting hit by a 2x melf sequencer from a Yuan-Ti mage and a few magic missiles (LOL, enemies still cast melf's acid arrow on him for spell disruption, even though he hasn't got his priest levels back yet... a case of smarter AI being too smart for its own good), he would've also been in PW:Kill range, but had DW and they didn't have time to breach him either. Also I just realized I didn't have a Rod of Resurrection, so getting my cleric killed here would be extra bad; I don't use that rod in combat so left it (I think) in a box in Ribald's store.

Oh well. Still no deaths yet, Watcher's Keep beckons...

Edited by polytope, 23 February 2014 - 04:10 PM.

[Alesia_BH]

Still no deaths yet, Watcher's Keep beckons...

Nice work Polytope! Good luck with WK!

malison (this spell and telefield are the reasons why I prefer proper globe to minor globe

Agreed. The ability to protect against Malison without contributing to a bottleneck at L5 justifies taking GoI.   

Best,

A.

Edited by Alesia_BH, 23 February 2014 - 09:23 PM.

[cuttysark]

Dostoevsky the Elven Sorceror, L9.

I'm beginning my first BG2 no reload run, just a few days after Alaestr, but without SCS (still haven't figured out how to install any WeiDu mods on my Mac). Dostoevsky joins us from his solo victory in BG1.

I rolled a test sorcerer and sallied forth ahead of D-Man just to get a feel for the BG2 solo game. My test died vs. the posse of mephits in the Air Zone of Irenicus' dungeon, and then again vs. what must be a Finger of Death trap in the central chest in Pebblecrusher's room. Based on that intel I decided to depend heavily on spider summons for Dostoevsky's run, and to avoid that chest. I'm disappointed that the game doesn't tell you the nature of the trap you spring. You just have to know based on the animation. But sometimes there isn't any animation at all, sometimes 'trap sprung' and nothing happens, and sometimes you make a successful save vs. spell, and you can't tell what the trap was, so you learn nothing for future runs.

Anyway, Dostoevsky gingerly tiptoed through Irenicus' dungeon. I decided to go totally solo to keep the feel of the BG1 run, so he had to make do without a thief disarming traps. He discovered that his spider summons were able to target enemies outside his own visual range. So pretty much the entire dungeon was eliminated simply by summoning 3 or 4 spiders, hasting them, and sending them off to fight unseen foes.

Dungeon beaten, Pebblecrusher was next. The first attempt was pitifully unsuccessful, because before Dostoevsky cast his first web, he accidentally moved within visual range of Mencar, so that the whole party went hostile before the webs had time to take effect. The wizards sent a couple of spells his way, so he ran downstairs...and then when he returned, he found that his webs had disappeared. So this fight required a rest, and then a second attempt, which followed the same pattern, but was much more successful. Nice side effect of the web is that the thief Riesling has no chance to run away.

After winning the fight Dostoevsky is at L10>11, but hasn't levelled up yet until I plan out my next spell picks. Next stop is the Copper Coronet.

Also: does anyone know where the nearest potion case and ammo belt are? Inventory management is awfully tricky. It'll be a long frustrating wait til Dostoevsky reaches the bag of holding in Spellhold.

Edited by cuttysark, 24 February 2014 - 09:47 AM.

[corey_russell]

@Cuttysark: the rules say you don't need to play the inventory game - if you are solo, by all means SK a bag of holding for yourself, this is pretty standard for solos in BG 2. As to your question, ammo belt is in Watcher's Keep 1st level, and the only potion bag I know of is the Watcher's Keep merchant - you have to accept the WK quest before you can buy the potion case from her.

[Grond0]

Krak - dwarven barbarian (update 1 - rage against the machine)

Having completed BG1 Krak has bludgeoned his way out of the dungeon.  As in BG1 I am trying to only allow him to fight while raged.  There was one occasion in the dungeon where I forgot to do that, but not when it would have made any difference. 

The most damage he took was in the portal room, when his second rage was interrupted and he only just finished the last of the portals before his final rage expired.  Krak has 2 LMD Bhaal powers, but has virtually never used them.  However, one did come in handy to provide the finishing touch for Ulvaryl before she could turn into bat form and escape.

Here's Krak's record on exit from the dungeon: