15228 replies to this topic

[Aasim]

Grond0, this is a promising run. Take care.

[polytope]

Eryx the blade, final adventures of Chapter 3

 

Eryx reached level 19 while fighting some mists that infest Coran's cabin in the forest of Tethir (BGTweaks makes these areas available early), I didn't really want to go here as the pathfinding gets really annoying, anyway, buffed before tackling the wyvern cultists and Yuan Ti mage, but didn't bother rebuffing before fighting the Kuo Toans in the cave - bad move, a Kuo whip backstabbed Eryx for some nasty damage (the dreaded stoneskin expiry) and my blade had trouble getting enough space to recast stoneskin due to being in a teleport field the Kuo mage had cast... Never underestimate an enemy. Collected about 200 of their imbalanced crossbow bolts, which can be loaded into Firetooth to make it even more uber.

 

Level 19 was important for the THAC0 bonus and harder to dispel buffs, since glabrezu (according to SCS readme) cast at 17th level. Alright, let's do this.

 

Returned to Watchers Keep demon maze, in the first dead magic room party managed to kill a balor, then two cornugons who were fighing him. Aragrish was the only one who could get into melee range of the cornugons because they have a fear aura and can stun on hit, he was wearing Periapt of Proof against Poison (the bleeding they inflict is considered the same as poison), while Artemisia's used called shot to great effect in weakening the demons. Aragrish got level 16 here.

 

Since this is a scary demon maze, we must be prepared: Spell sequencer (Bernard's scroll) for Eryx containing Haste, Stoneskin and Resist Fear. Spell Trigger (random drop, sorc is still only level 15) for Randolph: Stoneskin, ProMW and Protection from Magic Energy (to foil Unholy Blight).

 

Also prepared a contingency for both arcane casters, (condition: see enemy) to trigger a globe of Invulnerability for Eryx (protecting against Confusion) and Pro Fire for Randolph.

 

A little explanation: In my game improved Balors use instacast Firestorm, Implosion and a permanent Aura of Flaming Death along with their ususal Symbol Spells, and Remove Magic. They also have a vorpal attack (which is fortunately foiled by Death Ward, unlike in vanilla) and a lot more hp and physical damage resistance.

 

Glabrezu use instacast Mirror Image, PW:Stun, Confusion, Unholy Blight and Remove magic.

 

Succubi are much like vanilla.

 

Lacking spell protections, Aleks and Artemisia are obviously vulnerable to PW:Stun if injured (Aleks only has 96 hp unbuffed, wearing Sensate Amulet and plate & helm of Balduran) and are guaranteed to be targeted if they get low in health; have to be quick with the extra healing potions!

 

Prebuffed before the dead magic zone with spell deflection/turning and Shield of the Archons for Leksa, which are not dispelled. Randolph used multiple spell immunities (conjuration, enchantment and abjuration), I don't like to stack them (seems cheesy), but I have no choice here. Eryx used Weapons Display for the THAC0 bonus.

 

Met Tahazzar, he hates my blade because he's lawful, the battle starts.

 

Round one: Eryx and Randolph using their sequencer and trigger, Aleks cast Defensive Harmony, Leksa cast Death Ward on Aragrish and Artemisia used a potion of icedust (the balor's first move is likely to be firestorm). Eryx and Aleks attack Succubus in melee, Aragrish attacks Yochlol (that one has good THAC0, but very few hp), everyone else fans out so as not to all be caught by Remove Magic. 

 

Tahazzar cast his Firestorm at Aleks on the east side of the room, which was good as we don't have to fight in a Firestorm.

 

 

Round two: Eryx casts pro fire on Aleks, Leksa also contributes Chaotic Commands and Aleks drinks a potion of storm giant strength (not even going to try casting DUHM in the midst of combat) now he's ready to switch shield of Harmony for Defender of Easthaven Flail and melee Tahazzar, especially since Randolph has breached the big guy's Stoneskins (don't ask me why he has Stoneskin).

 

Round three: Artemisia uses called shot to soften Tahazzar, Eryx casts ProMW, Randolph casts Imp. Haste on Aragrish (who got his haste dispelled by a glabrezu), Aragrish uses Vhailor's helm and both barbarians attack Tahazzar (they take some damage from his firey aura, since they're wearing Vhailor's helm instead of the helm of Defense, switching helms in combat is possible but seems like a dirty exploit to me). Aleks gets breached by Tahazzar (don't ask me why he can cast that either), so has to retreat. Leksa recast DW on Aragrish.

 

Now here things start going wrong.

 

Randolph gets disabled by... wait for it... the giant spider the Yochlol summoned, SCS gives these blighters the ability to web you. Leksa even had Free Action memorized, but got confused by a glabrezu.

 

 

Tahazzar dies, but the fight is far from over with two of the party out of action and three Glabrezus spamming Unholy Blight and Mirror Image (Leksa is the only one who could detect illusions...), Aragrish had to use a couple of potions of Superior Healing and was down to 35 out of 150 hp at one point, good thing he was wearing the Girdle of Inertial Barrier!

 

Note that... dare I say it... GHASTLY shower of sparks as the Maurezhi hits Eryx, yeah, my PC would've been paralyzed then if I didn't have Arbane's offhand (Adjatha mainhand, because of the succubus).

 

 

Anyway, Aragrish finally kills the succubus who'd turned ethereal earlier, meaning Eryx can now switch to Celestial Fury, and give the damn glabrezu a taste of their own medicine by stunning them! Aragrish at last has a window of time to use Ilbratha and help Eryx and Aleks finish of the remaining demons.

 

And that concludes todays feature-length epsiode. Definitely the most intense (and most fun) battle thus far. Just got to escape this maze now...

 

Current party:

 

Eryx, blade 19

Aleks, priest of Lathander 11 -> fighter 13

Randolph, sorcerer 15

Leksa, swashbuckler 10 -> cleric 16

Artemisia, archer 14

Aragrish the Cliched, barbarian 16

[Aasim]

Polytope, congrats on doing this battle. Reading on it, I'm fairly certain I won't be fighting it prior ToB, if I ever get this far that is. Great job in keeping everybody alive. I'm stuck with with two <40 HP characters in my run, so PW spells will be a major pain to deal with. 

[Grond0]

Krak - dwarven barbarian (update 8 - fearsome rage)

 

Some more quick progress this morning has left Krak with only Melissan to face.  I think I've only got this far a couple of times in single player (and never beaten her), so Krak may struggle, but I'll be trying to give him the best chance of success.

 

At Sendai's enclave Krak reviewed the graves and confronted the drow woodcutter.  Not all the drow had weapons that could hit him, which allowed him to plough through them with the use of rage and half a dozen GWWs.

 

He made steady progress through drow, spiders and umber hulks before encountering Thelynn'ss - picking up another option for improved haste there.  He chased down the slave master invisibly and killed him before moving on without bothering with many of the slaves.  More drow led to Odamaron - Krak just used his hammer on him, though he also brought out a rare summons to try and encourage the lich out of invisibility.

 

Ogremoch and his earth elementals tasted the FoA, while Diaytha and her crew got hammered.  I couldn't remember whether creeping doom would affect Krak through the Cloak of Mirroring, so had fun running it round the area in between killing the opposition - here it is still after him as the Hive Mother breathes her last.

 

Captain Egeissag put up a pitiful display for his team and Mithykyl fared no better before Krak rested in readiness for Sendai.

Statue 1 - hammered with normal attacks.

Statue 2 - killed by its own pit fiend.

Statue 3 - Blackrazor GWW (now out of sight of #4 used item based fire resistance to heal against fire shields of drow mages)

Statue 4 - Blackrazor normal attacks

Statue 5 - with rages rapidly running out Krak got more serious using up a couple of GWWs, including one with a normal bastard sword to defeat PFMW.

Statue 6 - hammer GWW with same rage used on Statue 5.

Statue 7 - Blackrazor GWW.

Sendai - hammer GWW looked like it should have killed her, but didn't (I suspect she hadn't finished her required scripts).  Krak was now on to his last rage so he used an arrow of dispelling to get rid of a stoneskin and another for mirror images, but didn't manage to kill Sendai before she teleported away - leaving him stuck behind lots of summons.  Fighting through them used his last 2 GWWs, but he did finally manage to finish Sendai off with a Gaxx haste just before his rage expired.  

There were a couple of sword spiders still active when he came back from a discussion with the solar, but he just left those alone.

 

My rule that Krak can only fight while enraged has only rarely been a real constraint during this run, but certainly made things considerably more difficult against Sendai - due to both the number of opponents and the fact that several of them used magical protections.  I probably should have used summons to support him during the early stages, or even resorted to Vhailor's Helm (I've been saving that for the tougher battles in ToB, but I think this one qualified).

 

Returning to his Pocket Plane Krak upgraded Firetooth before undertaking his 3rd challenge - the slayer going down during his second rage to GWWs from FoA / Blackrazor.

 

Next up was Abazigal's Lair.  In preparation for Draconis Krak changed into his Shadow Dragon Scale armour and used a green scroll.  It didn't take long for the dragon to emerge from the man.  Initially Krak ran round a bit waiting for PFMW to expire; he lost his acid protection doing that and had to use another green scroll.  He equipped the Defender of Easthaven in his off-hand for the first time before turning to engage again.  The FoA did a bit of damage while wearing through stoneskins and GWWs got Draconis to near death, but unfortunately Krak then had to break off combat when his rage expired and his attempt to renew it was interrupted - Draconis immediately took the opportunity to heal.  With several GWWs already gone I decided this constituted a rainy day so brought out Krak's simmy for the first time and the two of them were able to progress quick enough to prevent Draconis healing again.

 

After a dragon the tunnels were simple and it didn't take long (other than having a rest) for Krak to make his way to Abazigal's lair (sub-contracting to Bondari on the way and picking up some Bronze Pantalettes).  Before taking on Abazigal Krak hammered all the salamanders and then brought out his simmy again.  The combined assault soon resulted in a dragon appearing and Krak's rage once again proved its worth to deflect maze.  

A couple of GWWs later and Abazigal had had enough.

 

The 4th challenge was no real obstacle to a barbarian immune to backstabs and Krak was soon making his way to Amkethran.  He got the BMU forged and wore that to invade Balthazar's domain - the BMR's frag grenades proving handy to get quickly through a group of mages on the way.  

Balthazar struggled to survive one GWW, but was no threat and Krak was soon back in his Pocket Plane.

 

After resting he took on his 5th challenge.  I was thinking to just use Foebane here, but the Ravager was immune to it's LMD effect.  Without the extra HPs from that it looked like being touch and go who would have died first so Krak retreated a bit and used Blackrazor to heal himself on the bone blades while the Ravager injured himself a tiny bit more against the reflection shield.  Once back at full HPs, Krak took a fresh rage and attacked the Ravager again with Foebane.  However, he starting taking damage much quicker than I expected and I realised that his hardiness had expired.  He probably could have finished the Ravager off then anyway, but I let him retreat briefly to heal up again before engaging for the final time.

[Gate70]

Well done Grond0, good luck with the remainder. Remember you will have something like 7 battles without rest on the Throne You can save before each pool which is handy because this area can take a long time if you don't have a killer strategy etc.

Some hints below if you want them, but bear in mind I can't remember this 100%.

Spoiler

Melissan does at least one timestop.
I can't remember if she casts maze, think her hits might dispel.
Her damage is mainly piercing.
I would use one hardiness per encounter with her and not bother against the pool-folk.
I would save my GWW's for her too.

Bottom left pool.
Yan C Bin is immune to the air staff vorpals, his elementals are not.
Immune to +1 weapons is helpful against his drainer wraiths if you have it (e.g. Aslyferund).

Think Melissan Timestops after the first pool.

Bottom right pool.
Cryonax is super-cool so > 100% cold resistance will give free healing.
> 100% fire resistance will also help.
His salamanders should all be vulnerable to the Wave halberd.

Think Melissan might teleport behind the essence flow part way through her third interruption. Easy to miss so if she vanishes pause the game and look for her carefully instead of wasting time on the minions.

Top right pool.
The succubus requires huge saves, think it was at -8.
The Fallen Solar might have a vorpal effect. Shield of Reflection is handy.

Melissan
Flail of Ages +5 is very useful with free action.
Slowing Mel down with the FoA helps as she can't spam her actions as quickly.
One BMG ammo goes through Mel's stoneskin from memory. Can't remember if pulse or scorcher though.

[Grond0]

Krak - dwarven barbarian (9th and final update - dying omnipotent rage)

 

I was expecting to do some multiplayer with Gate70 this morning.  However, connection problems prevented that so Krak got to grips with Melissan instead!

 

Krak pre-buffed with a protection from magic scroll, and a few potions along with rage.  With the BMU and a girdle of piercing that gave him an effective AC of -30 against a spear, which is enough for some of Mel's attacks to miss.  On arrival he tried an arrow of dispelling, without effect, and switched to the FoA; once slow took effect he moved on to Foebane and Melissan made a run for it during the third of Krak's GWWs (without having tried a timestop).

 

For the air elementals Krak used improved haste and FoA / Blackrazor with Belm (didn't want to use  air elemental staff as Krak is non-proficient with that so loses too many APR).  A single rage comfortably killed that lot.

 

I started the second battle with Melissan just using the same setup as for the air elementals.  However, the decreased AC for Krak and the significantly reduced APR (Belm being ineffective) made it much less effective than GWW and Krak switched to that after a couple of rounds.  Two more GWWs saw Melissan retreat again, although Krak had taken significant damage this time (again no time-stop though - possibly the presence of the protection from magic scroll is inhibiting that?).

 

Krak couldn't get across to the second pool without taking off the BMU - and then couldn't put it back on after sighting enemies!  So he took an invisibility potion and moved away a bit to re-equip it.  Improved haste was still running, so he attacked using Belm again - this time with Blackrazor to get some healing.  There was just one half-dead salamander left at the end of Krak's rage and I stretched a point with my rule of no fighting except under rage by summoning the efreeti to finish it off while Krak stood there.

 

He was still about 20 HPs short of full strength, but I decided to continue (to maximise use of scroll of magic protection) rather than waiting to regenerate.  This time Krak attacked immediately with GWW, following Mel when she teleported away.  I thought 3 GWWs would have done enough damage, but Melissan seemed reluctant to go.  In case she was waiting for an opportunity to talk Krak stopped attacking briefly, but she still didn't go.  However, a couple more hits under Gaxx haste did open up the final pool - though there was no conversation that time, so I wonder if something did get interrupted earlier.

 

For the final pool group Krak equipped the reflection shield to protect against the Fallen Solar and used improved haste.  Foebane got some HPs back from the Alufiend, but FoA was used on the mariliths (which resist LMD).  With only 2 rages left after his current one things were looking a bit tight, but Krak chose a good moment to invest in a critical strike - that provided a hit on a critical miss roll that disrupted the solar's attempt to heal and shortly afterwards it died.  

The succubus  was the only remaining opponent and there seemed to be a real danger it would run Krak out of rages by taking ethereal form.  He again responded a bit cheesily by using the staff of fire for the first time to produce some summons to do his work for him.

 

To deal with Melissan's final incarnation Krak positioned the fire elementals to ambush her, along with his simmy.  Melissan used a death spell to get rid of the elementals, but by that time the Kraks were showing (into their second GWW with Melissan already at near death).  Mel tried to restore her power, but to no avail

and moments later she was forced to concede the contest.  

Note Krak's protection from magic scroll is still running here - if that's why Mel never used a timestop it's a pretty useful tactic.  

 

Krak chose to continue his journey into evil as a god .

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congratulations, Grond0!!!

I've restrained myself to not wish you luck in the final fight (as my well-wishes seems to be fatal for your characters...) and I'm happy you've done that... at last!!!

 

Well done! 

[Aasim]

Well done Grond0. Very nice run indeed!

[Grond0]

Thanks both - 10 years well spent I say!

 

I was pleased to meet my target of completing the game enraged (apart from the tweak of using summons in the final fight) as well as abiding by my normal restriction of no healing potions (or rod of resurrection) - though Krak did use one antidote potion in BG1.

[Alaestr]

Congratulations, Grond0 and job well done!

[corey_russell]

Nicely done Grond0. As soon as I can find all the details I need, will put Krak into the hall of heroes.

 

EDIT: Krak has been entered into the Hall of Heroes. Glad to see you finally get a single player trilogy Grond0 - your hundreds of fallen dead characters did not die in vain...

[Grond0]

Glad to see you finally get a single player trilogy Grond0 - your hundreds of fallen dead characters did not die in vain...

Thanks Corey - their shades can indeed rest easy now.

[Gate70]

Nice job, good idea to use the scroll too.

[Epsil0]

Very nicely done, Grond! I wonder: does the scroll of magic protection actually prevent a Timestop from affecting something?

[Aasim]

Entering the BG2 No-Reload, straight from BG1 No-Reload, Ilydan the Cavalier.

Weidu is the same as before since I play BG Trilogy.

 

 

Game started by picking up Minsc, my faithful right-hand man in melee combat. His stats are bit improved by tomes in BG1.

 

 

 

I used Dungeon-be-Gone to leave the damn dungeon, I hope that's ok.

Upon exiting, we got approached by Kivan (Kivan NPC mod for BG2/ToB), we adopted him as well. First thing's first, we spoke to a city guard about some circus issues, only to discover a poor little Gnome was behind it all. We slay him, getting a magical ring in return. IR version doesn't set Charisma to 18, but adds +1 and +2 to AC/saves vs Human oponnents. Ilydan adopts the ring and raises his Charisma to 20.

Adopted Aerie. She's weak as a kitten, but her usefulness is not to 

(On a side-note, Item Revisions revises BG2 "economy" a lot. I no longer get discount for low reputation, get only a sligh discount for high charisma, and stores buy stuff at a much cheaper price, In short, money actually becomes an issue. You can't buy whatever you want, instead, careful planning about items is required)

Entering Slums, we meet some goons in front of Copper and killed them. Accepted Nalia's quest but refused to take her into the party. Investigated CC and freed Hendak, accepted his quest to free children from slavers.

Adopted Yoshimo temporary to disarm sewer petrification trap. Got Lirarcor for Miscs. Traveled to Goverment district, disbanded Yoshimo and took in Xan (Xan NPC mod), an Enchanter. Adopted Jan as well. Talked to Delon. Next area to travel was City Gates, I wanted to avoid Suna Seni for now - took the Trademeet quest and traveled to Umar Hills. 

Got Mimic's blood and killed 2 Umber Hulks there (Polytope - improve those further! Bigger save penalty...)

Got Ilbratha sword - IR version is mostly unchanged, Mirror Image 1xday. Minsc gets it; and Nature's Ward - IR version of Shield of the Lost - adds extra AC vs Unnatural creatures. Ilydan equips this shield.

I didn't want to travel out of city yet, so we returned to the big city (Docks), took Shadow thieves quest about Mae'var. Role-playing aside, I need money. Bought Nymph Cloak there - IR version adds +2 Charisma and +2 Save vs Spells. Ilydan gets this for a further store discount. 

Mae'var wants us to steal from a temple. En route, Suna  Seni ambush.

I expected it, so we pre-buffed.

 

Just for note, I still decline use of any kind of invisibility on Ilydan or Minsc.

Upon getting ambushed, we immediately scattered around, Minsc uses his Rage, Ilydan uses Challenge Evil (I want him to be focused).

Aerie starts to cast Slow; Jan uses his skill in detecting illusions. Minsc and Kivan focus the cleric, while Ilydan charges the fighters.

 

Illusions get removed, Aerie's slow takes great effect, cleric is killed. Battle is won shortly after, even though Minsc got charmed (I don't switch weapons to resist such effects, and he prefers Sword of Chaos over Lirarcor for now)

 

Still under some buffs (Xan without Stoneskin however) we change our destination from Temple to Bridge district, forcing another encounter. Xan runs back immidiately, since a backstab might chunk him.

This battle proved much harder than Suna Seni - Minsc got charmed again, Kivan got held twice, we ate a big damage Unholy Blight and had to spend a lot of potions. Having expending most of our disables on Suna Seni cost us dearly.

Ilydan was under Aerie's Free Action, hence immune to most disables (apart Confusion, but they didn't use it). He still took a big deal of damage. Jan's detect illusions skill proved very useful once again. 

 

Of course, due to "Revised XP tables" both Jan and Aerie are very, very slow on level-ups. It's like having a paladin/ranger recieving half the EXP they would have instead. I'll miss Aerie's level 5 spell slots dearly I recon... 

 

Took the posioned man to Harpers, agreed to invesitage Unseeing Eye, took on one of Xan's quests (a rather insignificant one, but it can be leathal so I decided to postpone it a bit), destroyed the fallen paladins, solved skinner murders. 

Killed Crypt King at the Graveyard. With IR, he no longer has Namarra, instead he holds Albruin bastard sword - IR version has immunity to poison and luminous property - target hit must save vs spells or be rendered unable to hide and suffering a -2 AC penalty. It's Ilydan's weapon for now. It's only +1 enchanted.

Killed Edwin without accepting his quest. Attacked Mae'var's hideout. Ilydan&Minsc killed cleric fast, and Xan managed to succesfully cast Chaos, which in turn made all thieves fail their saves. I don't have any anti-magic, or even Breach memorized yet, so Kivan shot Mae'var with arrows to avoid Fireshield backlash.

Easy peasy.

 

Sold a lot of stuff, payed the Shadow thieves. Finshed Harper's quest about Montaron. Decided to do another "easy" quest by destroying Slavers boat. Almost ended the run there.  Minsc constantly got charmed (I decided to almost exclusivly use Lirarcor now), it was horribly played. Dying to the acid trap would be just icing on the cake I guess. A lot of potions were used up.

 

Regardless, we survived. Unfortunately, Hendak does not give you IR Lawgiver (aka +3 vs Shapeshifters sword) anymore. It has to be bought at Helm Temple, but I save money for other items - I bought Mace of Disruption - no longer at Vampire pool of blood, it's bought at Lathander Temple. 

Visited Aran Linvail, got Amulet of Power. IR version - adds +2 caster level bonus, +1 spell slots for level 1-4. No more NPP or casting speed bonus (Metaspell influence amulet has +1 to casting speed however). Aerie gets this as her amulet, Metaspell is on Xan.

Finished Aran's first 2 quests (Mook and traitors).

Survived what is (imo) the hardest ambush encounter of them all (I simply ran away from Orogs. One must be very careful about casting stoneskin here, interruption means death usually). To Trademeet it is.

 

Things were going rather smoothly in the Druid Grove (had some trouble against Spore Colonies, not AoE damage is killing me coupled with relatively low apr. Kivan just doesn't cut it yet without a powerful bow).

Decided to take on Rakshasas (everybody is level 10, Aerie and Jan 9/9). Kivan has no +2 arrows so doesn't enter the area. He could still hit 2 of 3 Rakshasas, but I didn't know that (also, a chest there holds 40 +2 Acid Arrows, but I didn't know that also.)

Big mistake.

Their first move is to remove most of our buffs; not that we have much to work with anyway.

 

Jan and Xan protect themselves with what they have available - stoneskin for Jan and mirror image for Xan.

They follow with standard Web/Cloud tactics. Cloud sets attack per round to 0 on a failed save. I had only one Free Action potion and Ilydan drinks it immidiately.

 

Next, Confusion. Ilydan fails his save. Minsc is wielding Lirarcor so is immune. Aerie is webbed and cannot cast Break Enchantement on Ilydan. Not much I can do now, since Rakshasas are immune to every spell we have.

 

Aerie saves vs Web. I wait for damage tick from Acid Arrow (crafty bastards, those SCS mages, always target spellcasters with Acid)

and Aerie releases Gust of Wind (Zone of Sweet Air basically). It cleares away poison cloud.

 

 

Meanwhile, Minsc fails to save vs Web and is getting beaten up by Raks.

 

 

Xan tries to draw some fire away, at least he has a few mirror images, or so I tought. Both him and Minsc die. Aerie casts Free Action onto herself. Jan succums to Sleep (KR also nerfs shortie saving throws. Max +3 bonus, not +5)

 

Aerie's Break Enchantement spell finally comes. Ilydan is free from confusion effect. Let's give those monsters some pain.

 

Ilydan uses his innate Divine power to buff up, and kills .Ihtafeer. Kivan comes in to help. I tought Raks were immune to +1 weapons, but they aren't. Kivan wouldn't help much against Ihtafeer since he was under Protection from Missiles (with Spell Revisons, only Arrows of Dispelling go through Pro Missiles, it foils all missile attack including daggers, axes etc.) It's a very powerful spell. Jan helped a lot with removing illusions when he woke up. With Kivan's help, battle is soon won.

 

 

We kill some Shambling Mounds/Spiders/Bears/Druids, disband (temporary) Jan and adopt Cernd. With SCS Cernd will die against Faldorn if left to fight in a cutscene, so I took him in my party for the battle.

More to come....

[Grond0]

Very nicely done, Grond! I wonder: does the scroll of magic protection actually prevent a Timestop from affecting something?

I haven't experimented with it, but it seems possible - that would help explain why Melissan didn't want to use Timestop ...

[Aasim]

I haven't experimented with it, but it seems possible - that would help explain why Melissan didn't want to use Timestop ...

It most certainly doesn't.

[Grond0]

I'll bow to your superior knowledge then .  It still may be the reason no timestop was used though as a result of a faulty script - detecting that no magic damage can be done and failing to cast even spells that would bypass that restriction.

[Aasim]

Ilydan the Cavalier

 

Cernd vs Faldorn

aka

 

Creeping Doom vs Insect Plague

 

Fail vs fail

 

Werewolf vs human

(almost blank screen, sorry, I failed to catch the moment. Anyways, SCS shapeshift creates a token to equip, and is not interruptible.)

 

I reported news on my success to mayor of Treademeet, and returned Ihtafeer's head to genies. They left, I now had Shield of Harmony. IR nerfs it somewhat, in now doesn't protect against Hold anymore. I also bought Cloak of displacement (IR version is +2 vs melee AC, +4 vs missile AC, Minsc got it) and Girdle of Inertial Barrier (no longer adds Magic Damage resistance. Adds 20% Missile damage resistance, +3 vs breath saves and slows enemies nearby (save is allowed vs breath to avoid). Very powerful belt, Ilydan gets it for now.

Bought Robe of the Battlemage for Xan, buffing his HP up somewhat (+10).

Having spent most of my money, I fought Sorcerous Amon and his band of fools.

Battle opener was a well-placed Malison

 

Ilydan draws some fire away from Minsc whose buffs got dispelled by the dwarf which wields a dispelling axe (Bala's axe, save vs spells to avoid getting dispelled, not flagged as magical so is perfect for PFMWed wizards. I don't use it. Mages have a decent spells save anyway, and nobody uses axes). Minsc's HP/AC are both low and he hasn't yet reached level 11 for an extra 10% damage resistance (Barbarian).

 

Xan's Chaos and Jan's illusion detection follow up

 

Mop up

 

 

Sold some unneccecary items, and forged Mace of Disruption +4 - mostly unchanged by IR. Decided it's time to face Bodhi in her lair.

Note, Vampires are not one of SCS strong points  - vampire mage there is bugged, and doesn't move, so Tanova stood idle while getting beaten....ah well.

I can easilly protect from level drain (SR NPP lasts much longer than vanilla version) but I have only one Chaotic Commands casting (Aerie is level 9/9) and vampires love to Mesmerize - a Feeblemind-like effect, Charm immunity offers no protection against it. Vampires also drain constitution on hit, so have the ability to kill very fast. Anyhow, we somehow managed to kill most of them (Ilydan+Chaotic Commands+MoD+4 solo mostly) and met Bodhi. Minsc fails to save vs her Sleep power - Ilydan's Chaotic Commands just wore off. If he got hit by Sleep, it would have been game over....I need to be more careful with this kind of stuff. Unlike the Sleep/Command spells which mages cast, Bodhi's Sleep doesn't allow you to wake up when hit.

 

In addition, Bodhi apperantly shares her vampires' constitution draining powers. Ilydan got reduced to this in 2 rounds:

 

Ok. No playing big hero here, Ilydan high-tails it out of Bodhi's line of sight. She goes near the door which golem opened, and stands idle. Pheww... Minsc got killed by archers while unconciuss.

 

Finally she gives her farewell to us. Educational indeed, if we ever fight again I ain't going in w/o some powerful summons. Level 10 is simply too early for this battle.

 

Ilydan kills the archers, picks up Minsc's loot, Aerie memorizes Raise dead and brings good old Minsc back to life.

We kill Pai-Na with ease, pick up Kittix (slightly improved by IR) and call it a day.

[Grond0]

Rifft - dwarven swashbuckler (update 1 - following the ropes)

 

After a relatively trouble-free trip through the Sword Coast, Rifft has made it out of the dungeon.  

 

That was all pretty straight-forward, other than a slight glitch when I accidentally consumed a potion of speed.  One point of note was that he used traps on the golems to be safe (having not used them at all in BG1).  Rifft completed everything successfully - I thought Ulvaryl would get away when he missed with his first 3 attacks, but he hit just in time and then got lucky with a firebreath.

 

Towards the end of the dungeon I consoled in a bag of holding - having completed the game for the first time with Krak 'the proper way', I feel happier to make inventory management a bit less hassle this time.

 

Here's Rifft's record on exit from the dungeon.

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Edit: the circus has been restored, although Kalah did manage a couple of criticals to inflict more damage on Rifft than anyone in BG1.

[URL=http://s1082.photobucket.com/user/Grond/media/Rifft%20-%20swashbuckler/Kalah.jpg.html]

[Aasim]

Ilydan the Cavalier, small update

 

We succesfully managed to clear out the Undead from Umar Hills. I didn't fight Thaxsy yet, but Shade Lord is slightly SCS improved, hence desreves a mention. We prebuffed heavily, Ilydan positions himself as the first target for Shade Lord, resto of the party stays away due to lack of NPP. Minsc and Kivan target the altar. At one moment, Shade chooses to cast Finger of Death at Minsc (Ilydan needs to melee him so has Death Ward, but I have very few level 4 slots on Aerie). Minsc tries to protect himself via Potion of Magic Resistance (IR version - +20% MR, undispellable) but fails his save (SR Finger requires a save vs Death at -6, so it's rather hard to avoid it).

Still, we wait out Shade's PFMW and Ilydan kills him before his Shadow Mantle kicks in.

 

 

Aerie raises Minsc, we report our success and get Night's Gift armor (AC1) for Kivan. Did 1st level of WK. At level 10, I got very easy spawns (Mephits, Orogs, Shadows) and had no trouble aquiring Foebane since cleric statues didn't spawn (IR version is +4, adds +1 to saves and has a vampiric effect, but it doesn't heal beyond maximum HP).

Paladin's Bracers (+1 saves, +1 THAC0, +5HP) were also aquired.

[Grond0]

Rifft - dwarven swashbuckler (update 2 - oiling the ropes)

 

Rifft has made significant progress today.  First the Copper Coronet came under new management (level 12).  

Unfortunately, I realised later that one of the guards had got scared and run into the main inn area - with the result that Joluv had become hostile (I should have closed the doors to prevent that happening), so no goodies from him.

 

Stole some equipment upgrades using thieving potions.  Helped Roger with his troll problem and trapped a rakshasa before taking on the liches with protection from undead and potion of speed.  Rifft got delayed by saving Renfeld during that and the potion of speed ended as he arrived at Kangaxx.  He continued attacking anyway and with only 1 APR it was not surprising Kangaxx got scared and started running.  However, Rifft got lucky and managed to hit him twice when he was changing direction, which proved enough.

 

Attacked the minotaurs with the rod of terror (level 13).  That didn't affect charisma at all and the nearby pirates only reduced it by 2.  The last 3 reductions required were obtained by attacking Prebek & Sanasha.  

However, after writing up my notes I forgot to switch weapons and got one further reduction - so Rifft's charisma dropped to 24 (I won't be trying to wrap it round again)!

 

Using the RoAC outside Prebek's house had incurred a warning from the Cowled Wizards so Rifft went to pay for a license.

 

Used another protection from undead scroll to clear the Graveyard and the Southern Tombs.  A first sunray helped get the pale green ioun stone.

 

After clearing the Harper HQ Rifft did Mae'Var's tasks - Rayic failing to deal with stealth shots up and down the stairs (level 15).  To avoid the possibility of nasty backstabs Rifft came in through the back-door against Mae'Var - immediately shutting down the cleric with bolts of biting.  

He turned down the opportunity to run the guild.

 

The first trip outside Athkatla was to Watcher's Keep.  Bought Firetooth and the Short Sword of Mask there before going inside.  7 traps damaged a couple of vampiric wraiths, but one of them ignored the sacrificial warrior and drained Rifft before both died in a sunray (level 16).  

He cleared the top floor, with the final statue getting him to level 17 (some use of traps against the statues, but mainly stealth attacks round the pillars).

[Alaestr]

Malvae, faithful Cleric/Ranger. Update No. 2 and finale.

 

Malvae got  killed by a trap under the Copper Coronet despite running several protections and wearing the Shield of Harmony. In my last playthrough I foiled that trap with a Jelly, but in this one I had no such opportunity and not knowing what the trap actually does I got my pretty cleric killed. 

 

I definetely feel more comfortable with rogue type or arcane caster. The limitations brought by cleric class are harsh and make the solo run indeed painful.

 

[Grond0]

Sorry to hear about Malvae - learning about traps is indeed a painful business!  That particular one is nasty as it is a recurring petrification trap so you can't just protect on a single occasion.  I tend to use the plank crossing to the left of the screenshot as you look at it to get across safely.

[Aasim]

I picked up Yoshi temporary to disarm that one....unlike BG1 traps, I know BG2 traps fairly well...and I don't solo.