15228 replies to this topic

[Grond0]

Thanks Serg, Corey - so far, so good.

 

Rifft - dwarven swashbuckler (update 7 - running the ropes)

 

Illasera walked into a couple of spike traps.

 

The first Pocket Plane challenge was pretty easy, although Rifft did take more damage than he's had in the run to date.  That was the result of staying to finish off Ellesime with a WW and being hit by a creeping doom as a result - that eventually clicked off with Rifft down to 19 HPs, but there was no danger once it stopped as only Duke Eltan was left alive (with no ranged attack).  Neither Firetooth, nor the dwarven thrower did Duke Eltan any damage, but Gesen did - so Rifft didn't have to wait to regenerate to finish him off.

 

In Saradush Rifft just opened up access to the mage shop (while there I reorganised inventory - belatedly getting around to summon a quasit familiar to sit in Rifft's backpack).  Then he got some vampires to show him the way to the palace through the prison.  Cloudkills from the shadows were used on the thieves (just to make sure there were no nasty backstab surprises).

 

The first group in the palace were done by running in stealthed to get out of sight range before true sight triggered and then using cloudkills from the shadows.  The same sort of thing was done upstairs, though Gromnir was finished off with a WW.

 

Some wand scorchers killed Yaga-Shura's soldiers attacking a merchant and Rifft moved on to the Temple of Mir.  Some pre-laid traps killed a number of the undead and a timestop WW finished off the Master Wraith.  To avoid the backstab danger Rifft brought out the flesh golem to occupy the skeleton assassin while he WWed it.

 

At the temple Rifft walked into a lava pit and invited all comers to attack him.

He was getting healed from the fire damage and all the giants needed a critical to hit him, so he was safe enough, though he still took a while to beat them up with only 1 APR (after the elites were dead he swapped his shield for Kundane to up that).  He continued through the temple, most of the time using Blackrazor for free healing and not bothering with HLAs at all.  Imix was Waved away before Rifft returned the hearts to Nyalee - punishing her for changing her mind with a WW.  Yaga was drawn away from his lieutenants by Rifft under stealth and into a cluster of 4 spike traps.

 

For the second challenge Rifft immediately used a WW on his clone - successfully disrupting an attempted buff and finishing it off just as his WW ended (though he'd taken a lot of damage from Tamoko in the interim).  

 

Another WW killed Angelo and Rifft got one lot of Blackrazor healing from it.  He tried using the Short Sword of Mask for the first time in an attempt to freeze Tamoko in place, but without success.  However, she was wounded enough to finish off with Firetooth anyway.  When Semaj lost sight of him for a moment he took the opportunity to WW a pesky efreeti that had been chasing him and lay traps for Semaj.  However, a couple of Firetooth WWs finished him off before he could get to them (he annoyed his own efreeti to clear the unused traps).

 

At the Oasis a Firetooth WW killed Jamis before he could close in and Rifft quickly rifled the body before departing for Amkethran.  

The main business there was to beat up some monks in order to buy the Gargoyle Boots (to protect against backstabs).

 

Arriving at Sendai's enclave the drow woodcutter died in a time trap and various animals didn't last much longer, allowing Rifft to sneak into the tunnel entrance.

[corey_russell]

CoreTalos the Priest of Talos and his random party - Update 2

Traveling with: Paja (berserker), Misty (kensai), Hanna (sorcerer)

 

The random party has made a ton of progress. Mencar's and Tarnor's gangs were pretty much soloed by Hanna, and the party has solved the slaver issues in the slums and in the Copper Coronet sewers. We've also dealt with the Fallen Paladins and Maevar and Harper's Task. A couple of changes have transformed Misty the Kensai from a liability to an asset. For one, we were able to afford the hill giant belt for her - changing her STR from 10 to 19 was a huge help. Secondly, Hanna learned a spell that has helped Misty immensely - spirit armor! With spririt armor, Misty goes from 4 AC to -5 AC - Misty is no longer sucking down heal potions like she used to in the early parts of the run.

 

The team is working on Umar Hills tasks right now, shortly before headed to Umar Hills Temple - I want to deal with this before we get too high level. I realized that this run, I've never really had a very high level Kensai or Sorcerer before. No wonder there have been so many solo sorcerer runs over the years, Hanna is extremely powerful. She can't take much with her 30 HP, but still, she's a very solid contributor to the group.

[Grond0]

Rifft - dwarven swashbuckler (update 8 - storing the ropes)

 

Rifft survived an early morning session, though my rather poor play made it hard for him.

 

First, he sneaked through the spiders etc to get to Thelyn'ss - attacking him only after all the surrounding drow were dead.  More sneaking past spiders took him to Odamaron - a couple of spike traps accounted for him.  

 

After killing Ogremoch, with traps, a time trap was used to attack the Hive Mother.  However, I forgot I'd changed amulets for Ogremoch and the vampire drained Rifft 5 levels.  That's serious because his saving throws became those of a standard 35th level character, i.e. without any of his equipment bonuses.  He immediately ran and hid before trying a few fireballs from the shadows.  However, the vampire had very high HPs so he equipped the shield of harmony and WWed it.  After using his one and only restoration scroll and resting he moved on.  I made another error with Capt Egeissig by allowing him into melee distance.  He got one hit in with a Power Attack - that would have stunned Rifft on a die roll of 1, but he saved.

 

Mithykyl and his illithid were mainly trapped and Rifft moved on to Sendai.  

Statue 1 - stealth shot before Rifft quickly got out of sight and hid to wait out true sight from the second.  He then sneaked over to kill the drow.

Statue 2 - stealth shot.  Waited out drow true sight then used cloudkills from the shadows to kill them.

Statue 3 - stealth shot.  This time tried using cloudkills while the drow true sight was still running and, even though Rifft was out of sight, I think that attracted their attention.  Firetooth WWs killed one, while the mage was finished off from near death with a first use of Ring of the Ram.

Statue 4 - stealth shot.  Drow then cloudkilled.

Statue 5 - stealth shot (waiting out three true sights).  This time I'd left traps to kill the drow.

Statue 6 - started with stealth shots, but the statue's teleportation trapped Rifft and he finished it off with a WW.  Drow then cloudkilled.

Statue 7 - Rifft was setting spike traps ready for the real Sendai when I somehow let the statue see him.  That resulted in the death of the statue.

Sendai - equipped Carsomyr and took a potion of magic protection (equipment can get up to 100%, but only if equipped after Carsomyr and it wasn't possible to take armour off there).  A couple of WWs then finished Sendai off.

Note that, as last time, she appears scripted not to die until she's used her onyx ring (Rifft didn't hit her at all after that point before she died). 

 

In his Pocket Plane Rifft upgraded the Runehammer, Carsomyr and Firetooth before doing his 3rd challenge - the slayer was brushed aside with a series of 4 WWs, while hardly touching Rifft's -23 AC.

 

After being careful against Sendai I again got stupid when taking on Draconis.  I did give Rifft 100% acid protection, but not by equipment.  Thus, once Rifft had WWed his human form, Draconis did a swift one-two remove magic / breath combination that nearly killed Rifft.  

He ran for the exit and a time trap on the way allowed him to reapply acid protection.  Draconis immediately responded with a remove magic sequencer - good job he didn't survive the 4 spike traps and 2 normal traps waiting for him!

Note that although Rifft is carrying large numbers of mage scrolls I'm trying to avoid their use - otherwise I would have been tempted to use spell immunity there.

 

After a Pocket Plane rest Rifft moved swiftly through the tunnels.  During that, he increased his collection of kuo-toa bolts to over 1,000 as well as getting the bronze pantalettes and a juggernaut golem page.  On arrival in Abazigal's cave Rifft set some traps before circling the cave picking off all the salamanders out of sight of Abazigal.  He tried various missile weapons without success, but eventually found the dwarven hammer worked.  However, it didn't do much damage and rather than string the fight out for a long time Rifft engaged with an Answerer WW.  That brought the dragon out, though Rifft got hit several times in the process.  The dragon followed his retreat and triggered a time trap.  A WW in that (starting with Carsomyr) got him to badly wounded and, as he followed Rifft to get his revenge, Abazigal walked into further traps - the normal ones finishing the job before the spike traps could trigger.

[Gate70]

Great stuff Grond0. Hope the next two or three bits go OK but you sound like the equipment is being lined up nicely.

 

& your run sounds promising too Corey. Has anybody got Ilbratha (not read back yet)? Add in chaotic commands, death ward and improved haste - should be fun.

[corey_russell]

Great stuff Grond0. Hope the next two or three bits go OK but you sound like the equipment is being lined up nicely.

 

& your run sounds promising too Corey. Has anybody got Ilbratha (not read back yet)? Add in chaotic commands, death ward and improved haste - should be fun.

@gate70: yes it does sound promising. Yes we just got the Ilbratha, Misty will use.

[corey_russell]

CoreTalos the Priest of Talos and his random party - update 3

Traveling with: Paja (berserker), Misty (kensai), Hanna (sorcerer)

 

Just a brief note. CoreTalos and gang have successfully destroyed the undead causing problems in the Umar Hills area, including the Shade Lord. Took quite a few heal potions, but otherwise went pretty smooth. Since I had arcane backup, decided to tackle Thaxxy the Shadow Dragon. We had skeleton distractions, and tried to blind him. Hanna tried 6 times, and her very last blindness finally stuck! Whew, our skeleton friends were dead by this point...however, we had a bit of problem - no one could hit the silly thing, even with good slings and bullets...uh oh, I knew dragons have good AC but this was a little silly...We fired 100 bullets and 100 arrows at the thing, and it still wouldn't die. Hanna used up almost all of her MMMs, but it still wouldn't die, and Hanna even used lightning wand (until it poofed) as well as fireball wand (until it poofed) and still the dragon refused to die. CoreTalos decided now was a good time to fire his lightning bolts at the fearsome beast, but the dragon's MR protected it - I really should have lowered its magic resist via the cleric spell, but oh well...

 

I was almost out of ideas and Hanna tried to do cloudkill on the dragon - Thaxxy did resist some of the time, but Hanna cast as many as she had and the cloudkills finally did the job and Thaxxy falls! Good riddance...CoreTalos from the fight can finally cast a level 6 spell as well.

[Grond0]

Rifft - dwarven swashbuckler (8th and final update - disintegrating the ropes)

 

For his 4th challenge Rifft put on some plate that provided backstab immunity and waded in.  The backstab immunity proved unnecessary as the Favoured of Cyric needed criticals to hit (against -24 AC and -6 piercing adjustment).  They only got one of those - which bounced off Rifft's Gargoyle Boots stoneskin.

 

In Amkethran Rifft traded in the pantaloons, though he didn't expect to use the Big Metal Unit or Rod.  Then he went to talk to Saemon and obtained entrance to Balthazar's compound.  There he immediately went invisible to evade the guards and walked in to confront Balthazar.  He went invisible again (and put on the ring of free action) with the intention of dragging Balthazar around to some traps.  I was hoping the other guards would stay still, but they all followed as well - meaning Balthazar survived the traps.  He was hitting Rifft quite easily so I dug around in his pack to find the girdle of bluntness to help.  Several WWs later and Balthazar fell.

 

For the Ravager, Rifft got his AC to -24 and missile adjustment to -14.  He tried ignoring the bone blades while shooting the Ravager with Firetooth, but they got too many criticals.  As a result he equipped the reflection shield and stripped off most of his missile protection and just ran round for a while.  His shield was blocking damage, but not actually causing the Ravager any damage in return.  He therefore took some potions (including magic shielding) and attacked with a WW using Carsomyr to dispel initially.  What I didn't initially realise was that while Rifft had dispelled the Ravager, it had done the same to him - as a result a further attack on him sent him to sleep.  

I thought that was going to be that, but Rifft was also pushed away and was up and about again before even being attacked. 

 

The remaining battle was very lengthy, but boring as Rifft ran round and round firing Firetooth at the Ravager.  A couple of times during that I mis-clicked and started approaching it instead of attacking, but always paused in time and finally the job was done.

 

After resting, Rifft used potion buffs and improved haste / improved invisibility and entered the Throne.  He immediately WWed with Carsomyr, but the dispel magic didn't get rid of Melissan's stoneskin.  A second WW with the FoA started applying damage and slowed her before Rifft switched back to Carsomyr.  That made her run for it just as she used remove magic to get rid of Rifft's buffs.

 

The wraiths and elementals were meleed, while Yan-C-Bin got a taste of Firetooth.  When Mel arrived back Rifft attacked as before, but his targeting was poor and he hadn't got rid of the stoneskin by the end of his second WW - by that time his buffs had been dispelled by a death tyrant and his attempted 3rd WW was interrupted.  After a quick run round a 4th WW was much more successful - a few blows from Answerer included in Carsomyr attacks to make Mel easier to hit.  During a 5th WW Mel attempted to have her power restore her, but was interrupted and ran for it again.

 

Cryonax and his goons were just meleed before Rifft put down some traps for Mel's 3rd incarnation.  He also summoned 5 fire elementals and drank some more potions.  Mel was pretty resistant to the trap damage and only taken to badly damaged.  She tried restoring herself again, but fortunately being hit disrupted her despite her taking no damage.  After she teleported Rifft chased her down and finally managed to slow her.  He also wore through her stoneskins and a follow-up WW sent her running again (Rifft was now down to a single WW left).

 

The final pool battle also took a long time.  The reflection shield was still not reflecting damage back onto the Fallen Solar and I didn't want to use up Rifft's last WW, so he was limited to 1 APR (2 with potion of speed) - which meant it was impossible to get through the Mariliths' stoneskins.  He therefore switched to sniping in and out with melee attacks on the Solar and got it to badly wounded - only to get poisoned by a marilith when using the Ring of the Ram to disrupt the Solar healing.  Re-equipping Gaxx though made him immune to the continuing poison and shortly after that the Solar finally died.  It was then possible to use Carsomyr followed by Foebane/Kundane + improved haste to deal rapidly with the Mariliths.

 

Rifft laid his final traps, drank more potions, summoned more fire elementals and brought out the simmy from Vhailor's Helm for the first time in his run.  Once again Mel was taken to badly injured by the traps and she immediately tried restoring herself while both Rifft's used their last WW and attacked with Answerer.  The idea of doing this was to make her vulnerable to fire elemental attacks, but it was a mistake to do it initially as this time Mel managed to heal - the previous interruptions of her heal spells were the result of FoA elemental damage (even though she is immune to this).  Belatedly the real Rifft switched to FoA and managed to slow her.  Still in the WW it was also good to see her start to take damage already - including from a fire elemental so the Answerer was clearly working (I was a bit suspicious as I had tried Soul Reaver on her before and that is bugged in my BGT installation).  As the WW ended, Mel was back up to injured and the real Rifft switched to Answerer / Kundane and used Gaxx haste.  The final fire elemental was killed as his haste ended, but Mel was almost dead as well.  With both Rifft's now attacking at just 2 APR it was a nervous time and the real Rifft was down to just 69 HPs when Melissan was finally informed by the Solar that enough was enough (in retrospect I might have been better switching to the Big Metal Rod when Rifft's last WW expired).

 

He decided that this god business was far too dangerous and remained mortal (though that didn't seem to affect the final cutscene).

 

While SoA was pretty straightforward there were quite a few mistakes in ToB as well as generally taking more risks.  There were also several combats where the non-availability of Joluv's stock made things harder.  As a result Rifft was lucky to survive to the end.  However, I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't have done so if Krak hadn't started a roll as I would then have had less incentive to succeed and undoubtedly been even more prone to risks and errors.  Although my quality of play was a bit poor in ToB I did manage to finish while sticking to my restrictions - the normal one of no healing potions, as well as not allowing mage scrolls - which was pleasing.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Second time success in a raw - impressive stuff, Grond0! Congratulations! 

[Aasim]

Congrats Grond0! Your knowledge of the game seems to be apsolute, and your skill is unquestionable! Job well done.

[corey_russell]

Congratulations, Grond0! Nicely done...I do have one question though...Ravager requires +4 to hit, so how was your firetooth dagger doing anything to it? Or did you mean firetooth crossbow? (you really should specify). Incidentally, for soloers, I think sling of seeking is best weapon to use against Ravager, as that allows equipping the reflection shield. When I get some time will put Rifft in the Hall of Heroes.

[corey_russell]

Grond0, Rifft has been entered into the hall of heroes. What's next for you? Maybe you should try a paladin, you are rarely that class. Just remember you DON'T want the evil bhaal powers as a paladin...

[Grond0]

Congratulations, Grond0! Nicely done...I do have one question though...Ravager requires +4 to hit, so how was your firetooth dagger doing anything to it? Or did you mean firetooth crossbow? (you really should specify). Incidentally, for soloers, I think sling of seeking is best weapon to use against Ravager, as that allows equipping the reflection shield. When I get some time will put Rifft in the Hall of Heroes.

It was the Crossbow (which was +5 at that stage - I did mention in one of my updates that I had upgraded it).  I agree about the use of a sling, though I don't think the sling of seeking would work as it's only +2.  I would have bought the +5 sling from Joluv if he had been available - that was one of the things I had in mind when I said that not having his stock had made things harder.  Incidentally, Rifft had the +4 throwing axe and tried hitting with that, but it didn't seem to do anything - presumably it should have done?

 

 

Grond0, Rifft has been entered into the hall of heroes. What's next for you? Maybe you should try a paladin, you are rarely that class. Just remember you DON'T want the evil bhaal powers as a paladin...

Thanks Corey.  I had a few minutes left before work this morning and did roll up a wild mage to see if I could finally get one of those through.  Maybe another time for a paladin - though I might still be tempted to get the evil Bhaal powers (since they're acquired with reputation of 9 or below, it should still be possible to do that without falling).

[corey_russell]

It was the Crossbow (which was +5 at that stage - I did mention in one of my updates that I had upgraded it).  I agree about the use of a sling, though I don't think the sling of seeking would work as it's only +2.  I would have bought the +5 sling from Joluv if he had been available - that was one of the things I had in mind when I said that not having his stock had made things harder.  Incidentally, Rifft had the +4 throwing axe and tried hitting with that, but it didn't seem to do anything - presumably it should have done?

 

 

 

Thanks Corey.  I had a few minutes left before work this morning and did roll up a wild mage to see if I could finally get one of those through.  Maybe another time for a paladin - though I might still be tempted to get the evil Bhaal powers (since they're acquired with reputation of 9 or below, it should still be possible to do that without falling).

Grond0, we've had discussions about this before. For ammo launched weapons (slings, crossbows, bows, etc.) it's not the weapon that's important but the AMMO. Sling of Seeking, using +4 ammo, hits the Ravager just fine - I've done that very thing in my runs. Reload an old save and you can see for yourself. You could even use an UNENCHANTED sling, provided it was using +4 bullets. 

 

As for your +4 axe question, I know the game sometimes considers magical throwing axes and daggers to be normal weapons, so perhaps the Ravager had protection from normal missiles running, thought that would be a bit silly since it's immune to all weapons that aren't +4....The other possibility is that in vanilla, dragons are immune to magical throwing axes too (games considers them to be normal missiles), so perhaps Ravager shares this same trait.

 

EDIT: To clarify, the axes should work, but since dragons are immune to non-magical ammo, the game incorrectly flags Azuredge and such as non-magical ammo in this check and thus does no damage to dragons, though it works fine on Iron Golems. Anyways, perhaps Ravager has this same bug.

[Grond0]

Grond0, we've had discussions about this before. For ammo launched weapons (slings, crossbows, bows, etc.) it's not the weapon that's important but the AMMO. Sling of Seeking, using +4 ammo, hits the Ravager just fine - I've done that very thing in my runs. Reload an old save and you can see for yourself. You could even use an UNENCHANTED sling, provided it was using +4 bullets. 

OK.  I see the problem - you're mistaking me for someone with a decent memory .  I normally need to die at least half a dozen times to something before I start remembering about it ...

[Aasim]

On my install, Ravager is immune to any kind of missile weapon (i.e. he has "Immunity to projectile" effect - bolt, axe, dagger etc.)

[Grond0]

Sounds like that would make him a challenge then Aasim .  I had considered using the Green Amulet with Rifft to allow more melee combat, but I'd already been caught out once by an unnoticed dispel, so played safe in the end ...

[Gate70]

Congratulations again Grond0. So 2 down, wild mage in progress and if you get that sorted there's always a wizard slayer...

[corey_russell]

CoreTalos the Priest of Talos and his random party - Update 4

Traveling with: Paja (berserker), Misty (kensai), Hanna (sorcerer)

 

CoreTalos and gang retook D'Arnise Keep from the trolls,without much incident. We had a heck of time looting though, we need the ammo belt pretty bad. Hanna is carrying almost entirely bullets...Hanna used area effects against the trolls in the living room, umber hulks, and Torgal and buddies. Torgal failed his save vs. death in the cloudkill and was killed instantly. The umber hulks, 4 were killed instantly from the cloudkill, so we only had to melee one survivor. Now CoreTalos has his melee weapon (Flail of Ages) he will probably use for a long time, not that he's in melee much. Everyone but CoreTalos leveled here, Hanna getting her first level 6 spell. I had a heck of a time deciding what to get, but eventually went with True Sight so that CoreTalos can use his level 5 slots for other things than true seeing. CoreTalos is not that great of cleric, so any way to save up slots by other means is welcome. Most trolls were killed by Misty's blade of flames, which she equipped main-hand for this portion. I had totally forgot about the Iron Golem. I had the party rest and then Hanna used only MMM to try to kill it - it took her 6 casts of MMM, and even then only a few meteors left, but the did the job. Paja soled the Yuan-Ti mage, properly buffed by CoreTalos before-hand.

 

Most of the party about level 11, Hanna being 12. Paja would love the Foebane, so we might get that next session.

[Alaestr]

Yet again congratulations to Grond0 It seems no-reload becomes too trivial for you

 

Corey, your party is doing great so far. I might learn a trick or two on playing divine casters, since I'm having troubles with them.

 

Dori Gray, the stumbling fighter/thief. Update No. 1

 

I present to you Dori Gray. He is dwarven fighter/thief multi, has very naive approach to the world and hopes for the best. So far he had unraveled the circus illusions, solved crimes in the bridge district, visited the Harper HQ, acquired his stronghold, dealt with the random encounters on the streets of Athkatla, killed a bunch of genies as well as druids and finally he completed the Gaxx quests. No screenshots this time. I was in a little bit of a rush and kind of in a testing mode, but the run turned out no-reloady, so I decided to publish. 

Here is his invenotory now.

Here is his character sheet.

I imported him fro BG1. In the meantime I installed some of the Gibberlings' tweakes. I didn't change any rules or gameplay except max hp on the level up. I included some visuals (can't remember now which exactly) and shorter cutscenes and drems (which was the main reason for the download). I forgot to mention in my previous runs - I play on Core difficulty.

[Grond0]

Yet again congratulations to Grond0 It seems no-reload becomes too trivial for you

Well perhaps when I have more successes than failures - so that's only about 998 more successes required now .  Good luck with your F/T.

[corey_russell]

Alaestr said...

Corey, your party is doing great so far. I might learn a trick or two on playing divine casters, since I'm having troubles with them.

 

Thanks! Since CoreTalos Wisdom is not very high, he doesn't really have a lot of spells, thus casting wise he really only does a few things: 1) Heal hurt party members 2) doom and hold tough single opponents (Officer Dirth, Glaicas, etc.) and Hanna does blind 3) When Paja solos powerful enemy mages, buff her to the max with CC, death ward, resist fear, protection from fire/lightning 4) When situation allows/needs it, summon some skeleton or aerial servant friends.

 

As a solo fighter/thief, you really need the shield of harmony, which would protect you from cleric spells rigid thinking and hold person, and protects from vampire domination as well.

[Grond0]

Khazm - elven wild mage (elegy for a wild mage - episode 6 {continued from BG1})

 

After her success against Sarevok

Being thrown into prison was a bit of a shock.

With no magic items or even missiles to use, 

Khazm had little choice but to choose

to cast some spells from her stock.

 

Cloudkill was favourite to kill from afar

while summons were also worth a gold star.

Spirit armour helps protect against surge

and the Claw means she's now on the verge

of surviving a petrification fubar.

 

All enemies were tackled and killed,

as her spell use became ever more skilled.

She didn't disdain the use of fire breath,

to provide Ulvaryl with a lasting death.

While the spell trap scroll left her thrilled!

 

[Alaestr]

Dori Gray, the stumbling fighter/thief. Update No.2

 

Today's session was a fruitful one. Dori has done everyhing he could up to the 1st level of Watcher's Keep except Planar Sphere and Prison, he didn't go to Brynnlaw yet, he is now measuring himself against 2nd level of the Keep. F/T are cool, it's basically a warrior who can wield anything you want them to and can cast spells from scrolls. In that regard they remind me strongly of Swashbucklers (though I guess swahbucklers are harder to dispell). Not many screenshots to accompany my entry, just the dragons:

Thax

Firkraag

The order was as follow:

clearing athkatla minor quests, Umar Hills, De'Arnis stronghold, Temple Ruins (no Thaxx though), Windspear Hills (no Firkraag though), Unseeing Eye, Illithids under Temple district, Bodhi's Lair, Thaxx, Firkraag.

 

De'Arnis Stronghold.

Walk in the park. Torgal lured out and killed on his own. Dori wielded Full Plate, Rings+2 and Gaxx, FoA, Shield of Harmony and gulped some potions. Altought I am struggling heavily with enemies spamming Remove Magic (it is basic dispel spell cast by enemies; every mage in SCS has memorised at least two of them, often in the seqencer) which is particularly effective agaist my low levels. I defeated the Iron Golem through the door with the Firetooth+4.

 

Temple Ruins.

In the middle of the maze I popped Protection from Undead. This time I encoutered famous liches which prompted aforementioned action. I didn't let them Remove Magic Dori and the fight was soon over. Since it was my last scroll, Dori rushed to the surface and killed Shade Lord while PfU was still on. I had a nasty rendez-voud with a lich on my way back through the maze. I was unprepared and the scroll had already expired. Lich opened with a bunch of protections and Wilting, but Dori was healthy enough and Belt of Inertial Barrier buffered some damage. Then I sent Efreeti who played a role of spell bait. It worked marvelously and with a couple of hits with Azuredge the danger was gone. 

 

Windspear Hills.

Dori abused backstabs during the initial fight with paladins. He has at his disposal four uses of invisibility (1 Ring of Gaxx, 1 Ring of Air Control, 2 from Sandthieves Rings) and Staff of Rynn+4, so the fight was soon over. Vampires got killed with Azuredge (they managed to suck Dori's levels a little bit, but he carries a bunch of restoration scrolls), Iron Golems with firetooth through the doors. Fight with Samiar was relatively easy. Dori planted a Time Trap, 3 Snares and abused invisibility (once again - 4 invisibilities, not including stealthing before the fight) once he had killed a mage during the time stop. Sunray was cast (from Daystar) at the end of the time stop to ensure Blindness on the enemies. One could say that Conster was outlasted by Dori (I find this fight strangely easy, Conster really doesn't have any dangerous spells in his spellbook).

 

Unseeing Eye.

Dori stealthed behind the beholders, used the wand and prayed (wand doesn't kill the big bad beholder in SCS, it gets him to badly injured, then the BBB spawns two other beholders and they all start peppering rays marrily). Dori has no means of dealing with beholders so the best I can do is to maintain his saves low and hope for the best. Well, that time it worked. I tried to minimize his exposure though - used summons and went straight for the BBB. 

 

Illithids.

I conclude that Illithids aren't reallly scary, once your AC is around -13, you wear Shield of Harmony and have a bunch of potions of genius around. Two spike traps dealt with two bodyguards of Alhoon, Snares worked for another one. Big Illithid tried to devour Dori's brain but the potion gulped in the right moment maintained his intelligence high. 

 

Bodhi

Vampires were no match for the Daystar, Tanova tried casting but nothing threatening and Dori whacked Daystar at her (I have some strange additional damage behaviour, I think I saw the double damage of the Daystar going through the Stoneskin, but not sure) till she fell down. Dori took care of Bodhi by planting two Spike Traps and 4 Snares (overkill, huh?)

 

Thaxx

Dori planted the traps (Spikes and Snares). I was about to begin buffing and changin equipment, but I missclicked and Dori charged at the already hostile dragon (again the SCS feature - dragons sense the imminent extinction and turn hostile). He was already wearing Jan's googles so was immune to blindness, but he got SCARED! Thankfully he wandered towards the traps and Thaxx got killed by them.

 

Firkraag

Tough battle. Dori set traps in place, buffed with a potion of Absorption and charged. I didn't buff any further, because I knew Dori would got dispelled anyway. Traps lowered dragon's life to Near Death (only Spike ones dealt damage). Firkraag managed to dispel all of Dori's potions of Absorption (3). I used all the tricks I had (including rod of resurrection ) and finally managed to squash the lizard. At one point Dori was at the verge of dying but fortunately Firkraag missed the attack and I was able to Rod Dori's hp up. 

 

Watcher's Keep 1st level.

Statues were dealt with, cleverly using the columns and backstabs. 

[Grond0]

Khazm - elven wild mage (elegy for a wild mage - 7th and final episode)

 

After emerging from the Promenade rubble, 

the circus was restored without any trouble.

Gaelan was told she was currently skint,

although in fact she was worth a mint, 

but she needed a license at the double.

 

Cohrvale & Bregg were pronounced guilty as sin,

then she prepared for a fight in the inn.

The only surge that would end her run

was flesh to stone - that's not much fun.

Her Spirit armour was about to begin...

 

 

That was a shame as Khazm had already gone through the most dangerous part in BG2 in getting out of the dungeon.  The death was actually down to a small mistake.  Her basic saving throw against spells at that point was 4, which meant that spirit armour would bring her saving throw down to 1 to provide automatic protection against petrification - which, out of combat, was the only surge with any real chance of killing her.  The only danger should therefore have been during casting of spirit armour itself - as that's a long-lasting spell.  However, on that occasion I cast chaos shield first - that provides a better chance of a spell casting even if there's a surge, but doesn't alter the chance of petrification occurring.  Doing it that way round therefore means you're risking a deadly surge for 2 spells rather than 1 and the surge indeed resulted when casting the second.

 

At least the title of elegy is finally a true one - things had been going far too well up to then . 

[corey_russell]

@Grond0 - well it's sad to see Khazm, get, well, Khazmed. But on the other hand, I am excited to see a Grond0 Paladin - go paladins!