Jianson said...1. Is he tied to a quest that he will insist on me doing within a certain time?
2. Are there any NPCs he will argue so much with that they will start fighting?
1. Yes, he will eventually want to visit his family. You have a number of ways to deal with it. I don't think his quest timer starts though, until you are in the government district.
2. Yes, eventually he and Viconia will come to blows.
1. Yes, he will eventually want to visit his family. You have a number of ways to deal with it. I don't think his quest timer starts though, until you are in the government district.
2. Yes, eventually he and Viconia will come to blows.
1 Correct. Only if you visit the Government district. Avoid the Government district after recruiting him and he'll never bring the subject up.
Or just do his family quest. It's like 3 conversations. No fighting at all. In and done very quickly.
). Confusion struck immediately and, while Mille would probably have won the fight while confused if he'd had a melee weapon equipped, he stood no chance in a confined space attacking with his bow.
@Grond0 - sorry to hear of your wizard slayer demise, I really had hoped he would go far.
CoreTalos the Half-Orc Priest of Talos - FINAL BG 2 Update!
Traveling with: Paja, Sarevok, Valygar, Imoen, Hanna
So CoreTalos finally gets to the Tree of Life. We do some buffs and engage. Valygar and Paja are in melee, everyone else at range. CoreTalos gets way out of sight and works on getting summons to assist. Irenicus does TWO time stops in a row (he even did a time stop in a time stop) and tries to maze almost everyone - Paja is mazed (forgot to enrage, oops), Valygar is killed, but Imoen's and Hanna's buffs stop the mazes. However, Irenicus still had lots of fight left, he dispelled Hanna's buffs then killed her. Thus, Imoen was fighting Irenicus by herself by this point. However, by this time, CoreTalos Deva finally arrived to render assistance, and together Imoen and the Deva won the fight.
In Hell, CoreTalos does all good routes except when he talks to Sarevok. For the beholders, Paja enraged and then did GWW to try to burn the enemies quick, this worked. We did lots of buffs, some summons, then triggered the final Hell fight. It wasn't going well, Hanna nearly died and ran for her life, everyone else had to do lots of heals. I eventually found out Paja was using her dart instead of her Foebane - oops. Once Foebane active, then Paja burned down the demons pretty quick. Well actually, before that, we were doing pretty poorly, but 3x dragon breaths by Hanna finally swung the battle vs. the demons in our favor. We might have lost if Hanna didn't do that. Once the demons were dead, we were out of sight of Irenicus - Hanna had a single level 9 spell left and brought out a planetar and then the party looked for Irenicus. Valygar got mazed, but otherwise, Irenicus fell in fairly short order. Our only spells were a wardings whip by Imoen and 2x breaches by Hanna. Success!
We then battled Illesara (or however her name is spelled) - we did some summons and that won the battle easily. Once in the Pocket Plane, we recruited Sarevok and ended the session here. The 1st pocket plane challenge will be our next task, next session.
@Grond0 - sorry to hear of your wizard slayer demise, I really had hoped he would go far.
Thanks Corey. I'm actually now relatively optimistic about the chances of a wizard slayer going a long way at some point in the future. Meanwhile, well done in relocating Irenicus to his new home. Best of luck for ToB.
Nice job in Hell, Corey! Keep focus in ToB!
Congratulations, this looks like a promising run Corey.
Best of luck Corey, looking forward to future updates.
Thanks all for the congratulations! I'll try to keep up the focus in ToB...
Another question: are the Cowled Wizards OK with me using Bhaal powers that are mage spells (Larloch's, Horror, Vamp.Touch)? What about mage spells fired with a sequencer? What about cleric spells fired with a sequencer (which Aeric can learn to do)? What about mage spells cast via item charges? Cast from scrolls?
It depends on your setup, but in my experience on vanilla, the Bhaal powers seem to trigger the cowled wizards depending on your class - e.g., if you were a fighter doing bhaal LMD they don't appear, but if I were a mage doing bhaal power LMD they would. I can't speak on the sequencers, but don't see why they wouldn't count. Can't speak on C/M sequencers either. Items don't count (they aren't spells) but scrolls do.
... I've just made the connection from that discussion that all the good Bhaal powers are divine/clerical spells while all the evil ones are arcane in nature. Huh. Anyways, the FIRING of a sequencer shouldn't be a problem, as they aren't technically even spells at that point: they ignore silence, for instance. How dangerous are the Cowled wizards in vanilla anyways? I've never actually triggered them except on SCS where I absentmindedly cast a Stoneskin indoors and was brutally slaughtered by a mage that had at least 3 castings of Wilting (seriously, why wasn't THIS guy sent to face Irenicus instead of those nobodies?)
A recent update of the Fixpack means the RoAC gets treated like a spell by the Cowled Wizards - even when used by a non-mage character. That's now an exception to the rule that item use is safe. As you indicate, they are bad news if summoned unexpectedly, though you can lay ambushes for them with careful preparation (e.g. using thief traps, insect plague, cloudkills).
@Grond0: I hope Augur does well, grats on getting by Sarevok once again...
CoreTalos the Priest of Talos and his rag-tag band - update 13
Traveling with: Sarevok, Paja (berserker), Valygar, Imoen, Hanna (sorcerer)
CoreTalos decided that having another fighter in the party would be good, so allowed Sarevok to join us, with a geas. The party did excellent in the first pocket challenge. I decided with the mass of enemies in ToB, I really wanted to give Hanna a script, so she has an aggressive Wizard script. She's been in a number of fights now, and the script has worked well.
When we used the Pocket Plane portal, it took us to the city of Saradush. We were immediately attacked by some well armed and armored soldiers - they were however, no match for the party. Now Valygar dual-wields the Celestial Fury and a basic +3 Katana - with 4 attacks per round, I think this will serve him well.
Our first task was to sell our junk we've been carrying around since Suldenessar. Then we worked on getting the spell book for the mage who runs a store. First we paid Squip 5 gold, then talked to Hectar and the mage a few times and success. After getting a few items and recharging our only RoR, everyone now has haste except Imoen. I forgot to say we took down the those soldiers in the tavern that were harassing that woman server.
Next up follow up on the Mateo investigation. We learned Kiser was blackmailing the Countess - we pretended to agree to kill Armand, but then changed our minds and came back to Kiser's place and took out him and his minions easily. Up to this point, Coretalos has been using a simple attack script - we we changed it to a summoning script, since he can in fact do quite a few summons now.
Sarevok soloed the undead in the Jail using a protection from Undead scroll. We then used a planetar to soften up the opening mobs, then the party attacked. CoreTalos did some summons to assist and we were victorious. A mage spotted us! The party did an immediate retreat but the summons attacked - the summons in fact did get the job done.
One more fight, a few orcs in a good sized room, no problem at all. We found an item to upgrade the FoeBane, now Paja is swinging a +5 weapon. Sarevok is using the +4 sword you get at the demon knight fight in the Underdark. Hanna is using firetooth dagger, Imoen Gesen's Bow and CoreTalos sling of seeking. We ran out of time so ended our session here.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 43 - (update 1)
Waltz, half-elf bard (Grond0) & Hallie, halfling swashbuckler (Gate70)
A bit of holiday today allowed this duo to have an extended session. They made generally good progress in BG2 to follow up on their clean run through BG1, although there were a few bit of dodgy play - including some friendly fire from Waltz resulting in a first death for Hallie.
After making it out of the dungeon they set the circus to rights before reporting to Gaelan Bayle. The Copper Coronet was put under new management before they travelled around doing their best to look helpless - enticing out the Suna Seni and Renfeld ambushes. After returning Renfeld there was a first slight glitch when Hallie was confused during the attack on Prebek. However, Waltz ducked out and back in to the house and a skull trap and magic missile finished off the opposition.
At Watcher's Keep the rooms on the left hand side were explored before traps were set in front of the main door in case of vampiric wraiths. They indeed were they, but unfortunately the traps didn't trigger (it seems to be a regular multi-player problem that traps set by a supporting character don't trigger after a rest) - so the duo just ran away.
Back in Athkatla there was some preparatory work done for an assault on the liches. Most of that went pretty well, although Hallie (who had just expressed his delight at avoiding being drained by vampiric wraiths) got a bit too close to a level drain trap. A scroll of undead protection and an oil of speed each saw 3 liches dead, though the speed wore off during the assault on Kangaxx. However, he was hemmed in and soon chopped up by Daystar even at 1 APR. Hallie went upstairs to clear the minotaurs and Waltz then had a bit of a brainstorm by casting stinking cloud on the area - thinking that the Gaxx immunity to poison would protect Hallie (it didn't 
). You live and learn.
Gaelan was paid and the goodies picked up from Aran Linvail. The amulet was immediately put to use against Hareishan, although Waltz made another error here by using a MM scroll to finish her off - attracting a warning by the Cowled Wizards.
A quick trip to the Graveyard was undertaken to get a ioun stone for Hallie. Pai'Na's spiders were mostly asleep on the job there. The duo then travelled to the Government District with a view to talking to Delon and getting directions to Umar Hills. However, another vampire encounter (with Salia this time) resulted in Waltz again exercising her itchy trigger finger - an immediate withdrawal got them away in time to avoid notice by the Cowled Enforcers and Waltz prudently took the opportunity to pay for a license.
At Umar Hills the killer mimic successfully held Waltz, but Hallie was protected by her sword and able to beat it into submission. On to the ruined temple where the undead were dealt with nicely - something made much easier by the lack of liches (or even greater mummies). We didn't fancy our chances against Thaxy, so that encounter will wait for a while, but the Shade Lord fell to a Daystar Sunray and follow-up strike.
Stats (cont from BG1):
Waltz, bard 13, 66 HPs, 324 kills
Hallie, swashbuckler 13, 61 HPs (incl. 5 from ioun stone), 275 kills, 1 death
I have been absent for 2 weeks now and thought it was high time I had published a new character! I was keeping track of your progress, though, you magnificent bastards.
Corey, nice job on your party, which survived through numerous hardships.
Good luck on your wizard slayer, Grond0. Tbh I can't wait to see you progress with such a demanding class.
While I was away, I was rerolling ranger/clerics, none of which was particulary succesful. I think I've got the route planned and excercised, it doesn't include dragon fights and planar dimensions. The simple fact is that multis struggle immensely against high level casters due to the Remove Magic being exceptionally lethal for multiclasses. Their sole magic protection is Shield of the Archons and it sadly gets quickly exhausted by enemies' sequencers. I once was stuck with a most succesful Malvae on Firkraag. I already had HLAs (pre-Brynnlaw) at that point and still no matter what I did, I got beaten by Remove Magic and meleed to death. My conclusions on the class are that R/C are amazing support characters but their viability in soloing SCS is questionable. There is of course a possibility of me not playing optimally, not realizing hidden combos intricately weaved into the ranger/cleric cheese and thus failing completely. Well. Maybe other time.
But for now, I decided to relax with something I know very well. Without further ado, please welcome.
(difficulty: core, SCS installed, spawned bag of holding, imported nerfed Cloak of Balduran - only 5% magic resist)
Thorn, vicious berserker/mage. Update No.1.
After putting his brother's case to rest, Thorn proceeded to the second part of the saga. First level of a dungeon has been breezed through with only minor hiccups. Enrages were used on ogre magi and mephit pocked plane. I miscontrolled Imoen and she skittled away in the library, so Thorn was on his own. The traps were foiled, sword of chaos retrieved. Second level was welcomed with a rest, Enrage used to dispatch the cages and a clone. Thorn enraged once more to resist being charmed by duergar mage in the north east room. He advanced to the 9th level after killing the doppelganger. That's when I was faced with a choice: do I dual in the Chataeu or not? I decided to clear the thieves first and then dual, so Thorn would receive experience for getting out of the dungeon. I tried to kill Ulvaryl with a Fire Breath potion but failed and finally Thorn surfaced in the Athaktla just in time to witness Irenicus and Imoen being taken away.
Thorn first wrote some of the spells he held in his bag (on the core difficulty he get exp for it, but it is not always succesful), which got him to level 6. He entered the circus and with a help of Aerie, they defeated the illusion. Freshly named mage, previously a ferocious berserker, Thorn headed to Adventure Mart. There sold all the junk and bought scrolls, namely: Minor Globe, II (failed twice), Haste (failed), Web (which he already had, but I forgot about it), Protection from Normal Weapons and a bunch of other low level scrolls. He read them all and headed to slums. After hearing out Gaylean proposal, Thorn barged head first to the Copper Coronet. Surprisingly, noone there wanted to kill him immedietaly. I prepared my reckless brute with a cocoon of spells and watched him whack with a stick at the enemies as the management of the abode was changed body after a body. Ah, the simple pleasures. That got the mage counterpart of Thorn to level 10 and thus he was able to reconcile his mage nature with a previous, full of blood, berserker life. And what a true berserker needs first? A proper weapon! Thorn tossed some cash at Bernard and soon he swung with his newly acquired, pink axe at the undead of Graveyard. I did finish quests there, fell the Crypt King and grabbed Namarra from his dead body. Thorn then sunked underground and dealt with Pai and friends (Enrages and PfNW were used as well as Namarra silence). He looked like that then.
Relentless Thorn pressed on, did Harper quest (Prebek and Sanasha were murdered with silence from Namarra and web, while being protected by rage and Minor Globe), obtained Lilarcor, murdered Slavers, tricked Mae'Varr, disposed of Mencar, outsmarted genies, restored the balance in the druid grove (left the rakshasa for later), returned the mantle to High Merchant, made sure Rejiek wouldn't bother anyone else, cleared the Temple Ruins from undead plague, cheesed Shade Lord with Prot from Undead scroll, gave back the acorns, braved the liches and swepped the Kangaxx ring. Dead Kangaxx. So far so good.
Thorn used Stonefire axe in the druid grove, pink axe in the Temple Ruins (I managed to kill two liches with a clever use of summons and Enrages), left Thax intact for now. Preperations for liches included Protection from Undead and oil of speed, as well as spare scroll and lightning resist potions in case of a demon, also for the big guy Thorn gulped potion of magic shielding to counter Kangaxx's dragon aura (yep). I got lucky, because liches were dying quickly - usually in first or second round.
I encountered a most strange of things. While chasing after liches, a pack of paladins from the most radiant heart attacked me, claiming that Thorn did something to frown upon. A party. I had the impression they were a reputation trap, but Thorn's reputation was at 20, so I had no idea what went wrong. Thorn managed to win the fight (river of potions was gulped), but I counted it as a bug. It did happen again randomly in the other location and again I was caught off guard and managed to beat the crap out of paladins. I consider reloading this, because from my point of view it is clearly a bug, not gamebreaking though so I might continue playing.
Aleastr wrote...Corey, nice job on your party, which survived through numerous hardships.
Thanks! I'm finding it tricky to try to pick spells for Hanna - I never had a sorcerer in ToB, ever until this playthrough. To give you an idea of my issues with her, she still doesn't know magic missile. She can cast a huge no. of spells, just not a huge variety of them. I think I'd rather have a standard mage or specialist. CoreTalos has the ring of holy power as well as the ring from his god, so despite so-so wisdom he's still an excellent cleric. Sarevok, Paja, and Valygar are doing just fine in the melee department - Paja uses the Foebane almost all the time - I think it's my favorite weapon after Carsomyr. Imoen does fine trap work thanks to the ring of danger sense, and any locks she can't open, Hanna uses knock so we covered for basic thieving skills.
For mages, Imoen removes spell protections, while Hanna Breaches and True Sights, and so far, this has worked well. Sarevok switches to the +4 Halberd from the Underdark against mages, since it has a lot of elemental damage which can interrupt spells.
@Alaestr I believe the Radiant Heart paladins strike when you travel to Windspear and kill the other paladins. You shouldn't return to the city until your name is cleared, i.e. after you have rescued the son/daughter of Garren Windspear.
@Jianson creatures in a confused state attack each other and this often results in them turning hostile, this might be what happened to your bear.
@Corey, sorcerers are true spell casting beasts, dont fret on not having MM, its just an interrupter for spell casters. If MM can hit them, than they are not protected which means Sarevok just needs two swings to kill them. Just pick the five best spells that you "constantly" use, or ones you can't leave home without, such as abi's or time stop. Stuff like carrion summons would be a rather wasteful slot, unless you're Grond0 and death by carrion is your restriction. I also find it best not to use "repeating" spells such as : invisibility, inv 10ft, ii, mass inv. As those are all the same in a way.
Some fun tricks to try
1. Project image
2. Farsight, then send project image into the fray
3. ProFmagic
4. Limited wish, swarm enemies
5. Wish, I wish all my enemies dead (I forget the direct quote)
The biggest nuke in the game, twenty abi's all at once and can be done four times. Sorcerers are awesome. Enough said lol. I will say this Wild mages are THE most powerful character class in the game, truly endless spells, and its not full of cheese holes either
@Gate, its safe to return once you visited the house and she gets taken. He arrives saying he cleared your name.
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