15228 replies to this topic

[corey_russell]

@Grond0 - but in your case, the CON tome wouldn't make a difference, would it? Monks aren't considered fighters by the game, so only get HP bonus up to 16, isn't that correct? According to this site, it says "

• Monks use the experience and hit dice table as Clerics and may use cleric scrolls and wands."

So that means no HP after 16, like Clerics correct?

[corey_russell]

Datron the solo Fighter/Illusionist - Update 4

 

Datron has survived the FoD traps in WK first level (by using improved invisibility) to get the ammo belt. This was so he could take on the D'Arnise Keep issues. He tanked here very well, though he did use some spells when helpful. He tried to use SI: evocation on a lightning bolt trap but that had no effect - fortunately his boots of grounding protected him enough, despite being hit quite a few times...Cloudkill used to take out some Umber Hulks, lots of buffs to beat Torgal and his buddies pretty easily. Downstairs main hall trolls taken out with help of genie and Kithix. Nalia was happy to hear the news of the Keep freed, as well as made Datron lord of the keep.

 

Datron's lore is pretty poor, so he finally springed for the glasses of identification. Here's his equipment if any curious by this point:

 

[Grond0]

@Grond0 - but in your case, the CON tome wouldn't make a difference, would it? Monks aren't considered fighters by the game, so only get HP bonus up to 16, isn't that correct? According to this site, it says "

• Monks use the experience and hit dice table as Clerics and may use cleric scrolls and wands."
• 
  

So that means no HP after 16, like Clerics correct?

That's right.  The tome would make no difference to gameplay, but for RP reasons I like to see stats at 19 or higher.

[Grond0]

Gist - human monk (update 2)

 

I played too long this morning while tired, which eventually proved costly.

 

At the circus Kalah tried to run from Gist's stunning fists, but failed to get out of range of a fatal vampiric touch.

 

Moving on to the Slums Gist bought some new glasses before using the Ring of Human Influence to charm Cohrvale into killing his partner.  

 

Inside the Copper Coronet my early morning start caught up with me and I nodded off momentarily to find that Amalas had hit Gist 3 times - he failed to get any more in though after Gist healed then stunned him.  There were no more mistakes helping Hendak take control of the inn - Gist getting up to level 10 in the process and buying the Sling of Seeking.

 

Looking for a way to kill trolls Gist bought the Ring of Air Control then headed for Trademeet.  However, he came across both Suna Seni and Renfeld on the way and turned back to the Docks.  He used the Ring of Air Control to prevent Prebek & Sanasha from casting at him while he beat them up.  After looting the harpers Gist watched Xzar being killed and then took revenge for him by stunning Lucette.

 

To free up some inventory space Gist went briefly to Watcher's Keep to buy the potion case before finally arriving in Trademeet.  A stunning blow acquired the efreeti bottle and that was put to use in killing Faafiraah.  For the Khan, Gist used his last firebreath potion and a vampiric touch, but that didn't quite kill him, so he hid in a tent before using stealth shots to go through stoneskins.

 

Gist bought Blackblood, Ras and the Cloak of Displacement, but couldn't afford the Belt of Inertial Barrier yet.  Instead he journeyed to the Druid Grove and put his new club into action against the trolls there.  The normal ones were no problem, but he did have an extended combat with a giant one - failing to overcome it's regeneration using Ras, stealthy fists, stealth shots or running and shooting.  Eventually I gave up and Gist rested before finishing it off with the help of the efreeti.  Inside, another giant troll outlasted Ras before showing up Gist's lack of headgear with a 44 HP critical, but Gist persevered and managed to clear the Mound - getting to level 11 with the death of the spirit troll there.

 

I made a stupid mistake with the first group of druids by staying too close to the trolls early on and getting affected by the horror cast by the mage.  Fortunately he didn't run to Kyland Lind, but the horror lasted long enough for the trolls to finish off their opponents and hit Gist a couple of times.  After dealing with them Gist used the efreeti and Ras to kill a couple of Kyland's druids, before a series of stealth shots finished off the rest.  

 

I was conscious that I hadn't been playing so safely this morning and that growing tendency proved fatal for Gist.  He summoned the efreeti and Ras and successfully killed the spore colonies.  Meanwhile though some myconids had confused the efreeti and followed it away.  I realised that improved invisibility might have run out, but followed them anyway to try and kill them quickly.  Gist was duly confused and, although I thought he might still have a chance against 2 of them, was quickly beaten down.

 

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear that Grond0. What's ironic is as a monk, you could have stealthed through the whole area and just talk to Cernd to finish this quest line and kill the stuff here when you were higher level.

[Grond0]

Quad multiplayer attempt 1 - (update 7)
Grond0, Dogdancing, corey_russell, Gate70

 

The Quad team had a generally more secure session this time, despite some severe lag causing gameplay issues and ruling out our normal Skype connection.

 

Things started off with a bit of tidying up in Athkatla.  Mencar and his gang were assaulted by summons while we were waiting for Travin to turn up at nightfall.  He pointed the way to Borinall to allow us to recover the Dawn Ring.  Next there was a quick trip to Trademeet to help Tiris - getting our reputation back to 20 as a result.  

 

Then there was a more significant challenge in the Planar Sphere.  That went generally quite smoothly, although Ratic protested here when hit by Wewa (she had been confused earlier and was possibly still carrying out a previous action - or possibly she's just evil . Lavok did manage to PW: stun Yuledan, but fell before he could finish him off.  The most worrying moment was when attacking the last demon.  Ratic followed Yuledan towards it and clicked to attack, only to find the demon change state briefly from hostile to neutral resulting in him running up towards it.  The result was that he was held, but fortunately Yuleday had a remove paralysis to avert the danger; Iskvael then turned the tables by holding the demon.  For the confrontation with Tolgerias Yuledan was preparing to send in summons when Iskvael joked that Ratic could go in with his axe.  The barbarian jumped at the opportunity and was quickly buffed up and had no problems in leading the assault.  The nearest to a death in the session was fighting the golems in the engine room when Wewa decided to finish off one group in melee rather than just wear them down with ranged attacks.

 

After a final check of equipment the team boarded ship for Brynnlaw.  On arrival they quickly meleed the vampires, though Yuledan did get drained there (having replaced the AoP with the Sensate amulet).  Wewa was buffed up to solo Perth and his wardstone provided access to Spellhold (along with a tome currently set on true seeing).  In Spellhold there was time to clear the first level: Wewa used a PfU scroll there to clear the lich.  There was a worrying moment for Yuledan when he was stunned by a mind-flayer, but it couldn't finish sucking his brains out before it was killed.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Grond0 - Ratic, barbarian 16, 114 HPs, 765 kills

Dogdancing - Wewa, berserker 16, 119 HPs, 464 kills, 3 deaths

corey_russell - Yuledan, fighter 12 / cleric 12, 110 HPs (incl. 5 HPs from amulet), 379 kills, 4 deaths
Gate70 - Iskvael, mage 12 / thief 14, 55 HPs, 161 kills, 3 deaths

[Dogdancing]

  That went generally quite smoothly, although Ratic protested here when hit by Wewa (she had been confused earlier and was possibly still carrying out a previous action - or possibly she's just evil . 

 

While its true I am evil, heh, This case you fell victim to the dastardly Dogdancing-mod. I had stayed up way to late blogging and was super tired for our early am session. I have the "switching weapon sets" grace of a rollerskating octopus. Frequently in my runs with Corey_Russell, the fight is over before I can get ranged weapons equipped and visa versa.

 

Add in supper groggy tired and I'm more klutzy then usual.

 

I had just tapped my weapon to switch to a different one when the party began to move, so I then targeted Ratic to auto-follow and proceeded to give him a hair cut. 

 

Your lucky I had just switched back to range or Ratic would have gotten a shave and a hair cut!

[corey_russell]

Datron the solo fighter/illusionist

 

Just a quick update - Datron has cleared out the Druid Grove. He used his best melee buffs vs. the enemies in the troll mound, in particular using mirror image for the Giant Trolls - this worked out well. Namuraa silence and improved invisibility was used vs. the various druids, all with success. The final group of shadow druids guarding the entrance to Faldhorn, I buffed then forgot to put on my armor! Sloppy mistake I took a lot a damage as a result (read, lots of potions gulped). The slashing/piercing defense bonus would have been huge, not to mention the two extra AC. Sloppy mistake - I will take another break after this, don't want to lose Datron.

 

I did have enough concentration left to report to the Mayor of Trademeet and clean out some undead in Trademeet - maximum buffs made it a pretty clean fight. Finally bought the belt of initial barrier, will probably get the AoP next session. Umar Hills likely next session.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Datron the solo fighter/illusionist

 

Will probably get the AoP next session. Umar Hills likely next session.

 

Sorry, not too familiar with the TLAs. What is AoP?

[corey_russell]

Sorry, not too familiar with the TLAs. What is AoP?

Amulet of Power. Item from Aran Linvail - gives casters protection from level drain, plus permanent vocalization I think.

[corey_russell]

Datron the solo fighter/illusionist - Update 6 - Umar Hills and Temple Area

 

First job was to get the AoP. It was of course dark, and I had gotten the Sunsuki ambush and the muggers at once at the Docks. I tried tanking, but with no level drain, I got hit quick. I decided to be safe and use an invisibility potion and return later, armed with the AoP. So I get the AoP return and mop up the muggers and the vampires, AoP and charm helmet doing their jobs.

 

Datron has completed the Umar Hills quests. Not much to mention, shield of harmony kept Datron alive.

 

Next up was the undead in the Umar Hills Temple area. I used some summons to break the large group of shadows, being protected by shield of harmony so I can't be held by the shadow fiends.

 

Careful play made the interior pretty safe. Hardly any spells were cast. Fire resistance potions used before entering lava and tripping traps. One important and huge thing I did was talk to the dead priestess, THEN use pro undead scroll for the two groups of large undead. Had to fight two bone golems, but dual-wielding axes did the job.  One bone golem was killed by Azuredge, as it was trapped in a group of undead who didn't move since they can't see me.

 

Finally time for the shadow dragon. I fought ranged, always in the cove so never in melee, as the dragon is too big. I did cast resist fear before the fight. First I tried lightning bolts from wands - they both poofed and got the dragon to badly injured. Next tried  +2 arrows, but they quickly went. I can't use Azuredge or any +1 ammo as in my install, they do no damage to dragons. Dragon still alive after +2 arrows, so had to use +2 bullets via sling, despite no skill. This was very, very slow, so used a haste potion to try to speed it up - success!

 

Last up was the Shade Lord - maximum buffs, I wasn't sure if he had maze in his script, so did SI:C to stop that, and also SI:N to stop FoD. A sunstone was used on the altar, then Frostweaver and Stonefire on the shade lord. I had improved invisibility up too, so he had to waste time dispelling that...success here as well!

 

Last little was the rangers in Umar Hills - maximum buffs made them simple. Reported to mayor, he was happy, sold my junk and ended the session here. Several times forgot to put on my armor, so decided not to push my luck.

[AnonymousHero]

Epic/cowardly fight with Thax. I mean 'cowardly' in a nice way

 

I've been pretty much absent for ages, so I don't know if I'm telling you something you already know, but: Are you aware you can buy Arrows of Dispelling from the fletcher in Waukeen's Promenade? Along with the Tuigan Bow (+1 APR) that's usually sufficient to make very short work of dragons. (You won't get through PfMW, but Stonekins melt away.)

 

Btw, are you playing with SCS?

[corey_russell]

I do know about the dispelling arrows yes. I did NOT have the money for them though, I was broke by the time I got to Umar Hill Temple Area.

 

As for SCS - no, I am not playing SCS. I DID try SCS, as I said I would. However, the constant buffing, and frequent deaths of the party members were quite a problem, most money being spent for resurrections. It felt too much like "work" - I am not going to play an ancient video game if it feels like work! I had to buff for the most minor of encounters (Bregg and Cohrvale for example, would start gulping strength potions and freedom potions).

 

Vanilla feels "playing" to me, so went back to that. Also, I've had quite a few vanilla failures (Noywad III being one), so obviously it's still not down pat quite yet, for me.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (update 1)

Barbra, half-elf jester (Grond0) & Demaclyne, elf archer (Gate70)

 

After finishing off BG1 earlier, we still had time today to make decent inroads at the start of BG2 - although at the cost of Demaclyne's first death.

 

They passed through the dungeon, successfully overcoming all enemies there.  The only dodgy moment there was when Demaclyne aggressively attacked Ilyich while wounded, but he successfully interrupted the mage's spell and the duo triumphed.

 

There was a quick stop at the circus before going to report to Gaelan Bayle.  Then the Suna Seni ambush gave Barbra the opportunity to sow some confusion in the enemy ranks while invisible.  Next they travelled to Watcher's Keep to pick up the potion case.  Gate70's connection had been dodgy again today and the distraction / irritation of a couple of drop-outs led him to attack a group of undead there without wielding Arbane.  Barbra was also at fault as she should have rested before that confrontation and had no invisibility available to save him.  She tried using a scorcher, but only succeeded in hastening his end.

 

Back in Athkatla Renfeld was saved and returned to the harpers.  Demaclyne didn't manage to get out of sight of Sanasha in Prebek's house, but Barbra helped out by diving in and out of the house to waste a couple of spells.  She took a risk of her own by taking some thieving potions and then slipping her hand into Ribald's pocket and pulling out a ring of regeneration (to cut down on the significant amount of healing and resting done up to this point).  She also stole a few things from Bernard after helping Hendak out at the Copper Coronet and pulled out a couple of quiverfuls of dispelling arrows from the fletcher in the Promenade.

 

The final action of the session saw the duo off to the Temple area.  They picked up the necklace of Talos (though Barbra was warned by the Cowled Wizards for casting an invisibility there before resting to wait for dark).  Then, in the sewers, the flesh golem helped out against the rakshasa before Roger provided a bounty for the sea troll's head.

 

 

Stats:

Barbra, jester 12, 73 HPs, 126 kills

Demaclyne, archer 9, 100 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 340 kills, 1 death

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (update 2)

Barbra, half-elf jester (Grond0) & Demaclyne, elf archer (Gate70)

 

This pairing had a couple of interesting moments yesterday, but survived intact to the end of the session.

 

Early progress included opening up the Unseeing Eye quest, to get access to the lich there, and starting the Fallen Paladins.  At the Bridge District Barbra collected the berserker horn before investigating the skinner murders.  She was nearly embarrassed by a higher than expected set of damage from a lightning trap there, but survived.  After resting she put on stoneskins and mirrors to protect against the Rune Assassins and then acted as an invisible blocker while Demaclyne used Azuredge on the ghasts.  With them out of the way the Assassins didn't last long.

 

With the funds earned there they paid Gaelan Bayle and collected the goodies from Aran Linvail.  While doing that they also saved Sansuki, though Demaclyne got drained to level 1 in the process.  He found it impossible to get space to use Azuredge in missile mode and eventually threw it to Barbra to use while he ran round.  Pushing on with the Mae'Var quests in that area Barbra produced a series of summons from the corner to occupy Rayic while Demaclyne came up the stairs in the other corner to do the damage with his bow.  The assault on Mae'Var's guild house was not so clean.  That was a result of there being a large number of thieves in the opening room - Demaclyne couldn't get space to shoot at them and their backstabs almost killed him before Barbra could help out with summons and supporting spells.  Downstairs, Mae'Var himself proved far easier.

 

Demaclyne was worried for some reason about Barbra attracting further attention from the Cowled Wizards, so the next stop was at the Government District to buy a license.  Then they went on to the Graveyard to seek out some headgear for Barbra.  Demaclyne was poisoned in the initial attack, but the spiders all quickly died in a cloudkill and Pai'Na didn't last much longer.

 

The assault on the liches went according to plan, with a PfU scroll and haste potion each proving all that was required.  While at the City Gates we had spotted Tanova lurking round so went back there to kill her while the scroll was still active.  Going on to the Docks Mook was revenged - the scrolls running out just in time to allow Lassal to give a final speech.  The action will start next time with the Guild Contact.

 

Stats:

Barbra, jester 13, 82 HPs (incl. 7 from ioun stone), 177 kills

Demaclyne, archer 10, 103 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 389 kills, 1 death

[Grond0]

Hale - elf wild mage (update 1)

 

Hale started her adventures in the dungeon by getting back together with her familiar.  Without high strength that required her to cast a knock spell - succeeding at the second attempt after this potentially nasty surge.

 

She used her familiar's invisibility while going to collect the Claw and Horn of Kazgaroth - avoiding conflict other than a cloudkill from the shadows for a radiant mephit and fighting a few goblins.  A sequence of spells allowed her to loot the room with the portal key in and another produced summons to destroy the mephit portals.  She used one more mirror image (which proved ineffective) while leaving invisibly.

 

Escaping from the dungeon got her to level 10.  Ideally she would have wanted to get the Ring of Air Control immediately to make casting safer, but with very little loot taken from the dungeon she couldn't afford it.  Instead she bought a scroll of undead protection and learnt MMM.

 

After talking to Gaelan Bayle she was on her way to the City Gates when ambushed by Suna Seni.  However, she was invisible at the time and was able to cast a sequence of protective spells before chaos and summoned monsters finished off the opposition.  The loot from that was enough to buy the RoAC.  Back at the City Gates Hale used MMM to kill the lich and loot its equipment.

 

More travelling produced the Renfeld ambush.  After returning him Hale went to buy a magic license (having already been warned once for using the RoAC).  Then she used the RoAC and a scorcher to clear Prebek's house and get access to the Harper HQ. After looting that she watched Xzar get assassinated - getting to level 11 in the process.  That was useful as it means that the RoAC on its own is sufficient to make her safe from a petrification surge, rather than using the Horn of Kazgaroth as well.

 

Hale moved on to Watcher's Keep to buy the potion case and a few spells (including stoneskin).  There were no vampiric wraiths there, so she also looted the top floor - though didn't bother with the statues for now.

 

Back in the city she used a PfU scroll along with phantom blade / MMM and potions of speed to clear the Graveyard tombs.  She then set the circus to rights before returning to the Graveyard to confront Pai'Na - using invisibility and a cloudkill to eliminate the spiders.  A group of hasted summons then cleared the first room in the Southern tombs and more summons after resting worked through the remaining areas.

 

The Copper Coronet also got a change of management before the end of the session - getting Hale to level 12 in the process.  She celebrated by learning a few of Bernard's choicer spells. 

[Grond0]

Hale - elf wild mage (update 2)

 

She started the session by paying Gaelan Bayle his 15,000 and going to collect goodies from Aran Linvail.  Next she opened up access to the liches.  She had her first petrification surge during that, but using the RoAC at the start of any day and then keeping spirit armour up provides secure protection even against this die roll of 1.  The Shade Lich and Elemental lich, along with Kangaxx's lich form, were killed using PfU with phantom blade and a potion of speed.  The demi-lich was killed with MMM, using improved haste and potions of power and mind focusing.  I hadn't brought along any spare MMM scrolls, so was relieved to see Kangaxx fall, with Hale down to her last MMM.

 

Next Hale got around to attacking some pirates with the Rod of Terror to wrap her charisma around to 25 before saving Sansuki from some vampires.  While in the mood for that she also revenged Mook on Lassal.

 

In the Bridge District Hale tracked down the Guild Contact, used spell immunity to get the berserker horn, solved the skinner murders with the help of her first sequencer (level 13) and punished some kidnappers before picking up their ransom for herself (immediately addressing the reputation loss by reporting to the guard outside the circus and to Lt Aegisfield).  A bit of travelling back and forward then saw a fire elemental completing the fall of some paladins.

 

Tying up a loose end Hale went to pick up a teddy bear from the Copper Coronet.  While attempting to open a locked chest she produced a demon - bravely running before the demon materialised and leaving the flesh golem to fight it out.  A bit more in the way of minor works saw her use a potion of strength to take some illithium to Sir Sarles and recover the Dawn ring.  Then a more substantial set of tasks saw her end Mae'Var's reign - Rayic Gethras as usual being taken down by summons produced from out of sight (level 14).

 

The final action of the session was starting to clear out the sewers underneath the Copper Coronet - she's just made use of her second skull trap sequencer on some myconids there.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (update 3)

Barbra, half-elf jester (Grond0) & Demaclyne, elf archer (Gate70)

 

We got a good session in today to make some decent progress for this pair in Amn.  They started off by killing the Guild Contact quickly enough to recover a couple of potions of invulnerability and progressed on to take on the vampires.  Barbra tanked the vampires upstairs with a 2-handed sword and either used Arbane or ranged attacks on the ghouls.  A sneaky sunray from Demaclyne didn't kill Tanova, but was sufficient to send her flapping away in terror.  Another sunray downstairs killed most of the vampires and Demaclyne was able to finish off the others more despite than because of Barbra's skull trap (that also hit him).  Barbra put on stoneskin and mirrors for Bodhi, which lasted long enough to see her on her way.

 

The next objective was Trademeet.  Things started well with summons soaking up the genies' petrification attacks - their death enabling the purchase of the Cloak of Displacement and Belt of Inertial Barrier.  Progress through the Grove was also good, with trolls being separated out for easy disposal, while the druids went down quickly to skull traps.  Barbra did mistakenly talk to Cernd before taking on the last group of druids, but the early death for Faldorn lost nothing vital.  Back in Trademeet Tiris was helped without difficulty, but clearing the tomb was more of a problem.  Without having rested Barbra was unable to tank for long and once she started running Demaclyne also had to run - making his job as an archer far more difficult.  Eventually Barbra ran out of the tomb - chased by a couple of skeletons, but they were no problem with more space to work in outside.

 

Back in Athkatla the duo took on the kidnappers and recovered their intended ransom.  The final action of the session was then clearing de'Arnise Hold.  That all went pretty smoothly up to Torgal's death.  Demaclyne did take significant damage from lagged attacks by one of Torgal's giant troll companions, but survived with a bit in hand.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Barbra, jester 16, 89 HPs (incl. 8 from ioun stone), 237 kills

Demaclyne, archer 12, 109 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 476 kills, 1 death

Gate70 felt a bit disappointed in that session that Demaclyne is finding it harder to kill things in BG2 than BG1.  However, even though the gap in kills was lower than in the past he still racked up 50% more kills than Barbra this time!

[Grond0]

Hale - elf wild mage (update 3)

 

Hale made good progress in the last session and has now developed to the stage where she should be able to continue to move on rapidly.

 

In the Copper Coronet sewers she solved the riddle, but instead of getting Lilarcor got given Vallah's hand back - still the sword's not worth that much anyway.  She had no trouble with Capt Haegan, but did have to run away quickly when an attempt to get MMM for the trolls resulted in another demon.  Web, chaos and skull traps meant her summons didn't have much left to do against the slaver wizards.

 

Next she returned to the Graveyard to invade vampire HQ.  A couple of skeleton warriors led the way in clearing the top area, though she got a quick victory over Tanova using a skull trap sequencer.  Downstairs she tried using a reset sequencer, but that failed.  However, her back-up summons (fire elemental, Kitthix and a djinni) proved enough to do the job.  Back upstairs I allowed Hale to rest and produce new summons before confronting Bodhi.  The first lot only included normal skeletons and I could see they were unlikely to win, so ran away and brought out some better allies to finish her off.

 

I realised at that point that Hale had far too much money at risk of surges (over 63k) and went to buy various items, including the Robe of Vecna, the Staff of Rhynn and AC3 bracers.  Also got a number of spell upgrades, including successfully learning contingency, lower resistance and limited wish.

 

Clearing up in the Promenade, Hale took on Mencar's gang - webs and stinking cloud pacified the resistance and made the fight easy, while confusion prevented Brennan from running away with his invisibility ring.  There was a similar approach to Captain Dennis and his men in the Bridge District and then to Tarnor's cut-throats - only Draug Fea survived the death fog and cloudkill, but a couple of hits by the Crimson Dart finished him off.

 

While in the sewers Hale invaded Mekrath's dwelling.  Two lots of summons (the first disappearing in a death spell) accounted for the mage.  His supporters were taken down using a wide range of spells and summons - helped by a helpful surge in the middle of the encounter that refreshed Hale's spells.

 

Moving on to the Planar Prison, Hale entered invisibly and quickly got out of sight of the bounty hunter before true sight was active.  Summons were then produced to win the initial battle.  Hale rested as necessary to keep summons going, as well as using a number of wand cloudkills.  A large group of yuan-ti produced enough XP to get her to level 16 - important as it means she will no longer need to use the RoAC to cast safely.  She did get a no-save hold surge on the way, but fortunately out of combat.  She successfully confused the Warden, making the combat against him easy, before quickly finishing the yuan-ti mages off with skull traps (the skeleton warriors making their magic resistance throws each time and thus not turning hostile).

 

The last objective for the session was the Unseeing Eye and Hale made quick progress there with her new boots - a couple of skeleton warriors seeing off the beholders at the bridge after their death spell was wasted on Kitthix.  The undead were largely dealt with by summons, though the lich died in an incendiary cloud (level 17).  Another incendiary cloud crisped some webbed priests in the hive, but the bulk of the work there was done by a single skeleton warrior.  It was joined later by a fire elemental and the latter got the glory for the Eye.  Before saving I quickly returned the rod, to make sure I don't forget that next time!

[Grond0]

Hale - elf wild mage (update 3)

 

With funds again having climbed above 60k, Hale recharged a few wands - even though she's not likely to use those much.  Then she travelled to Trademeet to seek out some more purchases.  She breezed through the opposition there, mainly using summons, though a first use of symbol stun helped with Kyland Lind.  Her summons ability was improved after that by getting to level 18 and access to a planetar, though she didn't need to rest to finish off the enemies in the Grove.  I did note on the way that she had her first close encounter with a cow in BG2 - I had forgotten to put up stoneskin at the time, but a falling cow does surprisingly little damage.

 

The de'Arnise Hold was similarly no problem.  The planetar got a first outing there against an iron golem.  Making up the FoA got her to level 19.  TorGal's magic resistance saved him from 2 spells by a djinni and Hale eventually produced some MMM via NRD to finish him off.

 

Umar Hills was also pretty straight-forward.  The only potentially challenging encounter was running away from her own planetar after using an incendiary cloud to kill the first lich, but she used some previously summoned creatures to provide a breathing space there.  She found a nice spell trap scroll as random treasure on a skeleton warrior before getting to level 20 - meaning among other things that her animate dead spells will always produce skeleton warriors now.  Thaxy managed to kill one planetar, but a second quickly finished her off.  The Shade Lord survived long enough to spell strike Hale's spell trap, but died in an incendiary cloud before it could do anything further.  On the way back to the mayor Hale picked up Valygar's body - using NRD strength to get that back to Athkatla to open up the Planar Sphere.

 

Summons led the way as usual through the Planar Sphere.  Hale soon got to level 21 there, picking up his final saving throw bonuses.  As a result she will ditch the Claw of Kazgaroth in favour of a ring of protection +2 and Cloak of Displacement.  Hale did get hit by a couple of fireballs from the noble efreeti in the fire room - triggering her contingency and leaving her summons to fight alone.  She got to level 22 by providing Lavok with a last glimpse of the sky and will take control of her new stronghold next time.

[Grond0]

Chimera - human monk (update 1)

 

I had a break from Hale this morning and took another monk through BG1.  There was then still enough time left before breakfast to make a bit of a start on BG2.  

 

The first task was to get out of the dungeon.  There was one significant mistake there when I forgot to kill the golems before looting the mistress's chambers.  As a result the golems chased Chimera using their follow invisible script.  For most characters that would have been very nasty, but Chimera was as fast as them and able to hide round corners then attack and run before they could respond.  Even so, at one point Chimera did not respond to a movement click and took a critical hit, so I had to be pretty careful with movement after that.  He successfully dealt with everything else - Ulvaryl taking a stunning blow.

 

He also quickly restored the circus to normal operation - getting to level 10 in the process.

 

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (update 4)

Barbra, half-elf jester (Grond0) & Demaclyne, elf archer (Gate70)

 

Some more decent work today punctuated by just the odd hiccup.

 

First off was undertaking the Sir Sarles quest in order to upgrade the MoD.  After that we tried to recover the Dawn Ring, but were faced with a couple of hours to wait before Travin could be expected to be there, so went to clear the Copper Coronet sewers instead.  There were no problems there, with a chaos taking the fight out of the guards at one end and a couple of skull traps the slaver wizards at the other.  When we eventually went back to look for Travin there was no sign of him (which is a common problem in this installation) and Gate70 consoled him in.

 

Next up was Umar Hills.  Approaching the cave we discussed the possibility of both characters getting held and decided to put in a few summons as insurance - which was a good job.  There was a glitch talking to Fael when he took an answer from Barbra to his name without her realising the question had been asked - so there will be no flesh armour.  At the temple Azuredge did a good job on the opening undead, although there had to be a fair amount of running round to defeat the first big group with a greater mummy and bone golem.  For the second such group Barbra made sure she was rested with summons and buffs available and finished them off without difficulty.  Thaxy took a nasty hit from a skull trap following a couple of lower resistances, but the majority of damage was actually done by Demaclyne's arrows.  The Shade Lord suffered from a sunray and failed to survive a follow-up hit from Daystar.

 

The final objective was Windspear Hills.  After returning to the City to pick up the acorns the duo moved through there rapidly.  They struggled with the troll cook after Demaclyne got held and Barbra took quite a bit of damage trying to draw fire to protect him.  Eventually she drew the troll away with the help of a potion of invisibility before finishing off the last of the hobgoblins.  Samia's group were largely affected by chaos and didn't put up much of a fight.  After dying recently to Conster, Barbra agreed to rest before this encounter in order to leave some summons behind to kill the mage.  Firkraag will be waiting patiently for us next time.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Barbra, jester 18, 93 HPs (incl. 8 from ioun stone), 341 kills

Demaclyne, archer 14, 115 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 605 kills, 1 death

Demaclyne still got more kills in that session, but Barbra's regular use of skull traps kept her not too far adrift.

[Grond0]

Hale - elf wild mage (update 4)

 

A shortish session this morning saw Hale arrive in Brynnlaw.

 

She arranged to send some Solamnic Knights home before sacrificing her apprentices in a failed attempt to make a Staff of Power.  She went to Windspear Hills, but was told to return to the Sphere - and did so just in time to go invisible and bring in summons to destroy an intended ambush.  She went straight on to imprison Lord Argrim before leaving her stronghold for good.

 

Back at Windspear, Hale had no problems with the opposition, but her luck with finances finally ran out - losing over 85,000 gold here.  She got a small amount of that back after Firkraag suffered from lower resistance and an assault by summons.  That also took her up to level 24 - appropriately gaining the ability to use dragon breath.

 

Summons quickly hacked their way through the illithid enclave before Hale moved on to the Guarded Compound.  Her planetar went hostile after killing the glabrezu, so Hale rested before doing the upstairs mob.  They were dragged downstairs to face summons and all died quickly.

 

The final target before going to Spellhold was the Twisted Rune.  Hale used a PfU scroll there to kill Shangalar (getting her final HLA at level 25 there) before bringing out summons to deal with the rest of the enemies.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (update 5)

Barbra, half-elf jester (Grond0) & Demaclyne, elf archer (Gate70)

 

Today's session saw some decent gameplay, but problems with the save could still spell disaster for the run.

 

The action opened with an attack on Firkraag.  His breath burnt the flesh golem to a crisp, but didn't affect the characters and the dragon didn't last long against Demaclyne's deadly arrows.

 

After forging a couple of sets of dragon armour the duo headed to the Temple sewers.  Tarnor's gang were discomfited by a stinking cloud from the efreeti accompanied by a wand cloudkill and Gaius ultimately died of that.  Some of the others tried chasing and Demaclyne was targeted by a hold person at one point, but he saved and the remaining enemies were quickly killed.  The illithids proved a slightly sterner test, with Demaclyne stunned in the attack on the second room.  Dispelling arrows had no effect on him and Barbra had to make him invisible to make him safe while the illithids were occupied in finishing off some summons.  

 

Mekrath died in battle with a couple of skeleton warriors and his yuan-ti didn't fare any better.  However, when trying to save the game at this point we found it was trying to save to a temporary file.  After quitting and restarting the game seemed to have lost most of its status information, so Barbra had to go and talk to Gaal again to get into the Unseeing Eye area.  Progress there was good with Azuredge dealing with the undead, while skeleton warriors polished off the beholders and the Eye.  We'll investigate potential use of the console next time to avoid repeating encounters before going to Spellhold.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Barbra, jester 21, 113 HPs (incl. 10 from ioun stone, 12 from familiar), 399 kills

Demaclyne, archer 15, 118 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 676 kills, 1 death

[Grond0]

Hale - elf wild mage (update 5)

 

Hale has completed an extended round trip and returned to Athkatla to prepare for the final confrontation with Jon next time ...

 

In Brynnlaw some skeleton warriors killed Perth and Hale found a true seeing spell in his book.  Moving on to Spellhold Hale used a fake talk on the demon to avoid it reducing a stat in the Bhaal dream, but then nearly died when I thought Bhaal was attacking the flesh golem, but he was actually attacking Hale - Bhaal had had enough at the same point that Hale's contingency triggered.

 

In Spellhold, summons killed most of the enemies, though the lich died in an incendiary cloud.  Hale got to level 28 on exit.  She stayed out of the way while a planetar fought Jon then went to find Saemon and take ship with him.

 

In the City of Caverns Hale picked up the cloak of protection +2 and the Cloak of Mirroring.  She killed the king well before the prince turned up and punished the latter for his late arrival.

 

In the Underdark Hale learnt freedom and used that to release a mage.  Summons made short work of some drow and myconids and released some captives from a giant soul gem.  Then they went to a nearby village to help with a balor and pick up a spell book for the mage.  Shortly afterwards, conflict with the mage erupted and Hale waited for her summons to do their job - leaving her to learn ADHW and time stop.

 

The only separate area entered in the Underdark was the kuo-toa - summons quickly clearing that (level 29).

 

In the drow city Hale visited the shops and then quickly ran through her assigned tasks.  There was one potential problem when I thought that N'ashtar had already been killed and Hale got too close to him - she had to equip her staff to disappear before the mage could complete his maze spell.  I also clicked on the wrong conversation with the svirfneblin patrol and ended up slaughtering them for real for once.

 

Hale got to level 30 when the summoned demon killed the matron mother and Phaere.  With no need for the flesh armour she left Adalon to enjoy her eggs and returned invisibly to the City.