15228 replies to this topic

[Grond0]

Nice to see Datron on the road again Corey.

 

Hale - elf wild mage (update 9)

 

Hale opened up with Challenge number 4 - no problems there with summons and ADHW taking down the enemies without them even trying to attack her.

 

Next she went after Balthazar.  Saemon provided entrance to the compound and she went invisible and nipped inside before the mages' true sight could find her.  A project image produced some summons, before Hale showed herself.  She immediately used a trigger lower resistance on Balthazar and followed that up with an NRD PW:blind (NRD avoiding the normal need for a clear aura).  However, that didn't stop him for long at all - possibly one of his special HLAs dispelled the effect.  A series of skull traps got him to near death, but he managed to heal with a second wind.  Attacks by summons together with a number of hits from elemental blades and a few spells under improved alacrity got him hovering around near death again for a while, but Hale couldn't quite concentrate damage quickly enough to finish him off.  However, I think he may have run out of potions and when a second planetar was joined by a first outing for the juggernaut golem he failed to heal himself quickly enough ...

 

For the 5th challenge, I wasn't sure if any of Hale's normal damaging spells would be much use against the ravager due to its high resistances.  So instead she concentrated on keeping a mordy sword up as a target and using energy blades herself.  I think she was on something like the 12th casting of those, having used her only mordy sword scroll and 1 of her 3 limited wish scrolls, when The Ravager finally gave up the ghost.

 

Although that was just a short session I'll leave Hale there for today and keep Mel as a treat for tomorrow.

[Gate70]

Good luck, oh and is it worth dropping the frame rate back against her (or will you lose attention at such a slow rate)

[SubannisRae]

Hey Grond0, general question on the Ravager. If you had wanted to affect it with magic on a general basis, it's my memory that to drop the MR you would need to use Pierce Shield, or at least magic as the Ravager is, I think, immune to 5th level spells or below. Is that still true with SCS, Ascension, et al? My old school approach here would ha e been to maze the bone blades when they got too close and do as much damage with Energy Blades as I could prior to unleashing the Pierces x3 followed by greater malison and a host of magic dmg spells (ADHW, FoD (still does dmg on save) and anything else I have.) Obviously loading in a improved invis + scroll imp hasted planetar as well. Thoughts on that approach?

[Grond0]

Good luck, oh and is it worth dropping the frame rate back against her (or will you lose attention at such a slow rate)

I don't think I'll change it.  I'll be pausing so frequently anyway that the frame rate won't make much difference to time spent between actions and I'm used to judging things at the higher speed.

 

 

Hey Grond0, general question on the Ravager. If you had wanted to affect it with magic on a general basis, it's my memory that to drop the MR you would need to use Pierce Shield, or at least magic as the Ravager is, I think, immune to 5th level spells or below. Is that still true with SCS, Ascension, et al? My old school approach here would ha e been to maze the bone blades when they got too close and do as much damage with Energy Blades as I could prior to unleashing the Pierces x3 followed by greater malison and a host of magic dmg spells (ADHW, FoD (still does dmg on save) and anything else I have.) Obviously loading in a improved invis + scroll imp hasted planetar as well. Thoughts on that approach?

I don't remember using a magic damage based approach on the Ravager, so I'm not sure what, if any, magic damage resistance he has (I'm pretty sure he's got 100% resistance to any elemental damage).  If he doesn't have any then that sounds like a reasonable approach although I think mordy swords would be a better option than maze (need far fewer spells and they can soak up quite a bit of the damage from the Ravager as well as the bone blades). Buffs on a planetar aren't likely to last long against the dispel magic on hit of the Ravager, but I agree they can help out a bit.  You might want to consider using pierce magic rather than pierce shield (saves 8th level for ADHW and can be pre-loaded into a spell trigger).

[Grond0]

Quad multiplayer attempt 1 - (update 8)
Grond0, Dogdancing, corey_russell, Gate70

 

Other commitments have prevented the Quad advancing over the last couple of weeks, but they had a decent run today.

 

The session started with a gathering around the exit to Spellhold's first level.  The statue said the way was open, but refused to allow us to move past - so there was a general use of ctrl-J to jump characters to the exit point.  That proved to be the most difficult hurdle to cross in Spellhold with the second level causing no problems.  Yuledan was presented with some boots of speed to allow him to keep up with Wewa.

 

On exit Wewa was offered the choice of how she wanted to interact with Lonk.  Her charisma would have allowed her to talk him into helping us for nothing, but she was never going to follow that route .  The battle with Jon went well, except that it was one of the inmates that took the glory for his death.

 

After agreeing to trust Saemon one more time, the Quad took a boat trip that ended up in Fish City.  Yuledan talked the spectator into handing over a weirdly shaped key before everyone fought their way through various groups of rebels to go and talk to the prince (Ratic benefiting from the Cloak of Mirroring on the way).  The prince was grateful for the death of the king - at least for the few seconds until he was killed himself!

 

The first setback of the session came against a group of drow blocking the way to the deep gnome village.  They managed to buff and start using area damage spells - which spelled the end of Yuledan.  He was quickly brought back by the Rod of Resurrection and charges of that were also used for Iskvael and Wewa - though neither quite died.  At the village a Balor was reinterred and Vithal's spellbook picked up.  That allowed the mage to explore various elemental planes, until he refused to hand over enough of the loot and was shot down by Iskvael as a follow-up to a breach.

 

The beholder hive was also a bit of a struggle.  Ratic was held early on, though the CoM meant he took no damage from various gauth as a result.  Yuledan was then stunned by some illithids, but managed to survive the experience this time.  He was less lucky when trying to tank an elder orb and getting imprisoned for his pains (the disruption to fighting that called also resulted in Wewa's death shortly after that).  Wewa bounced straight back courtesy of the RoR and luckily we had a mage who was able to free Yuledan in time to rejoin the party and finish off the elder orb and the last few beholders.

 

The final objective of the session was the illithid city.  That went pretty well, with Yuledan successfully taking on the role of tank and proving well able to sustain the occasional drain that a critical hit pushed through his defenses.  By the time of the final battle the group had proved too strong for the defenders and the Master Brain died pretty quickly.  The Quad rested and moved next to the kuo-toa tunnels so they will be ready to crack on immediately next time.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Grond0 - Ratic, barbarian 19, 123 HPs, 844 kills

Dogdancing - Wewa, berserker 18, 125 HPs, 501 kills, 4 deaths

corey_russell - Yuledan, fighter 13 / cleric 13, 112 HPs (incl. 5 HPs from amulet), 450 kills, 5 deaths
Gate70 - Iskvael, mage 13 / thief 16, 58 HPs, 185 kills, 3 deaths

[corey_russell]

Datron the level 19 Fighter/Level 17 Illusionist Update

 

Datron finally gets around to taking out Kangaxx. A scroll of magic protection was used for defense, with Giantkin hammer and Belm for offense - this worked.

 

Windspear Hills was next. A scroll of pro undead was used to defeat the mass of undead in Firkraag's Lair. The golems near the bridge never appeared. Datron was unable to detect the hidden wall with the nice bow loot - oh well. Samia was defeated by lots of buffs, like usual for these kind of fights.

 

Only problem was when fighting Conster was low spells and buffs, and I realized if he did Greater Malison/FoD, Datron could kick the bucket. He didn't have any potions of invulnerability to counter that. Fortunately, Conster just did FoD right away, which was no threat due to Datron's saves. Datron then proceeded to throw 100 darts of wounding until Conster went down.

 

Datron let the kidnapped girl and dealing with the big red lizard was next. Very little buffs here, did stoneskin, mirror image (from Ilbratha), hardiness, and of course fire immunity (3 potions of fire resistance). Attack! Used GWW and WW, and that did fatal damage to the dragon.

 

Datron then finished off the Unseeing Eye quest. Shield of Balduran working well. A scroll vs. undead was used for that large mass of undead guarding the gauntlets of dexterity. For the Unseeing Eye himself, Datron waited until The Eye's buffs fired, then used the rod and Azuredge to finish him off. For the blind priests, stinking cloud/cloudkill and silences from Namuraa won the battle. Gaal and pals was easy enough when Datron was fully buffed.

 

Time to deal with the vamp guild - no problems at all, Datron is far stronger than these undead. Two GWWs forced Bodhi to give it up.

 

Brynnlaw was next. I used SI:C and SI:D to stop Perth's mazes and true sight, similar buffs vs. the guildmistress as well, success in those fights.

 

Spellhold was pretty unremarkable. Maximum buffs once again kept him safe from Irenicus - most relevant buff probably being SI:N to make horrid wiltings non-threats.

Thanks to protection from energy, Datron doesn't really need the cloak of mirroring - he isn't planning on fighting a lot of beholders either, though he has Shield of Balduran when that's needed. So Datron tried to kill Saemon but Saemon escaped. Datron finally makes it to Underdark without Saemon's help. His stay here will be short, only intending to save the Svirfberlin village and quick shopping before taking Adalon's scroll of freedom (from the Underdark).

[corey_russell]

Datron the solo fighter/illusionist - Underdark etc.

 

Datron didn't do much in the Underdark. In the Kua-Toa Lair, the demon knights were battled - they were easy, as the planetar kept vorpaling them.

 

Datron used a new sequencer on the drow - 3x fireball. It worked out real nice, Datron bought some things from Ust Natha (yes Grond0, this time I got the earth elemental staff!) then immediately attack Adalon to get the heck out of here. It's not like Datron needs the experience doing the quests, as he will be very close to the ToB level cap when he gets to the end of SoA.

 

Datron's run could of ended against Adalon - Tymora was watching over him. He got to 100% cold resist, haste potion, bow (in my install, Azuredge doesn't work against dragons), ammo, all set right? Well he commenced his attacked and was FEARED! Luckily he was also buffeted back to the entrance, so he ran around away from Adalon for a while...eventually he came within her range though...yay Adalon did a lot of cold attacks, which do nothing, whew...ok now Datron in melee range... the fear wears off! Datron resumes bow attacks and draws Adalon to the entrance...she can't reach him with melee only her cold attacks which are negated...takes quite a while, but Tuigan's Bow gets the job done....

 

Datron ran out of here fast as he could...he did a lot of fighting with the annoying Kua-Toas, and a lengthy battle with the drow guarding the exit to the surface, but Datron did win. He battled to the exit A-okay.

 

Datron bought some things in Athkatla - yes dispelling arrows! (I remembered what happened to Noywad III).

 

The planar sphere was also cleared out. Datron cast SI:C quite a bit to make sure he didn't get mazed. He did well here. He did this so he could build the Crom Faeyr and also to get the fire elemental staff.

 

Datron recruited the allies needed for the final confrontation with Bodhi and saved here for the night.

[Grond0]

Hale - elf wild mage (10th and final update)

 

Hale opened hostilities against Melissan with a spell trigger lower resistance followed by an NRD PW: blind.  A series of skull traps then finished the initial contest.  She summoned a planetar to deal with Mel's nishruu and hakeashar and it went on to kill Yan-C-Bin as well.  She then used limited wish to restore her NRD spells and NRD wish to restore the rest while resetting her contingencies etc.

 

After buffing and producing some summons Hale cut off the flow of power to summon Mel for the second time.  Once more Hale used lower resistance and blind on her.  Then, while her summons were occupying the enemy, she produced a simulacrum and both of them used improved alacrity to dump magic damage spells on Mel.  She attempted to heal herself at near death, but that had no chance of success and she was forced to run for it again.  Cryonax didn't last long against summons before Hale went through the process again of restoring her spell book.

 

For Mel's 3rd incarnation Hale once more buffed and set up summons before greeting her with a lower resistance trigger.  However, this fight went badly wrong when her chain contingency didn't seem to work properly and she didn't get the benefit of multiple improved chaos shields - as a result she was regularly getting surges.  In combination with her simmy she still managed to get Mel to near death, but meanwhile the last of her own summons were killed.  I was hoping here that a skull trap would finish her off - only to get a dizzy surge instead (that prevents further spell use).  I thought that might be curtains for Hale, but fortunately Mel had in fact already taken enough damage and was just waiting a few seconds to get a word in before running.

 

Without full surge protection Mel was not guaranteed to be able to restore her spells, but finally did so with the help of 1 of her 2 remaining limited wish scrolls.  She then produced some summons to start off with against the fallen solar, but they didn't last long and it was the old faithful lower resistance + skull traps that saw off the danger.

 

One more lot of resetting spells and then Hale was ready for the final confrontation.  Her summons mainly disappeared early from a death spell and her simmy was paralysed by a death tyrant (that could have been avoided easily enough, but I almost never indulged in full buffing before combats).  However, using improved alacrity and NRD she sent a steady stream of ADHWs and skull traps in at Mel and she ran out of luck before Hale ran out of spells.

 

Hale's wild ride has now ended with her ascent into the heavens.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congratulations, Grond0!!! You finally did it! Hale will be nice, wild goddess - she definitely deserve that. Congratulations again!

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (update 7)

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

 

I realised in writing up the report for the Quad run yesterday, that I hadn't reported on a short MP session from a couple of days prior to that.  

 

That session started in Brynnlaw.  We had slept on the ship, so the vampire ambushers appeared, took one look at the sun and disappeared in a puff of dust.  Perth was shot down there before he could buff - gaining a wardstone (and a useless book).

 

In the dream sequence I had intended Barbra to use fake talk on the demon in order to avoid losing any stat.  However, pausing when you want tends to be difficult in MP and she ended up losing a bit of intelligence.

 

Moving on into spellhold, Barbra found herself fighting the clay golem alone and without stoneskins.  She quickly pulled a disappearing act, which caused the golem to go walkabout and kill itself in the nearby trap (I don't think I've seen that triggered by enemies before).  The duo have now progressed through the first level of Spellhold, though that was done without resting which incurred the odd unnecessary risk.  In particular Demaclyne had a chance of being petrified by the summoned beholder and also exposed himself against various spells from the lich before eventually destroying it (though I don't think any of those were potentially fatal).

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Barbra, jester 22, 115 HPs (incl. 10 from ioun stone, 12 from familiar), 433 kills

Demaclyne, archer 17, 124 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 730 kills, 2 deaths

[Grond0]

Congratulations, Grond0!!! You finally did it! Hale will be nice, wild goddess - she definitely deserve that. Congratulations again!

Thanks Serg.  It wasn't a very clean run, but this time the gods were favouring her .

[Gate70]

Congratulations Grond0, crossing a wild mage off is an awesome result. Whatever next?

[Grond0]

Well Chimera the monk is underway.  I should really be able to get him through SoA without too much difficulty, but will probably need to draw on your monkish insights to give him any sort of chance in ToB. 

 

Chimera {2} - human monk (update 1)

 

There was still time before breakfast this morning for this incarnation of Chimera to make a decent start to his BG2 work.  His 53 HPs at level 9 were pretty poor (average 62) and I thought it was possible some of the dungeon traps would cause him trouble.  However, that didn't stop him investigating everything and in fact nothing came close to killing him.  He put his stunning blows to good use - here Ulvaryl is going to fail to recover from an initial hit.

 

He restored the circus to normal operation (level 10) and talked to Gaelan Bayle before going to sort out the Copper Coronet.  Some stealthy running across town saw him deal with the Suna Seni, Renfeld and orog ambushes - largely using Bhaal horror - before he moved on to the Graveyard.  A PfU scroll allowed him to clear the tombs and the Southern dungeons of the most dangerous enemies, though Chimera used running and hiding to kill the last dozen or so (level 11).  He then tried stunning Pai'Na, but without success this time.  However, a potion of firebreath made her run and killed all but 3 of the spiders - allowing Chimera to finish things off by sling.

 

At Watcher's Keep there were once more no vampiric wraiths on guard and Chimera was able to subdue and loot the top floor.  He made use of both the RoAC and Horn of Kazgaroth in order to ensure survival against the FoD trap.  Opening the portal got him to level 12 and he dealt with the statues almost entirely using stealth attacks.  He did get into trouble doing that at one point, when he successfully hid only to discover that he was unable to move out of the corner he was in once the chasing statue arrived. At this point the statue was still only badly wounded and would have been the favourite in a continued slugging contest.  So Chimera used the RoAC, laid on hands and took a potion of defense before summoning Kitthix.  Chimera then hit hard a couple of times and only needed one more blow, but was still glad to see Kitthix's web tangle stick the statue in place.

[Enuhal]

Congratulations grond0, very well done! Risky business, soloing a wild mage in a no-reload game.

[corey_russell]

Well, Grond0, it took what? 50 runs or more? But you did the impossible, Congratulations! Wild Mage AND solo - I doubt anyone will be duplicating that feat anytime soon! Hale should be in the Hall of Heroes soon...

[corey_russell]

Datron the level 24 Fighter/level 20 Illusionist (level cap) - FINAL SoA Update!

 

So Datron battles in Bodhi's lair with the assistance of the Paladins, Thieves and Drizzt - no mishaps this time. Two GWWs made Bodhi give it up.

 

Suldanessar went smoothly. SI:C used once again to prevent being mazed. I just had Rillifane take out the Temple enemies.

 

Two GWWs took out Nizi, though Datron did have some summoned help.

 

Next up was Irenicus at the Tree of Life. To make the battle simple, used a protection from magic scroll. Still took a ton damage from the fireshield, guess I should have gulped some fire resistance potions...however Irenicus had to give it up.

 

I still had the scroll active, I used to clear out the beholders in Tear #4 trial. All good routes chosen.

 

Decided to wear the Robe of Vecna for the battle with Irenicus. A 3x fireball sequencer softened the demons and two GWWs finished them. A single planetar then assisted Datron against Irenicus. I think he was dead for a while, but he didn't give his death speech until I had the planetar back off...

 

So Datron defeats Irenicus! He will chase after Melissan next. He will try to skip what he can, since he's at the level cap.

[Grond0]

Well, Grond0, it took what? 50 runs or more? But you did the impossible, Congratulations! Wild Mage AND solo - I doubt anyone will be duplicating that feat anytime soon! Hale should be in the Hall of Heroes soon...

Thanks Corey. I'll look forward to seeing Datron join Hale soon.

[corey_russell]

Thanks Corey. I'll look forward to seeing Datron join Hale soon.

Yeah me too. I have a few places I'm not certain about approach - Melissan, and my next encounter, the fire giants at the entrance of Yaga's Temple (and the interior). I don't have access to things like skull trap sequencers or horrid wilting sequencers. For some reason planetars never seem to do well against the fire giants. I'm open to suggestions.

 

EDIT: Could greater malison/slow/chaos work?

EDIT2: Spam earth elemental staff summons?

 

Guess should mention, I've finished Saradush stuff. Mainly helping Lazerus and taking down Gromnir. A fireball x3 sequencer and MM minor sequencer took out the mages, Gromnir other melees/ranged took out by a few GWWs.

 

First ToB scare, a fire giant nearly killed Datron, only his haste boots saved him.

[corey_russell]

Datron the solo fighter/illusionist - ToB Update 2

 

Datron did the initial fire giant x6 battle at Yaga Shura's Temple. I am pleased to report he succeded, without even needing to gulp a heal potion. I decided the best chance was to take advantage of his mage skills (and Vecna) thus he tried this:

 

1st: Spell Trigger - greater malison, hold monster, death fog

2nd: Spell Sequencer: Slow, Stinking Cloud, Slow

3rd: Prismatic Spray (twice)

4th: GWWs until enemies dead.

 

The hold monster failed to do anything. The death fog certainly helped (Datron stayed in the fog, but was being healed by the fire pit).

Slows am sure lessend the dps of the giants. Stinking cloud only affected one giant, but still even that helps.

Prismatic Sprays, uncertain on effectiveness, but they did damage the enemies.

The GWWs of course were quite effective at finishing the job.

[corey_russell]

Datron the solo fighter/illusionist - FINAL Update!

 

I regret to inform everyone that Datron won't be joining Hale in the heavens. He did the Yaga's Temple OK. Despite low buffs and spells, he did fine against Nylee and her pets.

 

But he came unstuck vs. Yaga Shura battle. I'll explain. The plan was to Ronarch's Horn and Hardiness, negating Yaga's damage. So one-on-one he would be no problem. This was a good plan, but I made some errors in execution.

 

Datron opened the battle with a spell trigger and sequencer on Yaga-Shura. Yaga took a while to admit he was wounded. Then Datron ran to the bottom and went invisible. This parked many enemies there. He then ran around the huge wood pile, looking for Yaga-Shura. I should have waited for Yaga to find me. But I blundered and went near the parked enemies. I realized immediately I needed to get to the heck out of there.

 

But too late!!! Yaga and his reinforcements SURROUNDED Datron! Datron did hardiness and some GWW's on Yaga,and got Yaga to badly wounded.

BUT, Datron is also badly wounded! Press attack or try to heal? 

 

I tried a superior healing potion, but it failed to trigger in time.

 

I realized later, since Yaga was negated I should have also negated the many archers in the vicinity with reflection shield. GWW would then been enough to finish Yaga.

 

Back to the ole drawing board...

[Grond0]

Sorry to hear that Corey, progress was looking so good ...

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear that Corey, progress was looking so good ...

Agreed. His progress was excellent. He never had to use the RoR in SoA. He was an extremely strong and capable solo character, there was little he couldn't do. However, solo play is much less forgiving of mistakes, as I am sure you are aware. This is only like the 3rd time I have ever tried to solo Yaga-Shura, so I certainly don't have a well-tested plan to use, not to mention have to adjust it depending on what class I am playing.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (update 8)

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

 

Today saw generally good progress, though the deaths counter did click over once more ...

 

The second level in Spellhold proved no problem and the boots produced from the machine were welcome in order to get us both moving at the same speed.  Demaclyne fancied a shootout with Lonk and proved victorious, though he did have to save against chaos in the process.  For the battle with Irenicus summons gave him something to focus on until Demaclyne's arrows could do the business.

 

The duo took ship with Saemon and ended up in Fish City.  Despite a wisdom of only 14, Demaclyne was able to talk the spectator into handing over the Tooth.  There was a nice episode when going to see the Prince: Barbra used a wand to put a cloudkill up along the pond area and then she and Demaclyne ran backwards and forwards in that dragging the sahuagin into the cloud to perish - killing all but one of them (and only narrowly failing to get a clean sweep).  The Prince had a few moments to enjoy his transition to being the monarch before finding himself webbed by Kitthix.

 

In the Underdark Barbra produced some skeleton warriors, who provided shock troops against the drow and myconids.  A few other summons were produced to occupy the balor in the gnome village while that was being shot.  After a rest some more skeleton warriors first helped Vithal and then acted as a shield to soak up damage from the mage until his buffs ran out.  A couple of them survived that to tank the contents of the giant soul gem.  The lich in that could have been a problem and Barbra declined to get up close and personal with it; instead she suggested seeing how Demaclyne got on with Azuredge - the answer to that was pretty well!

 

Moving into the kuo-toa area improved haste + called shot from Demaclyne proved far too potent for another prince.  The demon knights in that area were also rapidly overcome with a strong group of summons.  However, we ran into trouble against the drow there when attacking them with only limited summons left (we should have known better as that encounter has often proved troublesome to us in the past).  Barbra tried out the death spell from the skull left behind by Vithal to see if that worked - my old memory was that it didn't and that still seemed to be the case as the skeletons it was aimed at were untouched.  Worse than that they used lag attacks to kill Demaclyne from halfway across the screen!

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Barbra, jester 25, 122 HPs (incl. 11 from ioun stone, 12 from familiar), 499 kills

Demaclyne, archer 19, 130 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 832 kills, 3 deaths

[AnonymousHero]

Agreed. His progress was excellent. He never had to use the RoR in SoA. He was an extremely strong and capable solo character, there was little he couldn't do. However, solo play is much less forgiving of mistakes, as I am sure you are aware. This is only like the 3rd time I have ever tried to solo Yaga-Shura, so I certainly don't have a well-tested plan to use, not to mention have to adjust it depending on what class I am playing.

 

I couldn't tell from your description: Are you using PfMW? It's basically an "I win" spell against all melee foes. It's quite possible that it would have been enough in this situation.

[AnonymousHero]

I couldn't tell from your description: Are you using PfMW? It's basically an "I win" spell against all melee foes. It's quite possible that it would have been enough in this situation.

 

Oh, and another thing to consider: Contingency on 25/50% HP: PfMW + Imp Invis + Imp. Haste (for running away if possible).