15228 replies to this topic

[ussnorway]

I like to pet-tank and aeo my Beholder packs;

 

Step 1 is cast ‘farsight’ to reveal the map so you can see what is happening.

Step 2 is cast ‘Summon Hakeashar’ to keep the beholders interested.

Step 3 is carpet the floor with the aoe spell of your choice… I find the simple [Wand of Cloudkill] best with its 50 shots but don’t use ‘Death Fog’ because that would dismiss your pet.

[Enuhal]

Valeria Karinor, human skald, update 6

 

Valeria entered the Windspear dungeon, sending a protected Minsc to deal with a rukh transmuter. After shooting some orks, the ranged weapon users dealt with an adamantite golem while the others charged some hobgoblins. A total of three sunrays took out a ton of vampires and other undead, and Aerie turned some more. Jaheira killed the director and cast protection from fire on Minsc and herself to obtain the mask. With the help of some summons, the battle against Samia was quickly over. After some more golems and wolfweres, the party defeated Tazok, Imoen dealt with Conster via traps and the group rested and buffed (mainly with cc and protection from fire for everyone) before challenging Firkraag. The battle barely lasted a couple of seconds, the red dragon only managed to wing buffet and cast greater malison before dying.

 

With her newly obtained key, Valeria entered the sewers again, and Aerie did her usual cc-buff routine. Then, some skeleton warriors and the group attacked the mind flayer base. Even Alhoon couldn't do anything - none of my party members ever got hit by a single mindflayer.

 

Next, everyone who could do so equipped their helm of charm protection (with the other 2 party members drinking invisibilty potions as soon as they arrived) before entering the graveyard. The party used sunrays, and the vampire ambush was quickly dealt with, allowing the group to rest. In Bodhi's crypt, 3 groups of allies joined Valeria, with the big group of vampires affected by sunray as well. With still 2 sunrays left for Bodhi, the vampire was quickly defeated. Also, the group completed all of the graveyard sidequests.

 

Valeria soon explored the rest of the crypts, finally obtaining Kitthix and killing some more undead. She returned to Elhan and cleared the surrounding forest, killing some wyvern cultists and helping her old companion, Coran, who sadly died. Next, some skeleton warriors fought djinns and attacked the nearby party, wasting the mages time stop. After they were destroyed, Aerie summoned a deva and improved hasted it. Together with the group, the celestial being easily won the fight.

 

Aerie also used limited wish for the quickly completed gong quest and summoned some golems to fight. Next, Valeria will propably deal with the cult of the eyeless.

 

By now, both Aerie and Minsc have obtained two HLA's, while the other party members are a bit behind in experience.

 

Enuhal

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (update 12)

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

 

There was more good progress in today's session, though with one dangerous moment.

 

The session started with Barbra accepting an assignation with a vampire in the prison.  Demaclyne was left behind so Barbra quickly went invisible and waited for him to arrive before engaging the vampires.  There were no problems working through those (or various fighters, thieves, orcs and orogs to get into the palace).  The group on the first floor were disheartened when the mage died in a skull trap and soon followed him.  Upstairs, both mages surprisingly died in another skull trap.  Gromnir tried to respond by rushing towards Barbra, but found it hard to make any progress against a stream of improved hasted, called shots from Demaclyne and died as he came into melee range.

 

Back at the Pocket Plane Barbra paid out 40,000 gold to upgrade the Bladesinger chain mail for Demaclyne - and then shrugged when he couldn't use it  (there's plenty of money available in ToB anyway).  Moving on to the Temple of Mir, the duo agreed to offer the undead a fair fight, i.e. not use protection from undead.  That proved a reasonable decision as the fight was relatively easy anyway, with Barbra either tanking or running round and letting Demaclyne do most of the killing.

 

There was a nasty moment approaching the Fire Giant Temple when both Barbra and Demaclyne were scared by the keening from a Burning Man.  Fortunately they didn't get boxed in and took no real damage until Barbra regained her senses, equipped Dragonslayer and played on a magic flute to ensure the scare wasn't repeated.  Inside the temple a buffed Barbra acted as target while Demaclyne worked through the opening greeting by the fire giants.  The open room on the right was also taken down before the duo returned to the pocket plane to rest.  Nearly all the remainder of the temple was done without further resting - using some run and shoot tactics downstairs while the fire giants upstairs were invited to form an orderly queue to the execution ground.  With fire protection expired and out of abilities they did have another rest prior to taking on Imix - spike traps helping there.

 

Back at the Temple of Mir both of us were mainly targeting Nyalee's summons.  As a result she actually survived quite a long time and tried out a number of spells - including a couple of dolorous decays for Demaclyne.  None of her efforts proved very effective though and it was soon time to close with Yaga-Shura.  After damaging him and waiting for his return, the duo looked for a good spot to lead him to, only to find themselves in a bit of a dead-end.  After checking that Demaclyne had a GWW ready, Barbra decided this would be a suitable time to unload a scroll-based triple skull trap sequencer.  That immediately took Yaga-Shura to near death and he survived only moments under the follow-up hail of arrows.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Barbra, jester 36, 159 HPs (incl. 13 from ioun stone, 12 from familiar), 608 kills

Demaclyne, archer 26, 151 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 1015 kills, 3 deaths

[corey_russell]

@Grond0/Gate70: Sounds like you guys are doing great! Hope you can keep it up...(e.g. succeed where Datron failed)

[Serg BlackStrider]

Update of Impish Face & Co (Planar Sphere).

 

- Ferral Halflings. Valygar scouted ahead for us to launch two Cloudkills and Fire Storm on a narrow passage. Fire Storm was particularly effective, severely hurting Mogadish (who died first, not even performed any offensive action) and Entu (he fired a Detonate and Ego Whip but died next pretty quick). Kayardi was our main concern here so while our fighters, Fire Elemental and Aerial Servant were busy with Halfling Warriors Impish Face, Viconia and Nalia concentrated all their attention on him. True Seeing to reveal him, Secret Word for Spell Turning and Breach for the rest. He responded with Improved Invisibility+SI:Divination Trigger polished with Spell Shield so we hit with double Cloudkill again. He fired a Improved Invisibility/Fire Shield (Red/Blue) Sequencer but that doesn't helped him much and few rounds later he panic and died. Togan was demolished by Aerial Servant and Fire Elemental.

 

The randomized loot from them was Delver's Plate +2, Ripper +2, Battle Axe +3, Stonefire.

 

During this fight I've experienced a non-pleasant surprise - my Skelly Warrior, whom I summoned pre-battle along with Aerial Servant and Fire Elemental, and who was in the room with Solamnic Knights and didn't even seen the enemies, went *red* as soon as fight began...

 

Nearly the same happened in the fight with Lavok - as soon as Lavok cast divination spell to reveal hidden Valygar (so the fight itself even not started yet) he immediately went hostile. None hit him in any way, he just switched the side and that's it. I'm not sure which of my new mods caused that (aTweaks' pnp undeads?) as I never experienced such traitorous behavior before but if that will become a rule it would be very disappointing...

 

Necre and Taibela were of no problem as well as various Golems and Elder Orb (we sucked all possible experience we could).

 

- Lavok. Valygar lured both our traitorous Skelly Warrior and Lavok's Sphere of Chaos towards the side room while Impish Face and Nalia worked on Lavok's spell defenses with Ruby Ray of Reversal, Pierce Magic and Secret Word. He Death Spell-ed our summons right as we called for Nishruu so we called a Djinni from  the ring instead. At the moment Lavok's Improved Mantle expired and Mazzy hit him with Dispelling Arrow.  Then she and Valygar assaulted him with Ice Arrows. He fired an ADHW on Djinni but that was his last *swan's song*. Djinni appeared as quite a formidable summon, but looks like that Ring of Djinni Summoning is one-time use only item as it disappeared after using, pity...

 

In the container under Lavok's platform we found Jhor The Bleeder +2.

 

Need to go so I'll post of the rest of the Sphere soon.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 52 - (unlucky 13th update)

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

 

This run was drained to a halt in Sendai's enclave.

 

The second pocket plane challenge was quickly done with buffed attacks taking down the Barbra clone before it was able to buff itself.  The only concern was when Semaj used a wail of the banshee, which must have been close to making Barbra save (and she had a horrible save vs death).

 

At the Oasis a sequencer from Barbra and GWW from Demaclyne killed Jamis before the duo ran through the rest of the enemies.

 

A few groups of mercenaries were routed in Amkethran and the smugglers helped.

 

On to Sendai's enclave where a Hive Mother refused to be distracted by summons and made Demaclyne save against several attacks before it died.  The drow there didn't cause too many problems with Demaclyne throwing K'logaroth by accident (or axe + dent if you were on the receiving end).

 

In the enclave proper initial enemies were bypassed on the way to Thelynn'ss.  By that stage both characters were low on abilities and spells and several potions of invisibility were used before Demaclyne found the space to finish the remaining enemies off using stealth shots.  After resting the duo proceeded invisibly to Odamaron, where skeleton warriors provided a useful distraction.  Ogremoch was a victim of spike traps, as were several of Diaytha's crew.  The hive mother there though proved a problem and killed Demaclyne with a FoD (also made Barbra use a potion to protect against another).

 

There were warning bells ringing when Capt Egeissag proved much more of a problem than expected for Barbra.  He used smite to stun her and send her back into a corner, with the result that her contingency Otiluke's sphere triggered for the first time.  Once she recovered she quickly improved her AC by equipping other items and then made a first use of Blackrazor to heal a bit while finishing the drow off.

 

Barbra still felt there was no need to rest and moved on to confront the illithid.  All seemed to be going according to plan as attacks on the illithid killed all but one of them.  However, Barbra had been drained down to intelligence 8 in the process so stepped back and clicked to equip her bow to help Demaclyne finish it off with arrows.  Unfortunately, when she clicked on the illithid to attack she discovered that her bow had not in fact equipped and was rushing in to attack in melee.  She reacted immediately and only appeared to spend an instant close to the illithid, but there was significant lag on the game and it appeared that was long enough to be hit twice more - RIP Barbra.

[corey_russell]

@Gate70/Grond0: Sad news indeed! You guys made it so far on an unlikely duo...guess potions of genius might have helped after all!

[SubannisRae]

Sorry for your loss Grond0. I will say that mind flayers make for worthy enemies and the Illithid City a scenic spot for your final screen shot. As an aside: In 3rd edition, or 3.5 of D&D, there was a specific prestige class for mind flayers that took a psionic vow of 'poverty' to enhance their skill at arms and tentacle attacks. Always wished there had been an armored up illithid, but there honestly was more variety in the game than I could have hoped for.

[Grond0]

Spectre - human monk (update 1)

 

Spectre made his way through the dungeon without too many problems.  The cambion put up one of the harder fights, but ultimately was stunned into submission and the same fate befell Ulvaryl.  After getting his final level for picking up the acorns Spectre had 72 HPs - an excellent 10 above average.  That allowed him to trigger various traps without worrying too much about the damage.

 

He went on to restore the circus to normal operation with a single punch before buying a bit of equipment - particularly the RoAC - ready to crack on this morning.  I'm feeling reasonably optimistic about his chances for a long run.  Like all my characters he's not allowed healing potions (or any other item-based active healing abilities) or antidotes, but does have the advantage of lay on hands to provide a potential HP boost during combat if necessary.

 

[corey_russell]

Coremonk III - Human Level 9 Monk (Update 1)

Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Jaheira, Aerie, Yoshimo

 

Entering BG 2/ToB portion of a Trilogy challenge with this character:

 

SETUP:

Vanilla BG 2

Core Rules at all times

"gore" on (characters can be chunked)

ToB and official ToB patch

No mods

 

Irenicus' dungeon was almost smooth, we even killed the vampire, but I was talking with my son and thus a bit distracted and triggered the cloudkill trap a bunch of times before de-trapping it - no one died, but we immediately needed to rest to heal back up.

 

First task was restoring the circus back to normal. No problem doing that, BUT I made a goof - we forgot to loot Kalah! Yep no ring of human influence. In practice, I only REALLY need it if I am romancing and trying to get out of getting laid by Phaere, so won't have that option this run....

 

Lots of ambushes, but no deaths - we did take huge damage from a lightning bolt, Coremonk got hit twice with the same bolt even.

 

Next major task was doing Korgan's quest - I always find this quite a challenge, doing on insane, sounds well insane! Just trying to survive the spiders was an issue - Coremonk got poisoned twice - fortunately potions we found in Irenicus' dungeon kept Coremonk in one piece. Next is the large undead battle - lots of level drains (1/2 the party) but we pressed on. Whenever possible, we try to have Korgan enrage and be seen 1st, but we still get drained. Yoshimo took care of the traps and finally we are out of the crypts.

 

Next, a quick stop by Pelicoe's and Copper Coronet roof to take care of Shagbag and friends - quest done! With the proceeds from the recent loot, we were able to get the +2 medium shield for Korgan to get his AC up.

 

Forgot to  mention we triggered Ployer quest very early, and not intentionally. Fortunately Jaheira has the best way to deal with Ployer and his buddies, plague of insects. We also obtained full plate for Korgan from Officer Dirth.

 

Doh! Just realized something else we forgot to loot = the AC 2 armor from the Suna Sune ambush! Oops....

 

I put stuff in our barrel in Waukeen's Promenade, and decided to call it a night.

[Grond0]

Spectre - human monk (update 2)

 

Spectre has had a risk-free run in BG2 so far ...

 

At the Copper Coronet the Beastmaster opened his cages - only to find some sort of stealthy ninja had already killed all his animals.  He put up a decent struggle in melee, but was not quite tough enough. Helping Hendak got Spectre to level 10.

 

Travelling by stealth allowed Spectre to send the Suna Seni ambush up in flames.  Immediately afterwards the same thing happened to the thieves attacking Renfeld.  That meant that Spectre couldn't carry all the loot, but he won't be bothering to pick up most low value stuff anyway as there aren't that many things for a monk to buy.

 

Used PfU to clear the Graveyard tombs and the Southern dungeons.  I then sent Spectre to get a protection from poison scroll for contingencies, but I was careful this time in any case to use speed and stealth to avoid being attacked by ettercaps.  Spectre's final firebreath potion crisped all Pai'Na's spiders before she was stunned into handing over her ioun stone.  Successfully saving Nevin from his uncle got Spectre to level 11 (acquiring poison immunity so no need to worry about spiders and ettercaps in future).

 

After finally dropping off Renfeld, Spectre stealthed into Prebek's house and used the RoAC for the first time to ensure the mages were helpless against him.  After looting the harpers Spectre took revenge on Lucette for murdering Xzar.

 

He then moved on to Mae'Var's tasks.  Kitthix did well there: first he succeeded with both web tangles against Rayic - his buffs survived the first, but not the second.  Those tasks got Spectre to level 12 before assaulting the Guild, where Mae'Var and the priest became further Kitthix victims to provide Spectre with an easy victory.

[Grond0]

Spectre - human monk (update 3)

 

Spectre travelled to Watcher's Keep to get a case for her potions.  He also bought the Short Sword of Mask there - he probably won't use it, but he's going to have more money than he can use anyway.  Inside, he looted the left hand side rooms first before finding vampiric wraiths waiting in the main room - they're a bit much for him at the moment, so the ammo container will have to wait.

 

Next, he opened up access to the liches and then, after having his level drain restored, used PfU and Daystar to get the Ring of Gaxx - getting to level 13 in the process.

 

With regeneration now meaning the odd hit is not an issue, Spectre returned to the Temple sewers and dealt with the sea troll and rakshasa (the monk stun effect here is non-magical so affects things immune to magic) before buying up Roger's stock of potions.

 

Moving on to Trademeet, Kitthix tangled Taquee to get the efreeti bottle.  The efreeti then acted as target inside for the genies (also a second use of the RoAC there for extra safety), where the khan became a quivering wreck.  Spectre was able to buy everything he wanted (Blackblood, Ras, cloak & belt) prior to taking on the Grove.  He had no particular problems with the trolls there, thanks to his making use of his new summons along with quivering palm / stun and stealth attacks.  Kyland Lind's death got him to level 14, providing a major boost to magic resistance.

 

Spectre left the rakshasas briefly to go and watch Cernd take over from Faldorn before returning to Trademeet to clear the tomb.  With the funds from that he bought the Necklace of Missiles and Adratha's potions of power before adding a few more rakshasas to his collection box.

 

Back in Athkatla he belatedly bought the Sling of Seeking before clearing out the sewers under the Copper Coronet - he used the RoAC for the 3rd time to ensure no problems with the myconids.  The slavers were also easy, with one mage webbed by Kitthix and the other palmed while it was distracted by the spider.

 

By this stage Spectre had watched nearly all the vampire ambushes take place, so decided it was time to pay Gaelan Bayle and visit Aran Linvail (level 15).  Kitthix tangled Lassal before he headed to the Bridge District to find the Guild contact.  While there he used a potion of magic protection to get the berserk warrior, solved the skinner murders (as usual dragging enemies upstairs for easy disposal) and went to punish the kidnappers.  However, he followed Am-Si into the house while stealthed and the cut-scene there froze.  As a result he had to do everything in the area again - still no trouble though and he went on to discover the location of vampire HQ.

 

His vulnerability to level drain meant that Spectre invaded the vampires using a mixture of stealth attacks and sling shots, although he again had the ridiculous situation of seeing Haz die of fright after he went to tell him that all the enemies were dead.  He failed with an attempt to palm Tanova while she was casting true sight, but after silencing her with Namarra finished her with a sunray while she was vocalizing.  After resting, the downstairs group were handled easily with a sunray and summons.  Lassal was stunned before Spectre took another rest - that allowed fresh summons for Bodhi, who lasted just long enough for Spectre to see her off.

[Grond0]

Spectre - human monk (update 4)

 

Spectre had his first near death experience in this session, but survived to tell the tale ...

 

He began by attempting to collect a ransom, but couldn't remember where he put the ransom note - oh well, monks shouldn't be thinking about armour anyway.

 

Next, he visited the de'Arnise Hold - just for XP as there's no equipment he wanted there.  The trolls offered little threat and he quickly disposed of those - he was also not bothering to loot anything which made progress rapid.  The yuan-ti mage and Glaicas were webbed, while the only golem to lay a fist on Spectre was the iron one - he was about to retreat when he noticed he'd managed to stun it.  He tried out silence on an umber hulk, but that had no effect.  However, his summons provided sufficient distraction while he drew out and clobbered the well-fed hulks.  Spectre got to level 17 early on there and to level 18 for finishing TorGal off while he was failing to inflict any damage on Ras.  He turned down the offer of taking a stronghold before moving on to Umar Hills.

 

At Umar he acquired Ilbratha for his sword collection before moving on to the ruined temple.  He was careful to avoid being attacked by shadow fiends (using speed and stealth rather than switching to Arbane) while moving through the early stages of that.  Answering the idol's riddle got him to level 19 (getting his final saving throw reduction to take his standard spell saving throw down to -1).  

 

For the first big group of undead Spectre pulled the others away from the lich by sending in a fireball from distance.  He then tried to strand the lich in the firepit by showing himself briefly and running away.  A symbol stun followed him though and as the lich ignores his stealth it followed him as well, which looked like bad news.  Rather than attacking him though, the lich cast a series of spells that were mainly wasted, though a wail of the banshee could easily have killed him.  However, things still looked grim when the lich eventually got around to summoning an efreeti.  Fortunately, it also wasted some time casting spells and Spectre still had decent HPs left when he finally recovered his senses.  A bit of running round ended with the efreeti being clobbered.  Spectre then waited while he regenerated in order to finish off the lich. To be safe he used a potion of invulnerability for the second lich after it had used its dispels.  The Shade Lord died in the follow-up to a sunray, providing Spectre with a WW for level 20.

 

Spectre then aimed to take revenge on Thaxy for the fate of my last monk to visit there and this time his plans worked perfectly.  He used his summons to draw out a wing buffet and dispel and then threw darts until Thaxy's PFMW wore off.  Once engaged (protected by a first use of mirrors) he waited until his fists drew first blood and then used his newly learnt WW - that proved sufficient.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Impish Face & Co in Planar Sphere, Part 2.

 

aTweaks has changed the outer demon's plane quite a bit so we had some both funny and scary moments there. The first demon was a Glabrezu, who immediately Plane Shift-ed so we fired a True Sight to track him down. As soon as he returned we were ready and just pressed our attacks on him. He managed to confuse Jaheira, Kittrix and Aerial Servant but even though Jaheira turned on Kittrix, Aerial Servant continued smashing the foul demon and he fell pretty quick. His heart was enough to power the engine of the sphere but we were curious to investigate that plane a bit further. Valygar led the Aerial Servant and a duo of Fire Elementals deeper into the plane. Soon they spotted a Nabassu who immediately gated in another one and a Marilith-like Lea'liyl (fortunately she failed to gate in her reinforcements - she is able to gate in 4 lesser, 2 greater or 1 true tanar'ri so that could be scary at our levels...). Valygar made a quick retreat to the rest of the party near the sphere entrance and once the demons dealt with our Elementals they teleported there as well all at once along with three Cambions. Cambions were blocked by Lea'liyl, Mazzy and Valygar so they just spammed their Charms on Nalia. Lea'liyl in her turn worked on Valygar's hit points frighteningly quick and Nabassu was blocking the way for retreat. Fortunately we were able to kill him just in time while Lea'liyl switched her attention on Mazzy. She fell next under the hail of attacks and the Cambions were just a pushovers after that. Lea'liyl dropped T'rahcie's Plate +5. Then we cleared the rest of the plane. This was fun as Quasits and Maurezhi have fought the Imps but pretty tiresome due to their constant invisibility at will...

 

Tolgerias was a bane of one of my no-reload character so our main goal there was by all means disrupt his initial Time Stop > Horde of Demons. For that we fired double Cloudkill + Fire Storm combo. He managed to call for Efreeti for us to tackle with and his Mage girlfriend teleported in to be stripped and doomed while we worked on his protections with Ruby Ray of Reversal/Pierce Magic/Secret Word. Mazzy then stepped in armed with bow and some dispelling/ice arrows but was PW:Blind'ed so Viconia helped her with Cure Disease while Tolgerias fired Breach on Spell Shield'ed Impish Face.  I was ready to recast it (and began to do that actually) only to witness another Breach flying towards me from Tolgerias' clone... Fortunately that was the clone's last action before he disappeared and at the moment Tolgerias' Improved Mantle ran out so Mazzy dispelled his protections and few rounds later he fell dropping the Ring of Protection +2. 

 

Next we cleared the Ice and Fire rooms without much issues other than an invincible Snow Troll, who took a huge amount of damage (both from my FoA and Fire room's creatures attacks) but still refused to lay down and die. He was pretty slow and harmless so we just left him alone.

Looted Ice room for Flame Tongue sword and Fire Room for Pale Green Ioun Stone (went to Nalia).

 

Finally powered the Sphere engine, fought some Golems and acquired the Cloak of Deflection.

 

Fulfilled Lavok's last wish and got a Sphere as yet another cottage (stronghold) and a base of operation.

 

Now we are going to complete all stronghold's quests and advance in Jaheira's personal line (meet with Dermin) before sailing into Brynnlaw.  

 

Current state:

 

Impish Face: Fighter (11) / Illusionist (12), 542 kills (Lea'liyl);

Jaheira: Fighter (10) / Druid (13), 140 kills (Bone Golem); 3 revival

Nalia: Swashbuckler (5) / Mage (14), 94 kills (Unseeing Eye);

Viconia: Cleric (16), 14 kills (Mogadish);

Valygar: Stalker (13), 102 kills (Bone Golem);

Mazzy: Fighter (15), 136 kills (Adamantite Golem); 1 revival

 

to be continued...

[Grond0]

Spectre - human monk (update 5)

 

In Umar Spectre collected his reward from the Mayor along with Valygar's stunned body.

 

Back in the City, he went straight to the Planar Sphere.  The halflings were killed from stealth - none of them managing to cast a spell - to get Spectre to level 21.  After summoning the golem I was surprised to find that it ran straight past the elder orb, allowing the latter to attack Spectre.  Fortunately his saving throws were good enough to fend off its initial attacks and he used stealth shots to finish it off.

 

Spectre stayed in stealth while the efreeti brought Lavok to his knees.  Outside, , he used a potion of invulnerability before killing a Tanar'ri with a WW (level 22). For Tolgerias he failed with a palm attack so quickly hid and waited out a couple of true sights before coming in to the attack again.  While the berserk warrior provided a distraction he stunned the mage before finishing him off with a rare use of LMD.  Ras then acted as target while Spectre used his first GWW on Tolgerias.  The ice and fire rooms were no problem (the noble efreeti that can be a pain succumbed to a WW before it could go ethereal) and Spectre looked longingly at the Staff of Fire before dumping it.  He let the Crimson Dart do the hard work in the engine room before repowering the Sphere and taking Lavok home (level 23).

 

Finally returning to Watcher's Keep, Spectre's immunity to normal weapons meant the vampiric wraiths couldn't hit him while he was WWing them.  He quickly cleared the top level (level 24), including taking out the statues (which were all vulnerable to stunning) and the lich-priest, while acquiring the ammo container at last.

 

The final objective for the session was Windspear Hills.  A mixture of stuns and WWs allowed rapid progress there after using stealth shots to kill the halflings.  He experimented to find the sweet spot at range against adamantite golems (where the monk's reach exceeds the golem's).  A first sunray for a while only killed one of the vampires, so there was plenty of work left for stealth and GWW to finish them off.  The greater werewolves regeneration was far too slow - a single GWW just failing to kill the 3rd in one group.  Most of the genies and the guardian were stunned before a stinking cloud proved too difficult for Samia's group to operate in.

 

Tazok just survived a stun, but only managed to run 2 paces before being taken down.  Conster managed to last long enough to kill Kitthix and the efreeti, but was taken down immediately after that by a GWW.

 

For Firkraag summons drew out his initial attacks while Spectre used a sling GWW to get through stoneskins.  He then came into melee combat and, although he was caught in the fringes of a breath aimed at the efreeti, he wasn't attacked himself until Firkraag keeled over (level 27).

 

After attempting to report to Garren, Spectre had to go back into the dungeon to release his daughter.  With that done he finally got back to Athkatla and is packing for a trip to Spellhold ...

[Enuhal]

Valeria Karinor, human skald, update 7

 

I found some time to play again, and Valeria entered the sewers to do the cult of the eyeless quest. First, a lich was attacked and sunrayed before being able to use his time stop. Downstairs, Aerie had a deva and some skeleton warriors take care of a beholder group. Next, Jaheira healed the demon inside Amaunator's temple.

 

In ghoul city, all of the undead were killed quickly, and a well protected Minsc using the iMoD +2 took on the lich group, destroying the more powerful undead due to the mace's special abilty.

 

Hasted skeleton warriors and Jaheira took care of some blind priests as well as the Unseeing Eye itself, plus some more beholders. Soon, Ghaal and the remaining cultists were destroyed.

 

Now, Valeria travelled to the temple ruins to fight the shadow dragon. A skeleton drained him of his death spell. Next, the group summoned more skeleton warriors and protected themselves with numerous buffs. The mass invisible party engaged their foe, and while Imoen was affected by his breath weapon, all of the dragon's protections were soon gone, and he died.

 

Imoen took care of multiple cowled wizard groups via traps - I didn't expect them to all die instantly.

 

Time to fight Kangaxx. The party buffed, mostly with cc, remove fear, death ward, protection from evil and mass invisibilty, and Aerie summoned a deva and some skeleton warriors to keep the lich busy. Even though the deva got stunned, the skeleton warriors managed to defeat the lich form, so Aerie cast SI:Abjuration and attacked the demi-lich with the iMoD+2. Kangaxx was destroyed immediately (I should mention that all of the protection from magic and protection from undead scrolls are gone in my installation, due to mods and the aforementioned item randomiser bug).

 

Valeria also decided to take on the Twisted Rune. After buffing and summoning skeleton warriors, Imoen trapped the lich, the party killed the vampire and the fighter, a deva helped with the beholder, and the mage was defeated as well.

 

Finally, one thing left before entering Suldanessalar - the party returned to the Underdark to finish all the encounters they previously skipped due to rushing to Spellhold and being very low level:

 

A well-protected group took care of the demon knights, while skeleton warriors killed some more beholders. The imprisoned souls were defeated or talked to. With some preparation and a jelly form (for safety), the first two beholders in their lair were defeated. Valeria and Aerie then summoned skeleton warriors to clear the caves, with the party helping to kill the mind flayers and a deva and an elemental prince fighting the last elder orb. A cc-buffed group entered the illithid city, fighting lots of umber hulks and mind flayers and finally defeating the elder brain.

With everything done, it was time to let Cromwell forge some final items, buy some protection from acid scrolls for Draconis in ToB and leave for the elven city.

 

Enuhal

[Enuhal]

Valeria Karinor, human skald, update 8

 

After entering Suldanesselar, the party fought some rakshasa and golems. Valeria used the Rod of Smiting to some success. After saving high priestess Demin, the party prepared for Jon's dragon, summoning a deva, some skeleton warriors and buffing with everything relevant. The fight was quick and easy, only Jaheira and Minsc took some damage (due to his insect plague). I decided to skip the temple battle and place the three objects on the altar instead.

 

At the tree of life, the party engaged Irenicus, protecting themselves from all the dangerous things he could do. After his AI expired, the mage was defeated easily.

 

All of the hell trials were completed the good way, with the party only fighting Sarevok and some beholders (deva, elemental prince + skeleton warriors). Imoen did lay some traps, and the party summoned skeleton warriors all over the area + buffed with all of the spells and lots of the remaining potions. Imoen's traps weakened the demons, and the party quickly killed them all. Jon was hunted down and breached, leaving him defenseless and, soon, defeated.

 

In ToB, Valeria quickly killed Illasera and completed the first pocket plane challenge. In Saradush, she solved all of the sidequests, bought some boots and spells and killed Kiser before obtaining the sewer key and entering the sewers. Aerie got in trouble due to the shadows down there, but eventually she managed to turn them all.

 

Next, the party, still buffed with cc, entered the prison, with Minsc using the iMoD +2 to kill the vampires. Gromnir's forces were soon dealt with, though this lucky mage was able to cast timestop, only stunning 3 party members before dying anyway.

 

With mass invisibilty, the group before Gromnir was easily destroyed, and with the improved bard song and multiple buffs, Gromnir and his mages provided no challenge. Valeria now fought her way through parts of Yaga Shura's army, and two sunrays and a breach took care of the master wraith.

 

So far, so good. I am starting to really like the improved bard song, especially with a mislead decoy singing it as well. Going to clear the Marching Mountains next.

 

Enuhal

[Enuhal]

Valeria Karinor, human skald, update 9

 

At the Marching Mountains, Valeria and her friends killed Chinchilla & co and entered the fire giant temple under mass invisibilty, disarming a trap and hiding in the room to the right to split up the fire giant forces, soon destroying the enemy hordes one by one with a fire immune, ironskinned Jaheira tanking.

 

Several groups of fire-based enemies were defeated with the help of Valeria's song and some healing potions before entering the next level. There, the party fought Berenn, disarmed some traps and obtained the first heart. Minsc was protected from fire by Jaheira and equipped the Wave halberd to kill Imix, and with the second heart, the party left for the Forest of Mir. Nyalee died to Imoen's traps, and her shambling mounds were defeated.

 

Now, it was time to face Yaga-Shura himself. After he was wounded, the giant reappeared with a ton of allies, but he was quickly attacked by Jaheira, Minsc and Mazzy and died a few seconds later before doing any significant damage.

 

Valeria quickly won the oasis battle before meeting with Balthasar, gaining the darkfire bow, doing some minor sidequests, and killing Vongoethe - he didn't survive Minsc's first runehammer attack, and death ward protected the party from the banshees.

 

The party also completed the second pocket plane challenge and entered Sendai's enclave, killing several umberhulks, spiders and drow before returning to the pocket plane.

 

Next time, I will continue to further explore Sendai's enclave.

 

Enuhal

[Grond0]

Sounds like good progress Enuhal - keep it going!

 

Spectre - human monk (update 6)

 

Spectre started the session by hopping on to a boat to Brynnlaw.  A single GWW there with his sling took down 3 vampire ambushers with minimal help from his summoned friends.  He then went straight to pay a call on Perth - faced with a GWW he just had time for a conversation, but not to activate his buffs.  After using his book to light a fire Spectre moved on to Spellhold.

 

In a dream sequence he used a fake talk on the demon to avoid losing any stats (getting to level 28 and completing his set of weapon proficiencies).  Then he cruised through Spellhold - the only caution really being against the lich where he used summons to draw out spells and then distract it while he nipped in with a sunray (level 29).  Clearing most of the next level got him to level 30 before he went to trade in some tokens for some boots of speed.

 

For the battle with Jon, Spectre opened with a sling GWW.  That was enough to finish him off, but he needs time to realise that so Spectre retreated and waited for him to run away.  After taking ship he used GWWs to kill a number of the gith invaders - getting to level 31 as a result.

 

In Fish City he beat up a spectator and acquired the Cloak of Mirroring from the priestess - though his high magic resistance means the cloak of protection +2 is a better option for him.  He stealthed through to the Prince and killed him in order to get the Gauntlets of Crushing as a reward (the first time I've both wanted and got those ).

 

In the Underdark a few GWWs disposed of the drow, while none of the Spore Colonies managed to produce any myconids.  Spectre then killed a Balor for the deep gnomes using Crimson Dart GWWs while it was distracted by Ras (level 32).

 

He cleared the kuo-toa tunnels.  His saving throws now (-3 vs spells and 0 death) are good enough that magic is no longer any real threat, but he was careful to avoid being attacked by the potential demon knight vorpal (level 33).  The prince's regeneration was good enough to outlast 1 GWW, but no more. 

 

After talking with Adalon he entered the drow city and bought the amulet of 10% MR along with a selection of potions.  He used the amulet and Balduran's sword to get MR over 100% and ensure N'ashtar would be disappointed with his attempted maze on the way to rescue Phaere.  However, I wasn't concentrating there and Solaufein got drained by the illithid as a result an instant before the last enemy died.  With the drow now hostile Spectre killed Phaere and then went to do the same to Adalon.  He had no cold protection on him, but used a potion of magic shielding that probably saved him from death when Adalon buffeted / scared summons away and breathed on him.  However, she was suffering at the time as well and was unable to respond when Spectre closed to finish the job with his fists.

 

Spectre ran past the remaining drow to escape the Underdark and has returned to Athkatla to hand the Silver Sword over to Kruin.  He's got nothing for Cromwell to forge, so will be just going after Bodhi shortly.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Yup, splendid progress, Enuhal! Keep it up!

That's true for you as well, Grond0 

[Enuhal]

Thank you, both!

 

Valeria Karinor, human skald, update 10

 

After obtaining the drow captain's key last time, Valeria now explored both tunnels, taking care of the slaves and the spiders. Odamaron was defeated by a deva, and some drow and umber hulks later, the party met Diaytha. There was a very close call for Minsc when fighting Ogremoch - the ranger was trapped, and since the elemental prince can see through invisibilty, he had to stand and fight - barely surviving with 3 hp.

 

Two heal spells later, the other room was cleared by Sunnis and a deva with ease. Valeria won her duel, and, after buffing with cc, some mind flayers were destroyed. The party rested at the pocket plane and returned, buffing with all kinds of spells before entering Sendai's room.

 

The battle was quick and easy. Sendai's mage incarnations were attacked via remove magic or breach, with Valeria sometimes singing along with her decoy, sometimes casting spells. Jaheira and Minsc took care of the respawning drow, while the ranged weapons users (mainly Mazzy, using the Tuigan Bow +1, +3 arrows and improved haste) killed the Sendais.

 

Eventually, the drow's final form appeared and was defeated a few seconds later.

 

Valeria also completed the third pocket plane challenge, bought some more +3 arrows for Mazzy and destroyed the WK level 1 statues.

 

Before facing Draconis, I want to gain as much experience and items as I can, so I'll attempt to do all of WK next time.

 

Enuhal

[Enuhal]

Valeria Karinor, human skald, final update

 

My run sadly ended in WK level 4 - and I don't even know how, really. Valeria fought her way through level 2 and level 3 without any problems (won't post the screenshots since the run is over anyway) and cleared the Illithid lair and the Githyanki base. Now, Aerie cast SI:A and attacked the demi-lich. She wasn't able to do enough damage, though, and when her SI:A ran out, she had to retreat (no Robe of Vecna means recasting SI would have taken too long). However, the demi-lich quickly followed, and although my party was faster than him, he managed to imprison Imoen before the others could escape.

 

After resting, I had both Valeria and Aerie buff with SI:A and improved haste, giving Aerie more combat oriented items to improve her thac0. They re-entered the Githyanki-base, charged the demi-lich and... dead. Now, this obviously must have been the demilich howl, but Valeria has a save vs. death of -6 - how much penalty does this spell give, exactly? I don't know. Seems really strange and very unlucky to me.

 

Won't be making this mistake again any time soon. The bad thing is, the end of my otherwise effortless ToB-run is the direct result of my item randomiser bug in early SoA - if it weren't for that, I would've just used a protection from magic scroll on Minsc to kill this foe (this run was actually my first time killing any demi-lich without such a scroll). And I consider myself to be rather paranoid with death wards after already losing an otherwise extremely promising character to a finger of death a couple of years ago - Valeria even had "avoid death" available, and she would've used it if I had any idea that dying to the howl was even a possibility.

 

Anyway, good luck to any other no-reloaders. I will propably take a break for now.

 

Enuhal

 

 

[corey_russell]

@Enuhal: Sorry to hear the end of your run. I did some research, and the demi-lich how is basically the same as the spell Wail of the Banshee (so that would be save vs. spells not death I think). You have to make a save or die. I can't find a spell description on-line, oddly, but if I remember right, I believe in particular if you have less than 60 HP at the time of cast you can be vulnerable to the death effect.

[Epsil0]

Platt the human Cavalier, update 1

I apologize for the lack of screenshots; I don't tend to remember to take them. Platt is a graduate from BG1EE solo, and will continue in 2EE with a party... Stats of 19/19/19/9/13/18.

 

The dungeon is cleared without problem: the only battle that actually hurt was the mephit battle in the air plane. The spell-like abilities just hurt... We escape to the air only for Imoen to be immediately recaptured by Jon. We clear the circus, taking Aerie with us permanently before chapter 2. Ignoring Firkraag's offer for now, we add Nalia onto the team to clear out her home of trolls. We got ambushed twice before that though, so we completed the Xzar quest (level 9, second point in Flails) before we clear the trolls. Easy-peasy this time, remembering to use Chaotic Commands before fighting the Yuan-ti mage that causes so many problems with Chaos. Iron skins and my own -4 AC seal the rest of the deal. There was a funny spot where I realized that Cloudkill is Poison damage, and as a Cavalier I'm immune to it... Nalia got all of the umber hulks with Platt taking no damage. With 10k in my pocket, we disband Nalia (for roleplaying purposes more than anything: her type of Good is to help the poor/whatever. The Good of Platt is to stop anything from destroying society itself... As a protector more than a helper. Conflicting goals = separation. Plus I plan to take back Immy anyways, so the thief/mage spot's taken. )

 

Trademeet quests next: Cernd takes back the grove with no damage after a successful Miscast Magic and Rigid Thinking. I choose to kill the Rakshashas instead of the genies, though that was a bit dicey the first attempt before retreating to heal and regen spells. An added DuHM sealed their fates. Last quest in Trademeet should follow soon.

 

Edit: Oof, tough luck Enuhai. Those saves are absolutely no fun to have to make or die...

[Serg BlackStrider]

Sorry of your loss, Enuhal...

 

Corey is right and Demilich Howl is indeed the same as spell Wail of the Banshee so your character shouldn't die from it (it has not a save vs penalty):

 

Wail of the Banshee (Necromancy) 

Level: 9

Range: 0 

Duration: Instantaneous

Casting Time: 9

Area of Effect: 30-ft. radius

Saving Throw: Neg.

 

At the culmination of this dreadful spell, the wizard screams like a banshee (groaning spirit).  Everyone in the area of effect hears the awful cry.  Those who fail a saving throw vs. death magic die instantly.  The caster and companions are immune to the effects of the wail.