15228 replies to this topic

[Blackraven]

Ah thanks Aasim for clearing that up 

[Grimwald the Wise]

None of the dragons are immune to normal weapons, including ToB specimens - SCS doesn't change that. They are invurnerable to normal arrows however.

 

I didn't know this either.

[corey_russell]

Thanks everyone for the congratulations! I will keep pressing. Coremonk III has finished Saradush quests, and is on the trail looking for Yaga's home and Temple.

[Aasim]

Thanks everyone for the congratulations! I will keep pressing. Coremonk III has finished Saradush quests, and is on the trail looking for Yaga's home and Temple.

Stay focused; and keep up Chaotic Commands.

[corey_russell]

Stay focused; and keep up Chaotic Commands.

Thanks - but with 104% magic resistance, Coremonk III doesn't need chaotic commands - I used it a lot earlier though. I will probably use against Melissan though, as I think some of her summons might have a no save stuns - will definitely use against Balthsazar as well.

[Grimwald the Wise]

First and last post in Amn:

 

I think that with this set-up I need a party.

 

Ogres, Ettins, Troglodytes.

 

 

Not expecting theses guys, they hurt me badly.

 

 

As did these.

 

 

I did however survive.

 

Extra Dragonknights were no problem. Nor was a wraith.

 

 

I even survived an ettin attack.

 

 

Bugbears proved to be difficult:

 

 

They had a couple of potions that boosted my strength and intelligence.

 

 

But these Trogs backed up by more bugbears were too much.

 

 

Perhaps I needed better armour than mail of the dead. There was a strange bug. My Dragonslayer, a type of paladin, was unable to wear standard plate armour.

[Blackraven]

Hey Wise, I think your setup is very interesting. Couldn't you have fled from the Troglodytes?
If you had a bug with your Paladin being unable to wear plate mail armor you might justify some editing in Near Infinity / Shadowkeeper and a reload, no? I mean full plate (easily obtainable as soon as you leave Irenicus' dungeon) should make a big difference, compared to the Mail of the Dead. It would be a shame to see Durdin go, though I'd understand it if after the "Your main character has been killed" screen, you don't really feel like reloading.

[corey_russell]

@Wise: Sorry to hear about your debacle.

 

Coremonk III the level 26 Monk - Wilderness, Nylee, Yaga's Temple, Siege Army battle

Traveling with: Mazzy, Korgan, Sarevok, Aerie, Imoen, (Jaheira)

Permanently dead: Minsc, Jaheira

 

The party continues to make progress.  The wilderness area was cleared pretty easily - Jaheira used call lightning on giants to speed up the kills.

 

As for the undead guarding Nylee, Sunray x2 weakened them quite a bit - then a simple breach by Aerie made short work of the wraith. Jaheira tried to put a protection from undead scroll on Coremonk III, but Coremonk III "resisted" it. Last scroll used on Mazzy instead, and she did the job for the remaining tough undead in the temple.

 

The team did very, very well in Yaga's Temple. Not a lot of buffs, mostly arcane protection from fire, resist fear. Summons used when applicable. The opening battle with all those giants, they were utterly destroyed - much shorter than usual and we didn't take as much damage either.

 

As usual, we had a massive, epic battle with Yaga-Shura's army. Aerie and Imoen were killed, Mazzy nearly chunked herself, and Jaheira was CHUNKED! She will be missed.

Sarevok recruited in her place. The quest must go on. I am seeing a A LOT of dialog with Aerie that I have not seen before (because of our romance) - she usually gets chunked in BG 2, or I am romancing Jaheira/Viconia (who I do more often than Aerie).

 

We have a billion things to sell, so will sell at the merchant in the wilderness, before heading to the Oasis.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Hey Wise, I think your setup is very interesting. Couldn't you have fled from the Troglodytes?
If you had a bug with your Paladin being unable to wear plate mail armor you might justify some editing in Near Infinity / Shadowkeeper and a reload, no? I mean full plate (easily obtainable as soon as you leave Irenicus' dungeon) should make a big difference, compared to the Mail of the Dead. It would be a shame to see Durdin go, though I'd understand it if after the "Your main character has been killed" screen, you don't really feel like reloading.

 

I'm wondering if it is because I made a Dragonslayer Drow.  Three mods involved there. When I went to the Adventurer's Mart there was a lot of armour that he should have been able to wear and couldn't. I think that before doing anything else, I will create a Dragonslayer Human ans see if he can wear those armours. I don't want to have to use Shadowkeeper all the time if doing that is all that is required. Having a drow paladin is a nice idea, but his magical resistance was a bit overpowering. I got Imoen to cast web and he just ignored the spell. Even with the -10% experience modifier, using him with a mage would have made him unstoppable.

[corey_russell]

Coremonk III the level 27 Monk - Abazigal's Lair

Traveling with: Mazzy, Korgan, Sarevok, Aerie, Imoen

 

The first challenge at Abazigal's Lair was Draconis. Both fell pretty fast once Aerie and Imoen removed his defences - e.g., dispel his invisibility, pierce magic then breach.

 

The entrance was easy for this team. Korgan soloed the vigilantes, since it's easy with his cloak of mirroring.

 

For Abazigal himself, most important buffs would probably be protection from lightning on everyone and of course resist fear. Ironically, Korgan "resisted" the protection, so he had be content with 50% protection from a green scroll. Coremonk also put 50% cold resistance on himself, to give him extra protection from the frost salamanders. The battle raged quite a while, Korgan was even killed - the team however did put Abazigal down.

 

Sendai's Enclave is next.

[ussnorway]

Coremonk III the level 27 Monk - Abazigal's Lair

Traveling with: Mazzy, Korgan, Sarevok, Aerie, Imoen

Well done!

 

What weapon does Sarevok use?

[corey_russell]

Well done!

 

What weapon does Sarevok use?

His AC and saves aren't all that great, so he uses the Firetooth +5 crossbow. He's setup to be a backup tank, but so far hasn't been necessary.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 59 - (update 1)

May, human necromancer (Grond0) & Blaggerd, human blackguard (Gate70)

 

This pairing looked pretty formidable in BG1 and made a decent start to BG2 over the weekend.

 

After escaping from the dungeon they sorted out equipment and went to the circus - Kalah had a burst of emotion and didn't last long.  The Copper Coronet changed hands before a bit of aimless travelling saw some ambushes.  On the way to return Renfeld May was warned by the Cowled Wizards for casting a spell at the mad cleric in the docks.  Officer Dirth provided some quality armour for Blaggerd before he poisoned Prebek and Sanasha to open up access to the harpers.

 

Around that time May saw Hareishan snacking on some thieves and just let her go - much to Blaggerd's disgust as he wanted to make use of his level drain immunity.  He had also discovered that he was able to absorb health from vampires - they made a better target than himself (he was aiming at May as a means of speeding up healing after encounters).

 

On the way to open up access to the liches Blaggerd struck down a sea troll and a rakshasa in the temple sewers and also destroyed some potential competition for the title of most evil paladin in Athkatla.  Blaggerd's saving throws were not great, but dual-wielding Arbane he was happy to take on the ghasts accompanying the Rune Assassins while solving the skinner mystery.

 

With inventories over-full, the pair bought gem and scroll cases and then set out for Watcher's Keep in search of a potion case.  While there they looted the top floor, though Blaggerd had to ask for a potion from May to ensure golem poison didn't kill him.  The first 2 statues were taken on without full spells and abilities being available and May ended up throwing the Crimson Dart to finish them off.  The other 4 proved much easier thanks to blackguard poison and the fists of the flesh golem - the final statue mainly being killed while trying to jam itself through a tiny door.

 

In the Graveyard May ended any threat from Pai'Na and her spiders with a skull trap (fortunately Blaggerd accepted her apologies for not informing him of her intentions in advance ).  Blaggerd also tested out his fear immunity on the Crypt King.  Following a trail from a grave also allowed the duo to sort out some kidnappers.

 

Blaggerd had been getting increasingly twitchy about the prospect of May attracting the wrath of the Cowled Wizards and insisted on going to the Government District to pay for a license.  There were still enough funds left after that to pay Gaelan Bayle and May was soon the proud owner of an Amulet of Power.  While in the Docks Blaggerd proved his abilities against vampires by saving Sansuki.

 

With access to the liches all sorted out a green scroll and an oil of speed apiece bagged 4 of them to get the Ring of Gaxx for Blaggerd.  There was still a bit of time left on the oil of speed after that and that was put to good use against the pirate hideout.

 

The final action of the session was to run through Mae'Var's tasks - Rayic Gethras was hit by blackguard poison before he could buff and didn't survive.  Mae'Var himself was just too tempting a target for a cloudkill (supplemented by stinking cloud and skull trap).  Blaggerd wandered through the clouds looking for enemies, but there wasn't anything left for him to deal with.

 

Stats:

May, necromancer 12, 57 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar, 5 from ioun stone), 146 kills

Blaggerd, blackguard 11, 119 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 188 kills, 0 deaths (1 in BG1)

[corey_russell]

Coremonk III the level 30 Monk Update - Sendai's Enclave, challenges #2-5, Balthazar

Traveling with: Mazzy, Korgan, Sarevok, Aerie, Imoen

 

Coremonk III and gang cleared out the surface of Sendai's Enclave without any problem. The team did very good inside as well, no chunkings. In fact, there weren't any deaths at all, except when battling Sendai. Aerie and Imoen got killed, and Korgan got to 1 HP (Sendai harm), but a RoR heal saved him. Coremonk III was always at range anytime battling a Sendai caster, to avoid being hit with harm, as his magic resistance won't help with that. Success!

 

Time to do challenges #2-4. As is my custom, I summoned my best help, buffs, and then right in row did these 3 challenges. No problems with any of them.

 

Time of Balthazar - we got a bit lucky, as we found the key to the fortress very fast, so we of course used it to get inside. Balthsazar is very easy as long as you give everyone fire resistance, stun immunity, and free action. This worked, we didn't even need summons help.

 

Time to deal with Ravager. We did a few buffs, most important probably being invulnerability potions on the fighters. Our best 5 summons. Korgan and Mazzy got into melee range, and the party concentrated fire on Ravager - our opening GWWs got Ravager to injured, that worked great. I was also very careful to be sure everyone was using +4 weapons and ammo. Aerie threw in a storm of vengeance, and Imoen a few horrid wiltings. A few more GWWs by the melees and success!

 

After the battle, Aerie had the conversation that started with this - she talked about our coming baby and Coremonk III and Aerie exchanged vows - they are officially married.

 

Melissan is next! Wish us luck.

[Grond0]

My fingers are crossed for you Corey.

[corey_russell]

Coremonk III - level 30 Monk - FINAL Update!

Traveling with: Mazzy, Korgan, Sarevok, Aerie, Imoen

Permanently dead: Minsc, Jaheira

 

I am pleased to report that Coremonk III's campaign WAS SUCCESSFUL! Here is his final stats. Coremonk III has chosen to become mortal.

 

For the final battle, I had AI off. I played it extremely slowly (for me). I've had so many fail at the final hurdles, didn't want this to be another one. I didn't do a ton of buffs, but I did do invulnerability potions on all fighters whenever they wore off (I had a ton). I used CC on everyone I could but Coremonk III, and fire resistance.

 

1st Melissan Battle

GWWs made this quick, didn't even need to breach

 

1st Pool Battle

Lots of summons - intentionally tried NOT to use ToB abilities, to try to conserve for Melissan - this worked. No one got level drained, so that was good.

 

2nd Melissan Battle

I knew this one would be harder with the powerful summons assisting her. Once again, careful micro-management to maximize hits on Melissan did the job, took more GWWs though. We did area effects as well. She ALMOST healed herself, but we killed her before she could do it. We did this several times in other battles too - Maximize damage seems to be key.

 

2nd Pool Battle

We had all our summons still from the first pool battle still - we quickly re-buffed and healed and engaged, Imoen firing fire arrows success!

 

3rd Melissan Battle

I knew with the slayer shadows, this could be very dicey. Maximum defensive buffs were done before-hand, such as mirror images/hardiness. GWWs and imoen's horrid wiltings once more did the job. Careful healing as well, such as using Sarevok to RoR Mazzy who was badly injured so she could pummel Melissan. By the way, Mazzy was using the Answerer and the Foebane, Korgan Yaga's Warhamer and the Hammer of Giantkin (no +4 axes for us, which is his only other weapon skill). Sarevok used Firetooth +5 crossbow, Coremonk III sling of seeking (note he has 24 STR! (potion)), Aerie +4 sling, and Imoen Gesen bow. Success once more.

 

3rd Pool Battle

This battle was a bear, like usual. Mazzy and Korgan constantly got poisoned (Coremonk III immune, fortunately). We were forced to use the last of most our GWWs (Coremonk III still had some) to survive. The Fallen Solar got a lot of ranged attacks, we were rather fortunate no one got vorpaled. After a lot of careful fighting, we were successful once more.

 

Final Melissan Battle

Completely out of summons. We pulled out the stops for buffs though, especially any that increase Thac0. We did spell protection removal and a breach and Coremonk III started using the last of his GWWs - success!

 

Coremonk III became mortal, and married Aerie in her homeland shortly, this is Coremonk III's and Aerie's story.

 

Thoughts about this run: Coremonk III was weak and vulnerable for a long time (including in BG 1). Because of this, AI was off throughout BG 1 and BG 2 for him, so that I could always pull him away when he got badly hurt (which happened many times). He became powerful once he got the bracers in the City of Cavern, including throughout ToB. He had -12 AC at the end, this protected him pretty well. Having only one person under-leveled (Sarevok) made a HUGE difference - several times, Melissan was about to heal up when ToB abilities finished her off. Having two characters (Aerie and Imoen) play 3 roles, thief, cleric, and 2 mages, allowed a melee heavy group - the group had huge hitting power. Coremonk III finished with about 28% of ALL kills, Korgan finished with 40%!

 

Thanks for all for watching my run, and thanks in advance for any congratulations.

[Aasim]

Congratulations Corey. 

[EA1]

Congrats!

 

 

Episode 4: Mighty foes 2

 

Disaster struck! read on:

 

Next up was Thaxxlsyllia's 'master' the shade lord, improved version. 

 

My strategy was to let level drain- immune Dorn and Hexxat keep him busy while the other three destroyed the shade altar and the shadows, because I know the SL's aura drains all nearby foes a level every 3 rounds or so...

 

Everything was going great: a few +1 darts by Hexxat drew first blood on the SL and all other foes were destroyed, when he casts a wall of blades that chunked a fire elemental and tried a few fingers of death. One bounced of Korgan because he gulped a magic immunity potion right before the spell hit him. The other went for Dorn and killed him... He also blinded Korgan and Mazzy who then couldnt use their ranged weapons any more...

 

In the mean time PFMW protected the SL so a few frustrating moments nothing could be done, but luckely the SL was distracted by Hexxat who just couldnt seem to get level drained.. Raven tried a call lightning which actually did devastating damage to the SL for 2 times 30 damage or so. The second call lighting did another 60 getting him to badly wounded. Unfortunately Raven was out of CL (if only he had the staff of thunder and lightning...) so he was effectively out of battle until the PFMW wore out. 

 

What then happened is still raising major eyebrows whenever I think about it. The SL proceeded to:

 

SPAM A ONE HIT CHUNK ABILITY... not only instantly chunking my fellows, but also turning them into shadows. EVERY... FREAKING... 3... ROUNDS...

 

WUUUT???

 

I guess I forgot about that one...? The first that got chunked was Hexxat, a freaking VAMPIRE... she screamed: Quickly, get me to Dragomirs respite"... but it was too late. From her 'body' rose a shade and she was gone permanently. Remember, Dorn was dead already. Meanwhile I was still waiting for PFMW to wear out. But my moral as a player actually failed when our foe 3 rounds after chunking Hexxat also chunked and turned Mazzy (and without any save)...

 

Raven and Korgan grabbed all gear they could and got the hell out of there...

 

Dead so far: Yoshimo, Edwin, Hexxat, Mazzy... RIP...

 

Raven picked up Valygar and, being level 9/11 now, should have no problem taking on improved Faldorn. Read about that next time...

 

----------------------------------

 

Interesting happenings:

 

-Call lightning would've slain the lord easily... good to know for any players who control a druid in their runs.

-The SL's ability of instakill only seemed to happen after a turn or so, at which time I guess he gets fed up and just starts spamming it. Good to know for next time.

-Having said that, I'm in doubt about returning and spamming call lightning because he might immidiately continue his one hit ko spamming on Raven, ending the run... 

At least Raven weakened him by slaying his pet Shadow Dragon

-I have to say the SL has great voice acting

 

Until next time! 

[ussnorway]

Congratulations Corey, so at what level does a Monk become easy i.e. when he got the bracers he was what?

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congratulation, Corey! Impressive run!

 

@EA1. I still not faced Improved Shade Lord myself but as far as I know his *chunking ability* is just old good Black Blade of Disaster (//Every time the Black Blade of Disaster hits, the victim has to make a save vs. death with a +4 modifier or be disintegrated//.) So you could try to maintain your saves low enough to avoid instakill.

[Aasim]

@EA1. I still not faced Improved Shade Lord myself but as far as I know his *chunking ability* is just old good Black Blade of Disaster (//Every time the Black Blade of Disaster hits, the victim has to make a save vs. death with a +4 modifier or be disintegrated//.) So you could try to maintain your saves low enough to avoid instakill.

Actually, he has some ability which turns people into Shadows. Happened to me once, he doesn't have to "hit" you, or even cast a spell at you (he chunked Kivan in one of my runs with it). Seems to be fairly random, but if you kill him quick enough it usually doesn't happen.

I don't know if there's a way to protect one from it, or what that way is. Maybe Death Ward. I'll check.

[Enuhal]

Congratulations, Corey! I remember having quite a difficult time with Draconis when no-reloading with a Monk. Well done!

[Grimwald the Wise]

Hey Wise, I think your setup is very interesting. Couldn't you have fled from the Troglodytes?
If you had a bug with your Paladin being unable to wear plate mail armor you might justify some editing in Near Infinity / Shadowkeeper and a reload, no? I mean full plate (easily obtainable as soon as you leave Irenicus' dungeon) should make a big difference, compared to the Mail of the Dead. It would be a shame to see Durdin go, though I'd understand it if after the "Your main character has been killed" screen, you don't really feel like reloading.

 

More important still, I realised that he was no longer a Dragonslayer. The Dragonslayer kit that I have in BG2 is completely different. Has to specialise in 2 handed swords rather than one handed swords. Is Lawful Good rather than Chaotic good. More akin to the Crusader kit.

 

I thought to make use of the two-handed Moonblade to give some continuity, but it is only useable by Xan.

 

I have created a new character and have used Shadowkeeper to match him as much as possible to the old one. Hopefully, being created in SoA, there will be fewer bugs. We will see.

 

I have to award the mod-makers full marks for the AI in the ambush. First attack with Troglodytes which you think you can defeat, then, once you are surrounded, move in with the Bugbears that are most effective archers.

 

[EA1]

@Serg Blackstrider: It wasnt BB

@Aasim: Indeed. I wonder if there is any protection possible at all. If not, it is the most OP ability in the entire trilogy, even if he onlt starts casting it after a few rounds..

@Grimwald: no offense, but why do you feel its necessary to have a 113 point roll on your already OP Paladin? And where do the troglodytes come from?

[corey_russell]

Congratulations Corey, so at what level does a Monk become easy i.e. when he got the bracers he was what?

I think he was around level 18, give or take a few levels. And thanks everyone! Feels good to get a success.