The various minions in Abazigal's lair were no problem for the team. With the cloak of mirroring, Misty cleared out most of the vigalantes herself. The Kua-Toas, were barely a road stop. The water elementals are powerful, but have no defense to cloudkills out of sight.
Abazigal himself, however, was a much, much different story. It took a while to force his dragon form to appear, for one. Our plan of traps at entrance didn't work, as a frost salamander tripped them rather than Abazigal. Also, Corarcher was doing the most damage to Abazigal's human form - this ended up being bad, as Abazigal did a wing buffet and sent Corarcher into the entrance and now Coracher has the full attention of Abazigal and cannot escape!
Coracher proceeds to gulp many potions - also numerous RoR heals were necessary to keep him alive - he got near death numerous times in fact. His team then threw everything they had at Abazigal, trying to get Abazigal's attention - summons, spells, HLAs etc. Abazigal was having none of it - he wanted badly to devour Coracher - I thought this was going to be it.
However, Coracher had his spear of withering equipped and decided to try a GWW now that he has some health and his aura was clear - good choice, as Coracher slays Abazigal personally!
I'm glad Corarcher pulled through, but being pinned by a dragon and having its full attention was a bit nerve wracking - the quest continues though.
After a brief Ctrl/J Kaxir is back on track and hastily departs after a double regicide.
The Underdark sees Bedlen Dagglefoss released and an eye stalk of an elder orb (Improved Haste FoA for slow effects) retrieved before heading into the western tunnels. 5 Demon Knights find out the hard way that casting spells on Kaxir gives him time to mace (first 2) or Azuredge (remaining 3) them. First use of Shield Amulet used but not really required.
& N'ashtar manages to mislead despite an Improved Haste Bala's axe attack. Someone blinds Kaxir as he casts True Sight and Nashtar appears next to the dwarf. Maze is cast so Kaxir glugs a magic resistance potion but to no effect and the game is over.
Sorry to see that Gate. I know the feeling - I've pretty much given up trying to kill him immediately with a kensai and just let him waste his mislead on summons before engaging.
If you're solo or in party without Spell Revisions, SCS will never cast either Maze or Imprisonment on you.
That's not quite true- at least not in my install.
Por ejemplo
I definitely do see fewer Maze casts in my setup though. It seems to be crowded out by other L8s (Wiltings and such). I can't really say though because I basically never let my PC get within touch range of a high level caster, except when running SI:A+SI:D+II+SD+SShield. The above occurred simply because I rarely go evil and didn't know Pocket Plane Aran had an 8 in him.
Btw. Aran's Maze was countered with Potion of Magic Protection + Carsomyr.
Best,
A.
NW: I don't recall having manually activated maze and imprisonment, but it's possible I may have.
That's not quite true- at least not in my install.
I don't know what version of SCS you use, but iirc since v28 the casting block for Maze is this:
InPartySlot(scstarget,1) // isn't Player 1
Global("DMWWMazePlayer","GLOBAL",0)
THEN DO
Action(Spell,WIZARD_MAZE|150|50)
If you want to enable it, the Global must be set to 1. Same applies to Imprisonment, it won't get casted on PC (maybe spellcasting Kangaxx would, haven't checked) unless you have Spell Revisions installed (it doesn't instakill there if cast on PC).
@Gate70: Sorry to hear the end of Kaxir. My solo runs always avoid him (e.g., buy what I need from Ust Natha, then kill Adalon) unless my character has true defense to his maze. If solo you don't need the experience, so you only really need to do the encounter if the halberd that Boz is using is somehow critical for your plans...
I don't know what version of SCS you use, but iirc since v28 the casting block for Maze is this:
InPartySlot(scstarget,1) // isn't Player 1
Global("DMWWMazePlayer","GLOBAL",0)
THEN DO
Action(Spell,WIZARD_MAZE|150|50)
If you want to enable it, the Global must be set to 1. Same applies to Imprisonment, it won't get casted on PC (maybe spellcasting Kangaxx would, haven't checked) unless you have Spell Revisions installed (it doesn't instakill there if cast on PC).
Ok: since v28- that explains it.
And thanks for the code! If and when I upgrade, I'll put it to use.
Keep in mind, bugs and strange occurances do happen; the scripting for this game is very limited in scope. Don't depend on this to keep you safe - it's quite possible that if a mage has nothing to cast he decides to toss a Maze your way, regardless of SCS version, solo play, or CLUA command - this is a "generic" block, but some creatures have their own "specific" blocks to use (example: Dragons will cast Remove magic as a first move even if you're under SI:Abj, mages generally won't).
Keep in mind, bugs and strange occurances do happen; the scripting for this game is very limited in scope. Don't depend on this to keep you safe - it's quite possible that if a mage has nothing to cast he decides to toss a Maze your way, regardless of SCS version, solo play, or CLUA command - this is a "generic" block, but some creatures have their own "specific" blocks to use (example: Dragons will cast Remove magic as a first move even if you're under SI:Abj, mages generally won't).
GL further!
Understood. I basically have the Maze threat under control. As mentioned, I never get within touch range of high level casters unless I'm protected. I know which enemies have ranged versions and either pre-buff or avoid them. I also keep my aura clear, and have counters at the ready, while listening carefully to incantations and noting the casting animations. I've yet to lose a character to Maze or Imprisoment.
I wouldn't change the protocol even if I thought Maze and Imprisonment were "blocked" at the script level.
Arcadia, Half-Elven Figher/Mage: Chateau to the Copper
Ok. Super-quick coverage of Arcadia's early adventures in Amn.
Here's a buff free shot of our heroine in the Chateau. This is like the Arcadia equivalent of a makeup free selfie. You'll never see a shot like this again.
Onto the Duergars. But first: Am I the only one who had no idea this was there? Does it go anywhere?
Anyhoo: The Duergars. Took'em down running ProNM and DUHM while wearing chain. Chain trumps splint if you're facing slashers and bow wielders ProNM.
Rested by the Dryads, and then nixed the portals MGOI.
Invisibility and a precautionary MSD en route to the surface.
Once on the surface, Arcadia sold some goods, rested, and then hit the circus. Popcorn and ice cream and dead gnomes: Hooray! (apologies, Wise...).
Right. Time for some shopping. Arcadia went with Potion of Freedom, Oil of Speed, Potion of Invisibility, and Potion of Firebreath from Ribald's. Arcadia insisted that she didn't need to memorize scrolls at this point, and that it was better to wait since most of the ones she needed were in the Bridge District and she didn't want to invest in a Potion of Genius and a Potion of Mind Focusing just to memorize one measly spell. But ProNW is awesome in early BG2 and I couldn't resist the temptation to get it into her book ASAP. Effectively, she overpaid for ProNW on my account. Sorry Arcadia!
Her objectives at this point were: 1) to round out her defensive potion collection with a Potion of Magic Shielding and a Potion of Clarity; 2) to get Tuigan, Seeking, The Reflex, and an RoAC; 3) to memorize Spell Immunity, Improved Invisibility, Minor Sequencer, Teleport Field, Enchanted Weapon, and Sunfire. That meant she'd need gold. Time for the Copper Slaver Quest.
Juked the bouncer over by the cages, and headed for the Beastmaster. Arcadia pre-buffed, and then opened with a Skull Trap.
Shut the doors on the SCS bears, which is fair because bears can't open doors: only lions can.
Iced the speedy, high APR critters, and then finished the Beastmaster with melee and Magic Missiles.
It always freaks me out when Nalia gets involved in the Copper Coronet fight. In Tactics, the Copper guards would just murder her and you'd miss out on the De'Arnise Keep quest. I've never seen that happen in SCS, but I'm always worried that it will.
Didn't give Lethinam a fair shot at Hendak.
Onto phase 2. I usually call the second phase of the slaver quest the Love Boat, but now that I'm totally obsessed with the TV show, the Love Boat, that just doesn't feel right anymore. Few things make me happier than the Love Boat theme song- not even eating slavers while buffed up in spider form.
The key to effective melee in spider form is buffs, of course, but also nip n' go tactics. Make that poison work for you.
Polymorph Self ran out before Arcadia could finish Haegan. Haste->Tuigan fixed him. I'll note that in my install he's as annoying as all get out due to his huge potion stack.
Overall, it was a pretty clean quest, except for one minor frack up. I didn't want to deal with the Hold Person casting sewer dwellers, and yet I hadn't set aside an Invisibility for the trip home. I instructed Arcadia to rest, but she was ambushed by a crew, which included a shaman, forcing a Potion of Invisibility quaff. Wasting that potion marred what was otherwise a passable first Amnish quest for Arcadia and her rusty pilot.
Now flush with gold, Arcadia paid a visit to Roger, Ribald, and the Bridge District cutpurse. Supplementing her stash with a ProNW raid on the Saerk estate helped her achieve her item goals. Potions of Mind Focusing and Genius let her memorize her spells. Arcadia is now ready to face Suna Seni and whatever else lies beyond the gates.
A few more problems were encountered today, but this magical pairing continued to make progress and now have their sights set on ToB.
In the Underdark they started off by cleaning up a remnant of drow in the kuo-toa tunnels with an incendiary cloud. The first near escape then occurred on the way to the beholder area when Eyesore got stuck on a bridge behind some ogres that were determined not to move. In itself that wasn't a problem, but the kuo-toa attacking him from behind were! They shredded his stoneskins and interrupted an attempted spell and he finally managed to move when one more hit could have killed him - a few anxious moments of running round ensued before the chasing pack were all diverted onto Danya.
In the beholder area the first elder orb died in an incendiary cloud after the duo quickly ran past him invisible. Most of the other beholders were foiled by Eyesore's Cloak of Mirroring, but Danya took a hand in jelly form to protect him from beholder spells. That didn't stop the mind-flayer psionic attacks and a stun here resulted in another death for Danya. She also tried to distract the other elder orb with its imprisonment danger, but the jelly is a bit slow and the orb got a touch in to send Danya to jail. Eyesore eventually managed to trap the orb between gnolls while it was focusing its attacks on him (thus preventing it from getting into range for another imprisonment and once it was dead went to buy the last freedom scroll from the shopkeeper (with a touch of foresight Danya had chosen not to try and learn the spell himself earlier, so Eyesore didn't have to try and get the 220,000 or so additional XP needed to cast level 9 spells).
In the illithid stronghold Eyesore was immediately stunned by the first illithid they met and after that left things for Danya to tackle. While buffed, she was more than a match for the flayers, though she did get stunned at one point when spirit armour ran out. Eyesore got up to level 18 while killing the brain and gained the ability to summon a planetar.
The duo briefly returned to Athkatla to recover a few bits of equipment, though they didn't buy or make anything new. The vampires, including Bodhi, were quickly beaten down by Danya to open up the route to Suldanesselar. There were plenty of golem and rakshasa conflicts there, but only one dragon - Nizi didn't last long under a general assault. At the temple the duo decided to fight rather than just raise the Avatar. That gave Suneer the chance to maze Danya, but Eyesore was out of sight range at the time and just went invisible to avoid the other attackers until Danya came back to finish the job. On the Tree Jon concentrated his attacks on summons and Danya without paying enough attention to the area damage being poured in behind him and he eventually succumbed to that.
In hell Eyesore stayed true to his lawful good self in the trials ahead of the final combat. The demons did surprisingly well at the start of that, making short work of a few stalkers and a planetar. However, a second planetar helped Danya finish them off before they turned their attention to the Slayer. Under general attack he struggled to complete any spells and finally had had enough.
Coracher and team battled their way to Sendai's Lair. The lair was pretty straightforward, with no real hiccups occurring. When we battled Sendai and her statues, though, Forrest and Cernd were killed early in the battle. However, the survivors got the job done and forced Sendai's defeat.
For once I decided to take Saemon on his offer into the fortress (less fighting) - this worked fine. I wasn't sure how we would do against Balthazar himself, as we don't have free action and not many chaotic commands. But nevertheless, Balthazar was defeated as well.
Pocket Plane trials #3, #4 and #5 were all defeated easily.
Very soon, Corarcher's final fate will be decided - I hope he can pull it off. Melissan needs a lesson.
Alesia_BH, Blind_Visionary and CrevsDaak like this
Traveling with: Misty (Halfling Fighter), Forrest (Human Ranger), Hanna (Swashbuckler dualed to mage), Joshua (Jester), Cernd
So it was time for the final battle. We did max buffs 1st battle plus GWWs and we won that pretty fast. The 1st pool battle went pretty smoothly.
But the 2nd Melissan battle, went, very, very wrong. In short order, Misty & Forrest (our tanks) died, as well as Hanna. Melissan was badly injured so Corarcher did GWW and Cernd tried insects, Joshua tried pierce magic.
Then Joshua got turned to stone - Cernd was held and it was ONLY Coracher! Corarcher is near death and runs to try to clear his Aura for RoR, but Melissan has MANY summons, it looks like it might be over.
But wait, before I could heal Melissan gives it up! She must have been under some damage over time (perhaps Cernd's insects)! I was shocked Corarcher pulled though.
The 3rd pool batte was an absolute bear of a battle - I threw absolutely everything I had into it, and it still took a long time and we all took a lot of damage - but we prevailed - whew.
We threw everything we had into the final battle - Cernd helped with 5 shambling mounds - we still had some dispelling arrows so used those again, and did all remaining GWWs - success!
Corarcher has chosen to become a god, since his wife Paja did not survive the quest.
What's Next:
I'm in the mood for solo play. Going to roll up Corerage II - a cursed sword user. He'll be solo BG 1 but duo in BG 2 (Yoshimo/Imoen).
Alesia_BH, Gate70, Serg BlackStrider and 4 others like this
Back to top
