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[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 76 - (update 1)

Deana, half-elf transmuter (Grond0) & Rhunn, half-elf sorcerer (Gate70)

 

These sorcerous siblings made a good start to BG2 yesterday after making their way through BG1 with few problems.

 

In the dungeon Rhunn tried to steal Deana's familiar from its hiding place, but she soon pulled it out of his backpack.  The only difficult moment was when Deana found herself under attack by a golem - expecting it to beat in vain against Rhunn's stoneskins.  Its fast movement meant she actually resorted to using a potion before finally getting it to transfer its attentions to Rhunn.  Deana did also find herself under attack by several mephits after the radiant mephit lasted just long enough after its portal was destroyed to stunn Rhunn with a colour spray - she quickly nipped into the adjoining room though and shut the door until Rhunn recovered his senses.  

Spoiler

Ulvaryl managed to escape after Rhunn tried to use a minor sequencer loaded with magic missiles, but found his aura still clouded.

 

The circus was no problem, despite the werewolf attacks doing damage, and the duo moved on to the Slums.  Cohrvale & Bregg had a falling out thanks to the Ring of Human Influence, which disguised the duo's weakness in melee.  Inside the Copper Coronet there was no bar on spells and the Beastmaster stood no chance confronted with a first use of skeletons by Rhunn.

Spoiler

 

A bit of invisible travel saw Suna Seni's challenge shrivel up in a cloudkill.  While trying to track her down the duo also came across Hareishan and tried killing her - however, she wouldn't follow them inside and MMMs didn't damage her quickly enough to make a kill possible.  She repeated her conversation just to make sure we understood, before leaving.

Spoiler

Renfeld's ambushers were then another easy target before the duo moved on to the Docks.  The mad cleric there managed to hold Rhunn.  Deana intervened, but had to resort to invisibility to stay safe against a hold person - incurring a warning from the Cowled Wizards.  

Spoiler

Inside Prebek's house the mage survived Deana's skull trap, but not the follow-up magic missiles from Rhunn.

Spoiler

 

After emerging from looting the Harpers, the duo came across Salia.  The 2 thieves with her attacked and caused major problems in a fight - Deana having to resort to using her sling to finish the second one off after they tore down Rhunn's stoneskins.  That exposed their major weakness when spell use is not allowed (they haven't hung on to any useful items to counter-act that), so they sensibly decided to pay for a magic license agreed that the Cowled Wizards needed a stern lesson.

 

The plan was for Deana to attract their attention by casting invisibility and then run to extreme sight range before the Enforcer arrived.  She would then move out of sight before any true sights could activate - preventing the mages from moving after her.  A couple of webs and couple of stinking clouds would be followed by malison and cloudkill by Deana, while Rhunn supported with fireballs.

- the first group was the most difficult when Rhunn tried to be helpful by adding glitterdust to the area disablers, but found the range on that was shorter than sight range and one of the Cowlies activated.  Fortunately, they were able to play target tag with him and use some back-up skeletons to distract him - he died before casting anything nasty.

- the second group was cleanly done with none becoming active.

- the third group, one of them again became active, but didn't follow out of cloudkill range and all his attempted spells failed.

- the fourth, fifth and final groups all died cleanly.  That included successfully killing Zallanora in the last group before he could use time stop and teleport away.

Spoiler

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Deana, transmuter 11, 61 HPs (incl. 12 from familiar), 213 kills

Rhunn, sorcerer 11, 43 HPs, 265 kills, 1 death

[Golden28]

"@Golden, I do have and sometimes play BGEE as well, but I've held on to BGT because of the wider range of available mods (I think this changing though). The gradual increase in power of the Skeletons sounds interesting. I've been looking for info on their stats but couldn't find any online (maybe in NI). 
As to the Aerial Servants vs Beholders clash. I was thinking of trying with the three Gauths and one Beholder on the bridge in the old tunnels. Will let you know if I do."

 

Yeah the mods range is wider, I agree..

On the bridge in the old tunnels there are 3 beholders and gauths in EE, I agree its a fine place to experiment because the beholders are too large to cross the bridge. The gauths arent though..

Good work on Maevar, that guy is very dangerous. 

 

Q: What are the circular objects both above and left of your ammo belt?

 

Cheers!

[Golden28]

Eren died in the most disgusting way ever...I seriously cant believe it!!!

 

I accidentally entered the twisted rune fatigued. After a terrific, excellent and epic battle were Jan was chunked we prevailed with ONLY Larissa the vampire left. Eren was wearing the amulet of power so no worries right?

 

WRONG!!!

 

she f*cking ability score drained him to death without me noticing it.

 

Im so absolutely disgusted by that failure I ragequitted and have to do some gymning now..

[Blackraven]

Ouch, I'm very sorry about that Golden

SCS Vampires are horrible. One of their special abilities is a CON draining attack. Still, the fact that you had already dealt with the other Twisted Rune members, tells me you were doing really well. You also had already prevailed in a number of hard battles, so you're clearly becoming better at BG2. I hope you're not going to give up now.

As to Scintilla, thanks re: Mae'Var. She took a lot longer than my Arrows of Dispelling firing rogues tend to, but all in all it was an ok  fight. Scintilla was never at risk (although that backstab should have never hit her). 
The items you're asking about are the Circlet of the Archmagi (+1 INT, +1 AC, +1 Saves) which in EE might be a Black Pits item, you should be able to find it in EEKeeper among the helmets; and the Metaspell Influence Amulet (1 extra 2nd level spell), which can be obtained in Chateau Irenicus.

Fighting the Beholders/Gauths with Aerial Servants didn't pan out the way I hoped it would. Will report on that later.
 

[Grond0]

Hard luck Golden - at least you've got the consolation that you're racking up interesting ways to die!

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 76 - (update 2)

Deana, half-elf transmuter (Grond0) & Rhunn, half-elf sorcerer (Gate70)

 

This morning's session started with a call for help from Sansuki.  With no restrictions on spell use we thought that should be possible, but immediately ran into problems when a group of thugs joined in the fight - effectively wasting the haste spell that had been intended to allow easy targeting of spells on the vampires.  We also were operating under a handicap initially by trying to keep Sansuki alive, though he finally snuffed it anyway.  

Spoiler

Working under those constraints resulted in Rhunn being drained several times - reducing his spell power - but success still seemed near when Deana had the last vampire and last thug chasing her.  Unfortunately she ran a bit too fast for the thug to keep up and it stopped and then retargeted on Rhunn - with fatal results.

Spoiler

 

After a visit to the nearby priest the duo moved on to the Temple sewers.  The rakshasa's resistance to spells meant it needed to be physically assaulted and it took a long time for Deana to hit him - though when she did eventually connect her first hit proved to be sufficient.

Spoiler

They moved on to the Unseeing Eye quest where cloudkills helped them progress past a couple of yuan-ti mages.  The gauth at the bridge were also busy dying in cloudkills, though Rhunn was determined to help them along - even at risk to himself.

Spoiler

 

Downstairs a combination of skull traps and fireballs proved too potent for groups of mummies and ghasts.  With levels being so low the undead inside their lair were just led by skeleton warriors and summoned skeletons dealt with them.  

Spoiler

Skeletons were also the main weapon against beholders and gauths in the hive, with a web and cloudkills sorting out most of the blind priests.  This time Deana left the Unseeing Eye to her companion - though the Eye demonstrated a couple of PW: kills on skeletons, which is probably what resulted in our defeat last time.

Spoiler

 

A web and cloudkills also put paid to Gaal and most of his guards.  

Spoiler

Coming away from there, Deana was surprised to find some vampiric mists ambushing her despite keeping to the edge of the room.  However, she quickly knocked the door open and took the mists for a long walk before coming back to where Rhunn had prepared a greeting party of skeletons to help finish them off.

Spoiler

There was then just time for Deana to recommend going to sell equipment and for Rhunn to gently but firmly usher her off to the temple to hand back the rift device first!

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Deana, transmuter 11, 61 HPs (incl. 12 from familiar), 263 kills

Rhunn, sorcerer 11, 43 HPs, 334 kills, 2 deaths

[Golden28]

Hard luck Golden - at least you've got the consolation that you're racking up interesting ways to die!

 

Yeah... and it was an amazing fight... I hate to do BG all over again though, I mean its at least another 5 hours and the funfactor will be rather low unfortunately..

I think I need a break and think it over. I will definately keep following you awesome ppl, for example Blackraven dont you dare die on me! ;)!

 

 

Cheers!

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

0018 Mirtul 1369:  After dealing w/the Bridge District murders, I made haste w/Nalia & the remainder of my retinue to the De’Arnise Keep.  Before we arrived we were attacked by six Slaver’s. Not sure if they were trying to kill & rob us or make slaves of us but they did none of the above.  

 

Once we arrived @ De’Arnise Keep, Nalia let me know that the keep had been overrun w/Trolls.  We spoke to Captain Arat, the Captain of the De’Arnise Guard who was in an outer palisade.  He told us that if we could open the drawbridge he & his men could draw the Trolls out.  From there, Nalia led us into the keep thru a secret entrance in the side of the wall, behind some hedges. There we met Daleson, obviously a servant that was well treated by Nalia, although he tried to keep up appearances.  Daleson said, that in addition to Trolls, we should also be worried about some giant snake-like monsters that came w/the Trolls. He told Nalia her father had been alive that morning & that the largest Troll had had him taken down to the ‘cellar.’  He also warned us about some burrowing creatures that had made the initial entrance for the Trolls.  He said they were very tough but could be sidetracked by food.  So there it was.  Rescue Nalia’s father first.  Eventually Nalia told us the only way to get to the cellars could be reached through a secret door off of her Aunt’s room. We worked our way thru letting Nalia guide us. She led us in search of her father’s flail down some halls that led thru secret doors to an armory & a crypt.  We were able to put part of the Flail securing an Acid head to it in a really nifty forge that worked via the will alone.   Then we started making our way toward Nalia’s Aunt’s room, by-passing most everything in a haste to save her father.  Before we found the basement we encountered & defeated, in order of toughness, a Yuan-Ti Mage, a Greater Yuan-Ti; an Otyugh, Two Giant Trolls, four Trolls (one which split into two smaller Trolls), Three Ice Trolls & six Goblins.  We were forced to rest behind closed doors twice during this stretch of battles. 

 

Finally we came to the door of Nalia’s Aunt’s room.  Nalia opened the door using a ‘skeleton key’ she’d grabbed in the Library, where we’d defeated the Yuan-Ti Mage. There was an obviously loyal & patient De’Arnise Guard named Hendron who would not leave her Aunt’s side & had barricaded them into her chamber for safety.  Nalia spoke w/him & then her old-fashioned, unconscionable, irksome Aunt. For Nalia’s sake, we were all restrained as we directed her out of the keep to the palisade for safety. Then we passed thru the room & Nalia opened a secret door that led down a short hall to another that she also opened.  Here a staircase led down to the cellars.  The first cellar room was devoid of monsters & we gathered some treasure before opening the next door.  That brought a Spectral Troll & two Trolls upon us but we dispatched them fairly easily.  After gathering more treasure, I opened another door to a room w/five Umber Hulks which were easy enough to kill once we got ‘em close but they did leave both Anomen & I confused after the battle & it took us a few moments to get our wits back.  We gathered up the treasure in that room & then Nalia pointed to the door that was sure to contain her father…& his captors.  I opened it & led us in in a ‘V’ formation w/me on point. Torgal, the leader of the Trolls, & Two Giant Trolls came on quickly. I split the group sending Auren & Yoshimo versus one Giant Troll, Minsc & Anomen versus the second & Nalia & I versus Torgal. This was an very long, exhausting battle & it was all any of us could do to continue lifting our arms to strike w/our weapons or raise our shields. We eventually killed one of the Giant Trolls & Nalia finished him w/a Melf’s Magic Meteor.  Somewhere in there, Yoshimo took one more blow than he could handle & fell. The second Giant Troll eventually fell & Nalia dispatched him too. Then everyone focused on Torgal who I’d injured w/Nalia’s help.  Once the other’s joined my efforts, Torgal was not long for Toril.  Once again, Nalia finished him with another M² Meteor. Sadly, it was immediately apparent that Nalia’s father had not survived. 

FINAL BATTLE FOR DE'ARNISE KEEP

Key Event: When it was over, Nalia wanted to leave immediately. As we entered the courtyard, Nalia stopped me, suddenly realizing the significance of her father’s death. She told me she was betrothed to another noble Isaea Roenall, a man she detests, from a despicable family that would gain control of De’Arnise Keep if the betrothal was seen thru.  She offered me an arrangement where, as her father’s heir, she would name me Lord of De’Arnise Keep...& so, accepting, I have gone from being the step-son of a minor nobleman in a Library/Keep, to being knighted Sir Gawain by a King from a land not known to me, Camelot, & now I am addressed as Lord Gawain, & I have a Keep of my own.  I am not ‘married’ to Nalia (in fact my relationship w/Auren is intriguing) but I am forever united, allied & joined with Nalia…but, even more, I am beholden, indebted & grateful to her for trusting me w/this enormous responsibility.  Some are never going to accept me as a nobleman b/c my blood to them is not noble… but, then again, if they realized my true bloodline, I wonder what they’d think.    

LORD GAWAIN

Treasure of Note: (Purse = 24,789 gold) Armor/Weapons: Helm of Balduran; Short Sword +1 (sold); Mace +1 (Minsc); Plate Mail +1 (Anomen); Gems: Quarter Staff +1 (sold); Arrows +2 (Nalia); Bracers of Archery (Nalia); Darts of Wounding (Yoshimo); Bolts +1 x20, Biting x40, Bolts x20 (Unidentified = U/I); Bolts x20 (U/I) (sold); Bullets +2 (40); Enchanted Spear (U/I); Longbow +1 (sold); Light Crossbow +1 (sold); Flail of Ages - Acid (Gawain);  Jewelry/Gold: Bloodstone Amulet; 2,126gp; 810gp; Potions: Potions of Extra Healing x5 (General Purpose User = GPU); Scrolls: Lower Resistance;  Wands:

 

Current Disposition:   Back in the Five Flagon’s Inn in the Athkatla Bridge District. 

 

Next Steps:   As we departed the Keep, Anomen was informed by a runner that his sister had been murdered in Athkatla & that he was being summoned home by his father. We were returning anyway, but this news made our trip urgent & we went straight to Anomen’s w/o rest upon returning. Much has happened since we returned. I’ll pen that in my next entry but for now, I need to sleep. 

 

Level Up: 

·         Helm blessed Anomen by advancing him to a High Priest (Cleric/9) of the Watchers of Helm & granted him three new divine spells.  Anomen chose Magic Stone, Hold Person & Raise Dead.

·         Nalia, already a Master Thief, continued to improve her skills (Thief/11) & has focused her efforts on improving her Hide in Shadows/Move Silently skills, now 78/77% respectively. Together w/her skills in Finding/Removing Traps & Opening Locks (100% each), she is an unbelievable asset to my retinue, especially since she made me Lord of De’Arnise Keep. 

 

Current Party: (Reputation: 13 Average:)

·         Gawain: Ftr/9, (HP105); Plate Mail w/Large Shield, Helm of Balduran, Ring of Protection +1 & Girdle of Bluntness; Bastard Sword*****, Flail of the Ages Acid; (Mephit Portal)

·         Auren Aseph: Ftr (Apprentice//9), (HP68  )Studded Leather +1 w/Long Sword +1***** (SWS**); (Cohrvale)(SCS Ease of Use, Setting 1)

·         Anomen: Ftr/Watcher of Helm//8/9, (HP53); Plate Mail +1 w/Delryn Family Shield & Mace +1***,(Warhammer*, SSS**); (Greater Yuan-Ti)(Cleric Aggressive)

·         Minsc: Fighter (Barbarian/9), HP76; Mail of the Dead +2 w/Two-Handed Sword of Chaos +2***, Mace +1**, THWS**)(Urlaryl)(SCS Ease of Use, Setting 1)

·         Yoshimo: Thief (Ninja/11), HP64; Studded Leather +1 w/Katana +1***, Darts +1*; (Assassin)(Thief Aggressive)

·         Nalia:  Mage/Thief//9/11, (HP56); Studded Leather +1 w/Short Bow +1* & Arban’s Sword +2* (Dgr*, Crossbow*); (Torgal)(Thief Adventurer)

 

Mods Used: BG2 FixPack _v10; Amber_v4; Auren Aseph_v9; Sarah_v4; Haldimir_v2; : Tyris Flare_v6; Gavin_v20 & Hotfix;  scs-v30 (- Tactical Challenges); MegaModKits v1.01L (Anti-Paladin, Charming Rogue, Priest of Sylvanus, Bladesinger, Amazon, Apprentice, Ninja, Samurai); Divine Remix_v8 (Nightcloak of Shar, Holy Strategist of the Red Knight, Batleguard of Tempus, Strifeleader of Cyric, Bowslinger, Forest Runner, Wilderness Runner) ; Rogue Rebalancing; bg2_tweaks-v16; Item Randomizer-v6.8; level1npcs-v1.9

 

Blue Font: New information;

Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)

(Best kill)(Current AI)

* Name Levels are ancient, AD&D titles that used to represent each new level in a class

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

Eren died in the most disgusting way ever...I seriously cant believe it!!!

 

...Im so absolutely disgusted by that failure I ragequitted and have to do some gymning now..

Work out hard & no slacking between sets!  You deserve it, knucklehead.  

[Charlestonian Knight Templar]

...SCS Vampires are horrible. One of their special abilities is a CON draining attack. ...

Yikes.  I busted Golden too quickly.  I installed the Improved Vampires from SCS.  Just looked @ the Read Me & it looks like their stats are improved & they can summon rats, bats, etc.  Haven't fought one of them yet...

[Blackraven]

@Golden, thanks! I'll do my best keeping Scintilla alive. Ain't easy though haha.
@CT, careful then with the Vampires. Note that there are different types of Vampires. Only the Elder and the Ancient Vampires drain CON. Very difficult for a warrior to protect oneself against (other than having outstanding AC). Casters (Stoneskins, Ironskins) and maybe backstabbers have it a bit easier.
Congrats on beating TorGal btw! Was it the SCS variant? Did Sir Gawain never panic? I had my Undead Hunter Vallon panic due to TorGal's Aura of Fear. He was cornered and slain.

Scintilla, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist (fourth BG2 update)

Scintilla made some more progress, though I must I'm not really happy with how I've been playing her. Defensively she's a crack with all her spell buffs. But offensively much less so. Maybe I'm too used to playing fighters and rogues, and thus to slicing up the opposition, but with Scintilla I haven't really succeeded at that yet. Perhaps I should try to go the Polymorphing/Shapechanging route (complemented with triggered Cleric buffs), a route I've never really explored before.
In her most recent violent encounters she's either buffed herself to the max to prevail in prolonged battles, or (more commonly, because it's less of a hassle than casting 10+ buffs) relied on her summons, especially the Aerial Servants, often observing the spectacles in the safety of her Sanctuaries. 

The following is more of a review with a focus on tactics than a typical update readers may be used to of me. Maybe some of you folks have some recommendations.

Scintilla found her Aerial Servants and Kitthix very effective against Vampires, so she tends to leave those enemies to her summons.

Spoiler

By way of experiment she decided in the sewers (where she was on a mission for the temple of Helm), to test her own combat (buffed) skills against a generic Rakshasa, a potentially dangerous but for my warriors/rogues normally manageable type of opponent. Her various buffs made Scintilla nigh unkillable: Stoneskin, both Fireshields, Deathward, Free Action after Haste, Strength of One to augment her lousy 12 natural STR and that of two summoned Skellies, Spell Shield. (I know some of these buffs weren't necessary, but I was and still am testing to find a universal buff list, that should work in most battles.) Either way, Scintilla wasted most of her offensive spells to make the Rakshasa's annoying Kobolds shut up, and ended up killing the Rakshasa in melee (with Holy Power + DUHM).

Spoiler

Scintilla misses APR though. I guess she could go after the Crom Faeyr and dualwield it with another blunt weapon and with one pip in TWF, for four APR with IH, more as a way to speed up a battle after most relevant spells have been cast, than as a permanent strategy. The more competent caster players might not care for this tactic, but I'm afraid I do.

I believe Tenser's does not increase APR does it? Guess I'll have to test that as well. Scintilla recently found the scroll.

"Roleplaying" forced Scintilla to not rest in the sewers after the Rakshasa battle and had her seek out Gaal right away, invisibly. Low on spells, and level drained by a trap, all she could do to prevail over Vampiric Mists who saw right through her invisibility, Hell Hounds, and Shadows that came after her, was to rely again on HP + DUHM and when those buffs expired Cloak of the Sewers Troll form.

Spoiler

She rested in the quietude of the Unseeing Eye temple before she embarked on her exploration of the lower tunnels. It led to Scintilla's first confrontation with Yuan-Ti. Two Aerial Servants showed her once more how badass they were:

Spoiler

She buffed heavily to prevent a Prismatic Spray trap from ending her tale, and rested again. I still didn't like having Scintilla rest so often, but I reminded myself of Scintillas need to survive. Besides, I wanted to test the Aerials against a bunch of Beholders and Gauths. 

Scintilla approached the latter foes from the back (after having snuck past them invisibly to retrieve part of a control rod from Amaunator's avatar). Her hopes of seeing her Aerials destroy the Beholders fumbled when the summons with their natural invisibility wouldn't let themselves be buffed by her.

Spoiler

In two instances (with another rest inbetween, for experiment's sake), they nevertheless injured several of the eye tyrants, allowing Kitthix (made II by Scintilla) to finish them off.

Spoiler

Scintilla even flirted with death when she approached invisibly but otherwise unbuffed, to dispatch a last Beholder that was at near death status, with a Holy Smite.

Spoiler

I wonder why I can't help taking such risks, consciously. Holy Smite is a very nice spell by the way. Scintilla's been using it a lot. (I also appreciate that it works like a Detect Evil spell, but with teeth...)

 

After two trap-imposed level drains, Scintilla decided to to side with the Shadow Thieves because they promised her an Amulet of Power to protect her against level drains and to further accelrate her spell casting if she joined them. She did two jobs for them, protecting Mook, at which she failed (a Vampire slew her, though Scintilla had her Aerials deal with the Vampire), and slaying two Shadow Thieves and a Guild Contact who had allied themselves with the Shadow Thieves' rivals.
 

She also dealt with several Vampires that roamed abour at night, and with a band of Fallen Paladins,

Spoiler

before she traveled to the Umar Hills, and back with Valygar who opened the Planar Sphere for her.

In the Planar Sphere Blackraven mistook Scintilla's brand new NPP symbol (thanks to Amulet of Power) for a Stoneskin symbol. A Clay Golem made her pay for that.

Spoiler

An Aerial Servant punished the Clay Golem for its insolence.

Spoiler

Wild Halflings were the next challenge. Scintilla's Aerials had little difficulty with a number of warriors, but the wizards weren't as tolerant.

Spoiler

She had to personally deal with a wizard named Kayardi, and a priest, Togan. The latter was easily dispatched thanks largely to Scintilla's Fire Shields and MMs. Kayardi lasted too long for Scintilla's taste, in that the Gnome's buffs gradually wore off. It taught her she'll have to reserve part of her spell slots to dispelling spells (Breach and the like). She had to bear a Cone of Cold (33 dmg) and an ADHW (22 dmg), while most of the damage she managed to deal came from her beloved Holy Smites. Eventually it came down again to fistycuffs, for which Scintilla resumed Troll form as per the cloak, to eliminate her many times Stoneskinned foe.

Spoiler

A similar procedure was applied to a second pack of Wild Halflings: warriors for the Aerials, casters Necre and Mogadish for Scintilla. Necre took Scintilla by surprise with a Secret Word, that dispelled her Spell Shield but an SI:Abj prevented further harm.

Spoiler

Scintilla still hadn't enough dispellers so the battle took quite a long time again, before she prevailed in melee combat.

Spoiler

(It was thus with Taibela as well. I won't bore you with the details.)

 

Aerials showed her they were better fighters than Fire Elementals and Stone/Juggernaut Golems, but, unbuffable as they were, they didn't do as well against an Elder Orb that would give Scintilla a scare went it attempted to flee in her direction.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Mean old Kitthix slew the creature with her poison though.   

 

Scintilla's next major challenge was Lavok. The Gnome was the inferior spell caster of the two. After all Lavok had HLAs and SCS insta-buffs, she didn't (though she could of course pre-buff). She summoned two Skeletons, and had one attack him. It triggered his buffs and an ADHW that killed the Skeleton (which is funny if you take into account what that spell does: "causes evaporation of water from body of every creature in the area of spell"). The second Skeleton was treated to a Comet.

Spoiler

Such unintelligent targeting by Lavok surprised me. Much smarter was his casting of Improved Alacrity.

Scintilla's Vhailor's Simulacrum soaked a various spells, including two ADHWs before it succumbed.

Spoiler

Two Aerials soaked up more spells (mainly damage spells such as MMs and Chromatic Orbs), some of which cast during a Time Stop. All this time Scintilla observed things from afar, although she did Slow him at one point. A few hits from the Aerials caused Lavok to surrender.

Spoiler

There was no such sportsmanlike treatment of Tolgerias. Scintilla had her Aerials and Kitthix attack him while he was still blue-circled. The summons killed the wizard outright.

Spoiler

Scintilla deal with Tolgerias' assistant personally.

Spoiler

The Aerials were also instrumental in the slaying of creatures of ice and fire (that didn't wait for Scintilla to open the doors to their respective rooms) and of an astounding amount of Stone/Clay/Juggernaut Golems in an engine room.

Spoiler

Scintilla did her part against the latter foes as well.

Spoiler

Scintilla's final task was retrieving a demon's heart on a lower plane. This was only achieved in three steps (two rests), mainly due to the fact that a Nabassu and Lea'Liyl had to be dealt with at the same time and because Scintilla's Aerials tended to focus on other foes (such as Maureazhis or Imps). However when the Aerials bested the Lea'Liyl,[spoiler]

things became easier for Scintilla and co.They even ended up eliminating the Nabassu and a Glabrezu as well.[spoiler]

Scintilla is currently a lvl 14/13 Cleric/Illusionist. She should probably be very powerful, but doesn't feel that way in my inexpert hands. She's circa 150k XP shy of Mage lvl 14 and her first HLA, a Deva most likely, considering my present playstyle.

[Alesia_BH]

Condolences on the loss on Eren Golden. But I'd encourage you to take deaths in stride. They happen. And it can take a lot of failures before a player gets a successful trilogy run- especially with SCS installed.

 

If you check the Hall of Heroes, you'll note that there are only five full SCS trilogy successes (three of mine, Serg's and Weirdo's). The challenge has been active for about 10 years.

 

Do take a break if you need it. But don't give up: we're all rooting for you. We hope to see an Eren in the Hall.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Ok. I've run into a little problem. I purchased the GoG OS X version of BGII and successfuly installed SCS v30 on it, but I can't take screenshots when it's running (command + shift + 3 does nothing). Does anyone use the GoG version on OS X? Do you know a way to take screenshots with it running?

 

If no one can come up with a solution, I may have to revert to my old install update resistant install.

 

Best,

 

A.

 

EDIT: The best work around I've found so far is to run in windowed mode, which with the desktop cleared and set to black looks like this.

 

I can't move or resize the window. It's pretty awful- especially since my screen is small to begin with (11"). Does anyone have a better solution?

 

EDIT 2: I can switch back and forth between windowed and full screen mode but that makes taking a screenshot an immersion breaking ordeal. It's better than playing in windowed mode but it's still a bummer. I hope someone has a better solution!

[Alesia_BH]

Btw. Nice work with Scintilla, Blackraven!

[corey_russell]

@Alesia_BH: in vanilla BG, when you press the (Print Screen) key, BG makes a picture of the current game screen into a ..\Scrnshots folder (sub directory of the main game directory) - does your BG not do this? You can then upload pictures from there if you wish.

[Serg BlackStrider]

@Alesia: I'm not familiar with OS X (or any other Mac OS) but personally I always play in window mode (1024*768). I think if you'll try to run your game on higher resolution it wouldn't look that bad:

 

The best work around I've found so far is to run in windowed mode, which with the desktop cleared and set to black looks like this.

 

[Grond0]

Quad multiplayer attempt 2 - (update 6)

Grond0, Dogdancing, corey_russell, Gate70

 

Today's session got off to a slightly dodgy start when Corey kindly joined the game on Dogdancing's behalf just before she arrived.  As the rest of us were not aware that Wewa was not being controlled it was perhaps no great surprise when travelling to Windspear Hills produced the following result!

Spoiler

 

After a visit to the temple the group returned to talk to Garren Windspear and then make their way into the dungeon.  The golems there got a few tasty blows in, but were eventually dealt with before Avenger used a PfU scroll to sort out a large group of vampires and a few other undead.  

Spoiler

Progress was then pretty serene to find Tazok - who lasted only a few seconds.  

Spoiler

Traps were left behind for Conster, although the delay due to resting to do that meant that Static lost his guild.  

Spoiler

Conster was in the process of dying from continuing poison trap damage when Avenger put him out of his misery.  

Spoiler

Firkraag was also affected by a full complement of traps, but he was unwilling to go quietly.  A fiery breath severely injured Carthus despite his mirrors, before the dragon turned on Wewa and took her down with a couple of chomps.  

Spoiler

Before he could try anything further though he collapsed.

Spoiler

 

Back in Athkatla Wewa was raised and the dragon armour forged.  The fire resistance from that made it easy for Avenger to make himself fire-proof for the genies.  The final fight with Samia wasn't an outstanding success.  Wewa was held during that, Carthus affected by chaos and Static by fear.  Avenger found that Carsomyr had not yet been identified, so couldn't cast dispel on others and decided not to use the less gentle form of Carsomyr dispel on them.  Instead he hacked away at the opposition and finished them off as the rest of the party started reporting back for action.

Spoiler

 

Thinking perhaps it would be handy to have a Rod of Resurrection available in future the party's next destination was the Temple Sewers.  On the way to find Mekrath they came across Tarnor's group - still hostile from a brief glimpse of us previously.  A bit of stealthing got rid of Gaius' true sights and an invisible assault quickly finished the job.  

Spoiler

Mekrath himself died without a whimper when a blow from Carsomyr dispelled his stoneskins just as a backstab was about to land.  

Spoiler

His umber hulk guards put up a better show when Avenger went to take them all on at once.  That could have ended badly, but Carthus quickly moved up in support and stunned a couple of them to ease the pressure on Avenger and allow him to survive with the help of a couple of potions.

Spoiler

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Grond0 - Static, fighter 10 / thief 13, 88 HPs, 602 kills

Dogdancing - Wewa, monk 13, 63 HPs, 129 kills, 10 deaths

Gate70 - Carthus, monk 13, 73 HPs (incl. 6 from ioun stone), 364 kills, 6 deaths

corey_russell - Avenger, undead hunter 9, 105 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 114 kills, 0 deaths

                  - Corthief, fighter 9 / thief 12, 87 HPs, 307 kills, 5 deaths (chunked)

[Grond0]

@Alesia_BH: in vanilla BG, when you press the (Print Screen) key, BG makes a picture of the current game screen into a ..\Scrnshots folder (sub directory of the main game directory) - does your BG not do this? You can then upload pictures from there if you wish.

In addition to the copy in the BG folder using the PrtScr key should also copy the picture into local memory - you can then paste it into Paint or an equivalent programme.  There are slight differences between that and the picture the BG programme takes automatically - in particular the former does not record overlay information, such as the HP indication you get when hovering the mouse over an icon - so you might on occasion want to paste your own copy rather than use the automatic one.

[Aasim]

@ CKT

 

You wrote that your PC now uses Flail (Acid). Does this mean you haven't forged the flail completely?

[Alesia_BH]

@Alesia_BH: in vanilla BG, when you press the (Print Screen) key, BG makes a picture of the current game screen into a ..\Scrnshots folder (sub directory

of the main game directory) - does your BG not do this? You can then upload pictures from there if you wish.

 

None of my copies of BG do that.

 

Macs don't have Print Screen keys. Instead, Command + Shift + 3 invokes the utility Grab. That works with every install I've tried, except the GoG version. BG does not interact with the OS X screenshot command.

 

@Alesia: I'm not familiar with OS X (or any other Mac OS) but personally I always play in window mode (1024*768). I think if you'll try to run your game on higher resolution it wouldn't look that bad:

 

I tried that. But with the GoG version and on my computer, windowed mode will only work at 640*480. At higher resolutions part of the window is off screen, making the game unplayable.

 

Does anyone else have an idea?

 

Best,

 

A.

 

Btw. Thanks for the suggestions Corey, Serg, and Grond0!

[corey_russell]

@Alesia_BH:

 

You may find this link interesting - it talks about using a 3rd party program for screenshots on a Mac for BG, maybe that would work for you as well.

[Grond0]

There are a few more advanced methods potentially available with a Mac - I don't know if you've already tried those.  The following also links to an article on how to change keys for commands, which might provide further options if your conflict is associated with the use of specific keys.

http://www.macworld....ab-mac-3448249/

[Alesia_BH]

Thanks again everyone.

 

@Corey. The Oxford Guy's problem was slightly different. He was running the Windows version on a Mac via Bootcamp (Windows 7). Since Macs don't have Print Screen keys, and Windows screen captures via the Print Screen key, he needed a Windows utility, which would allow him to use a different key. In contrast, I'm using the GoG version of BG for OS X, which relies on a Wineskin. The problem is that global OS X hoteys don't work in full screen mode. Interestingly, my other install (which is inexplicable SCS upgrade resistant) also uses a Wineskin but OS X global hotkeys do work in that one.

 

If there is an answer, it will probably have something to do with tweaking the Wine skin.

 

If I could simply move the high resolutions windows, that would probably be good enough.

 

@Grond0. I've tried third party screen capture utilities with different key combinations. None of them have worked.

 

I'm thinking I need advice from someone Wine savy. Is there anybody out there? Gate70, maybe?

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Thanks again everyone.

 

@Corey. The Oxford Guy's problem was slightly different. He was running the Windows version on a Mac via Bootcamp (Windows 7). Since Macs don't have Print Screen keys, and Windows screen captures via the Print Screen key, he needed a Windows utility, which would allow him to use a different key. In contrast, I'm using the GoG version of BG for OS X, which relies on a Wineskin. The problem is that global OS X hoteys don't work in full screen mode. Interestingly, my other install (which is inexplicable SCS upgrade resistant) also uses a Wineskin but OS X global hotkeys do work in that one.

 

If there is an answer, it will probably have something to do with tweaking the Wine skin.

 

If I could simply move the high resolutions windows, that would probably be good enough.

 

@Grond0. I've tried third party Screen Capture utilities with different key combinations. None of them have worked.

 

I'm thinking I need advice from someone Wine savy. Is there anybody out there? Gate70, maybe?

 

Best,

 

A.

 

Probably not relevant, but Jesus said "Don't put new wine into old wineskins."

[Alesia_BH]

Ok. I found a semi-acceptable solution: setting the screen resolution to 1024 x 640 and running the game in windowed mode at 800 x 600, with the desktop set to black and the Dock and Menu Bars hidden.

 

It's still pretty annoying, but it will do. If someone Wine savy has a better solution, please PM me.

 

I'll post on Aria's early adventures in Athkatla soon.

 

Best,

 

A.