15228 replies to this topic

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Aria's Game:
 

Good news and bad news. The good news is that I finally managed to upgrade the SCS version on my old version of BGII. That means I can set aside the GoG version, which had become the bane of my BG existance. I can now play in glorious full screen mode again. I'm happy about that. The bad news is that I spilled General Tso's tofu sauce all over my MacBook Air keyboard. I now have a sticky computer that smells like sugar and garlic. I'm going to have to take out all the keys and cry before I'll be able to play again.

 

Aria's adventures will resume once the cleaning is done. In the meantime, continued good hunting everyone!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Looking good Blackraven!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

Ouch Alesia, good luck with the cleaning. At least there's no internal damage, I understand.
And thanks, yes Scintilla is going strong at the moment (not surprisingly, considering her levels. She's one Mage level-up away from getting lvl 9 spells, and thus IA.). 

[Serg BlackStrider]

The bad news is that I spilled General Tso's tofu sauce all over my MacBook Air keyboard. I now have a sticky computer that smells like sugar and garlic. I'm going to have to take out all the keys and cry before I'll be able to play again.

 

Yet another confirmation of the rule to never eat or drink near the computer... At least Aria is safe vs any kind of Vamps from now on! (an option for Golden28 maybe - instead of uninstalling improved vampires just spill some garlic sauce onto your keyboard... ) Hope the cleaning will go smoothly so looking forward to see Aria back in action soon.

 

@Blackraven: solid progress there, keep it up! Look for friendly (if somewhat Impish) Face in Ust Natha tavern   (the local stocks are already empty though...  ) 

[Alesia_BH]

Ouch Alesia, good luck with the cleaning. At least there's no internal damage, I understand.

 

The machine seems fine, aside from the sticky/funky, and any psychic wounds I've suffered will soon heal. So yes: no internal damage.

 

And thanks, yes Scintilla is going strong at the moment (not surprisingly, considering her levels. She's one Mage level-up away from getting lvl 9 spells, and thus IA.). 

 

Nice. IA is a huge power boost for a C/I, but it's an even huger convenience boost. Hooray for speedy buffing!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Yet another confirmation of the rule to never eat or drink near the computer...

 

The only problem with that is that I'd starve to death during one of my BG binges. When I'm in BG mode, I'm virtually attached to my computer.

 

I need, like, Gauntlets of Dexterity so I won't fumble my chinese takeout boxes.

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

Isn't that one of the tips in BG 2 you sometimes see? "While your characters don't need food, YOU do - don't forget to eat. We don't want to lose any players. " Something like that, anyways. 

[Golden28]

I cringed when I read about your little accident Alesia.., good luck with cleaning!

 

Cheers!

[corey_russell]

Ruzzel Update - Watcher's Keep (level 1), Guarded Compound

 

Stealer is running out of inventory slots with all her ammo - so we decided to finally pay a visit to level 1 of Watcher's Keep. As long as we were careful to put Tank in front, we didn't have too much trouble. Interesting enough, the room that was potentially the most dangerous was the room with the stinking cloud mephit and the green slimes - everyone failed their save vs. the stinking cloud except Tank and Ruzzel - suprisingly, they got the job done just by themselves.

 

For the Guardian Golems, I put the the party in a small room, then had tank use a haste potion and pull the golems to the small room - the golems couldn't get in. We, on the other hand, were able to use the Crimson Dart to eventually kill them safely. We didn't do the statues (nothing we need from them). The rest of the level was simple enough.

 

We then wanted to work on getting the Mace of Disruption (Improved). But before that, we got some green scrolls from Ribald and also Shield of Balduran and Robe of Vecna for Ruzzel. But then we had less than 1000 gold to our name, but we need a bit more than that for Sir Sarles quest - oops!

 

Originally we were going to talk to Mekrath, but Ruzzel thought there was lots of gold to be had in the guarded compound. So we used MMM's on the summons - we took some damage and got poisoned, but we had potions to deal with both issues.

 

We buffed to the max, the moved upstairs invisible. First step was Stealer got rid of the traps. Then Tank moved into position (middle of the enemies). Then the entire party threw their area effects, things like fireball, cloudkill, stinking cloud, slow, chaos, greater malison, and skull traps. The opening salvoes were working well, with the enemy only able to hurt Tank.

Spoiler

Eventually Tank was hurt pretty bad so he ran away to heal - the enemy melees starting attacking each other, while the our mages used ranged attacks.

Spoiler

 

Ketta was the last to survive (we don't have True Sight yet) - she couldn't do anything thanks to our buffs and 5 sets of 5 magic missile orbs in a single round was too much for Ketta - success!

Spoiler

 

Stealer did a good job with the traps and locks, and Ruzzel did most of the identifying work with his good lore.

 

After selling everything, back to 25,000 gold. Plenty for the Sir Sarles quest, which we will do next session.

[Alesia_BH]

Nice work at the Guarded Compound, Corey!

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

Nice work at the Guarded Compound, Corey!

 

Best,

 

A.

Thanks, Alesia! The vanilla guarded compound party is clearly not well able to deal 5 mages - our pressure was overwhelming. I'm sure things would be different with SCS.

[corey_russell]

Corey_Russell/Dogdancing Multi-Player No-Reload

 

Tcos and Zaxxon defeated Sarevok ages ago (see this link for their victory over Sarevok) - they have finally made it to Irenicus' dungeon.

 

Tcos (Protagonist)

 

Zaxxon (Companion)

Spoiler

 

The beginning was almost the end, as Tcos absent-mindedly tried to loot and was poisoned! We no potions yet and only Tcos could cure poison, but she had little chance of curing herself, the poison is ticking too fast! Fortunately Corey_Russell remembered that if you rest, the poison doesn't kill you - so we did that and yes she's ok, whew.

 

Tcos was a bit more careful in the rest of the dungeon, not looting unless Zaxxon gave the all clear, though being the thief it was Tcos who had to unlock chests and de-trap areas. Most fights, the duo just dual-wielded, wore splint mail and put the beat down on the enemies. This was fairly effective, just taking damage now and then.

 

We skipped the mephits in the Air Plane, as we had no stun defense - but with invisibility we were still able to do the genie quest to get the Sword of Chaos.

 

For the Cambion, Tcos laid down two snares. Zaxxon did some buffs, but Tcos just slaughtered the Cambion quckly, getting two quick hits of 15 damage each then a critical of 36. Zaxxon couldn't even get a single hit before the Cambion was dead. Granted, Tcos has a magical weapon, and Zaxxon doesn't have one just yet.

 

Because Dogdancing's computer doesn't have Shadowkeeper, looting was much more a challenge than usual with no bag of holding like usual. So we will recruit Yoshimo when we get to the next level to be our pack mule. We ended our session, just about to touch the portal to go to the next level of the dungeon.

[Golden28]

Eren the survivor Episode 3

 

We go for the planar prison, I want those haste boots! I do remember from the last time the cambion is an absolute monster. Hes a fighter/mage with A LOT of HLA's. Must be around level 30 or so. I take a party of five.

 

As soon as we slay the first group easily, I immidiately keep my eyes open for incoming thralls with yuan ti (mages). And as expected the whole bunch comes towards us because SCS 'better cries for help'.. Last time this caught me unprepared and we died horribly. This time I build a wall of skeletons and cloudkills, the only way to slay the mages. Keldorn dispells their haste.

 

We get them. We kill the rest with the leftover summons and plenty of potions of invulnerability and heroism. The Demon is easily slain, he didnt even got a single hit in even though he teleported without error towards Jan. The gnome was stoneskinned and mirrorimaged though, so yeah..

Then we challenge the cambion. We wait for the thralls to do a little damage to the yuanti mages with sunfires, and then invisible Jan goes to investigate. Of course the cambion can see through invisibility and SPEEDS towards us with double haste. 

Sometimes it even looks like hes going four times as fast as he also activates his whirlwind attacks. We retreat back, back, back and back again, all the while using the cloudkill wand for the yuantis. Cambion slays 110 hp anomen in 3 hits. 

 

This is the situation: Raged Korgan (thus immune to much threats) fights of the 3 yuanti mages with his throwing axe while they are being gassed to death. Jan tanks cambion while we revive and heal Anomen with a rod. 

 

Being fully healed and a party of five were able to juggle him around enough to make him run out of protections, all the way back to the beginning of the dungeon, the leftbottem corner. Whenever he targets Eren, Eren immidiately quaffs an invisibility potion. The cheeky bastard simply changes his target mid-casting, but at least Eren is safe from getting targetted by spells. He does manage a few secret words and breaches though. 

But its not enough, and we pummel him with heavily buffed and skilled fighters until he dies. We get 10000 xp from him which is laughable as hes as big a threat as a freaking dragon if you ask me. 

 

Then a bug happens, or happened. Somehow the area around the prison with the bards has flesh to stone traps?? Anyone knows anything about this? Anyway, both a thrall AND haer dalis get tagged by them and turn to stone :S

The game acts like Haer dalis is going with the bards, but really hes just gone.. Here you see only the three bards warp away, no haer dalis anywhere. Would have liked the option of recruiting him at least.

 

After having done most quest I wrap things up with doing the vamps. Keldorn has a day with his wife and I decide four should be enough. Most vamps fall quickly enough.

 

I allow Durst to dominate Eren , Who hits Korgan like a truck. Korgan uses an invis potion quickly and crawls out of there heavily wounded, level drained and slowed by FOA.

 

Eren comes to his senses and we do the sanctum. Anomen whos level 14 just walks in sancuaried and destroyes all the undead with turn undead.

Then I was like.. wheres Tanova? 

She was waiting for us INVISIBLE and just pops up out of nowhere heavily buffed and speeding like a freighttrain on crack. Jan casts an invis radius 10.

 

The AI is very good, she casts remove magic on herself to foil our invisibility while following us .

 

Yes thats over 110 damage with flame arrow sequencers, happy that didnt hit Eren, jeeze..

 

We summon a demon but it refuses to fight Tanova and goes invisible, no idea why. We decide to bail and wait for Keldorn to finish boning his wife. 

We recruit him and when we return he dispells her twice and we chop her up.

 

Blood room is easy with mirrorimage and stoneskin and skeletons.  

 

Bodhi is just a formality with Korgan and Erens dualwielding power.

 

Wrapping up, we get the pebblecrusher with backstabs and cloudkills and plain toe to toe after a hilarious dialogue between Korgan and Mencar.

 

 

Also dennis, and we stock up on potions and gear. 

 

The ambush parties are getting rediculous. These 'bandits' are all level 13,14 or more fighters Im guessing and the mage kills Jan with heavy fire.

 

Thats it for now. Things feel fine, not overpowered, not too hard. Im considering a bit of watchers keep but im in doubt because I dont really know the place and i know its dangerous as hell.. I wont do twisted rune (frankly I got lucky last time - even when dying, heh) or the temple slaver party yet. Maybe Ill just do windspear hills without killing the dragon, and then head for the asylum.

 

You guys think I should use a small party from now on or stay with five?

 

Cheers!

[Alesia_BH]

Congrats on defeating the Warden, Golden!

 

As for party size and composition, that's a personal decision. The right choice depends on your playing style and preferences. There are no universal best answers. Go with what feels right to you. Don't conform to someone else's ideal

 

Best,

 

A.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Quick update of Impish Face & Co

 

This is mainly to inform that we just passed through the most nervous encounter in the Underdark for me at he moment, a kind of *Ducal Palace lite* fight - a Phaere's rescue mission vs polytweak-ed Mind Flayers and Umber Hulks. Failure here and subsequently shut Ust Natha with quite a number of randomized items would be just unbearable...

 

To minimize those possible item losses we first of all checked local stores for randomized shiny ones. The potion merchant had Kaligun’s Amulet of Magic Resistance +10% and Belt of Inertial Barrier while weapons shop - Rod of Smiting, Reflection Shield +1 and Cutthroat +4. Our gems purse resources allowed us to buy them all, we talked with Solaufein and were enlisted on a aforementioned mission.

 

In order to spare resources we went to the meeting point invisible and spotted some hostile looking party along the way. Aerial Servant was sent ahead to tank while Mazzy and Impish Face performed the slaughter. To foil N'ashtar's possible Maze Mazzy was buffed with Chaotic Commands but he Breach-ed it so annoyed Mazzy just hit him with dispelling arrow (his pre-buffed ProMW expired at the moment) and finished with acid ones.

 

  

 

  

 

The loot from them was Cloak of Protection +2 and Skullcrusher +3.

 

For the key battle of the day we buffed over the top, most importantly Chaotic Commands on warriors, Haste, Pro Evil 10', Blur, MI, and Mass Invisibility. Polytweak-ed Umber Hulks are no longer vulnerable to Death Spell (HD 8+8) so to prevent their confusing gazing rock-n-roll they were prime targets for Aerial Servant, Impish Face and Mazzy while stoneskinned Nalia and Imoen distracted Mind Flayers. Even though Phaere was confused we managed to slaughter all three Hulks withing one round. Flayers failed to Stun or Maze our girls (Nalia saved vs double Psionic Blast while Imoen vs Psionic Blast and double Maze!) and fell soon after (a deep sigh of relief!). 

 

  

 

  

 

Now it is time to investigate the Ust Natha a bit more thorough in more relaxing pace. 

 

to be continued...

[Alesia_BH]

Congrats on rescuing Phaere, Serg!

 

What key randomized items has Impish Face not found yet?

 

Best,

 

A.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congrats on rescuing Phaere, Serg!

 

What key randomized items has Impish Face not found yet?

 

Best,

 

A.

Thanks, Alesia! I don't like to have any area unexplored in my runs as you might be well aware already. So to be forced to skip the whole Ust Natha would be very unpleasant. As for the items not yet found - I lead a list of found items in some google sheets over there just to know that I'm not missed some. As you can see, there is a whole lot of very important ones not found yet (green marked those I already have).

[Alesia_BH]

Got it. Thanks!

 

Best,

 

A.

 

 

FYI: I like the idea of the Randomiser, but as a solo, non-completionist I fear it would seriously complicate gameplay. I feel I should use it. I'm just too chicken to do it.

[Blackraven]

Looking good, Golden. Like Alesia, I have no advice as to party size or composition. In SoA solo or duo is probably beneficial for access to HLAs; in the course of ToB a party is definitely stronger I'd say.

Serg, Scintilla missed Impish Face, unfortunately. She never made it to that tavern...

 

Scintilla, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, ninth BG2 update

I usually mess up in the Underdark (mostly with my solo characters not being able to keep Phaere alive). This time was no exception.

Scintilla and summons banished a Balor with overwhelming physical force for a small Svirfneblin community,

Spoiler

left the Svirfneblin, and then ran into a band of Drow. Retreating toward the Svirnneblin village caused the Deep Gnomes to choose the side of the Drow.

Spoiler

Scintilla dispatched the war party with her summons, spoke with a Silver Dragon, Adalon, about disguising as a Drow and retrieving Adalon's eggs that had been stolen by Jon Irenicus, and rested in the dragon's lair. The next morning (or whatever time of day it was in that ever dark world), her summons helped her dispatch another Drow war party (her Drow appearance didn't help her there),

Spoiler

and a Kuo-Toa patrol,

Spoiler

In the Drow city of Ust Natha she found work for one of the Houses. Her first task was to free one of their members, Phaere, from a party of Illithid. Scintilla summoned two Skeleton Warriors, Kitty, an Aerial and a Deva, who were reasonably successful at dealing with the Devourers and their Umber Hulk pets, but clumsy Scintilla slew Phaere with a Holy Smite she thought would not reach the Drow. It caused another Drow with whom she had been working on the task, to go hostile, and the city of Ust Natha to become inaccessible.

Spoiler

There was little else to do for Scintilla than explore the surroundings a bit in search of an exit or ask Adalon for help. The exploration led the Gnome into a Beholder lair. By going invisibly from the northwest, where she had entered the lair, counterclockwise to the eastern part of the lair, where she would find a Greenstone Amulet, she avoided a Hive Mother that was said to dwell in the center of the lair.

Spoiler

Adalon was unwilling to lead Scintilla to the surface; battle proved inevitable.

 

The Gnome had rested just before her meeting with the dragon, and memorized four Project Images. On one side of an arc that was too narrow for the dragon to go through, she cast Project Image. The Project Image cast Wizard Eye and summoned a Deva, and Lower Resistance (3x) on the dragon. Vulnerable to magic, Adalon was then subjected to a Harm and, repeatedly (by subsequent Project Images that would cast their own Wizard Eyes, decoy Devas and Lower Resistances) to Death Fogs, Chain Lightnings and SotM Fire and Lightning until she fell.

Spoiler

She tried to flee the Underdark through Kuo-Toa tunnels in which her summons dispatched four Death Knights

Spoiler

and, after a rest, Kuo-Toas,

Spoiler

including a Kuo-Toa Prince.

Spoiler

The exit was guarded by another Drow war party, with two Stone Golems and two Glabrezus. Scintilla & co survived a Time Stop,

Spoiler

lured the Glabrezus (that teleported without error) away from the rest, and slew them with Energy Blades and FoA and Blackblood with divine buffs.

Spoiler

Scintilla found the Drow warriors scattered, looking for her. It allowed her to sneak past them with SotM-invisibility and leave the Underdark.

Spoiler

In a ruined Elven temple, she helped a number of Elves against more Drow (which made her level up as a Mage, and gain lvl 9 spells, i.e. IA).

 

She agreed to help the Elves against their common enemy, Irenicus and Bodhi, and returned to Athkatla to prepare a final assault on Bodhi, with the help of Drizzt and friends, Shadow Thieves, and Radiant Heart Paladins.

[Serg BlackStrider]

FYI: I like the idea of the Randomiser, but as a solo, non-completionist I fear it would seriously complicate gameplay. I feel I should use it. I'm just too chicken to do it.

Yeah, it might be more difficult for a non-completionist but at the same time it brings some fresh air into the gameplay and at the same time it will nerf a bit the *overpowerness* of solo player in a way. And I think with your game knowledge and skills it wouldn't be that difficult to bare. Try it someday, you'll not be disappointed. Fantastic mod!

 

 

 

 

Blackraven, on 24 Apr 2015 - 7:27 PM, said:

Adalon was unwilling to lead Scintilla to the surface; battle proved inevitable.

This is yet another reason I was afraid to fail the rescue mission - I don't want to fight Adalon (and never fought her). I just can't justify that...

If memory not fails me, from previous Alesia's run follows that you are not forced to fight her - just kill the Drow war party guarding the Underdark exit or flee through them. Not sure if it true for all possible setups though.

[Alesia_BH]

Yeah, it might be more difficult for a non-completionist but at the same time it brings some fresh air into the gameplay and at the same time it will nerf a bit the *overpowerness* of solo player in a way. And I think with your game knowledge and skills it wouldn't be that difficult to bare. Try it someday, you'll not be disappointed. Fantastic mod!

 

That makes sense. Overpowerness is definitely an issue for most solo characters in mid-late SoA and early ToB, less so in early SoA and late ToB. The Randomiser might reintroduce some challenge to SoA. The down side is that it would affect some classes more than others.

 

I feel the best way to address mid-game overpowerness is with Zyraen's Stage Based XP caps. The normal setting, for example, prevents the player from getting HLAs until ToB, and imposes sensible caps on each chapter. It's a pretty good solution- especially if you have the discipline to refrain from saving quests for Chapter 6.

 

In the past I've been unable to tweak my install for technical reasons, but now that I have the GoG install -and more importantly have solved the technical issue with my older one- I should be able to install it. I may try that in my next run. If I'm feeling suicidal, maybe I'll try the Randomiser too.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Nice work, Blackraven!

 

Rescuing Phaere can be tough for solo characters.

 

I found it interesting that you were able to avoid the Hive Mother altogether. What was your route, exactly: to the center, then down the tunnel that points southwest, past the mind flayers, and then counterclockwise around the ring? 

 

Best,

 

A.

[Serg BlackStrider]

@Alesia: Agree, Zyraen's Stage Based XP caps is valid option too. I didn't use it because I always play a full party and with all exp-hoarding (including *accumulated* from BG1) I think I have around 6.5 million XP for PC in Mel fight. ToB cap is a pipe dream for my characters...

 

In any case, do what you feel comfortable and enjoying. Do not turn the game into the hard work and have fun! 

[Blackraven]

@Serg, I wasn't aware that beating the Drow guards would have sufficed. Tbh Scintilla didn't want to fight Adalon, she's TN, doesn't enjoy bloodshed and had nothing against Adalon. However I was conviced Scintilla needed the scroll to open the gate  

@Alesia, if you look at the map here, you'd go 1 - 2 - 3 - 12 - 10 - 7, steering clearing from the center.

[corey_russell]

In my install, I have to either kill Adalon or do her quest to escape the Underdark. When I kill the drow guards the game tells me the door is warded and can't be picked - something like that anyways.