15228 replies to this topic

[Blackraven]

Alesia/Aasim:

Re: Plant Growth, it's good to know the entanglement is easily prevented, what I don't know, and failed to test in time, is whether it can be canceled through Remove Paralysis or Free Action or other spells.  
Re: the original Tactics fights, I'd have to try that in a separate install with reloads, but I do think I'd like to. It would be satisfying to discover how to solve the puzzle. (I find it hard not to play no-reload though.)

Serg, thank you! I hope Impish Face can soon teach Nizi not to mess with Gnomish Bhaalspawns

 

Golden: lovely stuff once more! I've seen it before in my playthroughs, both the Dark Planetar, and Kangaxx' hostile behavior (soul-trapping) against characters that aren't PfUndead. I doubt Everard's Sling would have worked against the Demi-Lich, because of its 90% physical resistances and regeneration (I believe he wears the ring, on an invisible finger or something). You'll want to cast Lower Resistance on him or (if you don't mind) clerical Magic Resistance, or melee him with various hasted or GWWed warriors.
I'm wishinh your trio good luck in Spellhold!

[Golden28]

Eren the Survivor Episode 7: FINAL

 

Allright guys. I did a little more playing and... Eren bit the dust. Rather disgustingly I must say, but hey thats this challenge.

 

Easy Brynnlaw. Die Perth, you OP son of a b*tch

 

In the dungeon, summons did all the killing. I avoided the yuan ti mages obviously. No chance with such a small party. Greater mummy was killed with hit and run. 

 

All went perfectly, but then this happened. Eren died to a trap. Yep, I should've let Valygar do the 'opening', but you see there was no chest. I ripped the paintings of the wall and there was a disintegrate trap. 

 

The thing is, I let Imoen search for traps but there WERENT ANY!...

So how should I have known?.. I honoustly couldnt have, I feel..

 

This run was amazing, I liked it a lot. But these little f you tricks spoil it a bit for me, especially being relatively new to the later part of BG2 and TOB. Thus it isnt worth the time for me right now and I'm going to retire for a long time, for now indefinetely.

 

I will keep following you guys and hope you all make it

 

Thanks for all the kind words and support these last few weeks.

Golden28 aka Eren

[Epsil0]

Oof, hard luck Golden. That's primarily why I usually start running Death ward on my PC for the latter half of the game. I don't have time to write up right now, but Disintegrate claimed its own victim in my party... and it's SCS' better calls for help that did the victim in! 

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 76 - (update 3)

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

 

This pair had acquitted themselves well in this run, but a bit of mis-communication eventually led to disaster today.

 

After finishing the Unseeing Eye last time they sorted out Tarnor and Mekrath to complete work in the sewers for now.

 

Mae'Var's tasks were done before purchasing the Robe of Vecna and moving on to the Graveyard.  That was cleared and a ioun stone taken from Pai'Na.  Deana did have her new contingency activate when her mirrors failed to protect her against a trapped chest.

Spoiler

She also took damage when Rhunn failed to allow for the effect of Vecna and caught her in the fringes of a fireball.

Spoiler

 

Moving on to the Bridge Deana picked up the berserker horn, while Rhunn solved the skinner mystery.  With arcane buffs and magic damage spells the Rune Assassins should have been no problem, but that encounter proved fatal.  Deana went down first invisible intending to avoid the ghasts and start things off with them with a skull trap from distance.  However, she hadn't explained her plan and Rhunn chased her down concerned that she would be targeted by the Rune Assassins who see through invisibility.  His aura was clouded from buffing upstairs, but he did actually manage to produce some skeletons.  However, when turning to run back upstairs a ghast paralysed her.  

 

Against the Rune Assassins Deana didn't think putting invisibility on Rhunn would work and she didn't have Otilukes memorised at the time.  Instead she cast cloudkill from range with the intention of going invisible and leaving the ghasts to die.  She had effectively written Rhunn off, but was hoping that she could use the Rod of Resurrection to bring him back.  Regrettably though the bone golem had other ideas ...

[Grond0]

Sorry to hear about Eren's demise Golden - that was an entertaining run.  One of the problems of no-reload is that you die and learn .  I hope to see you back again in due course.

[Epsil0]

Delta, human Kensai/Druid, 3rd update

This update covers only the Vampire lair: I really ought to have rested and rememorized spells, plus finally getting Aerie to memorize Resist Fear. Instead I plowed on through. Delta drinks a Potion of Invulnerability, though this only gets his save vs spells at 4, unfortunately. I also didn't buy the RoAC, which I really ought to do now. The fight in front of the gates begin, and I'm expecting a rather easy victory here. And then I see something I would rather not. Tanova pops up, casting Pro. magic weapons, Mislead, and Pro. Normal weapons from either a sequencer or contingency. And I am nowhere near prepared: I haven't faced Tanova in SCS before either, so I have no idea what the heck to expect from this fearsome mage. We beat a hasty retreat, but Tanova follows.

 

Delta's save vs Death is at least -2, so immune to most death effects still. As long as I remain above 90 health, I figure I can have Delta go in with the AoP and attempt to melee the vampiress down... A PW: Fear convinces me otherwise. Aerie is the only one who avoided the spell by virtue of being Mazed by Tanova beforehand, but her single casting of Remove Fear fails to connect with anything as Delta wanders away from the AoE. Fortunately, we didn't end up pulling anything else as we wandered aimlessly, but Jaheira gets close to Tanova again and:

And Jaheira is permanently dead, though her equipment still somehow remains. This means I'm deprived of the Harper fight, but I can deal with that. The PW:Fear finally wears off, and her Mislead clones have vanished. The second strike of the dagger stuns Tanova, and Delta summarily executes her. Under the effects of Oils of Speed and Potions of Invulnerability, Delta then makes it his personal mission to clear the Vampire lair singlehandedly, which he does. I did allow a single rest before facing Lassal and Bodhi, but even then...

 

Lassal strips Delta of his Skins, and the Bodhi fight didn't go as expected. The Fire Elemental lasted all of one hit, and Bodhi under her Speed effects rushes Aerie instead of Minsc who now bears the AoP, or Delta, who's still under NPP from dagger. Trouble. Minsc is put to sleep via one of Bodhi's innate abilities, and it's very, very fortunate that Aerie saved vs it otherwise she would've been drained to death, no question. Delta desperately tries to catch up with Bodhi, who is still chasing Aerie. First casting of NPP falls, recast. Bodhi turns her attention to Yoshimo, draining him twice; with a bit of room, Aerie uses the Wand of Frost, not remembering that in BG2 it's a Cone of Cold effect rather than the single target in BG1. Yoshimo dies from the effect, which is probably for the better since he doesn't die to Level Drain permanently. Aerie starts Sanctuary, but she's hit twice for -6 levels; one more strike will finish her. Delta closes to melee, but even with his low AC Bodhi is still getting some pretty good hits off, and Delta gets CON drained, losing a good 50 health! Minsc wakes back up, and goes back to fight Bodhi who's regenerated to only Barely Injured. After a few whacks, Minsc has to retreat to heal as well. I'm starting to despair of winning here, when I hear the lovely words, "Well, this was... educational." 

Bodhi retreats herself! We head to the temple, restore Aerie, have her cast Raise dead on Yoshimo, get his stuff, and then we reported to Linvail, and told him that we had to resupply... We have 9k gold, just the 4 of us, and probably 15 potions of greater healing. Does anyone know if there's time limit in which we have to supply, and if we don't, do we die by script? I'm probably going to pick up Anomen and Jan just for additional fighting and casting capabilities for one of my most feared chapters: the Underdark... 3 +3 weapons among us currently, though IIRC Imoen has Magic Weapon in her spell book, making a possibility of 4. This is gonna be interesting...

[Blackraven]

Ah Golden, it's sad to see Eren fall, for his run was amazing, but what saddens me even more is your retirement... Can't we convince you to keep on trying? Your playthroughs are really good, and often spectacular!

Epsil0, I haven't pushed it in any of my playthroughs, but I think there's no strict timeframe within which to return to Aran.

[Grond0]

Assuming there's no change in the EE (and I don't think there is), you can take as long as you like to go back to Aran.

[Alesia_BH]

Condolence on the loss of Rhunn, Gate and Grond0. 

 

Are you planning on trying another?

 

Best,

 

A.

[Grond0]

You already commented on their replacements .  The replacements for their replacements have made a very brief start - I'll go and document that now ...

[Aasim]

Shaleen, entering BG2 challenge. And her comrades.

 

 

 

 

 

As so far, they've exited the dungeon, sold some items, bought some armor and slings, and should be starting their adventure soon.

[Grond0]

Rifft - dwarf swashbuckler (update 1)

 

A previous incarnation of Rifft started in BG2, but then abandoned his run in favour of allowing a successor to have a go using a slimmed down modded installation with Ascension, Oversight and SCS.

 

The updated version has just finished cleaning up the dungeon (with the exception of the ogre mage which he wimped out of).  There were a couple of nasty moments there:

- first, when I was surprised by the duergar mage near Ilyich who I hadn't expected to be lurking invisibly.  Fortunately he used a glitterdust rather than something more lethal and died in a pre-laid trap before he could try anything else.

Spoiler

- second, I mistakenly thought Rifft was stealthed when he went into view of another duergar mage.  He tried a charm person, but Rifft was wearing the Claw and had a save vs spell of 2 at the time, so that spell was no danger.

Spoiler

 

I wimped out of facing the ogre mage, but otherwise Rifft cleared everything - traps and horror meaning that the most of the dangerous enemies never got a look in against him. 

 

[Aasim]

Shaleen, 2nd BG2 update

 

Did Circus, followed by CC slavers

 

Following that, I expended my one-time warning from Cowled Wizards to open the door to Slavers's ship.

 

And whipped the guys inside with Confusion/Fatigue casting.

 

Unlike many other times, Haegan didn't manage to escape through the door.

 

Now, Graveyard. I was fairly surprised to see Pai'na casting Cone of Cold

 

Not that it helped her any, however. Holy Smite took care of most spiders.

 

Exploring further, we had our first death - Dominated and eaten by rats. Yet worse, I can't raise her yet (no level 5 slots). The worst of all, damn vampire escaped through the door and vanished! I *hate* area transitions.

 

Delivering the bear to the ghost gave Shaleen just enough XP to obtain level 9 as a priest, so I could raise my fallen.

 

Now, with Chaotic Commands available, I feel much safer.

 

To ramp up gold, first big undertaking are Shadow thieves. I didn't bother with Edwin's jobs but killed him - however Mae'var was quite offesnively oriented. He had several Skull traps + Sunfire.

Greater Command knocked out lesser troops, but he survived all we had. Without Breach, we waited out, healing as neccecary.

 

Few rounds later, his stoneskins got thin, and we killed him.

 

Mencar was rather nasty and cost a lot of potions. I insulted him to trigger the fight (a much better tactic is to kill Amon instantly, however).

 

He's nasty since he has a very wicked weapon (Bala's axe). This works a la Carsomyr and dispels on hit (save is allowed, but fighters have about 40% chance to fail it). He used it on both barbarian and berserker, removing their buffs. We managed to confuse Amon, and the thief guy ran away after a single critical hit.

 

Skull trap was used to kill Amon before he regains reason.

 

Some time later, under focused spell fire, Mencar dies.

 

We deal with Pooky and the barbarian easilly.

 

I ended the session by paying 15k to thieves and 5k to mages for magic licence. I'm farily reluctant to fight Vampires just yet, so something like De'Arnise or Shade Lord should be next.

[Grond0]

 

@Grond0. Beautiful work with Rifft. You seem to have an sense of your character and what you want to do with him. You also seem to be playing with care and attention to detail. I'm expecting great things from Rifft. This could be a special run.

GJ Grond0, GL further. Don't die in that dungeon...

 

Thanks for the encouragement, but Rifft fell back into bad habits I'm afraid and took one risk too many ...

 

Rifft - dwarf swashbuckler (2nd and final update)

 

Rifft quickly tidied up the circus before reporting in to Gaelan Bayle.  Then he set off for Watcher's Keep, but was ambushed by Suna Seni on the way. Horror made most of them easy, but the mage was invisible and Rifft's attempts to find him using his detect invisibility skill failed (unsurprisingly as he's put no skill points into it yet).  However, he stuck around anyway until the mage appeared and bolts of lightning killed him after Rifft saved against a confusion.

 

After clearing the side rooms Rifft laid 7 traps in front of the main doors before opening them.  They hit 2 vampiric wraiths hard, but didn't kill either and Rifft chose to just run away rather than risk combat at this stage.

 

Back in Athkatla horror accounted for 3 of the 4 thugs attacking Renfeld.  The thief was invisible, but his back stab didn't do much damage.  After returning Renfeld Rifft dodged some spells from Prebek while Sanasha was running round in panic and then went to loot the harpers.

 

Travelling once more Rifft came across a fully-fledged SCS ambush with thieves, mages, clerics and fighters.  He was stealthed at the time and the sensible thing to do would have been to just leave, but where would the satisfaction be in that?  His 3 traps accounted for a couple of the enemies, including one of the thieves and he then conducted a running fight, trying to use stealth when he could and sending some of them running in horror.  The fighters hit him pretty easily and he also took one backstab - using 5 or 6 extra-healing potions in response.  Once all alone the mage got stealth shots to get rid of stoneskins and then a bolt of biting to finish him quickly - that took Rifft to level 13.

 

Rifft ran through Mae'Var's tasks.  Rayic Gethras came downstairs into some traps and the poison damage from those took him to near death - a single bolt of lightning then finished him off.  He pre-laid traps throughout Mae'Var's guild and most of the thieves died from those - including Mae'Var himself.  The last few assassins were exposed by Rifft running round using detect invisibility (now up to 30%) and easily finished off - pushing Rifft up to level 14.  He turned down the chance to become a guild leader himself.

 

Travelling again he came across another SCS ambush.  Traps and horror again helped make a good start on them, but it took quite a while (and a number of potions) to finish off the first of 2 mages - he died entirely from the 2 HP damage from Firetooth through his many stoneskins.  For the second mage I decided it would be much quicker to use stealth shots and had just got him naked ready for a bolt of biting.  In the process though Rifft had come to the other end of the area from where he had been operating - and discovered the hard way that there had not just been the 2 thieves he had already ticked off his list, but 3.  

 

 

As he was not expecting to be attacked he still had Firetooth equipped and he still hadn't got around to getting a ioun stone so a one-shot backstab was not that great a surprise ...

[Aasim]

Omg. I also lost one PC (iirc a fighter/cleric) to that ambush. Did you have any real reason to fight them (revenge or similar)?

[Alesia_BH]

Thanks for the encouragement, but Rifft fell back into bad habits I'm afraid and took one risk too many ...

 

 

That's a bummer. It's also a surprise: Rifft looked so good in BG1.

 

What's next? Will Rifft get another shot? If not, will you be sticking with the SCS/Ascension install nonetheless? I'd really like to see some SCS runs from you.

 

Best,

 

A.

[Aasim]

Shaleen, 3rd BG2 update 

 

Very brief - we took down Shade Lord. I was bit RL distracted (my toddler entered and wanted to watch...  ) so I didn't have NPP on my cleric/mage (the spell lasts for 5 turns with SR, so it's fairly reliable defense vs level drain).

Regardless, we prebuffed, including Diviner's innate TS, and removed his Deflection first. Unfortunately, I forgot to memorize Breach for his PfMW. This means we either kill him with spells (hardly - we're very defensive oriented in our spell picks) or endure 4 rounds until PfMW expires.

 

We spread out, I move cleric/mage away so she doesn't get level-drained to oblivion. As as sidenote for all SCS players - don't *ever* let anyone die here.

This includes summons (check here for details). I don't know if this is a bug, but it ends up in people exploding and turning to Shadows (permanent death). Hence, summons are out of question - a single BBoD hit can easilly kill them (or Blade Barrier), and after that one of your PCs will blow up.

 

PfMW expired, and we wade in. He starts taking damage.

 

Splat.

 

We return to major to report our success (kill Valygar while at it), sell most of the loot, buy Nymph Cloak there (6k gold, +2 spells save and CHA) and are now pondering what to do - probably some leftover city stuff (Fallen Paladins) and after that Torgal.

[Grond0]

That's a bummer. It's also a surprise: Rifft looked so good in BG1.

 

What's next? Will Rifft get another shot? If not, will you be sticking with the SCS/Ascension install nonetheless? I'd really like to see some SCS runs from you.

I think part of the problem was I felt Rifft had had too many restarts already.  That led me into risky behaviour like not getting a ioun stone, but still sending him into combat with a sign on the back of his armour saying "backstab me here".

 

I'm not working today though and have generated a new swashbuckler.  I'm confident I know how to keep her safe both in BG1 and early BG2 - it's just a question of putting that knowledge into practice .

[Alesia_BH]

I think part of the problem was I felt Rifft had had too many restarts already.  That led me into risky behaviour

 

I completely understand. That's similar to how I felt with Aria, although the cause was different (re-install and de-bugging experiments).

 

I'm starting to feel that way with Ariel, after re-running her through BG1 and conducting install experiments with her. I feel less attached to her as a character. She doesn't seem alive.

 

I'm looking forward to the new swashbuckler!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Epsil0]

Assuming there's no change in the EE (and I don't think there is), you can take as long as you like to go back to Aran.

Good to know; I didn't do any major quest lines beforehand though, besides dealing with Cecile, a moneylender from Questpack. It cost me 6k of my gold to complete the Good way, but I finished it anyways.

Delta, human Kensai/Druid, 4th update

As mentioned, we paid a ransom for a little girl that had been kidnapped by Cecile's thugs. From there, the only new gear we get is several potions of Genius and Mind Focusing, both for memorizing spells and not dying to Mind Flayers, leaving us with 3k gold for other locations, if we survive til there. Jan and Anomen are taken along, basically the only two characters that are easily accessible without starting any new quest line/traveling out of Athkatla.

 

Vampire Ambush: Anomen gets drained, Aerie almost dies to... something. I think it was due to one of the Vampires changing into Bat form, and for some reason kept dealing damage to anything near it. It wasn't rolling attacks, and it also couldn't be targeted. I lured it out of bat form with a summon, though, and Delta finishes it off with his dagger. It turns out that you can save Sanik in my install; probably also from Questpack? So we save him, kill Chremy for the amulet, and invade the guildhall to save Claire. We decide that the best way to proceed is by killing Perth for his wardstone, but after Tanova I'd rather not try a straight-up fight. Instead...

Delta moves in under II from Jan and assassinates Perth with Harm.

 

In the Asylum: Delta gives up a point of DEX, since 19 - 18's only difference is 1 THAC0 to range, which I haven't touched much; I'm carrying throwing daggers, but haven't had to use them. The avatar of Bhaal is fought man-on-man+spider and defeated. Delta didn't even lose all his Skins. And tada!

Imoen's back!

 

In the Spellhold maze: there've been only three sketchy fights. The first was fighting the Pit fiend, who killed Aerie with a Fireball centered on itself. One Raise later, we continue. Second sketchy fight was turning the pages of the book... The Beholder stripped all of Delta's protections, including the important Death Ward. It fell before it got to cast anything else, fortunately. Lastly was one of the two Yuan-ti mages in the upper floors.

 

AHHHHHHHHH! Delta didn't even have to save, though; the Aerial servant was somehow the only thing affected, which I am totally not complaining about. We had to search every container an additional time to try to find a wooden stake for Dace, and finally consulted an online guide when I couldn't find one; I missed that a kobold had dropped a set. Onto the next floor!

 

There've been no crazy fights as of yet, though the Yuan-ti mage managed to Dispel basically every active casting we had. When we fought the Noble Djinn, I found to a bit of annoyance that we had no non-magical weapons besides ammunition, so Delta finished it off with throwing knives. We just finished the Clay Golems for the Gesen Bow String and obtained a pair of Boots of Speed. Two Clay Golem curses are upon us right now, so we'll take one more rest before continuing.

 

Stats: Delta, Human 9/13 Kensai/Druid. 124 HP (11 from Ioun stone). 226 kills. Most Powerful Vanquished: Perth the Adept. Favorite weapon: Trollmelter. Favorite spell: Barkskin

Minsc, Human 11 Ranger. 104 HP (5 from helmet.) 130 kills. Most Powerful Vanquished: Greater Wolfwere. Favorite weapon: Two-handed Sword (Lilarcor.) Favorite spell: Cure Light Wounds

Anomen, Human 12/7 Cleric/Fighter. 102 HP. 19 kills. Most Powerful Vanquished: Ulitharid. Favorite weapon: Flail of Ages +3. Favorite spell: Chaotic Commands

Imoen, Human 11/7 Mage/Thief. 67 HP. 2 kills. Most Powerful Vanquished: Ice Mephit. Favorite weapon: Bow and Arrow. Favorite spell: Stoneskin

Aerie, Elf 9/11 Cleric/Mage. 47 HP. 25 kills. Most Powerful Vanquished: Thief. Favorite weapon: Sling and bullet. Favorite spell: Cure Light Wounds

Jan, Gnome 10/11 Illusionist Thief. 53 HP. 1 kill. Most Powerful Vanquished: Guard. Favorite weapon: Crossbow and bolt. Favorite spell: Stoneskin.

 

Permanently dead: Jaheira.

[Alesia_BH]

Keep it up Epsil0!

 

Best,

 

A.

[Blackraven]

You're doing well Epsil0.

Grond0, sorry about Rifft; good luck with his heir, Dyna

[Aasim]

Permanently dead: Jaheira.

Yeaaaaaah! Whenever she starts her talking, I feel weight on my shoulders.

[Aasim]

Shaleen, 4th BG2 update

 

Done - Fallen paladins (berserker/barby are level 12 now, Diviner 11, Shaleen & cleric/mage 10/10).

- Lassal (no level drains or bats! Hooray!)

 

Upon traveling to Bridge district for 2nd thieves' quest we ran in a (very) ugly ambush.

 

My first urge was "run away, screw the 10K XP and few gold pieces". Then I remembered Grond0's demise here.

See the ugly thieves? Two of them....if I had the resources (spells) to make them suffer, I swear I would. Something like Polymorph/Imprisonment and similar.

 

 

For Grond0!

 

 

Anyhow, with that done, we descend to sewers to deal with Hatchetman (Hatchetdwarf?). The spider there is Kittix.

 

We start abruptly. Gaius managed to avoid Spell Thrust, and most of the enemies are locked in melee. Both clerics have Physical Mirror - attacks at range are nullified, melee miss 50% of time. Gaius has Prismatic Mantle (don't hit it, ever - casts Prismatic Spray on hitter.); so we focus the fighters for now.

Flamestrikes fly from both Shaleen and Lorna, while Xena Secret Word's Gaius to remove his Deflection.

 

Gaius removes Kittix from the battlefield, but is breached. Barbarian Rages (with KR he suffers the same fatigue as berserker, so timing this is very important). 

 

Unfortunately, he erects his defences. Double fireshield+stoneskin. This combo does around 25 damage to attacker.....

 

..unless the attacker is a mage using Wand of Lightning at range.

 

With him gone, we breach the clerics, throw some Smites/Skulls, and wrap things up.

 

Rakshasa was surprisingly devastating  - this is a single Fireball he used.

Unfortunately, Remove magic I had memorized failed to dispel him, so we had to do all the stuff against Stoneskin/mirrors with weapons.

 

Barathum ain't no caster - but when he crits, he usually kills such critters.

 

We should now be selling stuff and finally help out Nalia.

[Alesia_BH]

Glad to see you avenging Rifft, Aasim! Keep it up!

 

Hopefully Dyna will get the chance to avenge him as well.

 

Best,

 

A.