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[Gorthaur X]

virumor wrote...

@Gorthaur: I see your party was protected from evil. Why didn't this render you invisibile to the devil?

SCSII's Improved Fiends changes demons and devils so that they will never attack their hostile NPC summoners, but will attack the party regardless of PfE. The fiends in my install are also further heavily improved by aTweaks' PnP Fiends, so they are rather scary opponents.

[corey_russell]

@Grond0: Sorry to hear about Ravvy's loss, you were doing so well...druids have chaotic commands right? Why wasn't that on her for those Mephits? (to protect against stun)

[Stworka]

@ Gor

Does the aTweak's fiend component work with "Increase health of demons" from SCSII?
104hp on Pit Fiend is rather unimpressive.

[Grond0]

Alesia_BH wrote...
@Grond0- Sorry to hear about Ravvy. She was doing so well. 

Mephits are irksome little buggers aren't they? (especially when they kill you...)

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next. 

Best,

A.

Thanks - she certainly had great potential to cause mayhem, which I didn't fully utilise.

I've started up again with a wizard slayer.  That's quite possible solo in BG1, but I don't think it is in BG2 (at least for me).  So I'm going to dual him to a thief and see how far he can get as a backstabber.

corey_russell wrote...

@Grond0: Sorry to hear about Ravvy's loss, you were doing so well...druids have chaotic commands right? Why wasn't that on her for those Mephits? (to protect against stun).

Just carelessness - I wasn't thinking there would be any challenge prior to Rayic (Ravvy would have eaten the golems as a light snack before breakfast).  I haven't done that encounter before with the improved mephits from atweaks so was subconsciously discounting them as a threat.

Modifié par Grond0, 11 octobre 2011 - 04:26 .

[Gorthaur X]

Stworka wrote...

@ Gor

Does the aTweak's fiend component work with "Increase health of demons" from SCSII?
104hp on Pit Fiend is rather unimpressive.

I don't have that component of SCSII installed, but considering that aTweaks, and the fiend component in particular, is explicitly tailored for SCS compatibility, I believe so.

IMO, however, aTweaks fiends are already more dangerous without the 60% HP increase than SCS fiends are with it. I hope to get the Celestial Fury soon, but with aTweaks, there'll be no more stunning demons and killing them at my leisure for me...

[Stworka]

Gorthaur X wrote...


I don't have that component of SCSII installed, but considering that aTweaks, and the fiend component in particular, is explicitly tailored for SCS compatibility, I believe so.

IMO, however, aTweaks fiends are already more dangerous without the 60% HP increase than SCS fiends are with it. I hope to get the Celestial Fury soon, but with aTweaks, there'll be no more stunning demons and killing them at my leisure for me...

 

In that case i'll probably toss aTweaks in for Ascension battle. Possibly with the "Max health for all enemies". Not for JonBon though, as i'm already preparing for it right now.
I had a lot of fun with this fight, in the past. Mainly with my all-cleric party.
This time however, i bet that i'll fail horribly and die. 

It's the last fight in which i'll use no lvl 9 spells, and first one in a while that will last longer than a minute.. MUCH longer. Wish me luck! Woo!

Modifié par Stworka, 11 octobre 2011 - 05:36 .

[Gorthaur X]

Hah. Those elemental lords are the reason why I'm still considering keeping Jaheira.

Anyway, Hador cleared the Guarded Compound, ending the Athkatla slaver circuit once and for all.

The lower floor was, surprisingly, a bit challenging: Edwin missed the Efreeti with his Death Spell, and it proved annoyingly resilient with its gaseous form. The glabrezu, on the other hand, managed to stun Hador (due to my overconfindence - could have used CC on him first), forcing Vicky to burn her True Sight in order to kill the demon quickly before he could end my game.

Arrogance will be my Hador's death, yet. However, in this case I was somewhat justified in that Hador had over 90 HP, which should have made him immune to PW:Stun. Maybe the extra hitpoints from his familiar don't count?

Then it was on to the second floor, and this time, we prepped properly. Haste, STR & Freedom Pots for our fighters, the usual spell defenses for our wizards, and so on. And we're go!

We climbed up the stairs, found ourselves face to face with the powerful slave lords, and opened the fight with two spell sequencers from Hador and Edwin, containing a Greater Malison, two Emotions, and three Webs. Nalia did her part by throwing in a Cloudkill and Jaheira began casting an Insect Plague.


"And not a single enemy made their saves that day."

We were still a bit worried about Sion, the mage we'd seen on the floor below. Mages are trouble, and this guy looked powerful - the priest broke free from the web long enough to cast Zone of Sweet Air, which meant the wizard could still rain hell upon us if not distracted by new Cloudkills. So Hador went looking for him...



...And found him webbed, unconscious, and about to be hit with Jaheira's insects.  I had seen the feedback already, of course, but had assume that surely, what was being held was a projected image or a simulacrum. But no, it was the mighty archmage himself, humbled by a few low-level spells.

In the end, it was only Maferan and Stalman who managed to put up any kind of a fight, and even they couldn't come at us simultaneously: divided, they fell. Everyone else was completely ineffectual for the duration, making this the most anticlimatic Compound battle in my BG2 history:


"I almost feel bad for these fellows."

In addition to the Celestial Fury, Hador also got his 15th level as a mage. A good day in Athkatla, all things considered.

Modifié par Gorthaur X, 11 octobre 2011 - 10:11 .

[Gate70]

Morig, LG human male cavalier. With Imoen and Jaheira.

The Yoshimo, he's not needed. We have Imoen. Bye.

We emerge into daylight with what is left of our possessions helm of Balduran, Koveras' ring, golden pantaloons and Xan's moonblade and a few other interesting items sword of chaos, magical armour. Imoen thief 10 summons up magic missiles somehow, and is apprehended along with our captor.

Jaheira and I are left alone outside the Adventurers Mart. If only we had Viconia, Edwin and Coran with us.

[corey_russell]

Good luck Gate70. Maybe you should do the spiders in the crypt area - with your poison immunity, they should be nice easy experience for ya.

[Gorthaur X]

Hador continues his triumphant march through the Realms.

Went to the Umar Hills to finally find Valygar, after a long back and forth chasing more leads to his whereabouts. While there, Jaheira decided to abandon us to stand trial with the Harpers, but since we were bound back to Athkatla anyway after agreeing to check out this "Planar Sphere," it was a good chance to see what this new guy could do.

We defeated the fake Harpers easily enoguh, after which we went to investigate Valygar's great-great-great-granddaddy's interdimensional party boat. Curiously, the most trouble we had was with the feral halflings on the first level - they actually managed to severely hurt Korgan before being killed. After that, however, we were an unstoppable dervish of justice.

We dealt with Lavok:



Made a mistake there by using a Secret Word when Lavok was protected by GoI, which gave him time to pull a Time Stop. Not that he hurt us, but still.

Then, we went outside to hunt some demons. This was a frightening proposition to us, so we spent quite a while gathering up our posse and freely abusing various performance-enhancing substances:



In the end, however, our little crew went through the demons as easily as any of the other villains that have been foolish enough to bar our way. Our one misfortune was stumbling on the Glabrezu first - its constant etherealness made the fight long enough for our shorter buffs to run out. Still, its Nabassu colleague and Lea'liyl the Marilith were not so resilient:


"Poor Hador couldn't even reach her in time to get a swing in."

With out long-duration buffs still active, we raced to the power core, where Tolgerias made a sad attempt to stop us. Detect Invisibility + Ruby Ray + Breach = one dead wizard:


"Isn't it strange how everything we fight tends to explode? Jaheira, do you think that's natural?"

The heart of the sphere was guarded only by a few golems, which were tanked by a Mordy and an ironskinned & mirror imaged Jaheira.





So the Sphere quest got finished, and from the loot, Cromwell forged us a Sorcerian Ring and upgraded the Celestial Fury to a +5 sword. It cost us a pretty penny - 40,000 gold - but it's not like there that much stuff we need to buy anymore.

Modifié par Gorthaur X, 12 octobre 2011 - 08:26 .

[Gate70]

So which mod gives upgraded loot.Not interested in using it but would like to see what is upgraded and in what way.

Good thought about the spiders Corey. Plan is to pick up Viconia, Edwin and a temporary thief; not sure which as used Jan a lot and Nalia / Yoshimo recently. Will be a few days before I fire the game up again though.

[Gorthaur X]

Westley Weimer's Item Upgrade. Here's a list of what it does.

I've not used it in my earlier games (or well, Oberon had it installed, but he didn't live to see any upgrades), so we'll see how it works out. So far, Improved Kitthix has proven useful without being overpowering (though I nerfed her somewhat after installing the mod), and while the Sorcerian Ring is weaker than its components, it spares me two slots, which will become an asset eventually. The Celestial Fury upgrade probably isn't going to be significant at all - the few things that the vanilla CF can't handle call for a BBoD, anyway - so I kinda regret upgrading it already, but I wanted to have some use for that extra demon heart.

Not sure if I'll end up using any of the other upgrades, except I probably will destroy Carsomyr to transfer some of its abilities to the Soul Reaver. In all these years, I've never played as, or even with, a paladin, so it looks as though I'll never get to experience that weapon otherwise.

For me, the mod is worth it for Improved Kitthix, though: it makes the spider into a worthwhile companion rather than just acompletely expendable fodder-summon, which I like a lot in terms of flavour. Some people have found her to be overpowered, but I find that removing her permanent Mirror Image makes her balanced even in the early game.

Modifié par Gorthaur X, 12 octobre 2011 - 10:34 .

[Gorthaur X]

Firkraag is no more.

After the Planar Sphere, we did some smalls tuff around Athkatla, including paying up Gaelan Bayle, getting the Solamnic Knights back to Krynn, and beating up Lolth's assassins. However, Jaheira pointed out that she really needs to find armor better than studded leather if she's going to be of use to the party, and so we decided to do what any reasonable person would do in this situation: kill a dragon and take its hide.

Firkraag put up a good fight, I'll give him that - with his 552 HP in SCSII and immunity to instakill effects, he is no longer a trivial opponent. We opened the fight with three Lower Resistances, and a few axe swings from Korgan to get his attention before they hit, while Jaheira summoned a Fire Elemental. However, his contingency contained a Remove Magic, which stripped Korgan of all his defenses and he had to make a quick tactical retreat. Fortunately, everyone else was still protected from fire, and Jaheira and Hador were both Improved Hasted.

Next step: Spell Sequencers. Viconia's hit first with a Greater Malison, Doom and a Skull Trap. Edwin and Nalia followed that by 3xSkull Trap triggers, and Hador with a 2xSkull Trap & Vampiric Touch. All four mages also had Minor Sequencers full of Magic Missiles.

Jaheira also redeemed herself: despite her usual tendency to die first, she used her Iron Skins, Mirror Image and Improved Haste to goe toe to toe with Firkraag for several rounds, beating him with the Flail of Ages. Firkraag managed to toss our party every which way and followed up with fiery breath, but he could not get through the many-layered defenses of our spellcasters.

Inevitably, one of Edwin's spells exceeded even Firkraag's draconic endurance, and he fell. Hello Carsomyr, Hello Red Dragon Scale.

[corey_russell]

Grats Gorthaur on taking down Firkraag. My all paladin party got mauled by him on their first attempt -- fortunately they got their revenge when they emerged from the Underdark. Good luck the rest of your game.

[Gorthaur X]

Thanks. Facing him was scary for me, since I haven't had a "fair" fight against him in years - in vanilla, I usually killed dragons without giving them a chance to fight back (3xLower Resistance from a trigger, then Malison, Doom, and Finger of Death), and the last time I fought him I was at a high enough level to have a Planetar, who decapitated him within the first couple of rounds - so this was essentially my first proper fight against the SCSII version. He turned out to be perfectly doable with a little bit of planning, though.

The Shadow Dragon I'm not sure I want to fight at all, seeing as how it's much more difficult to protect against level drain than fire, and I neglected to loot the Gauntlets of Ogre Power in the Planar Sphere, so I can't get Crom Faeyr anyway. And I had this beautiful dream of Korgan dual-wielding it with the Flail of Ages, too...

I've decided to leave saving Haer'Dalis until I emerge from the Underdark, so I don't have to break character and leave Jaheira behind - that way, I can later take Harry in Imoen's place, which should make sense as Hador being protective of his "little sister."

EDIT: Or maybe not. 14 reputation and you hesitate with Terminsel, Jaheira? No Harper Pin for us, it seems.

Modifié par Gorthaur X, 13 octobre 2011 - 06:29 .

[Alesia_BH]

Grond0 wrote...
I've started up again with a wizard slayer.  That's quite possible solo in BG1, but I don't think it is in BG2 (at least for me).

Understood. A Solo Wizard Slayer No Reload is a nontrivial challenge. It's definitely possible with exploits, but doing it "clean" is another thing altogether.

I've caught some lousy weather again so I've been playing a bit this afternoon. I actually started up an exploratory BG2 run with a Halfling Wizard Slayer named Alessandra.

It looks like she'll be able to make significant progress actually. She has a personal item called "The Narrow Path" It's a +1 Short Sword that grants Immunity to Charm and Strength modification. It's a sensibly balanced item, but it has been very helpful in the early going.

The early game plan of attack was as follows: 1) invest the Chateau and Circus gold in Reputation 2) Go to the Copper, complete the first half of the Slaver Quest and get Tuigan 3) buy a Protection from Undead Scroll and Azuredge with the Slaver gold, then go to the Umar Hills to get the Sword of Arvoreen, kill the Shade Lord while in town 4) bring the gold from Umar to the Promenade and buy Vhailor's Helm 5) use the Vhailor to knock off Suna Seni 6) use Arbane to get Lilacor, 7) return to the Umar Hills, and use Arbane to get Ibratha.

With that route, she's been able to safely collect a nice set of immunity items which covers Charm, Confusion, Enfeeblement, Hold, Slow, and Stun. She also has Mirror Image and -crucially- a Simulacrum to help take down mages. In most situations, she can send the Simmy in, have the Simmy futz up the casters, and then come in for the kill after they've been shut down.

I'm not sure how far she'll be able to make it with this approach, but she is making headway. 

I can post on Alessandra if there is interest.

I'm going to dual him to a thief and see how far he can get as a backstabber..

Wizard Slayer->Thieves do have a high power ceiling. The tricky part is reaching it. That said, Stealth and Backstabbing can get you Harmony and Harmoy solves a lot of the Wizard Slayer's problems. There are non-trivial hurdles beyond that though...

Anyhoo. It should be an interesting run. Good luck.

Best,

A. 

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 13 octobre 2011 - 08:08 .

[Grond0]

Alesia_BH wrote...

The early game plan of attack was as follows: 1) invest the Chateau and Circus gold in Reputation 2) Go to the Copper, complete the first half of the Slaver Quest and get Tuigan 3) buy a Protection from Undead Scroll and Azuredge with the Slaver gold, then go to the Umar Hills to get the Sword of Arvoreen, kill the Shade Lord while in town 4) bring the gold from Umar to the Promenade and buy Vhailor's Helm 5) use the Vhailor to knock off Suna Seni 6) use Arbane to get Lilacor, 7) return to the Umar Hills, and use Arbane to get Ibratha.

I can post on Alessandra if there is interest.

It would be interesting to me, though I hope the weather improves for you anyhow.  I noted that you were not expecting to tackle Suna Seni until quite late - does that mean that this ambush reappears periodically if you walk away from it initially?

Anyhoo. It should be an interesting run. Good luck.

My initial attempt at a wizard slayer to thief dual failed at Sarevok, which was disappointing.  I've rolled up a similar character who's planning to use some cheesy tactics to gain XP quickly, so hopefully she'll have an opportunity to try out Irenicus' dungeon soon.

[Alesia_BH]

Grond0 wrote...
 I noted that you were not expecting to tackle Suna Seni until quite late - does that mean that this ambush reappears periodically if you walk away from it initially?

Suna doesn't reappear. However, it won't necessarily initiate during your early transitions.

Alessandra went Promenade->Slums->Government->City Gates and the Suna encounter wasn't triggered. She then went Umar->Promende to pick up Vhailor. The Suna encounter wasn't triggered untill after that.

I'm not sure what triggers the encounter exactly.

My initial attempt at a wizard slayer to thief dual failed at Sarevok, which was disappointing.  I've rolled up a similar character who's planning to use some cheesy tactics to gain XP quickly, so hopefully she'll have an opportunity to try out Irenicus' dungeon soon.

Sorry to hear that. Good luck with you next run.

So you know, Alessandra's personal item, The Narrow Path, saved her from the Assassin Mage's Charm spell. It also saved her from the Slaver Mage's Ray of Enfeeblement. That early segment would have been noticeably more difficult without her compansion sword.


I can post on Alessandra, but you'll likely want to use a different quest order. If you follow Alora's playbook in Trademeet, you should be able to get Harmony quick. If Alessandra could stealth, she would have finished Trademeet by now. As it is, it's on the backburner. I haven't decided when she'll be able to complete that one.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 13 octobre 2011 - 10:32 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

Update of BlackStrider & Co:

Band crept into the Beholder's City under Invisibility to have some time for maneuvre but was almost immediately spotted by Elder Orb and were forced to fight on two fronts - vs Beholders and Drow - at the same time. Jaheira in Cloak of Mirroring faced with Beholders whilst all others fought the Drow:

  

Then Jaheira soloed the rest of the City quite smooth ... only to be Imprisonment'ed by the very last Elder Orb. Luckily we had some Scrolls of Freedom  at the ready (and don't learn'em by our mages) so she was released.

The Illithid Lair was a bit more tricky as we had to manage our distance vs Flayers but in the end we prevailed:

  

 

Interesting note: whilst Ulitharids are quite susceptible to Viconia's Fire Storm, a *simple* Mind Flayers are immune to it...

Now, as we have all three "noble races" blood samples, we are ready for Ust Natha itself.

to be continued... 

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 13 octobre 2011 - 01:05 .

[Gorthaur X]

I just had the strangest experience in the Spellhold dungeon: Hador died, suddenly and without explanation, in the middle of a safe area and without any spell or ability being used on him. My only clue is that the instakill "slamming walls" trap in the northern corridor went off as he died, though none of my party was even close to it.

My best guess is that an enemy summon triggered the trap, and Hador, despite being quite far from the trap in the riddle room, was the closest member of the party to it and was therefore somehow assumed by the game to be in its "kill zone."

I'm assuming this is a bug (possibly resulting from d0tweaks' "summons set off traps" component) and not counting it as a death, but still, I feel compelled to report it...

[Alesia_BH]

That sounds like a bug to me Gorthaur X. I'm sure others will chime in as well.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 14 octobre 2011 - 08:19 .

[Alesia_BH]

 Alessandra: Wizard Slayer

Ok. Here is my little Wizard Slayer. I wasn't planning to post on this character at all since she'll likely meet a sudden end, but since she's made decent progress, I suppose I'll post. At the very least, Grond0 may pick up a few things that he can use for his character.

Here she is:



Alessandra has completed Umar Hills, De'Arnise Keep, Trademeet, and the Slaver Quest. I'm not sure where she is headed next. She has a personal item- a companion sword dubbed The Narrow Path

The Narrow Path

Since Alessandra was neither the wisest nor fairest lass, she attracted little attention at Candlekeep. She spent most of her time alone, occasionally chatting with the Keep's many visitors. This suited her just fine.

On an Autumn afternoon, Alessandra spied an unusual looking man among the stacks on the 3rd floor. He was dressed in all black, and sheathed in a coarse, weathered coat that reached from collar to toe. A single elegant sword lay by his side.

Alessandra watched The Stranger for a time without introducing herself. He was drinking copious amounts of coffee while pouring over tomes of magic- and yet he looked like no mage Alessandra had ever seen. Her curiosity was peeked.

Eventually, Alessandra introduced herself and asked The Stranger why he was studying magic. He was tightlipped at first, but when he saw Alessandra would not let it rest, he explained that he was a Wizard Slayer and that "to defeat a wizard, one must know his incantations almost as well as the wizard himself."

They spoke for a long time. The Stranger could see that Alessandra was growing fascinated with him. He could also tell that she was a young woman who hadn't yet chosen a course in life and that she was now in danger of choosing one which he himself would reject had he the chance to do it all again. He turned to Alessandra and said "The way of the Wizard Slayer is a Narrow Path, fraught with danger on either side. It is not a life I could recommend to anyone, least of all to you."

Alessandra said nothing in reply, she merely tilted her head and stared at him. He stared back -judging her it seemed. Alessandra stared back. Not a word was spoken.

After what felt like hours, The Stranger pushed a tome in front of Alessandra, reached into his coat, and pulled out a slender companion sword which matched the one at his side. He slapped the blade down on top of the tome, held Alessandra's shoulder and said: "Take this sword. No matter what weapon you may find, and no matter what someone may offer to gain it, keep it with you. It will save you life one day. Never lose it."

With those cryptic words, the stranger left. Alessandra quietly fixed the sword to her belt as best she could, and began to read. She has been a Wizard Slayer ever since. 

The Narrow Path

Proficiency: Short Sword
Range: 1
Speed Factor: 0
+1 To Hit and Damage

Immune to Charm while equipped
Immune to Strength Modification while equpiied

Years later, The Stranger's prophecy came true. Alessandra's companion sword saved her life,  on "a narrow path, fraught with danger on either side."


Mods: SCSII, Ascension, G3 Fixpack, G3 Tweaks (Free Action Protects Against Stun)

I'll post a medley of her earlier battles fairly soon.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 14 octobre 2011 - 10:48 .

[Gorthaur X]

So, Hador's done quite a bit.

After Firkraag, we didn't feel like killing a vampire would be such a huge challenge, so we took a job from Aran Linvail to clear out the rival thief guild. Our strategy was to rush them with summons, which worked well enough - not perfectly, since our bad positioning and loads of mooks actually helped the vampires by making it difficult for us to attack in a coordinated fashion. As such, we took some irritating, and, in retrospect, avoidable level drains.

Still, in the end, numbers sure didn't hurt.



We quickly stopped by Hador's Planar Sphere to pick up another Ring of Wizardry, which cost the lives of two of his three students.

Then it was time to go rescue Imoen. Finally. Except that of course, we needed to get ourselves mixed in local troubles, first.



Having learned that the wardstone to the hold was kept by a local mage, we went by and asked him nicely for it.


"Like that ever works."

The mage was surprisingly adept at defending himself, though, refreshing his protections several times. Or perhaps not so surprisingly, what with the name and all.

The "rescue" was something of a failure, considering that we ended up imprisoned in a dungeon ourselves - not to mention Hador having his soul stolen. Well, it's the thought that counts. And at least, there was a lot of stuff to kill.


"aTweaks fiends may be immune to stun, but fortunately, not to slow."

After killing a Pit Fiend with ease, Jaheira was slain by a Yuan-Ti Mage's Finger of Death. Huh. Could have used the Book of Infinite Spells, which fortunately had Spell Turning on its second page, but didn't expect to need to.

Again, damn you, Jaheira. All you needed to do was have a little faith in me. You'd have your Harper Pin, and these things wouldn't keep happening to you.

We killed the resident lich in a somewhat cheap way, by letting him exhaust his spells on summons. We killed Dace Sontan in a totally cool way, though.


"Hador is a bit of a hipster Bhaalspawn. He kills people ironically."

Then we ran into more Yuan-Ti. I hate these mages with a particular passion, since they're not quite powerful enough to warrant wasting my more powerful spells on them, but they are rather tedious to dispatch without doing so. This time, I opted forChaos times three, hoping at least one would stick.


"HA HA!"

Also met an Ulitharid, sadly once my Chaotic Commands had ran out. It managed to PSI-stun Hador, but Viconia had a Remove Paralysis at the ready:


"Ouch. Right in the tentacles."

The Asylum dungeon is now done, and there is nothing left but to marshal the inmates and go face the big I himself. Before that, though, I think both the party and the player need to rest.

Modifié par Gorthaur X, 14 octobre 2011 - 02:37 .

[Yield]

u bring so much summons, very fun to watch
keep going, good luck!

[AnonymousHero]

Just a little data point about SCS II vampires: It appears the vampires in Bodhi's lair have a backstab multiplier of 3.