15236 réponses à ce sujet

[Easymask]

Aye, I was hoping the Greater Air Elemental and Djinni would help out - but that Cloudkill and the Yuan-Ti warriors just oblitorated them. Yeah the Maze-like spell hit Keldorn in the beginning of the fight, removing his picture and placing his Bag of Holding & Flail of Ages in Canderon's backpack. If you cast Haste prior to Free Action, it doesn't overwrite the haste effect as well - that's how I did it at least. Same goes for items like ring of Free Action and Arbane's Sword.

I fired Arrows of Dispelling for quite some time, and they removed everything but the Stoneskins. I'm positive the fight lasted longer than 4 rounds, and I tried using the arrows on the Yuan-Ti I knew hadn't cast ProMW for a while.

Maybe Tansheron's Bow messes up the arrows?

Modifié par Easymask, 02 décembre 2011 - 11:49 .

[corey_russell]

If he had death ward up, it must have been imprisonment. I'm not sure about the arrows especially if you say they did remove the other things. Two good summons isn't enough, you need more, sometimes I have to summon 2 sets of 5 (depends on how strong my summons are).

[Easymask]

2 sets of 5? You mean I can control more than 5 summoned creatures at a time? I usually get an error and then no summons at all if I try that?

[Alesia_BH]

Grond0 wrote...

Arrows of dispelling should get rid of their stoneskins. If that didn't work for you I suspect it was because they had protection from magic weapons up.

Yeah. Arrows of Dispelling are treated as magical weapons. The Abjuration school weapons defenses can foil them (ProMW and the Mantles). The other issue here is that Protection from Missles can foil them in some setups (I'm told). I've also observed SI:A apparently foiling Dispelling weapons.

Additionally, some creatures (Kangaxx for example) get undispellable Stoneskins. In those cases, it's worth remembering that Stonekins will only foil the physical portion of damage and that they'll still have to save against stun when a Dart of Stunning takes down a skin (though not Poison when a Dart of Wounding or Arrow of Biting hits).

With a non-arcane bow wielder, the basic approach my characters take when only Stoneskins are up is to stay ranged and ready to counter any spell that might get off. Elemental Arrows are used to foil when they start encanting. Darts of Stunning are used when their Auras are clouded. When the Skins come down, the poison ammo comes out.

I can't really say what happened in your case without being able to read the battle feedback in detail.

That only lasts 4 rounds so running away briefly will let your weapons bit again.

 
Agreed. You also have the option of taking ProMW down rather than evading while it is up. That can get complicated though depending on you install options and entails remaining in casting range while clouding your aura. I'd be content to stand my ground and attack their magical defenses with some classes but there is less to remember and less to go wrong if you take the evasion approach.

When fighting mages it's much easier to beat them if you keep an eye on the game text to see what spells they are using.

Agreed. Reading everything and understanding what you are reading helps a bunch.  

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 03 décembre 2011 - 01:14 .

[corey_russell]

Easymask wrote...

2 sets of 5? You mean I can control more than 5 summoned creatures at a time? I usually get an error and then no summons at all if I try that?

No, I mean that my first set of 5 summons are dead, time to summon a new (second) batch of 5. : )

[Easymask]

Aha, gotcha!

Well, Aerie didn't really have anything else than Skeletons to summon in addition to the Staff than can summon Air Elementals and the Djinni thingy - and those skeletons went down so fast it wasn't even funny. The problem is really controlling the fight, and I have no idea how I'm going to protect my characters from Imprisonment.

[Alesia_BH]

Easymask wrote...
I have no idea how I'm going to protect my characters from Imprisonment.

Like Maze, Imprisonment is a Touch spell. Stay out of touch range.

That's one of the reasons why my warriors and thieves typically fight mages with ranged weapons.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 03 décembre 2011 - 01:18 .

[Easymask]

Alesia_BH wrote...

Like Maze, Imprisonment is a Touch spell. Stay out of touch range.

That's one of the reasons why my warriors and thieves typically fight mages with ranged weapons.

Best,

A.

I had no idea! I haven't been able to read up much on the high level spells yet, so that information is bound to help me next time I tangle with the Warden! Thank you!

[Alesia_BH]

Understood.

When you do get around to studying spells, take note of the casting time and spell school in addition to the other info. It matters.

Maze for example, has a casting time of 3 and is from the Conjuration school. Amongst other things, that implies a narrow disruption window and the possibility of foiling it by pre-buffing with Spell Immunity: Conjuration. Imprisonment on the other hand, is a 9 from the Abjuration school suggesting a wider disruption window and SI:Abjuration as an effective pre-buff.

Knowing the spell schools and durations can also help you predict what is en route and therefore prep your countermeasures before the spell has gotten off.

Best,

A.

Btw. If you are beginning to think that Aerie might have been your party's best tank, that doesn't mean you are going crazy: it means you are on to something.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 03 décembre 2011 - 04:00 .

[Wierdo]

corey_russell wrote...

Wierdo wrote...

corey_russell wrote...
Myself, I always paste my screenshot (after using alt + prntscrn key) into paint and save to JPG. I have more than 1000 images on my photobucket account.

PNG picture files seem to work the best for this - PNGs are sharper than JPGs and have brighter colours. Cropping is good to focus on the action and save everybodies bandwidth.

You don't say whether PNG or JPG is the smaller file. JPG's are pretty small, be surprised if PNG can get smaller (if they are, guess I'll change).

Seems that the PNG files are bigger, which makes sense if they look better. But I've never been satisfied with JPG quality for BG screenshots. So there is a tradeoff between quality and size.

As for cropping - I play on Vanilla BG 1 (640 x 480) - the only thing on the screen IS the action. In fact there are plenty of times the screen isn't big enough, such as the waylays. I suppose I could crop out the panels on the left and bottom, but that wouldn't save much.

Agreed completely. I play my BG at 1280x1024, which means my screenshots are around 4 times the size. That is quite a lot. So cropping is essential.

I'm thinking about playing BG next time in 640x480, or maybe 800x600. I'm also thinking about playing BG in 640x480 on one of my old 27" Sony Professional Video monitors, which are CRT (Cathode-ray tube) 15khz monitors with very bright colours and very sharp pixel resolution (for a CRT CGA monitor). They are top quality, and used to use these old monitors in TV and A/V studios before LCD and plasma flatscreens.

[BBMorti]

Gate70 wrote...

BBMorti wrote...
Well I seem to have reached my limit with linking images from photobucket so this update will be without screens.

Maybe you could edit your images to a smaller size? Can't see yours now but if they were BMP's just changing them to PNG or JPG or cropping them slightly reduces the size significantly and the message seems to be complaining about bandwidth rather than the number of views.

Also may help the no reload pages load quicker (those of you with good/better broadband speed may not notice this effect).

Oh they were always PNG format,it seemed to be the best looking format of the ones I tested. I am sorry if I contributed to cause problems to anyone loading pages in this thread...
I will try and rework my posting methods when photobucket desides I am not so 'popular' anymore.

Thank you Vaclavc, I have followed your current BG1 run myself, almost there! I almost find myself hoping you do not looking into a certain islands problems this time

[BBMorti]

Anatole the level 40 Assassin -

Anatole has made herself a human flesh armor ( I could not remember mages ported in when it was collected ) The smith needed 4 days to make it for her, so she spend the time collecting Shadow thief allies, Paladin Allies and a drow elf ally and then went to clear the Bodhi stronghold.
Helm of Charm protection, stoneskin, Amulet of power and a few potions was her buffs. She had no problems.. I did have some fun looking at the helpers fight, though.. they fought and Anatole ran back and forth around corners to restealth and then one shot with staff of striking.
Bodhi was mainly taken down by Drizzt.. I casted haste from scroll and it made him into a rediculous killing mashine. I had a bit of fun with bow and backstabs while he was mowing them down.

Not much left to do now.. I am likely gonna collect the thunderhammer before moving into the elven city.

Modifié par BBMorti, 08 décembre 2011 - 12:01 .

[corey_russell]

Looking good, BBMorti. Here's hoping your character doesn't fall so close to the finish line...There's no Drizzt to help you against the Suldanessar dragon so that should be a fun fight!.

[Humanoid_Taifun]

Easymask wrote...
Canderon tried his best to win once his companions where dead, drinking potions of invisibility to backstab his enemies - but for naught,

I would really advice you to keep playing with this game and tackle the Planar Sphere again and again, until you finally understand its intricacies (or at least how to get past them) - so that it doesn't kill another trilogy run for you.

[corey_russell]

Humanoid_Taifun wrote...

Easymask wrote...
Canderon tried his best to win once his companions where dead, drinking potions of invisibility to backstab his enemies - but for naught,

I would really advice you to keep playing with this game and tackle the Planar Sphere again and again, until you finally understand its intricacies (or at least how to get past them) - so that it doesn't kill another trilogy run for you.

That is sound advice, but doing Alesia said (skip it because it's giving Easymask heck) is also sound.

[Alesia_BH]

FYI Easymask. I usually just pull the Warden and stealth by the Yuan-Ti Mages. They're more trouble then they are worth.

HT's advice is worth considering nonetheless. If you just take an old save, and play around with that fight a few times, you'll likely learn a lot about fighting mages.

[Easymask]

Greetings once again everyone!

I'm taking every suggestion, tip and advice you guys are giving me and taking mental notes of it all - hopefully I will be able to defeat both the Astral Prison and the Planar Sphere in the not to far future!

I decided I was going to spend some time with learning more about the spells in Baldurs Gate - thus I created a Conjurer to solo throug Baldurs Gate with. Since that actually went very well, Aurellian has now found himself in Amn.

By now he has teamed up with Minsc and Aerie, following the same path as his predecessors.

They have cleared out the Slavers, aided Trademeet and defeated the Shade Lord.

Introducing Aurellian the Half-Elf Conjurer


And his new friend Raina, the Elven Fighter/Thief


Edit: Oh almost forgot - I was considering loading one of the old saves to play around a bit with the Yuan-Ti casters, but I can't seem to get myself to do it. It just isn't how I see this challenge at all you could say. I want the difficulty, and I want the challenges to be real somewhat. 

That's why I'd rather create a new character and learn a little more before dying, rather than repeating an encounter so much it's eventually on autopilot. I guess that may be strange to some of you, but that's just how I see it.

Modifié par Easymask, 03 décembre 2011 - 09:39 .

[BBMorti]

Anatole the level 40 Assassin has reached Hell

She went and killed the mind flayers in the sewers, the tactic was to place a time stop trap, important gear was staff of striking, helmet of charm protection and greenstone amulet, boots of speed, oil of speed. Greenstone charge usage-->Stealth-->Rush in and backstab--> run back towards time trap-->restealth--> take down two more when time stood still.
Rince repeat, She was never in danger.

Suldanessellar was very much the same aproach just with different gear and more buffs. Golems was hit and runned with Rod of smiting.. very satisfying to see huge golems go down in one hit.

I managed to clear one big group of Rajah and the other ilk by sending in my simulacrum under time stop and then a good position in the middle of them --> cast 3xWail of banshee from scrolls.
I used two charges of heal from my rod of ressurection to keep the priestess alive until I had taken down her attackers. 
Dragon I was curious to see it battle a pit fiend that was cast by my simulacrum from scroll... it went down in 3 hits

So not wanting to take too big chances my simu had cast slayer change and sucked out the dragons brain under time stop.

It helps a lot to put faster casting speed items for stuff like that (vecna/amulet of power) the versatility of 'Use any Item' is not something I pretend to have in any way abused but it is a pleassure to play with for me!

Irenicus was backstabbed by an iron golem simulacrum shapeshift, while me and two shambling mounds tanked his spells. I had hoped to break my backstab record with the golem but not quite.. about ~250 damage. My simularcrum had my highest level breach magic kind of scrolls and dragonslayer sword to reveal illusions equipped as well as vecna/amulet of power and the bow of gesen with dispelling arrows.

I am considering what tears of baal to collect (stat boosts) currently.

[BBMorti]

Last Shadows of Amn update for Anatole the level 40 assassin:

Wraith Sarevok was killed: www.youtube.com/watch

The dragon was killed: www.youtube.com/watch

The final battle went a bit like this..

I placed two time traps in each southern corner and then one time trap in front of the gate, delivered my tears of baal and battle started. (The time trap in front of the gate vanished.. intentional I guess)
I had spell immunity necromancy spells and minor buffs besides that but potions running and a close eye on the combat log. Two Remove magics flew after me as I ran towards one of the traps, the demons followed me and time stopped. I cast simu from helmet and two shambling mounds..
When time trap duration was over I cast time stop again from scroll, on simu and ran in between the four demons and cast 3x wail of banshee hoping to take them out.. didn't work.  so a few more time stop traps was used by running out of range and quickly putting them down, stealth and then backstab during time stop.. two demons could be taken down pr. trap because of the massive x7 damage from staff of striking.

Irenicus was tanked by a few more shambling mounts while I repeatedly ran out of his vision, stealthed and ran in to backstab.. I had to spend some time shooting arrows of dispelling and waiting of a few protection from magical weapon spells but it was a very smooth kill.
To my happiness I took him down with a final backstab of 286 damage, my highest so far

I thought I had done my homework withthe tears of baal, too.. killing the dragon should grant +2 strenght I thought but I was given +1 wis and +1 cha which frustrated me.
She is graduating into the ToB end game in any case.

Cheers!

Modifié par BBMorti, 03 décembre 2011 - 11:17 .

[Grond0]

Good job BBMorti. Best of luck in ToB and I look forward to hearing you've got the 300 up!.

[Alesia_BH]

Easymask wrote...

Edit: Oh almost forgot - I was considering loading one of the old saves to play around a bit with the Yuan-Ti casters, but I can't seem to get myself to do it. It just isn't how I see this challenge at all you could say. I want the difficulty, and I want the challenges to be real somewhat. 

That's why I'd rather create a new character and learn a little more before dying, rather than repeating an encounter so much it's eventually on autopilot. I guess that may be strange to some of you, but that's just how I see it.

Makes sense. And I respect that approach. That's generally my preference as well.

Best,

A.

Btw. I've allowed experimental replay on two encounters: the Final Ascension Battle (with Alesia) and Tougher Abazigal (with Asoka). Doing so has given me more confidence with those fights going forward, but I have mixed feelings about it. I can understand your reluctance.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 04 décembre 2011 - 03:40 .

[Beeblbrox]

Just thought I'd add my attempts so far at this. Completed BG1 no reload about 18 months ago although I wussed out on finishing Durlags Tower - got the Tome Of Wisdom ofc, and doing the Werewolf expansion completely since there seemed no benefit to exporting a character in doing them, and frankly by the time I'd managed to get a no reload challenge that far I didn't want to risk any unnecessary combats!

My character is Fighter, finished with stats of: 19/19/19/8/21/19 HP 120 (I allowed myself reloads solely for level up HP). I usually dual to Cleric though am sorely tempted to leave as plain Fighter since obviously is kick arse. Weapon Proficiencies at the moment I am going for 2x War Hammer 2x Flail 2x Dual Weapon (last Fighter WP slot spent on Flail as Flail of Ages will be weapon used in majority of adventure if I ever get that far). I do prefer sword and shield style out of - well, plain RPG preference but gather the dual weapon approach is apparently the way forward for melee types in BG2 so am sticking with that.

Playing Core Rules difficulty, and as with BG1 I'm allowing myself reloads for max level up HP. I'll also probably allow myself reloads for using the Deck of Many Things (yeah I know this isn't purist but frankly if I ever get that far balls to it, will be aiming for bad card, +1 stat, +10hp, though if the Magic Item is a rumoured +3 Ring of Protection may have that instead of the stat).

Current attempts: Usually botched at early stages due to forgetting stuff and/or stretching play style too much (see later). Last attempt abandoned since could have sworn I could bleed some extra XP by helping Hendak kill Letinan but apparently this actually really pisses Hendak off - he goes hostile and bang goes all the rewards for the slaver quest. Live n learn. Best attempt so far: Completed many little quests in Athkatla, cleared Trademeet quests, popped to Watchers Keep to pick up those useful easy items on L1 (and purchase from Keepers) thence to D'Arnise Hold where upon resting outside in the fort was interrupted in sleep with some kind of Muggers mini-plot and accidentally killed the geezer that gives infinite Flame Arrows (and loss of rep) in the melee. This accident wound me up so much I threw a paddy and abandoned.

Play Style/Strategy: Stretch every waking period to the maximum, don't rest until party is severely injured with no healing spells, preferably find something safeish to do even then until 'tired' icons come up. (almost) No purchasing until I hit that 20 rep, then shop till I drop. Avoiding mage battles as much as possible so far, haven't been able to get mages kitted out with decent anti-mage spells yet. Party members I always acquire: Aerie, Nalia, Jan, Minsc, Jaheira (standard Goodies set I guess, that and I really am just not impressed with anyone else so far). Have annoying habit of not using potions at all, often even when desperately needed. Clueless about mage spells since the AoE ones seem to be very useful if I can keep my own party out of the A which nearly always seems impractical so I just don't bother, am having sneaky suspicion that a lot of the AoE spells don't actually affect party members even when the descriptions say 'everybody within...' which I could use some pointers on since my mages would suddenly become a lot more useful if this is the case (at least half the time they seem to just be sitting back throwing weak missile weapons around - though I appreciate this is due to low level stages of game so far). Oh and I don't go for thief backstabbing skills at all, it just seems like a waste of time with Jan at any rate and I've never worked out the benefit - he'd still have to make a succesful melee hit right? Fat chance. I suppose a lot of play style is still BG1 hang over which isn't appropriate for BG2, hopefully I'll learn over time but any general pointers would be good...

Curious to know if anybody has actually done the whole trilogy on no-reload (i.e. go right back to Candlekeep if you die at say the Underdark). Not that I'll ever be going near a challenge like that...

[Easymask]

Greetings Beeblbrox and welcome to the thread of insanity!

If you read the last couple of pages, you can see that I for one always go back to Candlekeep if my party dies. I'm in this for the trilogy and not just SoA or ToB. I believe most of the people in the thread are doing the same, as it just adds so much more to your playthrough.

Also, you don't have to reload for max HP pr. level, as you can simply go to Options and Gameplay in the game, turn your slider to easy rules - then hit level up. That way you get max HP every time, and this is allowed in the challenge if you want to use it(make sure you put the slider back to core afterwards!).

I've been playing mostly low level Mages latley(I'm playing with SCS), but the party usually dies around the Astral Prison/Planar Sphere - as enemy Mages are a beast with SCS installed. Low level Mages are quite good if you want them to be, just make sure you read up on your spells(something I never was particularly good at, but the other members of this thread has helped me understand is *very* important) and understand how you can actually help your Melee/Rangers with your casters.

I tend to use AoE spells to disrupt enemy casters, especially with Skull Trap before I send my Melee's into the battle. Baldurs Gate is a very tactical game, thus simply running into battle with your melee's will often be the death of your party.

Hope this was usefull information to you, and good luck in the challenge!

Edit: Oh and my biggest advice by far would be to browse through some of the pages in this thread, to get some tips and pointers - it helped me a lot!

Modifié par Easymask, 04 décembre 2011 - 01:39 .

[corey_russell]

Yes, Beeblebox, a number of people have done the whole trilogy no reload. Myself, I had a berserker named Candar who made it, and also Lotan the level 9 fighter dualed to druid.

[AnonymousHero]

Beeblbrox wrote...
Curious to know if anybody has actually done the whole trilogy on no-reload (i.e. go right back to Candlekeep if you die at say the Underdark). Not that I'll ever be going near a challenge like that...

That's what I do -- somehow it doesn't feel right to start in BG2.

I've completed the challenge once with a solo F/M/T (no EXP cap, that made things a lot easier). I've had a few viable contenders who could probably have made it, but I'm a chronic restarter (trying different variations on a class, etc.), so my "conversion rate" suffers a bit.