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[Hew]

corey_russell wrote...

While the quarterstaff and shortbow were easy choices, the next 2 pips were hard to decide. 

What's the reasoning on Short Bow instead of Long Bow? Extra attack w/ Tuigan?

(as an aside, has anyone ever done an analysis of sling vs. throwing axe vs bow vs. crossbow damage comparison? Bows obviously gets an extra attack (+1 additional w/ Tuigan), but sling/axe can get your strength bonus. Under GWW, the nod probably goes to throwing axes and/or crossbow, but what about otherwise?)

Modifié par Hew, 22 mars 2012 - 06:06 .

[corey_russell]

Hew wrote...

corey_russell wrote...

While the quarterstaff and shortbow were easy choices, the next 2 pips were hard to decide. 

What's the reasoning on Short Bow instead of Long Bow? Extra attack w/ Tuigan?

(as an aside, has anyone ever done an analysis of sling vs. throwing axe vs bow vs. crossbow damage comparison? Bows obviously gets an extra attack (+1 additional w/ Tuigan), but sling/axe can get your strength bonus. Under GWW, the nod probably goes to throwing axes and/or crossbow, but what about otherwise?)

For a strong character, certainly throwing axes do huge damage. However, the real reason for the shortbow is for the tactical ammo (arrows of dispelling, ice/fire arrows, which get through stoneskins, arrows of biting, etc.). IT could just as easily been longbow, but I figured might as well use the +4 ammow of the gesen bow.

[corey_russell]

Picenon the solo gnomish level 8 fighter/level 11 thief continues his adventure...

Picenon made it out of Chateau Irenicus. He did everything there, except he did not fight that big group of mephits by the genie. Despite my earlier claim of not going into that genie plane, I did -- and the risk paid off big got fighter level 8 off the genie quest for the sword of chaos. Otherwise where-ever possible, PIcenon backstabbed, or if necessary fire an arrow and hide and repeat, since he doesn't have any fireballs this go around.

Illyich and his goons was defeated by a haste potion and machine-gunning Picenon's short bow until all the enemies fell. I was disappointed by my treatment of the mephit portals. I tried to draw the mephits into the starting room but they woudn't follow. So instead Picenon tried to destroy the color spray portal first, but failed and was sleeping...only due to his fighter HP did he survive, heal and get rid of that pesky portal.

For the duegars guarding the girdle of bluntness, Picenon fired an arrow/hide and repeat, and if the duegars were foolish enough to move to his last known position then he back-stabbed.

Knowing Grond0 as a good solo BG player and also that he says he ALWAYS gets the ring of air control, I decided to follow suit. This turned out to be extremely useful in a number of situations, soon to be explained.

Picenon decided to help with strange events with a Circus. I did something new in the large area of were-wolves/shadows. Despite being only having 25% skill with detect illusions, and also despite the improve invis of the ring of air control just lasting 10 rounds, Picenon activated the ring and used his detect illusions. He would wait till a were-wolf was dispelled, then move to another were-wolf repeat. This got rid of all the were-wolves safely! Picenon then did some backstabs with his longsword +1 -- the backstabs weren't enough to kill the shadows outright, but it did mean he didn't have to heal as much.

As for Kalah, Picenon opened the fight with a backstab and got another good hit, Kalah tried to run but to no avail...Picenon then got a protection from Undead scroll. He talked to Gaelan Bayle then headed to the graveyard. He went to the entrance of the lair of the crypt king and used Picenon's protection from undead scroll and killed the crypt king. Picenon then equipped the Namarra, and left for Waukeen's Promenade to ID the thing.

He then hit the Suna Sunai ambush. Picenon opened with improved invis via the ring. He then moved in and one-shotted the mage. Next, Picenon charmed the archer via the ring of human influence. He had the archer target one of the clerics. The enemies were being quickly killed with the Namarra. A very clean fight, am pleased so far.

After selling and IDing the loot, Picenon could afford a prrotection from petrification scroll which he obtained from Ribald's. Picenon tried to go the city gate, but ran across a sick man being attacked. Picenon opened with silence (via the Namarra) and then did improved invis via ring. The mage managed to get his mirror images up -- so instead Picenon backstabbed a melee. Since the mage was silenced, simple melee brought him down, and the last enemy didn't know where Picenon was and got backstabbed.

I had to go to the docks for help for this sick guy -- met a cleric of Cyric, but Arbane's in the off-hand kept Picenon safe. After delivering the man, Picenon finally made it to the city gate and agreed to help Trademeet.

Picenon ran into that 6 Orog and 2 thieves ambush -- way too much to deal with at this point, so just ran away.

At Trademeet, rested, and set two traps, put up protection from petrification and attacked the genie with the lamp. The genie was hurt so bad he ran in fear (and was hasted), so Picenon had to finish him with his bow. Picenon got the genie lamp IDed from the nearby temple and went inside the genie tent.

The head genie went hostile, and Picenon completely forgot he could summon genie help. But Picenon opened with improved invis and the genies never targeted him with spells. However, their melee was putting quite a beat down on Picenon (he was wearing simple studded leather plus +1 ring). He had to use a haste potion to take down the head genie.

The guildmistress was pleased with Picenon for dispatching the genies -- with his shield, freeing Hendak should now be possible. I rested several times, but the merchant with Tasheron's bow never appeared. No idea what happened to him.

Overall, I'm pleased with Picenon's progress -- as I expected, the Namarra is doing nice damage (like 20+) even in a normal melee hit. 

Modifié par corey_russell, 23 mars 2012 - 04:02 .

[Grond0]

Hew wrote...
(as an aside, has anyone ever done an analysis of sling vs. throwing axe vs bow vs. crossbow damage comparison? Bows obviously gets an extra attack (+1 additional w/ Tuigan), but sling/axe can get your strength bonus. Under GWW, the nod probably goes to throwing axes and/or crossbow, but what about otherwise?)

I've seen a number of posts on this issue on this forum so you could try searching.  Here's one analysis by Humanoid_Taifun you may find helpful.
http://social.biowar...-1.html#5349372

@corey_russell.  Sounds like a good start with Picenon - keep it up.

[ussnorway]

Ud5;
 It’s been a busy week for me but I did manage to get in some game time with indeterminate results.

Back in Athkatla again;
I collected Amber & made a start against the slayers... kicked Nalia for Minsc (Helm of Charm Protection) because he is a better range fighter to have in a tight quarters fight.

Slayer hideout p1;

 

Standard range/ ‘Teleport Field’ tactics dispatched the slayers without much effort & everyone was pretty rapt with our slayer-irksomeness... I felt it was likely that we would have to fight more of these buggers sooner or later so Amber & myself  laid traps before returning to the copper with the good news.

Temple district;

   

The expected (Amber slayer) ambush never happened so I set off to fetch my BF & Do’Dad wants the “Gauntlets of Dexterity”. I killed a troll/ Raksasha before kicking Minsc for Keldorn and laid traps to help deal with the irksome foursome*... Rengarrd died instantly (traps) then Do’Dad killed Gaius, Zorl, Tarnor & Alyssia with a bouncing-betty (Lightning Bolt)... Yippee we win and he even raised Alyssia and gave her first pick at the looted armour plus “Hangard's Axe +2” so, no hard feeling.

* Looks like SCS might have given them reinforcements?

p.s.
Fetching a mirror gave me Haer’dalis plus two good wands... What a bargain!

Modifié par ussnorway, 23 mars 2012 - 07:25 .

[ussnorway]

Hew wrote...

corey_russell wrote...

While the quarterstaff and shortbow were easy choices, the next 2 pips were hard to decide. 

What's the reasoning on Short Bow instead of Long Bow? Extra attack w/ Tuigan?

(as an aside, has anyone ever done an analysis of sling vs. throwing axe vs bow vs. crossbow damage comparison? Bows obviously gets an extra attack (+1 additional w/ Tuigan), but sling/axe can get your strength bonus. Under GWW, the nod probably goes to throwing axes and/or crossbow, but what about otherwise?)

The "Sling of Everard +5" from Joluv in the Copper would have to be your best bet for most solo characters just for the lack of ammo issues.

Modifié par ussnorway, 23 mars 2012 - 05:31 .

[corey_russell]

Picenon the solo gnomish level 9 fighter/level 11 thief continues his adventure...micro-update

@Grond0: Thanks -- it feels good to get a promising start! Btw, you sure are right about shorty saves - even at this early stage of the game, Picenon's saves vs. spells is 4!
@USSNorway -- I don't have that merchant in my game (Joluv), but I agree it's a pretty good choice if you do.

As Picenon got the shield of harmony he thought it was time to save Hendak from his slavery. First, Picenon shadowed in to the room with the winter wolf. Then he summoned his two friends, a genie and a berserker. Then Picenon went into the cell area -- he only saw one enemy? Where's the mages and such? Well he went ahead and did his thing to the single enemy -- a backstab one-shotted him (in fact, Picenon one-shotted ALL humanoid enemies, except for the one guard he got a critical miss on). No reinforcements! Miss some experience but no biggie for a solo character. What's funny then, is the SoH never had to be used! Guess that's a good thing...

Anyways his friends were going to leave soon, so Picenon tried to book it to the beastmaster, but he wasn't in time. Hmm, on his own, Picenon sees...well Picenon tried to get some use out of his RoHI, but the beast master saved -- lots of enemies showing themselves! Time to run out to the cell area and activate improved invisibility -- Two cats and some gibberlings came, Picenon was able to whittle them down in melee just fine.

Still two bears left, the minotaur, a cat and the beastmaster. Picenon went behind the beastmaster, and one-shotted him with his Namarra. Picenon meleed a cat, then was able to backstab the remaining 3 enemies, which incidentally got Picenon to fighter level 9 -- Picenon put a pip into maces (thinking way ahead to the IMoD).

The remaining slavers were no trouble at all, and Hendak and his felllow slaves were freed. The cash from this outing allowed Picenon to upgrade his berserker horn and get the sword of flame.

I wanted to comment on a rather unusual config for me, see screenshot:


I wanted to use a protection ring with my armor, but the best armor a thief can wear and wear a protection ring is plain studded leather. So I did something I never did with any of my thieves I've played with in BG 2 - I bought the AC 3 bracers to wear WITH the studded leather and the protection ring. This puts Picenon AC at -6 - which is great for studded leather and this early stage of the game. Minsc usually has about that AC once I get him full plate, for example. But I also get the save bonus from the ring AND I also get the -1 piercing bonus and -2 slashing bonus with the studded leather. Picenon has been able to tank well with this configuration.

Modifié par corey_russell, 23 mars 2012 - 06:21 .

[ussnorway]

Ud6;

@corey_russell If you think that you can kill the Raksasha (Temple sewer system) then his cloak will stack with magic armour, for that matter, so will the ring of earth from de'Arnise Keep.

Somewhere ‘deep’ under the rainbow;

   

With Haer’dalis in and Keldorn out, I set my sights on the dex gloves but first things first: by a lucky coincidence I got un-dead in the rift so Do’Dad blocked them from closing with his ‘Turn’ while we dispatched them safely... It worked so well that it gave me an idea so an invisible Amber stood at the bottom of the stairs whilst I dispatched the Goths/ shadows with multiple ‘Skull Trap’. Now with the hard part over Do’Dad cloaked/looted his new gloves and we said goodbye to the sewers.

Sitting on the dock of the bay;

   

I got greedy with my boyfriend and decided to complete the minor thief quest line before handing him over to Raelis but I’d just kicked Yoshimo to make room for Edwin when Amber got herself Tiefnapped... kicking Edwin leaves me with four people to rescue her, bugger!

Pub-crawl;

   

I needed some warm bodies for a fast assault on the slayers hideout so I grabbed Anomen* & Yoshimo then told Captain Corin exactly what I thought about him grabbing innocent-ish girls off the streets for profit before delivering my BF more or less, safely to the Five Flagons Inn. So long Haer’dalis... missing you already hon.
 
*The "Sling of Everard +5" from Joluv improves his otherwise lacklustre performance.

Modifié par ussnorway, 23 mars 2012 - 07:15 .

[Gate70]

Tunner, LG male elf stalker level 7.
Roll of 100, hence the name. Plus six tomes in BG1.

Str 19
Dex 20
Con 18
Int 12
Wis 18
Cha 19

** dagger, ** longbow, * single weapon style, *** two weapon style.

Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira all want to carry some loot. I can't leave my golden pantaloons behind so accept their kind offer. Their backpacks fill up quickly so The Yoshimo? Feared by all? comes to our aid.

We have scraped and shot our way so far, but Minsc borrows the Sword of Chaos to play hero. We save him from mephits, when he eventually wakes up we save him from goblins. Then we back-track and pick up a forgotten key from an otyugh. There is a lot of laughter about how a ranger could miss such an obvious item. I look at Minsc.

I warn Imoen about a trapped bookcase, explaining how she almost died here recently. She looks at me as though I am crazy, so I drop the matter quickly.

Soon we are free, only to find our captor is waiting. A group of cowled wizards arrive and eventually convince Irenicus to leave with them, on the condition that Imoen goes too. I ought to pay her bail.

The first guard we encounter only knows of trouble inside the nearby circus tent. We step inside, not knowing what to expect. A few shadows later we have dealt with Kalah and declined the company of Aerie. The guard still isn't helping so we decide to head to the government district.

We have to go through the slums, where a vagabond called Gaelan Bayle says he can help us for just 20,000gp. I reach into my pocket only for Minsc to insist it is a "Cairn Scheme" and we should not place our trust or cash in his hands. Just as well really, as we don't have that kind of money.

Don't mess with a druid.


Seriously, don't mess with a druid.


On to the Copper Coronet, where we quickly free Hendak and purchase the Sling of Seeking for Jaheira. We're spoilt for choice as to what to try next.

[corey_russell]

Picenon the solo level 10 fighter/level 12 thief continues his adventure...

Picenon got a lot done this session.

Firs thing he did was the Lilacor quest. Against the first group of hobgolbins Picenon used his two summons and his genie's stinking cloud, this was quite effective. He tried to backstab the jellies but it said backstab wasn't effective -- guess you can't backstab jellies in BG 2. The Myconids were simple enough with the SoH. The kobolds near the waterway here were defeated with straight melee -- Picenon attempted a silence via Namarra, but it was saved against -- it didn't matter much he won handily. The next group of gobins were all backstabbed to death. The Lilacor is his, though he suspects he will rarely use it.

Next, Picenon "heard" USSNorway's suggestion, and was fairly certain he could defeat the Rakshasha and his army of kobolds, with all the room to maneuver down there. He was correct -- he managed to draw the Rakshasha by himself, after slowly whittling down the kobol numbers by bacsktabbing, running away and hiding and repeating. It only took two hits and the cloak is now Picenon's.

Next up were the slavers via the ship, and had to approach via the sewers since Picenon can't open their door on the ship outside. HIs prep was two snares, in case he had to retreaet. He used a STR 20 potion (why not lots to melee in there) and activated his improved invisibility via his air control ring, he then entered.

Once in visual contact of the enemies, he summoned his two friends. The berserker from the horn was killed quickly -- I need to upgrade it soon as possible, but don't have the money yet, which is part of the reason I am doing this quest to begin with. The genie lasted longer, but I kept trying to have the genie target the enemy cleric, but the genie kept switching to melee the many guards attacking it melee. Looks like I will need to "protect" the genie if I actually want him to cast spells...Picenon attempted to charm an archer with the RoHI but the archer saved (no wonder I don't use this ability much). Picenon managed to whittle down all the enemies, only had to use an extra healing potion once.

The trolls were dealt with using the sword of flame. Picenon rested, to recharge his items mainly and came back for the 2nd half of the ship. I sent the berserker via horn ffirst to attack the slavers with the 2 mages, then the genie from the lamp cast stinking cloud and then attacked himself -- I wanted to attack the enemies from range while keeping the SoH equipped, but it was impossible, I had nothing. Azuredge will be purchased after this quest.

There was no way Picenon was going to enter the stinking cloud, that could easily be fatal. So instead he used his Tuigan's bow until his summons died and ran away and hid. He tried to wait out the mages buffs, but got impatient -- so he used his bow and managed to kill one of the mages. The other mage cast like 3 spells vs. Picenon, one was small damage, the others he saved. Picenon than ran and hid, and the mage pursued him. Piceon then was able to backstab, run hide and repeat till the silly mage entered melee, which case Picenon knew he had him. The remaining slavers were no threat.

Hendak was pleased with Picenon's success. Picenon then headed to Umar Hills. Mainly it was to get the bejuril gem to upgrade his berserker. He helped a local Cowled Wizard and brooked a deal with the Mayor and some friendly ogres. The returned to Athkatla to upgarde his horn.

After selling everything, Piceon then decided he needed the Daystar. However, he couldn't get 25 STR or high enough lock picking to open the lich's tomb. So he made a quick stop at Linvail's place and got a thieving potion off a table. This combined with the one Picenon already had, was enough to put Picenon's lock picking over 100%.

Picenon wanted to get a lot done while this was active. So he want to Maever's guild and looted the practice doors/traps. Then Picenon agreed to help the Harper's with a "task". Taking a play out of Grond0's playbook again, He one-shotted the mage in back. This meant the other one, Shasha I think, never turned hostile despite being attacked and so was easy loot here.

Picenon didn't report his success yet, he was ready for the lich (aftering getting a protection from undead scroll). Picenon headed to the Crooked Crane, picked the lich's lock and beat the lich down. The loot is mostly useless to Picenon, except the quite welcome daystar and invisibility ring. They won't be identified yet, as Picenon wants to do the Maevar quests while his thieving potions are still active.

So Picenon heads to the Temple of Talos ands pick-pockets the amulet the Maevar wanted. Then Picenon agreed to take care of a Cowled Wizard "nuisance" for Edwin.

Before entering Rayic's house, Picenon buffed with a single fire resistance potion and haste potion and entered, he wanted to skip the mephits, but a mephit was blocking the stairs, he had to fight, so fight he did. He then did DUHM, hid, and one-shotted one of the stone golems. He meleed the other golem and it got a huge hit, like 40 pt hit? Piceon wasn't in danger of dieing, though once he potioned.

Next up, the epic battle with Rayic Gethras. My plan was to try to one-shot him, and if that didn't work, use improve invisibility and got some hits in. Picenon's haste was still active. Picenon laid 2 traps downstairs as a back-up maneuver. Picenon went upstairs tried a backstab..nothing? Rayic must have stoneskins active. Time to activate the improved invisibility...

Uh, oh, item drained! Hmm, must have used it somewhere...yikes! So Picenon runs to the upper right corner and hides...he waits until Rayics true sight wears off. Then Picenon switched to his sword of flame, so it's elemental damage can disrupt Rayic (hopefully). Picenon goes fora  backtab -- doesn't say weapon ineffective, so guess it's just the stoneskins stopping the damage. Picenon gets 3 "hits" in, doing 3 total damage, 1 pt. at a time (whoopee!), but I saw Rayic successfully cast distintegrate on Picenon!

Piceon did save, and he even has 80% chance to do so, but I consider it a failure of my strategy. I certaily can't rely on "luck" to get all the way to Melissan...I realize my close call and run downstairs and hide in the shadows...what to do...what to do...guess will go upstairs, summon the berserker, and run back down...this was a great play as the berserker was "killed" but too the finger of death spell! Tried the genie, who also died quickly, then Picenon hid and tried to take a single hit, and run back down. This seemed to work as Rayic tried to cast something, but not in time. So Picenon tried it once more..Rayic still alive (heck what NPC wouldn't be with 1 dmg a hit they are taking)...Picenon went upstairs and heard "sound" though he wasn't sure what...where's Rayic? He did do a shadow door...Picenon looted upstairs, no Rayic body...so Picenon went downstairs (hidden of course) and Rayic tripped the traps Picenon had for him, and the traps were fatal.

Mission success! Sort of...anyways, Picenon reported his success to Edwin. Edwin wanted some documents, and Picenon got them easily by pick-pocketing Marcus. Finally all the tasks I wanted done while the potions were active were done. Picenon rested for weeks IDing his stuff sold his junk putting him about 16,000 gold, and considering his next move...

[Krazy Solo]

First and Last Update for Reyalp.....

I mean come on really dying in the starting dungeon is a bit of a downer. Especially concidering how op the class Blade is. No didn't die to the Druegars or the Mephits he dies to the Cambian. Slap insults my way the cambian was one hit from death for 5 rounds not one of the party member could land a decent roll. As such ends the young career of Reyalp.

Eventually I'm gonna get lucky get pass the initial pre-teen levels one of these days.

[Grond0]

corey_russell wrote...
Next up, the epic battle with Rayic Gethras. My plan was to try to one-shot him, and if that didn't work, use improve invisibility and got some hits in. Picenon's haste was still active. Picenon laid 2 traps downstairs as a back-up maneuver. Picenon went upstairs tried a backstab..nothing? Rayic must have stoneskins active. Time to activate the improved invisibility...

Piceon did save, and he even has 80% chance to do so, but I consider it a failure of my strategy. I certaily can't rely on "luck" to get all the way to Melissan...I realize my close call and run downstairs and hide in the shadows...what to do...what to do...guess will go upstairs, summon the berserker, and run back down...this was a great play as the berserker was "killed" but too the finger of death spell! Tried the genie, who also died quickly, then Picenon hid and tried to take a single hit, and run back down. This seemed to work as Rayic tried to cast something, but not in time. So Picenon tried it once more..Rayic still alive (heck what NPC wouldn't be with 1 dmg a hit they are taking)...Picenon went upstairs and heard "sound" though he wasn't sure what...where's Rayic? He did do a shadow door...Picenon looted upstairs, no Rayic body...so Picenon went downstairs (hidden of course) and Rayic tripped the traps Picenon had for him, and the traps were fatal.

Well done Corey, keep it going.  I do use the single attack, run and hide, return ... strategy myself a lot, but there are a couple of alternatives you might want to consider:
- potion of firebreath is superb against stoneskinned mages, though there are limited supplies (so I would tend not to use them where the run and hide strategy is easy to carry out).  A longer-lasting alternative to this is the ring of energy (which functions in the same way, but does much less damage).
- if you avoid wearing the cloak of non-detection mages have a chance to sense your presence and cast a detection spell (I think - can't remember how vanilla handles this).  If that's so then a nice idea is to linger next to your victim until they sense you and start casting.  This gives you a full round to attack them in while their aura is clouded.

Also, if you're feeling cheesy, I think that in vanilla Ribald has an infinite supply of rings of air control!

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...


Also, if you're feeling cheesy, I think that in vanilla Ribald has an infinite supply of rings of air control!

Thanks for your tips. Actually I am aware of the infinite rings...I still have other things I need (like Kangaxx ring), but when I don't know what to spend my money on, I'll be doing the above...

I did have some firebreath potions, guess I will be keeping that in mind, am thinking of doing the Umar Hills quest soon, so might use it against the shade lord...

[corey_russell]

Picenon the level 10 fighter/level 13 thief continues his adventure...incredible good fortune...

I still can't believe what Picenon managed to do..more on that in a moment. First though, Picenon needed some cash. So it was time to deal with Maevar and his guild. For the ground floor level, long before the battle ever started, Picenon had laid down 3 snares. That plus backstabs finished off this floor.

For Maevar himself, Picenon put up his friends (level 9 berserker via horn, genie from lamp) and put up improved invsibility on himself via ring then his "party" moved forward. Picenon, using the Namarra, once again one-shotted an enemy, Maevar himself in this case. The battle went well as you can see below.


Picenon reported his success to Renal, declined a thieve's guild (my charactars always seem to lose  the stronghold -- I much prefer the fighter stronghold anyways).

You may ask, why did I need cash this moment? For 2 protection from undead scrolls and a protection from magic scroll. Why? Sure one can guess -- I think Kangaxx ring will improve Picenon's chances dramatically.

So first stop was the Temple Sewers. Picenon went around the bandit party, he's not dealing with them yet. He let Keldorn join, very temporarily though. Keldorn & Picenon fought their way to Gaal and got the key. Then Picenon kicked out Keldorn at the entrance to this area.

Via a protection from undead scroll and daystar melee, Picenon destroyed the lich in the sarcophagus. Picenon than ran to the bridge district, and got two undead scrolls (even if he doesn't use, he wants for Umar Hills quest) - his protection from undead was still active. He battled another lich the same way as the other.

Picenon traveled to the docks next. He had to use a thieving potion to open an unmarked door. The 3 minotaurs were defeated by backstabs (in/out the door).

Time for Kangaxx himself! Picenon put up protection from magic and initiated dialog...I've heard you can get two rings, though I've never succeeded before...well it finally happened! Pick-pocket was a success! I coudn't believe it. During the fight, Picenon used detect illlusions many times, used a haste potion and sunray via the daystar. Melee was via the Staff of Rynn. Success!


With the two rings, Picenon now has negative saves for wands and spells. Of coures, this doesn't actually make him immune to spells, as some have no saves, and others penalty to saves - but it sure increases his chances of survival! Here's his equipment now...


To this point, I never have soloed BG 2 without reloading...I think this is my best chance to do so ever. Will try to make it count...

Modifié par corey_russell, 24 mars 2012 - 02:58 .

[Grond0]

Nice one Corey.  When you mentioned ring of Kangaxx before I did wonder if you would manage to get 2 versions - shame that's no longer possible in BGT.

Kami, kensai with pretensions to become a thief in due course, squeaked through BG1 and has embarked on his adventures in Amn.

His stay there was very nearly measured in seconds rather than minutes.  Remember the lightning mephit that is the first thing you come across.  No trouble I hear you say - maybe, but how about if he gates in 3 friends immediately!

They were also doing a lot more damage than I expected - one lightning bolt doing 17 HPs.  Kami very quickly decided fighting would be fatal and ran for it.  Unfortunately they fly faster than he can run and there was no chance of getting enough lead to slam a door in their faces.  Taking a potion on the run kept him alive, but prospects don't look good here.

I thought his best chance was to stop round a corner and try and limit the number that could target him at once.  Fortunately the equipment on offer already included a katana, so he was able to put his grand mastery of that weapon to good use, as well as finishing off the last one with a Bhaal drain life.


After that breathless beginning he finished working on the top level (except ogre mage and elemental area) and moved down to the mephit portals.  If the first mephit was a lot harder than expected, these were a lot easier!  A single kai (lasting 10 seconds) was sufficient to kill all the portals, starting with the radiant one and working back.  Meanwhile none of the mephits were successful in their efforts to gate in reinforcements.


Included in the equipment brought through from BG1 were the horn and claw of Kazgoroth.  The horn has already been used several times for its ability to stop 1st and 2nd level spells.  Here, it's in action against the duergar mage.

The assassins, who killed one of my characters not long ago, caused no problem.  The first one got a backstab in, but then fell to a kai critical.  The other 2 both missed and didn't get second chances.

[BelgarathMTH]

Fascinating reading, Corey, UssNorway, and Grond0.

Quick question: Does a Prot from Undead scroll make you immune to Imprisonment and other deadly spells cast by a lich? Also, what would be the difference between that and a Prot from Magic scroll? Do they both amount to the same thing for lich-hunters?

Modifié par BelgarathMTH, 24 mars 2012 - 05:00 .

[Grond0]

Prot from undead is intended to stop the undead from noticing you - I think it's very effective in vanilla, much less so if you have SCS installed. It won't therefore protect you from imprisonment directly, but will stop it being targeted on you in the first place.

Prot from magic stops magical effects impacting on you, so would protect against imprisonment. I can't remember whether in vanilla it stops spells that ignore magic resistance (like sunfire).

[corey_russell]

BelgarathMTH wrote...

Fascinating reading, Corey, UssNorway, and Grond0.

Quick question: Does a Prot from Undead scroll make you immune to Imprisonment and other deadly spells cast by a lich? Also, what would be the difference between that and a Prot from Magic scroll? Do they both amount to the same thing for lich-hunters?

Grond0's explanatio is correct. Basically with pro-undead active, I can just whack away and they do nothing because they don't notice me.

As for the battle with Kangaxx -- the battle actually has two phases in vanilla, he is normal lich form and casts a lot of spells, then he changes to demi-lich, which mostly just spams imprisonment. The pro-magic scroll I used here allowed me to be protected from both the mages spells and the imprisonments. Think the only thing that damaged me was the Djinn's melee and the Djinn's fireshield.

I've battled Kangaxx before with pro-undead scrolls and I definitely prefer pro-magic scroll, as he has some contingency that removed my buffs, so had to quickly re-up the pro-undead protection, hairy to say the least when imprisonment is in an oppponent's arsenal.

[aVENGER_]

Grond0 wrote...
Remember the lightning mephit that is the first thing you come across.  No trouble I hear you say - maybe, but how about if he gates in 3 friends immediately!

Looks like you got a bit unlucky. There's only a 5-10% chance for a lightning mephit to gate-in more than one of its kind, but it does occur occasionally.

Unfortunately they fly faster than he can run and there was no chance of getting enough lead to slam a door in their faces.

Incidentally, mephits, fiends, humanoid opponents and a few other intelligent monsters will be able to open unlocked doors as of the next aTweaks release.

[corey_russell]

Picenon the level 12 fighter/level 14 thief (solo) continues his adventure...

When we last heard from Picenon (pronounced Pik-uh-non) he had a protection from magic scroll active and had just defeated Kangaxx. Now that his saves are so good, it's time to get his haste boots.

So pursuing that goal, he headed to the Temple District Sewers and entered Mekrath's lair. Picenon dealt with Mekrath first, as who knows how long Picenon's scroll will last. The battle lasted forever, Picenon wished his detect illusions was better (25% atm), but Picenon prevailed.

Next up were a large group of Umber Hulks. Picenon put on his girdle of bluntness, which puts his AC to blunt at -14 -- this tanked a group of 6 umber hulks well, though he did have to potion a few times. He kept the girdle on, as Picenon suspects he'll encounter more in the Planar Prison (which he did). The pro-magic scroll expired during this fight, however. After getting the Bard's gem, Picenon paid a stop by Roger and obtained some invulnerability potions. Using one of these will put his saves at negatives.

Once at the playhouse, PIcenn used the potion of invulnerability and DUHM (going to miss this ability when I hit spellhold) and charged into the portal. I used yet another play out of Grond0's playbook and used one firebreath potion on the nearby mage, since I was unable to one-shot the mage, due to stoneskins probably. The firebreath potion killed the mage outright! Wow that was effective...using the kangaxx ring haste, the rest of the enemies were no problem.

Next 3 thralls to the right were backstabbed. Much easier to get distance from enemies to stealth now that Picenon is using the haste boots. Next group was lots of Umber Hulks and some thrall mages. Picenon backstabbed and one-shotted a mage and ran and hid. He got another backstab on an umber hulk who tried to follow. He couldn't hide anymore, too many enemies spread out, so Picenon had to melee the enemies down. He potioned a few times to heal, but was never in danger. The confusion attacks never took, as Picenon still wears the SoH -- he heard of an alternate universe were a PC had negative saves vs. spells but still got dominated (a run of Grond0's), so wasn't taking any chances.

Against the Master of Thralls, PIcenon sent his berseker and genie -- he didn't expect them to be effective, but they should draw out the demon's stun attack (which they did). Picenon then assisted. When meleeing the demon, Picneon had to do a LOT of healing, lot of kangaxx ring haste too, but eventually the demon and his two pet air elementals were slain. The staff of air was quite welcome addition to Picenon's arsenal. He's thinking ahead, as Tanova will still be quite a challenge, despite PIcenon's tools and levels. In particular, Picenon hopes to draw out her maze on a summon so she can't maze him (which would end his no-reload run).

But that's the future. Now it was time to take on the Warden. Wow, what a battle. In my parties, one of my magic casters or inquisitors just dispel the Warden's buffs, when he then falls quite easily to concentrated fire. However, I had no way to dispel his buffs. I did try to detect illusions many times, but it rarely was effective (still at 25% skill).

So as a result, Picenon got to witness the Warden's impressive spell arsenal. The warden summoned like 6 animate dead (good thing Warden isn't level 15 or those would be skeletal warriors instead). He also summoned like 6 phase spiders! For characters with low AC and no poison immunity that easily can be fatal as their poison is pretty strong - fortunately, Picenon immune to their poison thanks to his kangaxx ring.

Due to the Warden's fireshield, Picenon also got to lower than 90 hp, which meant Picenon got stunned by the warden's power word: stun. This would normally be a bad situation. However, instead of hasting himself and charging into melee, which has a chance of killing Picenon, instead the Warden chose to cast some spells - flesh to stone, disintegrate, sunfire...so as a result PIcenon actually GAINED health while being stunned due to his regeneration.

So when the stun wore off, Picenon went after the warden once more. Warden's defenses were still considerable. He had mirror images, many shadow doors, improved invisibility...the Warden finally cast a spell (fireball maybe) that ended up killing himself.

Picenon was relieved to find the Troupe and get ported back to the Prime Material plane...

Picenon remembered he wanted to help the village of Immesvale (so that the level of undead don't become too powerful, the gold would be welcome, as well as the high AC leather armor as reward). So headed to the abandoned temple of Amaunator. Many undead here...as it turned out, he did NOT have to use his protection from undead scroll at all! This is because with his haste boots and being so dark in the dungeon, Picenon was always able to run away and hide and come back for another backstab, etc. During this process, he got his best backstab to date using the Namarra:


He did encounter a greater mummy, but it was too slow to be a threat. Interestingly enough, the 2nd batch of mass of undead by the Amaunator's fire-trap puzzle (e.g., the one you have walk spelling his name to not get zapped) NEVER appeared. Possibly this happened as Picenon was stealthed while moving in this area. Picenon one-shotted a bone golem with staff of striking.

Once Picenon gets immunity to level drain, then he will be quite willing to engage the shadow dragon. at 3 million experience Picenon will be able to use the AoP and just whittle the dragaon away with his Tuigan's, as the dragon can only level drain as an attack if I'm standing in the cubby. I'm not 3 million experience yet, however, so passed for now.

Picenon got a big backstab on the Shade Lord. It didn't kill him, but enabled him to die quickly to kangaxx ring haste, despite the Shade Lord's stoneskins. Patrick and the altar were no problem after that.

Picenon would like to do D'arnise keep next, but theres a TON of magical ammo there. Ammo fills up a bag of holding quickly, so Picenon really needs to get the ammo belt in Watcher's Keep. Picenon "heard" from somewhere that someone solo used a protection from undead. Picenon is glad he used the same technique, as there were a mass of undead that could level drain him otherwise. Picenon cleared the enemies and loot around the edges, but left the statues alone for now.

In any case, Picenon now has his ammo belt, so he should be able to do D'arnise Keep. Though he changed his mind and did trademeet instead - he has lot of cash, is hoping that special merchant spawns (which hasn't yet).

Modifié par corey_russell, 24 mars 2012 - 09:49 .

[Grond0]

@aVENGER_ sounds like even more problems for the solo no-reload player on the horizon.

Update for Kami, kensai.

Emerging from the dungeon got him to level 9 - here are his stats.  Most of the money earnt to date went on improving reputation, but enough was saved to buy a katana +1 for use in the circus - that was cleared without trouble.

Next Kami freed the slaves in the Copper Coronet and oversaw a change in ownership.  Then he ventured into the sewers and successfully avoided the traps there while dealing with various nasties.  A party of CoM thieves provided some nice loot, including a flail with fire damage, which would come in handy against trolls.  He also recovered Lilarcor which gave him some immunities against spell attacks.

Moving on to the slaver HQ he quickly accounted for the cleric with a kai attack.  The mages heard the noise and came running, which was good as Kami wanted them next to an exit anyway.  It took a while to deal with them safely by either running away from spells or quickly equipping Lilarcor.

After reporting back to Hendak Kami's reputation was up to 20, providing a good deal at the shops.  Initial purchases included the ring of air control.  The first outing for this was to try and acquire a baby brother ring of invisibility.  A potion of speed increased his attacks to 4 a round; Brennan tried to run away from him, but failed miserably.  The other members of the party were chased up and down the stairs without problems - Amon being the last to fall.

Feeling well equipped now Kami ventured to the docks to buy a cloak that would get his charisma up to 20.  On the return journey he ran into a slaver ambush, but this caused no trouble thanks to the ring of air control and a potion of firebreath.

Next time will probably keep his promise to Nalia and go and help free her home.

[Gate70]

Nice going Corey, Grond0

Tunner, LG male elf stalker. With Minsc, Jaheira and "The Yoshimo?"

"Feared by all?" So he should be, throwing a snare into a group of hobgoblins. Many are dead, with the remaining three held.

Jaheira dooms Captain Haegan and Minsc requires two extra healing potions to kill him. I'm stabbing slavers with my dagger as Jaheira swings her quarterstaff. Soon they are all dead. We celebrate by killing a pair of trolls and releasing three children.

Two yuan-ti precede another room of slavers. We kill them, but Minsc has been held and killed so Jaheira raises him after our next rest. He suggests we could have dispelled the hold, why didn't we think of that.

We head to the docks, then realise we can't do much so head to the Bridge district instead. We are ambushed by Suna Seni, allowing us to obtain some items that look valuable. A second ambush sees us rescue Rylock, but I'm worried we've been marked as targets for every opportunist in this city.

Back at the docks we upset a mad cleric, return Rylock and put a job for Xzar on the back-burner. This is followed by two ambushes, accepting jobs for Renal Bloodscalp/Yoshimo and Umar Hills/Minsc. I make sure we do just enough to keep Minsc and Yoshimo happy, then stick them in my diary to do later. Jaheira is jabbering away and I suspect my terse reply has finally stopped her notions of romance.

Modifié par Gate70, 24 mars 2012 - 10:06 .

[corey_russell]

Picenon (pronounced pik-uh-non) the solo gnomish level 13 fighter/level 15 thief continues his adventure...

With his -10 AC, Picenon thought he should be able to take care of the trademeet druid problem in direct combat. In my party games, I usually come here when my tanks have -6 AC. While the trolls did get SOME hits in, in all cases they died before Picenon.

I ran into a couple of unkillable trolls. Fortunately, running away, hiding and then just walking past them was enough to continue. Before showing myself to the shadow druids, I cast protection from lightning on myself via scroll -- call lightning defense. As it so happens though, no shadow druid ever targeted me with that. The main reason is the first group got sniped by Picenon while they were fighting trolls. The 2nd reason is Picenon tried a silence from out of sight (via Namarra) and it successfully silenced THREE shadow druids. Picenon charged, backstabbed a shadow druid, one-shotting him, and charged the only druid who can cast anything The druid managed to cast some defensive spells, but all his offensive spells were interrrupted then he was killed, as was his silenced buddies.

Picenon's short-term goal is to get 3,000,000 as soon as he can -- this will allow use of the AoP via UAI HLA. After everything mentioned in this post, he's at 2.56 million. So this means he's killing every trash mob he can (except I guess goblins or kobolds). He did pick up the belm, but he doesn't intend to dual-wield quite yet. He wants to get one proficiency for axe (Azuredge), then he can put some points in dual-wielding. In any case, the trademeet problem was solved by letting Cernd trash Faldorn. Even though Cernd is the one that did the deed, Picenon is the one who got the credit -- for being the boss I guess.

After reporting my success to the Mayor of Trademeet and resting in town, the special merchant showed up! Picenon wasted no time in purchasing the cloak of displacement and belt of inertial barrier. These items (and his levels) put him at negative saves in all categories.

Since the trolls in the grove were handle so well, Picenon headed to D'Arnise Keep to help Nalia. Nalia did not join, Picenon cleared the keep by himself. Most fights were opening backstab plus longsword of flame to finish the trolls. That troll that breaks into smaller trolls, the smaller ones became unkillable, so I closed the door to keep them in a room. The yuan-ti mage on the 2nd floor was backstabbed and one-shotted via the Namarra.

Glaicas put up a little more fight, but not much. Picenon laid a snare, and then opened the fight with a backstab on Glaicas. Picenon than ran to the small room and hid. Glaicas followed, tripped the snare, then was finished witha  backstab. Er, no, not going to trade blows with Glaicas...

All the golems except the Iron Golem were defeated simply by a potion of absorption. For the Iron Golem, Picenon ran out of the golem room, and defeated the Iron Golem by hitting it out its melee range with the Staff of Rhynn.

The potion of absorption was still active when fighting the umber hulks. However, I was unable to one-shot a single one by backstab, in all cases it took two. So Picenon would strike, run into the cells area and hide and then finish whichever umber hulk was closest.

Picenon pulled out the stops for Torgal. Lesser Air elemental, berserker and genie via items and 3 snares. Picenon tried to pull just Torgal himself, but both he and his buddies came. Fortunately Torgal (rather than his guards) tripped most of the snares, so he died quickly. While the summons were keeping the guards busy, Picenon ran out and hid and then came in for two different backstabs. By then the last summon had died, so it was trading blows time. The troll got a massive hit in, Picenon was at 50% health - but the large troll was near death, so that wasn't much help for it.

Nalia was pleased with Picenon's success, and Picenon was made lord of the keep.

[BelgarathMTH]

Great job, guys and gals!

What are CoM thieves?

[corey_russell]

Picenon the solo gnomish level 13 fighter/level 16 thief continues his adventure...Mencar's and Tarnor's gang

Now that Picenon is level 13, he gets 3 attacks per round with the Namarra, and that's WiTH sword and shield. Since his saves are VERY negative now, he switched out the SoH for the Reflection Shield. I initally battled Tarnor's gang (and won) first, but I went invisible and tried to rest and the game crashed! I had to do Tarnor's gang over again...

Well, since the deja vu was forced I decided to do something different. In my attempt before the game crash, Picenon actually waited out the 3 true sights of Gaius -- that took forever to say the least. Therefore, Picenon, decided to take a different tack, namely visit Mencar Pebblecrusher's gang and get their cloak of non-detection.

He prepped with potion of absorption, 2 snares downstairs and two upstairs, mainly to catch any one trying to flee. Risling looking at you...then DUHM and attack Risling first. No way to get at his back so was just a normal hit. I managed to run and hide and hit him but he survived that too...

Picenon was never in serious danger but just annnoyed by things with no saves like magic missiles. To speed things up he actually used the invisibilities of both kangaxx rings, invisibility ring and ring of air control. He was still taking more damage than he wanted, so he broke down and summoned his pet berserker, which quickly decided the battle. Yay, cloak of non-detection is now Picenon's. He won't have to wait out Gaius true sights this go around.

Back to the Temple District Sewers...I forgot about the "respawns"..there were kobolds and goblins everywhere. There weren't a threat, per se, but they did interfere with my attempts to hide in the shadows. I ended up summoning fodder to clear those enemies so I can concentrate on Tarnor's gang...

I decided to backstab the closest enemy, who in this case is Tarnor -- I got a massive backstab, biggest so far:


Picenon then booked it out there and hid....he was so fast that Tarnor's gang didn't even turn hostile! Next target was obvious with that result...Gaius you're gone. Oh, now the gang is hostile.


In Picenon's ecape this time two of the gangers moved to the left side of the sewer...two clerics I think are wide open...Picenon sneaks in, tries a backstab, and nails one...Zorl.

Picenon escaped to the right side of the sewer, where some kobolds were in the way and trying to confuse things with their entangle. Someone tries to pursue, and gets in the entangle, and finds my berserker who wasn't doing anything as he did the job I assigned him, take out the annoying kobolds...so Picenon and the zereker finished Rengaard...


Two more enemies left by the goblins..Picenon tries to one-shot Gallchobhair, but Gallchobhair survives, however he is near death so two more seconds of melee finishes him...


One guy left, Draug Fea, hanging out with the goblins. Needless to say, the goblins were not his saviour, if that what he was hoping....


Still not quite 3 million experience yet, so guess will check out the cult of the Unseeing Eye...

Modifié par corey_russell, 25 mars 2012 - 03:58 .