15232 réponses à ce sujet

[Grond0]

Well done Corey - looking good for ToB.

[corey_russell]

Thank you Grond0. It feels good to get a solo no-reload of BG 2 under my belt. It's interesting that the early stages of solo of BG 2 is so tenuous, so easy to be K.O'd, but then with more experience under one's belt (talking about both personal experience and level experience), much easier than even party play. The shorty saves have proven invaluable...I doubt I would have been quite so successful as a dual class fighter/thief. This run has been the 5th iteration of Picenon, it's pleasing the earlier "clones" of Picenon did not die in vain, they gave extremely valuable lessons for the future attempts.

A little history lesson:
- the first clone of Picenon died to Neira - that's when you told me about using in/out doors when solo
- 2nd did much better, but underestimated flesh golems, as well as bad tactical play of using magic protection scroll against sirenes as now I couldn't heal myself against the golems.
- 3rd beat BG 1, only to quickly succumb to mephits in Irenicus lair. This taught me the importance of timing, e.g. this go around for example, I waited until it said "Hide in shadows succeeded" THEN I ran to the genie lamp -- this way even if the next round of hiding failed, none of the mephits would see me. I used precise timing extensively this run, firing cloudkill, immediately hiding, etc.
- 4th beat BG 1, only to get held by a slaver in the copper coronet. This taught me hiding in the shadows only does so much, and that defense is more important. e.g., that run I dual-wielded. This run I'm not dual-wielding until ToB, sword & shield (emphasizing defense) proved a sound strategy for a long time. While I've known charm defense in BG 2 has always been critical, solo or not, hold just as important for solo. Hence the very early obtaining of the Shield of Harmony, which I basically used until my saves were negative.
- 5th - this run. Even if I should die an ignominious death in ToB, I consider this run a success. As I go along, I know I need to give serious thought and consideration to the numerous and powerful enemies I will have to face when dealing with Melissan. I'm open to any and all ideas on this particular point. With the exception of a single melee heavy group with a powerful dispeller, almost all my successes against Melissan to date have been groups capable of many powerful summons.

Modifié par corey_russell, 28 mars 2012 - 06:20 .

[ussnorway]

Ud9;
@corey_russell, Congratulations on beating SoA... A solid performance.

p.s.

I would typically only ask Haer’dalis to tank an Adamanite Golem because he has the best possible armour rating i.e. somewhere in the negative twenties by that game stage, however IMO traps or various range weapons are generally what’s needed to dispatch the brutes... did you get ambushed/ trapped somehow?

Chapter 3:



The toughest part of chapter three was the fight for my spider trinket... I truly hate all things bug-ish & spiders are at the top of my list. Haer’dalis dropped a ‘CloudKill’ (wand) and we bashed them down.


   

 

I gave the AoP to my BF and let him tank the undead... at this stage he is only -16 (spin) but that lets Do’Dad concentrate on his ‘turn’ & allows Alyssia the freedom to dispatch them with her “Mielikki's Gift”*. I was a little concerned when Tanova managed to resist the hold effect of Yoshimo’s special trap but I had a couple of ‘Skull trap’s held in reserve & they proved up to the task.

On a side note:

 

I decided to go with ‘Contingency’ as my next pick. As for ambushes, it appears that word of my exploits is starting to spread amongst the bandits... their new battle cry is along the lines of “OMG Ormaline is approaching!”

Bug Report:*



After equipping the “Mielikki's Gift” I noticed that its stats were acting strangely... a quick test revealed that there was no armour decreasing effect and despite having two pips in Scimitar, Alyssia couldn’t hit the side of a shed with it. I’m not sure what mod did it (fix-pack or SCS are prime suspects) but one of them buggered up the Scimitar proficiency needed to wield this sword... it’s hardly a game breaking bug & I simply used NI to fix it.

[corey_russell]

No, I didn't get ambushed, they were simply in my way of the door I needed. Beating them by tanking was no problem per se, they are just tough is all. I had many hastes after all (thanks to the 2 rings of gaxx), so the result was certain, just a scary prospect on the adamantite golems.

[Gate70]

Congratulations Corey. Auto-pause on target gone has helped me on "busy" party fights, looks like it is worth enabling for certain solo encounters too. Good luck for the final part.

[Gate70]

Varel, LG human male cavalier.

BGT with core fixpack, Ascension and Generalized Biffing.

Tidying up from BG1.
I retrieve a tome of wisdom from Durlags Tower, saving against the trap effects but safe in the knowledge that I am immune to charm. There is no sign of Marek or Lothander so the eighth tome is beyond my reach.

Belt sends me off and before I know it I am in trouble.


Worse, Irenicus casts a Shadowkeeper spell and forces my experience back to 161k. I free Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira but they all leave so am on my own again. At least Imoen opened a trapped container and identified my pantaloons before she left.

I use Pfe, DUHM and rest often. I survive a steam mephit stun to kill goblins, mephits, golems, Ilyich, a Cambion and an otyugh. Now I have the helm of Balduran and a strange shadowy statue, plus the pommel jewel of a sword.

I take on a room of mephits one or two at a time, allowing me to safely retrieve the sword of Chaos. Another brief steam mephit stun is survived, but a salt mephit stun has a goblin attacking me too. They don't hurt me much and once I recover their lives are short.

I add more duergar, a vampire, thieves and a doppelganger. Imoen is outside, getting herself arrested. Irenicus has done me a favour though, as I gain enough experience from his madhouse to almost remember what he has removed from me earlier. Simply telling a genie the ages of a prince and princess see my skills with a mace improve. A few shadows later I have killed Kalah and traded a few items.

I suppose I ought to rescue Imoen, but have a couple of important things to do first free action and negative plane protection, can think how to get the latter but need to think about the former as using Arbane compromises attacks.

[Grond0]

corey_russell wrote...
A little history lesson:
- 3rd beat BG 1, only to quickly succumb to mephits in Irenicus lair. This taught me the importance of timing, e.g. this go around for example, I waited until it said "Hide in shadows succeeded" THEN I ran to the genie lamp -- this way even if the next round of hiding failed, none of the mephits would see me. I used precise timing extensively this run, firing cloudkill, immediately hiding, etc.

I'm impressed with your ability to quote history!

In relation to hide in shadows if you break stealth yourself (press hide in shadows button) then there's no delay in being ably to reapply stealth.  I do this routinely so that there's no need to wait for the next hide in shadows check in order to give yourself plenty of time to get past something.

[Grond0]

Gate70 wrote...
I take on a room of mephits one or two at a time, allowing me to safely retrieve the sword of Chaos. Another brief steam mephit stun is survived, but a salt mephit stun has a goblin attacking me too. They don't hurt me much and once I recover their lives are short.

I suppose I ought to rescue Imoen, but have a couple of important things to do first free action and negative plane protection, can think how to get the latter but need to think about the former as using Arbane compromises attacks.

Sounds like Varel is chancing his arm - hope his luck holds.  For the start of the game I think potions are probably your best bet.  There are a number of potions of freedom available.  In addition invisibility and magic shielding will usually do as alternatives, while a combination of invulnerability and stone form will probably get your saves into safe areas.

[corey_russell]

I think it should be mentioned that the "criminal" wanted by the trademeet genies has many useful potions for a soloist, but you won't be able to buy from her if you kill her. Also Jan will see her as she really is, blowing her cover and setting her hostile.

[BelgarathMTH]

Gratz, everybody. Following you guys and gals is really helpful. I may be able to get through future SoA and ToB runs with fewer reloads.

[Blackmalkin]

Ayakanya the wild mage continues her adventure in Shadows of Amn (unmodded). No berserkers will accompany her there, as she is going to lead a party of mages. I must admit it was rather hard to part ways with Minsc. I even considered letting him tag along for time, but resisted the thought (by the way – I checked that cursed sword of berserking and it’s +3 in BG 1 but +5 in BG 2, despite description). Ayakanya’s starting stats:



She doesn’t want to share Asati’s fate, so after the escape from Irenicus’ dungeon her favourite spell was Protection from Petrification. I decided that I wouldn’t be amused if she had turned herself to stone while casting that spell, so it was soon taught to Aerie, the first mage to join Ayakanya after Imoen’s abduction. Nalia and Jan Jansen joined soon after. Second SCS playthrough taught me that Melf’s Minute Meteor is a great spell and it was learned by every party member together with Minor Globe of Invulnerability. From other important spells Ayakanya learned Lower Resistance, Contingency (Improved Invisibility if helpless) and Limited Wish. Soon all of her first level spells were Nahal’s Reckless Dwoemers and one of their main uses were to summon genies to restore party’s spells and protect them with Globes.

Before going to Nalia’s castle, party did the harper quest. Trolls didn’t cause much trouble, umber hulks and golems were avoided (apart from the iron one, which was stripped of his magic immunity and killed with Magic Missiles). Back in Athkatla Ayakanya bought the Robe of Vecna and started working for Renal Bloodscalp. The only hard part was killing the Cowled Wizard. I thought it hard, that is. Turned out that Melf’s Meteors killed the stone golems about as fast as a crazed berserker would. The mage himself took one volley of Meteors before his protections kicked in, and was then finished by Ayakanya’s Cone of Cold. Edwin joined the party and helped in killing Mae’var. A small accident happened during that event – one Fireball too many meant death of a prisoner, and some money had to be donated at the nearby temple of Oghma.

After receiving a reward from Renal some money was donated to the Shadow Thieves as well, though I prefer to think it was buying two powerful items at a bargain price. Both went to Ayakanya. Meanwhile, she learned Spell Sequencer and started using it to create triple Fireball combos (via Nahal’s, of course). After an audience with Aran Linvail party embarked on a journey which ended up in a graveyard. It wasn’t as grim as it may sound – they just wanted to stash some things in one of the tombs and rest in peace (and for free, too). Then they decended below ground and killed some spiders. Ayakanya had some problems with summoning a genie – first she polymorphed into a white wolf, then she changed her sex:



It led to truly dire ramifications – Aerie started romancing with Ayakanya. Ah, the plot thickens! Especially that party is on their way to get a certain scroll for Edwin...

Other interesting wild surges included: petrification on Ayakanya (she was protected, so wasn’t that interesting), summoning a demon (everyone managed to escape before he attacked), gold vanishing (twice, but both when party was as poor as an unlucky wild mage anyway) and a great success in genie summoning:



Oh, and she also keeps getting those damn berries.

Party status:
Ayakanya – wild mage 12, 56 HP (with Pale Green Ioun Stone), fav. spell: Chaos Shield (I’m afraid that it’s just not possible to have Nahal’s as favourite)
Nalia – thief 4/mage 11, 64 HP, fav. spell: Magic Missile
Edwin – conjurer 10, 52 HP, fav. spell: Melf’s Minute Meteor
Aerie – cleric 10/mage 11, 46 HP (with Helm of Balduran), fav. spell: Melf’s Minute Meteor
Jan Jansen – illusionist 10/thief 11, 48 HP, fav. spell: Melf’s Minute Meteor

I suppose it’s rather obvious that Melf’s Minute Meteor is everyone’s favourite weapon.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 07 avril 2012 - 08:12 .

[ussnorway]

@Blackmalkin, Wlecome aboard.

I like her picture but her charisma is only 3... hygiene products must be hard to come by in Irenicus’ dungeon?

Would you consider Haer’dalis for the sixth spot, at least until you get Imoen back... not really a mage but he can cast arcane spells?

[Blackmalkin]

ussnorway wrote...
Would you consider Haer’dalis for the sixth spot, at least until you get Imoen back... not really a mage but he can cast arcane spells?

Well, he's my favourite NPC so I think I'll allow him to join.

[corey_russell]

Picenon the solo gnomish fighter/thief continues his adventure...

I didn't think it was relevant to mention his levels as he will be level 24 fighter/level 28 thief for the rest of the game...

Anyways on his initial arrival to Saradush and had to battle some enemies. He had hardiness active and used GWW, then whittled them down. He had fighter armor too, so that helped his AC. Picenon will be dual-wielding in ToB much more than BG 2. Already I see he will be switching armor/equipment around a lot, depending on what's he's facing.

First, he tried to talk to the lady of the temple, to ask for the key to the Jail so that Picenon could get to Gromnir. She refused, she didn't trust Picenon. Picenon belatedly reailzed that the reason why is his alignment. So there is a side effect of using the blackrazor after all...fortunately though that key is not the only way to the castle.

Picenon found a locked sewer door. He figures soldiers had the key so crashed their barracks. This screenshot looks much scarier than it really was...

What the screenshot doesn't tell you is the Picenon is immune to all weapons +1 and lower, and all the soldiers are using un-enchanted weapons. Rather than manually target them all (that would be a pain). I used the customize button and temporarily gave him a standard attack script so I can just watch the action. Normally Picenon has no script. Took a while, but Piceon eventually killed all the riff-raff and got the sewer key.

Picenon saw no point in fighting in the sewers, there were no upgrades here. So he hid until he got a door in the north wall and picked it. Well that showed himself and yet again he was surrounded, mostly by shadow fiends.

Not too dangerous, as only the devil fiend can hit him. However, Picenon hopes being surrouded is not going to be a common thing for him, as that doesn't allow much use of his thief skills...Picenon got level drained here...he realizes in ToB at least, he's not sure what enemies can or can't level drain, so he will just keep AoP permanently equipped. He doesn't need to use the amulet of seldarine anymore to get 100% magic resist because of the innate magic resist he gained in Hell.

Once in Gromnir's Castle, Picenon scouted and saw a room of melees only, no mages. Equipped staff of striking, but no enemies ever got one-shotted. Picenon did a lot of running away/hiding/backstabbing and repeat. Picenon decided the staff of striking just wasn't working for him (it didn't do much for him in BG 2 either). So instead, he switched to the Staff of Rynn. He laid a few normal snares, just for the heck of it, and otherwise repeated this process for the next two rooms of melees.

Picenon scouted upstairs and saw a balanced party including a mage. Time to switch equipment around. He laid 3 normal snares, equipped his best equipment for saves/magic resist EXCEPT the Staff of Rhyn (so he can backstab) and went upstairs, backstabbed and went back down and hid. No one followed. He basically repeated this process until all enemies except the mage were dead. Time to switch gear - equipped Carsomyr, then picked up/put back his other magic resist gear. I'm not sure if this is a bug or by design, but the Carsomyr sets magic resist to 50%. But if you pick up your other magic resist gear (which say + instead of set) then Picenon can get his magic resist to 105. He then goes upstairs swings at the mage and lets the mage do whatever he wants until the mage is no more.

Okay, now Gromnier and his close allies are next. Picenon is not taking these lightly that's for sure. Picenon buffs with hardiness, potion of absorption and true sight (via scroll). He also equips his best magic resist gear. In addition, he swaps out the belt of inertial barrier for belt of piercing -- will help against both the thieves and archers, magic damage little threat when magic resist is more than 100...

Ok, he goes upstairs and triggers the fight. Clearly, Gromnir is the most dangerous thing to PIcenon, so Picenon approches him and uses a GWW. Gromnier still kicking, another GWW (weapon is Carsomyr). Ok, Gromnir down!

Now to target a melee lackey and...wait what's this? Someone wants to talk in the middle of the batte, wasting my GWW by the way?

Melissan your timing is not very good. However, Gromnir's bhaalspawn body guards were courteous enough to wait until we were done talking...

Now where was I, oh yes GWW some melees/archers. Had to potion, but otherwise only mages left. Had I been a party, those mages would have done some serious mojo, fireballs, sunfires, horrid wiltings, etc. But Picenon just laughs and starts swinging his paladin sword. Picenon did take quite a bit of damage from the mage's fireshields, as apparently they bypass magic resistance, but it didn't help the mages, they eventually fell.

Picenon did help a local mage with his spellbook problem - mainly as Picenon needs the extra potion bag badly. Otherwise he's pretty much done with Saradush and will follow the lead Melissan gave him next.

Modifié par corey_russell, 29 mars 2012 - 02:53 .

[ussnorway]

@Blackmalkin, When the time comes… Please post a screenshot of him challenging you for the right to bed Aerie.

@corey_russell, did you release the slaves/ prisoners for the extra 4 rep points or leave them to rot?

[corey_russell]

ussnorway wrote...

@corey_russell, did you release the slaves/ prisoners for the extra 4 rep points or leave them to rot?

My rep is 20 -- I left them to rot. I'm pretty much upgrades/main story line all the way, and dealing with that problem wouldn't help me in any way. Picenon is neutral evil now, thanks to his experience in Hell, so prisoners are little concern to him.

[PPewt]

Figured I've played more than enough BG2 playthroughs to try this out, so here goes.

My rules:
-I won't turn down the difficulty to Normal when leveling up or learning spells, which has already had some annoying side effects (had to use all 3 scrolls of Lower Resistance from the Gate District before Aerie finally learned it, was hoping to save some from Imoen).

-The no-reload challenge starts after I enter Waukeen's Promenade for the first time.

-I won't be playing with any mods, other than;

-I'm going to find some way to avoid Keldorn and Viconia from murdering each other provided neither gets chunked. I don't know exactly how it works (since I've only ever had them in my party together once before), but I guess I'll probably need a mod to do this.

-I won't be gifting myself a free bag of holding, nor will my BoH be bottomless when I get it.

Irwin the Sorceror (taken right after the fight with Rayic Gethras):



The party I have in that screenshot will hopefully last me the campaign (except with Yoshimo -> Imoen), but if anyone gets chunked I'll swap them out with a hopefully appropriate character (Imoen -> Nalia, Keldorn -> Minsc [blah] or Sarevok if it's ToB, Viconia -> Anomen etc).

--

I forgot to take screenshots for the first while, so here's the state of things:

-I have ~5k gold, the rest having been spent on a Robe of Vecna and three Scrolls of Lower Resistance

-I've completed the Shade Lord quest (as well as the mini-quest where you buy the wannabe adventurers some beer and weapons), returned the acorns to the Dryad Queen, solved the Bridge District murders, and done all obviously required tasks based on my party members (defeated Kalah, killed the fanatics trying to burn Viconia, and cut my way through some Kobolds and a Raksasha to get to Keldorn). I've also "helped" Xzar (and gotten him killed).

My spell list as of the screenshot above: Armor, Chromatic Orb, Identify, Magic Missile, Shield
Blur, Melf's Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Resist Fear, Web
Fireball (brainfart, haven't actually used it and considering SKing it into something more useful), Melf's Minute Meteors, Skull Trap, Slow
Minor Sequencer, Spirit Armor, Stoneskin
Breach, Cloud Kill

--

We start off by greeting Rayic Gethras in the top level of his home after smashing some of his minions without incident. The fight goes quite well (he starts off with his Tattoo, which I promptly breach, tries a Symbol: Fear, which is ignored thanks to Resist Fear, and then wreaks some terrible havoc with Sunfire. I panicked a bit and drank some Extra Healing potions on important characters (notably myself; it took out more than half my health) but he didn't get another hit in before he died.

I won't bother screenshotting the following missions since they're basically just fetch quests, but they proceeded without incident other than Yoshimo dying to one of the trapped doors on the second floor of the Thieves Guild (oops!), although I just raised him with Viconia.

Renal asks us to finish off Mae'Var, and I'm only too happy to oblige. Unfortunately there's apparently a traitor in Renal's midst and our coming is warned of, but a few Skull Traps make short work of any resistance.



I proceed down to the basement, buff way more than necessary, and end up wiping out Mae'Var with a web and a few skull traps.



A giant sum of money later and it's time to go buy an Amulet of Power (oh, and advance the plot, I guess that part is sort of important too).



--

By now I figured it was time to continue the Temple of Helm's quest, and set off on my way to the sewers. A lot of uneventful monster-bashing later, I recalled how terrified I was of Gauths. Aerie to the rescue!



The Bubble of Gauth Protection worked like a charm, and more monster bashing later, I found myself in the Unseeing Eye's personal room. I skipped any unnecessary fights in this area because I didn't want to rest with the chance of spawning gauths; I'll probably return and loot the other rooms once I get the Amazing Valygar of Everything-Slaying (Valygar + Celestial Fury + Cloak of Imbalance from the underwater city + Boots of Speed). Aerie buffs up again.



Unfortunately she didn't have a death ward on her, and the only significant thing the Unseeing Eye accomplished before being killed was drop a Power Word: Kill on Aerie while she tried to Spell Thrust away its protection. As usual, she was raised immediately after by Viconia.



After securing my reward from the Temple of Helm and enabling the next quest, I figure this is a good place to stop.

[Grond0]

corey_russell wrote...
Time to switch gear - equipped Carsomyr, then picked up/put back his other magic resist gear. I'm not sure if this is a bug or by design, but the Carsomyr sets magic resist to 50%. But if you pick up your other magic resist gear (which say + instead of set) then Picenon can get his magic resist to 105. He then goes upstairs swings at the mage and lets the mage do whatever he wants until the mage is no more.

Sounds good.  I'm not sure if you should totally rely on MR though as some spells bypass this (like sunfire and imprisonment).

[Grond0]

PPewt wrote...
Figured I've played more than enough BG2 playthroughs to try this out, so here goes.

Welcome PPewt and good luck!

My rules:
-I won't turn down the difficulty to Normal when leveling up or learning spells, which has already had some annoying side effects (had to use all 3 scrolls of Lower Resistance from the Gate District before Aerie finally learned it, was hoping to save some from Imoen).

In a no-reload you might want to use potions of genius to ensure success - particularly with spells where there are very limited numbers of scrolls.

[PPewt]

In a no-reload you might want to use potions of genius to ensure success - particularly with spells where there are very limited numbers of scrolls.

I'll definitely have to learn some tricks like these that are entirely unnecessary if you save scum. That said, there still should be enough lower resistance for aerie+imoen (grabbed a fourth scroll from the Unseeing Eye quest, and I know there are at least a few more in the game).

On an unrelated note, playing on a lower difficulty feels very weird, even with no reloads. I have a feeling that ToB will just be a Chain Contingency walkover.

Modifié par PPewt, 29 mars 2012 - 04:41 .

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

corey_russell wrote...
Time to switch gear - equipped Carsomyr, then picked up/put back his other magic resist gear. I'm not sure if this is a bug or by design, but the Carsomyr sets magic resist to 50%. But if you pick up your other magic resist gear (which say + instead of set) then Picenon can get his magic resist to 105. He then goes upstairs swings at the mage and lets the mage do whatever he wants until the mage is no more.

Sounds good.  I'm not sure if you should totally rely on MR though as some spells bypass this (like sunfire and imprisonment).

I'm not too worried about sunfire. My understanding though that imprisonment is both a touch and a long casting spell. I should be able to use both of these factors to my advantage. And in vanilla BG 2, very few enemies imprison -- far as I know its elder orbs, liches and of course Kangaxx.

[Krazy Solo]

So I return with a new entry to the challenge...

Inveeme Male Wizard Slayer, Chaotic Neutral, Str 15, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 10, **LongSword, ** Mace, ** Two Weapon Fighting

Goal for this playthrough is to Dual at lvl 13 to Thief. Yes I've grown to dislike mages so much I'm actually purposely building a character who primary goal is exterminate hostile mages .

[corey_russell]

Good luck Krazy Solo. Are you using a party or is this a solo endeavor? And if party, who do you envision to be your core group?

[Grond0]

Entering the challenge with Solis, a monk, who has graduated from BG1.

In Baldur's Gate she took a very cautious approach, but I was unable to resist trying to take everything in the dungeon on.  This included:
- a steam mephit on its own, which got stunned for a spot of revenge.
- more mephits in the elemental plane.  Solis attracted their attention with a sneak attack and dashed back to the exit to be able to run away from those stunning water jets.  There were still a couple of nervous moments as the mephits are quick and move around constantly so are very difficult to attack safely even from stealth, but they were eventually all accounted for.
- once she reached level 9 her fists acquired +1 status allowing her to damage the jailkeep golem.
- the vampire managed to run away, but the battlemage was stunned as was the assassin leader near the exit.

After exiting the dungeon Solis cleared the circus and has just freed the Copper Coronet without problems.  Here's her current character record.

[corey_russell]

Good luck Grond0.