15235 réponses à ce sujet

[PPewt]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...

PPewt wrote...
Unsurprisingly, Abi-Dalzim's is very effective against Liches if you Breach them first...

Well... vanilla Liches are immune to spells of Level 5 and lower (i.e. Breach...). Or do you have SCS's 
More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning)  component installed?

No, I do not. Either the breach isn't doing anything and Abi-Dalzim's just kills the Liches anyways, or it's doing something and that information is incorrect. I'm pretty sure Breach *is* doing something, though. I'll do a parallel save in Amkethran to fight the lich there and test that out (I don't actually intend to fight him in the real playthrough).

Edit: Just tested and it looks like you're right. I guess you don't have to breach them, then!

Modifié par PPewt, 02 avril 2012 - 03:54 .

[corey_russell]

Blackmalkin wrote...

corey_russell wrote...
Clearly, his fighter skills weren't up to the task. So instead Picenon decided to use his thief skills - backstab, run and hide and repeat.

Why not use some invisibillity potions? In Throne of Bhaal I usually have more of them then my party could carry.

Actually I did use at least one invisibility potion, but I don't have that many at the moment. Keep in mind if my aura isn't clear (which often isn't) I'm taking a beating while waiting for the potion to take, sometimes I even get interrupted. Much safer to run and hide. My HIS is like 250%, so it almost never fails now.

But certainly will be using them more once I get more...

[BelgarathMTH]

Lots of fantastic screenshots here. Great work, everybody. I get so nervous fighting the late SoA and ToB baddies, I can never remember just where they are and what they're about to do (usually Maze or Imprisonment or Dragon Breath), or how to defend (what school of magic is Imprisonment again? Whoops, cast the wrong SI; How do I get a lich's spell protections down without Breach? Nope, it wasn't that.), and I can't get through without lots of reloading. Maybe I'll eventually learn if I keep reading this thread.

[PPewt]

BelgarathMTH wrote...

Lots of fantastic screenshots here. Great work, everybody. I get so nervous fighting the late SoA and ToB baddies, I can never remember just where they are and what they're about to do (usually Maze or Imprisonment or Dragon Breath), or how to defend (what school of magic is Imprisonment again? Whoops, cast the wrong SI; How do I get a lich's spell protections down without Breach? Nope, it wasn't that.), and I can't get through without lots of reloading. Maybe I'll eventually learn if I keep reading this thread.

My approach so far has been "every protection imaginable on my player character and leave the rest of the party to fend for themselves as far as single-target protections go" and it's working very well. The only way to permanently lose a party member to magic is Imprisonment, Flesh to Stone, or Disintegrate, and only Disintegrate is totally irreversible (and very very easy to protect against). In addition, since all three are single-target spells, it's very easy to ensure that your enemies focus on one or two characters and thus you can just not bother to protect the rest (other than your PC, who is obviously vital to a no-reloads run and thus you shouldn't take any chances with). In addition, while Imprisonment is very nasty it's also very rare and, with the exception of Demi-Liches (Kangaxx for sure, I think the guy in Watcher's Keep is the same) only one-use on the people who do know it ([some?] Elder Orbs, Jon Irenicus etc). Seeing as both demi-liches are not accompanied by any minions, cast no antimagic, and have no attack, they're very easy to deal with (Aerie + Spell Immunity: Abjuration + Mace of Disruption/Runehammer, or Viconia/Anomen + Protection from Magic [if I recall correctly Protection from Undead works too and is much more common, but I might misremember] + Mace of Disruption/Runehammer).

Physical damage, while more dangerous in that it can chunk you, also tends to be very easy to avoid dying to with some precautions, all of which are conveniently area of effect (and thus you can easily cover your entire party with them). The only exception are Mind Flayers, who are really nasty and you have to be careful around; honestly, you should probably exclusively fight Mind Flayers with Skeleton Warriors and Mordenkainen's Sword, since one of my earlier posts details what can easily happen if something goes wrong against them.

--

After cleaning up Illasera, Forging the Flail of the Ages +4, and watching a Planetar clear the first trial, I arrived in Saradush. I quickly solved Lazarus' quest as well as the Elven quest, and purchased Boots of Speed (x2), Yamato +4 (Valygar will use it as his offhand weapon when using Greater Whirlwind Attack, at least for now), another Bag of Holding, another Scroll Case, another Potion Bag, a Robe of the Good Archmagi for Aerie, and scrolls of Wish, Spell Trigger (x2), Chain Contingency (x2), and Mordenkainen's Sword (x2). I had my eye on a number of other scrolls (Spell Trap, Time Stop, and Spellstrike mostly), although at the time I was lacking in cash (which changed shortly after, due to the abundance of heavily enchanted items in ToB).

I took the Good path to solving Mateo's trouble and took the prison route to Gromnir, picking up the Bronze Ioun Stone (and thus forging the Circlet of Netheril for Imoen) along the way. Gromnir himself went fairly easily; chain contingency wounded or killed everything, and Valygar and Keldorn cleaned up.

I wasn't expecting any resistance in ToB until the door guards in Yaga-Shura's Temple, and didn't get any. I've always found the door guards to be one of the toughest fights in ToB in the past, since you're relatively low level (by ToB standards) when you fight them and there isn't really any better way to beat them than by "lots of stuff"... but then, I hadn't abused Chain Contingency quite this badly before. The door guards and every other fire giant fight in the temple went like this:



followed by this (yes, it's from a different fight, but I didn't have two screenshots from either one of the fights):



That is to say that combat went as follows:

2x Chain Contingency * 3 Abi-Dalzim's (level 22 sorceror and level 18 wizard) = 120d8, save for half

Followed by:

Time Stop, Improved Alacrity, 6x Abi-Dalzim's (level 22 sorceror) = 132d8, save for half

at the start of the fight, for a total of 252d8, save for half. Surprisingly enough the Elite Fire Giants actually survived.

Modifié par PPewt, 02 avril 2012 - 09:23 .

[ussnorway]

@PPewt, Why do you like 3 'Abi-Dalzim's instead of say ‘Death Fog’ (my AOE of choice) is it just for the alpha-strike value or is there a different/ extra reason?

[PPewt]

ussnorway wrote...

@PPewt, Why do you like 3 'Abi-Dalzim's instead of say ‘Death Fog’ (my AOE of choice) is it just for the alpha-strike value or is there a different/ extra reason?

Death Fog is nothing like Abi-Dalzim's, regardless of the fact that they look very similar. Abi-Dalzim's does a similar amount of damage much faster, ignores most resistances, and does not affect party members or neutral characters.

[PPewt]

Sendai's lair went without incident: I basically just let my Planetar hack through everything (with occasional help from Valygar and Keldorn). Imoen and I nuked the lich with double Abi-Dalzim's, killing him instantly. Sendai herself lasted a little longer, but was no more challenging: a Planetar and a few Mordenkainen's Swords guarded the stairs from incoming drow, while Keldorn and Valygar ran around chopping up Sendai herself. Irwin provided spell support when necessary (Remove Magic, Breach, Abi-Dalzim's, etc), while Imoen, Viconia, and Aerie provided moral support, cheered extremely loudly, jumped up and down, and occasionally lobbed a counterspell to deal with Fear or Stun. I don't think there was anything particularly worth screenshotting there.

When I first played ToB, Draconis was my archnemesis, since I couldn't seem to damage him (thanks to his spells) nor remove his protections. At the time I cheated my way through. During my second playthrough, I read a little more carefully and noticed the culprit was that he casts "Immunity: Abjuration" immediately as the fight begins. My (extremely creative and totally not like my solution to every other enemy in the game) strategy for him is, many playthroughs later, as follows:

-Keldorn and Valygar beat the human form to death while the rest of the party provides moral support and dispels Draconis' shields.

-Immediately upon Draconis' transformation, Irwin lobbed a Ruby Ray of Reversal, knocking out Immunity: Abjuration and some important stuff and then got the hell away before Draconis got any ideas.

-Imoen follows with Pierce Magic + Run

-Aerie follows with Breach + Run

-Keldorn, Valygar, and any summons that happen to exist ****** off Draconis for a round.

-Aerie lobs a spell trigger loaded with Lower Resistance - Lower Resistance - Lower Resistance

-Irwin is... Irwin



Yeah.

-Bye Draconis!



It's amazing how often the phrase "if you're having trouble you haven't used enough Horrid Wilting" applies to this game.

Edit:

Abigazil's Lair went without incident. I subcontracted the Elder Orb quest to the young adventurers and just watched planetars and mordenkainen's swords chop up all the various enemies in the dungeon. Abigazil himself learned very graphically what happened to his son, although he cooked Imoen with lightning breath in the few rounds he spent as a dragon. This fight went even faster since I didn't even need Ruby Ray and thus just tossed some Pierce Magics on a Spell Trigger.



Edit:

Just played through level 3 of the Watcher's Keep, solving each room with a double chain contingency (which really helped in the wild magic and non-magic rooms, which could've otherwise been an issue). When I arrived at the end of the level I wagered experience for the Scroll of Wish and won, and then wagered the rod for the gem and won (I thought you always lost this one? Oh well. Anyhow, I didn't want the Spectral Brand and thus wasn't about to risk losing a bunch of XP over some useless item, but the Scroll of Wish will be helpful for some endgame cheese). The cambion attacked me for the rod and died, so now I guess I have a deck of many things (wasn't planning on that and I'm not sure if I'll ever use it... I haven't ever gotten it before and thus I'll need to look into how exactly it works).

Modifié par PPewt, 03 avril 2012 - 06:03 .

[Gate70]

Contingency in wild magic zones, will remember that one. Also, well done with Draconis.

Vayler, LG human male cavalier. Travelling with Yoshimo, Viconia, Edwin and Korgan.

The Vampire lair, chasing Lassal.
Korgan enrages. I DUHM. Edwin helps Viconia strength, DUHM, righteous magic. Our weapons are Stonefire, Azuredge and MoD which Edwin hastes. Edwin and Yoshimo patiently wait as we clear the room of vampires and grimwarders.

Yoshimo lets Lassal share the pain of traps. I barely survive, Lassal does not.


We repeat the buffs and stake Lassal. Yoshimo has laid four snares, badly wounding Bodhi as she arrives, and we lay into her quickly.


Korgan casually suggests we provide him with better armour, and that we should speak to Madeen. The best I can do is hand over some ashen scales, not much of an improvement. Madeen directs us to Tolgerias and a manhunt for Valygar, while Edwin learns to get in touch with his feminine side.

Instead we decide to help Sir Sarles. Del and her vampires fail to deter us while Neb is no match for Korgan and I. We hand his head in for a reward and then check out a building where kidnappers lurk.

We kill the kidnappers, but Edwina (for it is she) has been upstairs and informs us we are too late. As we enter the Copper Coronet Edwina exchanges a few words with Welther and our reputation drops again for obtaining silver pantaloons. Sir Sarles spots the fake alloy, but the temple of Helm decide they like it. Cromwell upgrades the MoD for Viconia and I purchase the reflection shield for Korgan. He suggests we clear the rest of the graveyard in case additional equipment will be of use. A few items of interest are found as he predicted.

City Gate Lich.
Yoshimo has stumbled across a hidden enemy, flinging a snare as he retreats. Korgan enrages and takes serious damage from spells so retreats. My turn, and one toss of Azuredge drops the lich. I switch to the Sword of Chaos which cannot injure the pit fiend, then Lilacor. Viconia arrives to add Disruption and Edwin brings fires four groups of magic missiles. I get the killing blow.

Watchers Keep.
I buy a fifth gem bag for Korgan, and a potion case for myself from Sister Garlena. Then we head inside, grabbing paladins bracers for me, a crimson dart and golem manual for Edwina, a quiver of plenty +1 for Yoshimo, armour and an ammo belt for Viconia.

de'Arnise Hold.
Captain Arat hands me some arrows, does he do this deliberately to every cavalier? I pass them on to Yoshimo instead. We soon have the ground floor and outside cleared, cook a dog dinner and head upstairs. We over-buff for Glaicus and kill him without reprisal.

Golem chapel.
No need to buff as Edwina grabs a magical war hammer and a flail head. After dealing with a pair of golems we forge the FoA +3 and return to grab a magical axe. Another pair of golems are dropped then we buff for the third and hardest pair. The clay golem falls to Viconia (mage strength, DUHM, righteous magic, haste, FOA +3 for THACO 13/4 and 2 APR at level 10). I switch from the (non-proficient but 2 handed) staff of curing to Lilacor and Yoshimo equips arrows +3 from Watchers Keep, Korgan switches from the giantkin war hammer to the Stonefire axe and Edwin aims his crimson dart. We're all hitting the iron golem, with Korgan claiming the kill. I check and we are uninjured, but have lost a flesh golem.

Our haste carries us downstairs and through a trio of trolls. Yoshimo lays a series of snares and uses the dog stew to lure the umber hulks into them. I follow up with Lilacor and we are ready to deal with Torgal.


Korgan applies the Stonefire axe once more and the final two trolls are zapped again the constant hits prevent them from dying unless I force stop the attacks. As we leave Degarden pays the ultimate price for de-feminising Edwin.

Trademeet and the Druid Grove.
We buff our way through a troll mound, then buff through more trolls and druids with Vayler, Korgan and Viconia protected from lightning. I am held by the druids and am left behind while my companions follow up with the next group led by Kyland Lind. I recover in time to attack them from the other side.

We force ourselves to kill a Rashaka, then Lilacor, enrage and chaotic commands allow us to melee two spore colonies while Edwin and Yoshimo attack from a safe distance. Dalok and his druids get the same treatment, then we retrace our steps to see if Cernd wants to deal with Faldorn. A battle of the insects.


As the insects wear off Cernd shifts to human form, only for Faldorn to disrupt an ironskin. He manages to summon a nymph, but Faldorn resists hold monster. Domination works though so Cernd gets her to heal him, but as she is now friendly his insect plague is wasted.


As they fight Viconia starts to tell me how she escaped from the underdark. By the time she has finished Faldorn has summoned a nymph and two winter wolves. Cernd summons a wolf as Faldorn attacks him. He tells her to move away she still shows as green and gets the wolves to attack her.

She turns hostile and shifts into a panther, hitting Cernd twice. He's had enough, shifting again and chunking her with a mighty swing of his paw.


We congratulate him, Viconia laughingly saying she expected to raise him at least twice. With that we send him on his way. Yoshimo smiles, holding up a cloak and a staff that he has taken while Cernd was otherwise engaged.

Back at Trademeet we convince the Dao Djinn to leave and finally catch up with Rejiek Hidesman. Then we do some shopping at Trademeet and the Promenade.

Modifié par Gate70, 03 avril 2012 - 08:52 .

[PPewt]

Captain Arat will hand you an infinite supply of Fire Arrows as any class if you ask him (20 per dialog, or is it 40?).

--

The golem chapel is easier if you manually attack the golems, since it will not anger any golems other than the one you attacked (and, if you're carrying something nasty like Celestial Fury, will usually let you kill them with no damage taken).

--

A cheesy but entertaining way to kill the lich is run your thief in there (it isn't party required), pick the lock on the chest as he casts time stop, grab daystar, get out before time stop finishes, identify daystar, come back in, sunfire.

--

Level 4 of the Watcher's Keep was unsurprisingly easy, since there aren't really any serious fights there other than Kangaxx's cousin (who I killed via the same method) and a red dragon who was nowhere near as dangerous as Abazigal or Draconis (although he survived the first 6 Wiltings... good job, Saladrex! The seventh one did him in though).

Level 5 was similarly easy; the dragon was pathetic compared to the ones I've faced, the orcs got killed by a planetar, and the orb room was done with a planetar, valygar/keldorn/viconia whacking things, and contingencies for the lich fight.

Inserting the keys leveled me up and gave me another level 9 spell. Honestly, I didn't really want another level 9 spell, but I took Spellstrike because I guess it's useful to have as an option (my options: http://i.imgur.com/T2Vus.jpg, won't bother embedding it because it isn't really that important).

The level 5 keys are where things get sort of real, I guess. The first enemies (the invisible blue guys) are immune to Abi-Dalzim's, but they got whacked to death sooner or later. Most of them were useless, but the mage came close to killing Imoen, Aerie, and Valygar during a time stop (but with spell damage, so there was no long-term risk anyways).

The second fight was solved via chain contingencies, as I've done with practically every other lich in the game.

At this point, I read up on how the Deck of Many Things worked and decided to give it a go, mostly because I really wanted Aerie to be a level 18 mage for the third fight (for a third Chain Contingency). There are some nasty cards in it, but nothing (as far as I could tell) that risked ending my playthrough as long as I didn't draw with my main character.

So, what do you say, ready to play?

I opened with pretty much the only card in the entire deck that I really did not want to see.


The second draw was wasted on a spell which bounced off Keldorn thanks to Mind Shield.


But it all worked out in the end!


Next up, kill the final guardians to demogorgon, go find out how hard demogorgon is on this difficulty and whether he's worth fighting in a no-reload playthrough, and then fight him or don't depending on the results of that searching+testing.

Modifié par PPewt, 03 avril 2012 - 09:28 .

[Gate70]

Keldorn Carsomyr GWW should sort core demogorgon if my current multiplayer run with Grond0 is anything to go by. Edit, Looking at your party I'd send Valygar in from the other side and maybe Viconia with something like the FoA and buffed with strength, DUHM and Righteous Magic. All hasted and NPP'd. But looking forward to your approach whatever it is.

Re Arat and force attacking the golems, I knew those but see them as exploits. Similar to Shoal etc. A bit rich really as I do lots of other things that are just as bad but I tend to be consistent in what I do and what I won't do.

Modifié par Gate70, 03 avril 2012 - 10:11 .

[PPewt]

Wow... did I seriously just talk up Demogorgon so much? I remember him being a hellish fight on Insanity, but either Core Rules is way easier or I was doing something wrong. I did some tests, and my final strategy ended up being:

-Aerie, Irwin, Imoen carry spell triggers loaded with a mixture of Breach, Lower Resistance, Pierce magic.

-Irwin and Imoen also carry contingencies with more of the same, and Aerie carries a triple wilting contingency.

-We move in with resist fear and a planetar (didn't even need any other buffs...), and Aerie and Imoen toss their spell triggers (carefully keeping Aerie at a range such that her contingency goes off after the triggers do) and Irwin and Imoen toss their contingencies while Irwin casts Improved Alacrity.

-Demogorgon punches the Planetar a bit while Keldorn, Valygar, and Viconia pretend to help.

-A few breaches get tossed at the Mariliths while Irwin lobs Horrid Wilting from his improved alacrity.

-Around three horrid wiltings later (plus the three from aerie's contingency), demogorgon dies.



Yes, you're seeing that right; an unbuffed party didn't even take noticeable damage (I think Viconia and Keldorn took one hit each from a Marilith, and nobody else took any).

Hopefully this playthrough is answering your question, ussnorway, about why I use Horrid Wilting. Honestly, at this rate it's more like Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Horrible Wilting Abuse.

Edit:

I beat Balthazar and the Ravager to death with swords since neither are particularly threatening when compared to dragons or Demogorgon, using Abi-Dalzim's to dispel any bone swords that showed up in the latter fight. I had a lot of cheese prepared for melissan, with all 3 wish scrolls that I know of in the game (Lazarus, the Cambion in the Watcher's Keep, the final fight in the Watcher's Keep level 5) and 7 level 8 spells (and thus up to 7 potential simulacrums) plus up to 6 casts of Wish from my main character (level 9 spells); ie I was guaranteed, barring the most terrible luck in the universe, an infinite supply of wish-rests. However, it turns out it didn't prove necessary, and thus this marks the first time I've ever beaten Melissan without using a single Wish-rest!

First encounter: Ruby Ray, Breach, Whack to death.

Yan-C-Bin: Whack the Vampiric Mists to death, then the Greater Air Elementals, then the Prince himself. Planetar provides healing and restoration from level drain.

Second encounter: Whack the hive mother to death, Ruby Ray, Breach, Whack to death.

Cryomax: Whack the trolls to death, then Cryomax, then the Salamanders.

Third encounter: Wait until she summons the slayer shadows, instantly triple cast abi-dalzim's horrid wilting (which is an interesting cheese you can do with Chain Contingency: it has no cast time and doesn't count as your spell for the round--and nor does it wait if you've already cast one this round--so you can essentially exhaust a level 9 spell to instantly cast 3 level 8 or lower spells), Ruby Ray, Breach, Whack to death.

Fallen Solar: Ugh. I hate this encounter. Whack the succubi to death, Breach the mariliths, whack them to death, whack the fallen solar to death. However, that makes it sound a lot easier than it actually was (unlike the previous fights, which were all very easy). On multiple occasions Valygar, Keldorn, or Viconia were nearly dead and a planetar was charging around providing healing support. Once the first marilith went down, however, things got pretty straightforward.

Fourth encounter: Wait until she summons the slayer shadows, instantly triple-cast abi-dalzim's horrid wilting, Khelben's Warding Whip, Breach, whack, Breach, whack to death.

Enough, Amelyssan! The gods have decreed, being unkillable is tedious!
http://imgur.com/Pe4lI

Notes:

-I healed up between encounters using Superior Healing Potions (of which I had almost 100), so I was left with a huge amount of Heals just-in-case.

-I used GWW on the "boss" of each round with at least one fighter (the princes, the fallen solar, melissan).

-Valygar wielded Hindo's Doom and Yamato for this fight, since Celestial Fury's stun didn't affect... anything? Anything other than maybe the salamanders and air elementals at least, and since I was spamming GWW on any important battles belm was not necessary.

-At the end of the game, I was left with these options:

1 level 9 spell (player character)
0 level 8 spells (player character)
1 level 5 spell (player character)
A few pierce magics (all characters) and no other dispel other than on my player character
A few casts of GWW and 3 casts of hardiness per fighter
A chain contingency, elemental summoning and 3 Horrid Wiltings on Aerie.
A planetar and a... time stop? or was it improved alacrity? on Imoen, as well as one Horrid Wilting.
Two scroll cases worth of level 8 and 9 spells, notably a few (2?) scrolls of Simulacrum, 3 scrolls of Wish, 3 scrolls of Horrid Wilting, 1 scroll of Time Stop, and if I recall correctly there were also 2 scrolls of Chain Contingency. Basically I had an emergency backup wish stash in case I ran out of level 8/9 spells in a fight and still needed to wish: 9 casts of wish without a rest from scrolls alone, as well as 9 Horrid Wiltings.
Energy Blades and a Fallen Deva on Viconia.
A whole ton of resurrection, healing, healing potions, utility potions (strength, improved haste, dexterity, intelligence etc), wands, rods, protection from X scrolls, stone to flesh scrolls etc.

--

A funny thing which I forgot to mention earlier, and I guess a cautionary note about chain contingency spam, happened during the Alu-Fiend fight in level 3 of watcher's keep. Valygar was instantly charmed as the fight started, and was nuked (along with every enemy in the room) by 9 horrid wiltings. Needless to say he needed to be raised.

Modifié par PPewt, 04 avril 2012 - 04:33 .

[Blackmalkin]

PPewt wrote...
I opened with pretty much the only card in the entire deck that I really did not want to see.

That should teach you that large amounts of money should be invested, not kept in a purse. Every wild mage knows that.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 04 avril 2012 - 04:11 .

[PPewt]

Blackmalkin wrote...

PPewt wrote...
I opened with pretty much the only card in the entire deck that I really did not want to see.

That should teach you that large amounts of money should be invested, not kept in a purse. Every wild mage knows that.

It didn't end up mattering in the end, since while a few of the recipes I hadn't crafted yet could've potentially been used they were by no means necessary, and I didn't end up bothering to hunt down more scrolls of Horrid Wilting for simulacrum cheese.

Also I didn't really stockpile the gold so much as just sell every bit of magical equipment I found from the yaga-shura part of the game.

[Blackmalkin]

Ayakanya strikes back:

Soon after coming back to the prime material plane Ayakanya was approached by a messenger, informing that her presence is requested by her Cowled Wizard's contact. She headed to her Planar Sphere then. Suspecting an ambush she summoned some creatures before talking to Teos. The ambush was still surpising as I rather expected mages. Every party member hid using Invisibility and retreated to the adjecent room. While Ayakanya was summoning a genie to provide Minor Globes for all, rest of the party cast a few Webs, Malison and Emotion. Then everyone came back to the ambushers, finding them all properly incapacitated.



Ayakanya talked to Teos and agreed to imprison lord Ketlaar Argrim. The deed was easily done by misleading Nalia. After finishing business with Teos party went to Warden’s Keep to finish the first level and then explore the second. After performing the ritual and killing some statues on first, Jan was sent to scout every room and disarm traps on the second level. In the ice laboratory he encountered some vampiric mists, two of the worst ones among them (don’t remember the exact name). They spawned while he was exploring the corridor, so he found himself cut off. Ayakanya cast Limited Wish to ask for Negative Plane Protection, while Jan outmaneuvered the mists and run back to the party  (with some levels already drained). Party greated incoming enemies with Magic Missiles (but not enough of them), while Ayakanya tried casting Abi Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting. And she did succeed! Only there was this little problem called "Wild Surge: Caster also targeted":



Aerie and Hear’dalis were killed, even though they were at full health – Ayakanya couldn’t help being proud of her accomplishment. As for herself, she made a save and had a Belt of Inertial Barrier, so took only ¼ damage (and it still was 25, nice roll). Nalia had it worse but survived (screenshot was taken before she got hit). Mists took no damage as they moved out of the spell area chasing Edwin and Jan (and they were fast!). Some other mist followed, but a weak one (wandering horror, I think) and was quickly defeated. Edwin and Jan were running and gulping potions (as mists’ attacks were penetrating Stoneskin), while Nalia and Ayakanya summoned some Mordenkainen Swords. Then I realised, that mists were regenerating. So, when they engaged the swords, party (or what was left of it) unleashed their Magic Missile sequencers (which was something they should start with). When resurrecting was done, party tried to sleep, but devil shades kept attacking, so they went outside. Some rebellious talk could be heard during the rest. Edwin and Nalia agreed that they would do better without Ayakanya and her horrid surges, but Aerie stood in her lover’s defense. “Without her unlimited genie summoning we would have to sleep every now and then. That or use staves and slings to fight” – she pointed out. Haer’Dalis suggested preparing more Protection from Magic Energy spells, on which everyone agreed. No one was looking forward to wasting their own 6th level spell slots though. Everyone looked at Edwin, but they had a hard time convincing him that this Death Spell isn’t really necessary. Some leveling was also done. Aerie reached high level abillities and chose Summon Deva, but she prepares Greater Restoration as 7th level cleric spell for now. Ayakanya reached 8th spell level and can now cast one Simulacrum and one Horrid Wilting without Nahal’s (making the morning ritual much simpler).

When party was fully rested, they cleared the second level without any difficulties. Some new mists have spawned but only the weaker ones. Here’s a screenshot of Ayakanya (being male at the moment, which is why she lacks the golden glow) trying to participate in "Magic Missile party" but only succeeds in casting Color Spray:



At least it looked pretty and didn’t kill any party member. Let’s call it a progress. For the fight with Chromatic Demon everyone was protected with Minor Globe, apart from Haer’Dalis, who just hid in one of the laboratories. Demon made a greatest (and last) mistake of his life by starting in the ice form – he was dead before one could say "Five mages can cast quite a lot of Fireballs in one round, especially if at least some of them have 7th level Sequencer".

Party didn’t risk venturing forth and returned to Athkatla to deal with Bodhi. Ayakanya was protected with Protection from Undead scroll, just in case. Tanova was killed with Ayakanya’s Horrid Wilting before Jan dealt with her illusion. For the battle downstairs party used Mislead (apart from Hear’Dalis, who once again was considered useless). Lassal was backstabbed by hasted Jan (a few times actually – gnome used his second Mislead). For Bodhi party had prepared something special – Haer’Dalis with Chaos Blade in one hand and Kundane in the other, Amulet of Power around his neck, and boosted with Improved Haste. When fight have begun Aerie used her double Doom sequencer (also prepared specially for Bodhi) and Jan cast Malison. Only I forgot about Bodhi’s magic resistance. After taking it down, Edwin tried stunning her with Power Word and Ayakanya tried Lightning Bolt of Paralyzation (from Staff of Power). I should have known it won’t work on undead (that’s what Hold Undead is for, after all). In the meantime Haer’Dalis was running around with Bodhi slowly chasing him – he didn’t sign for a melee fight with a moving target. Before Ayakanya informed him that the plan had to be somehow altered, Bodhi suddenly dominated him. The plan went to hell – Ayakanya paralyzed Haer’Dalis, while rest of the party cast Magic Missiles, allowing Bodhi to escape.

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

[Gate70]

Congrats PPewt. Re the fallen solar encounter, is this indicating you've completed the game a LOT. Just wondering as I've probably only completed it a couple of dozen times in all the runs I've started and not particularly familiar with the final battle (not to mention I usually have Ascension installed so can hardly remember the vanilla battle...but I can vaguely remember the fallen solar being a pain).

[Blackmalkin]

After reporting to Aran Linvail party set sail for Spellhold on Saemon Havarian’s ship. In Brynnlaw they stormed a local brothel and learned two ways inside the Asylum. Ayakanya decided that convincing Desharik about her madness shouldn’t be problem. Surprisingly, he didn’t believe in her godhood delusions. Confessing to a homosexual relationship might have worked better (but more likely would result in some immoral proposition). With that way closed, Nalia was sent to assassinate Perth and retrieve his wardstone. Party entered the asylum and got captured. Ayakanya had a teriible dream – she lost a point of dexterity. But then she was finally reunited with Imoen. Hear’Dalis was kicked out and Ayakanya made a creul jest – "That’s just not possible. Just wait for us right here, we’ll come back for you if he need you" – she told him, even though she knew they won’t (there was no other dialogue option). So there will be no duel, as Haer'Dalis just didn't spent enough time with the party. Nalia and Edwin reached 8th spell level. Both know Horrid Wilting.

I made a mistake with the boot dispenser machine – used 20 tokens and got a useless armor instead of Boots of Speed. Other then that, no problems with the Spellhold sanity test. Well, actually Ayakanya failed it, because of her lack of will to cooperate, but the mind flayer didn’t display any magic resistance. When they were free, Ayakanya decided to follow Edwin’s advice, that is to kill Irenicus without Spellhold residents’ help. "We have enough madness (or was it magic?) to defeat him" – he said (or something like that). Ayakanya voiced a Limited Wish to be whatever she wants to be, protected herself with Protection from Magic scroll, changed into an illithid and charged to devour Irenicus’s brain.



Unfortunately, his death have frozen the game, so Ayakanya reloaded and bent to the will of the Great Old Designers... for a moment. Lonk was killed in second or third meteor volley, confined mages were gathered and an attack launched. When this time Ayakanya devoured Irenicus’s mind, the world did not end.



Wanev cast Time Stop. When time resumed all of the madmen died, but not before some idiot used Dispel Magic, which stripped Ayakanya’s party of every buff, most importantly Stoneskins and Melf’s Meteors. Hostile simulacrums were still alive, so Ayakanya changed into something more appropriate, namely an iron golem. The transformation have teleported her a few meters away. She hit Nalia’s copy once, and then was teleported again. She couldn’t move towards the battle, surpressed by some invisible force, so she changed into a human form (male human, by the way). It teleported her again, this time right into a cell with an invisible murderer inside. And she couldn’t do anything else in this round.



Fortunately, it was soon obvious why Designers didn’t use the term "assassin":



Drunken Nalia have better backstabs. Ayakanya changed into the golem again, and was teleported to the corridor, which was way to narrow for that form – hence another transformation and another teleport.


[Later I found out that the spots in which she made her transformations into or from iron golem were impassable, but reentering the location solved that bug].

When she finally returned to the battlefield, fight was already won.


[That mind flayer is Ayakanya's copy.]

Murderers stayed in their cells. Ayakanya was rather dissapointed to find only a simple quarterstaff on Irenicus’ body (and with no experience points for killing him). On their way out party encountered Saemon Havarian and conversation with him proved somewhat strange. There was one appropriate option:



But then Saemon started raving about Irenicus’ supposed plans. He must be truly mad – in his imaginery world Irenicus is still alive. But it made no matter no Ayakanya. She needed a ship to pursue Bodhi, so she pretended she didn’t notice anything strange about her captain’s behaviour. When Saemon teleported them outside, she decided to go back to see if there wasn’t anything worth looting. She found Irenicus' journal. The mage must have been confused by her "changes" – he wrote: "Ayakanya did not make proper use of the heritage given him". Moments later she had her women’s body back and discovered a terrible truth: her beautiful golden glow was gone. Damn that Dispel Magic!



Party status:
Ayakanya – wild mage 17, 62 HP, fav. spell: Chaos Shield
Nalia – thief 4/mage 16, 69 HP, fav. spell: Magic Missile
Jan Jansen – illusionist 13/thief 15, 55 HP, fav. spell: Magic Missile
Aerie – cleric 15/mage 14, 59 HP, fav. spell: Cure Light Wounds
Edwin – conjurer 16, 58 HP, fav. spell: Melf’s Minute Meteors
Imoen – thief 7/mage 13, 69 HP, fav. spell: Melf’s Minute Meteors

Ayakanya is still leading in kills – 364. Aerie has 355, Nalia 316.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 04 avril 2012 - 09:43 .

[Gate70]

Vayler, LG human male cavalier. Travelling with Yoshimo, Viconia, Edwin and Korgan.

Lord Jierdan.
A cruel trick has been played on us. No matter, we will sort it out. Enemies part before us until Korgan is surrounded by undead, and fiddles with Daystar.


A spot of director rage.


Samia turns nasty, but Yoshimo has seen this coming and is blocking their exit. Samia and Chak are held by his snares while Kaol is dead. Korgan attacks Akae as I engage Ferric Ironblade. Viconia and Edwin aim at Legdoril (note her damage below with a plain old bullet). Two more are down allowing us to tidy up in safety.


Tazok dies alone, commanded once and chunking before a second command. Firkraag wants us to face Conster, Viconia and Yoshimo betting whether skeletons or snares will take him. Neither succeed but a flesh golem and two more skeletons keep him occupied as we attack, and Lilacor has the last word. With that we are done with Windspear Hills for the time being.

Modifié par Gate70, 04 avril 2012 - 11:30 .

[PPewt]

Gate70 wrote...

Congrats PPewt. Re the fallen solar encounter, is this indicating you've completed the game a LOT. Just wondering as I've probably only completed it a couple of dozen times in all the runs I've started and not particularly familiar with the final battle (not to mention I usually have Ascension installed so can hardly remember the vanilla battle...but I can vaguely remember the fallen solar being a pain).

Well, it depends on what you mean by a lot. I've certainly done a fair few runs, in the range of 10-20, but certainly not a few dozen. I haven't "adopted" any mods though (I tend to install random mods and tweaks, try them out a bit, and ultimately decide I don't like them) so every one of those runs has been with the vanilla setup more or less.

The fallen solar isn't particularly hard in absolute terms (in that I've never actually died to it), but you frequently start the encounter relatively depleted (and lacking much spare countermagic unless you're wish cheesing) and there is no cheesy way to immediately end the encounter as there is with any of the actual "bosses" (dragons, liches, major demons etc). As you may have noticed, my parties are entirely designed around cheese (with a Dispel Magic caster wielding the holy avenger, a guy who basically exists to stun and backstab over and over, and four casters), which makes "whack stuff to death with swords"-style ToB encounters harder than they should be with a more balanced party.

Related to your other post, it isn't entirely clear, but I take it you didn't fight Firkraag and you were referring to the traps/skeletons/flesh golems killing Conster?

@Blackmalkin are you going to eventually edit yourself in extra boots of speed in ToB? I know personally having 5 party members with permanent haste and one without would drive me insane, and I don't think cheating in an extra pair particularly affects balance. Either way, sucks to miss out on the Spellhold boots.

Modifié par PPewt, 05 avril 2012 - 01:19 .

[Blackmalkin]

PPewt wrote...
@Blackmalkin are you going to eventually edit yourself in extra boots of speed in ToB? I know personally having 5 party members with permanent haste and one without would drive me insane, and I don't think cheating in an extra pair particularly affects balance. Either way, sucks to miss out on the Spellhold boots.

Of course not. Living with one's mistakes is an important part of "iron man playthrough" for me. And, besides, I'm almost sure that there are only 5 pairs anyway, and Grandmaster's Armor is out of question since it disables arcane spellcasting.

[PPewt]

Edit: Identical double post as far as I can tell, the site is acting rather strangely

Modifié par PPewt, 05 avril 2012 - 03:02 .

[PPewt]

Blackmalkin wrote...

PPewt wrote...
@Blackmalkin are you going to eventually edit yourself in extra boots of speed in ToB? I know personally having 5 party members with permanent haste and one without would drive me insane, and I don't think cheating in an extra pair particularly affects balance. Either way, sucks to miss out on the Spellhold boots.

Of course not. Living with one's mistakes is an important part of "iron man playthrough" for me. And, besides, I'm almost sure that there are only 5 pairs anyway, and Grandmaster's Armor is out of question since it disables arcane spellcasting.

Well, the reason I asked is because it shouldn't affect balance for an all-mage party, so it'd just save some frustration when walking down empty corridors. Either way, it's obviously your call in the end.

RE number of boots, I seem to recall there being one if you side with the Vampires, but I might misremember. Either way, in your playthrough I guess you would be stuck with 5 even had you not made that mistake.

[Serg BlackStrider]

PPewt wrote...
RE number of boots, I seem to recall there being one if you side with the Vampires, but I might misremember. Either way, in your playthrough I guess you would be stuck with 5 even had you not made that mistake.

The 6th pair of Boots of Speed in SoA & ToB is worn by Renal Bloodscalp. You can get them if you somehow manage to kill (or flee from) Arkanis Gath who is the punishment for kiling Renal...

As Stworca wrote on gamebanshee forums:

Bodhi side :  You must kill Mae'Var before you ally with Bodhi.
Thieves side :   You can do it only after returning from Spellhold.

If you simply side with Bodhi, then Renal will disappear and you'll have no option to kill him.

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 05 avril 2012 - 06:11 .

[Gate70]

PPewt wrote...
Related to your other post, it isn't entirely clear, but I take it you didn't fight Firkraag and you were referring to the traps/skeletons/flesh golems killing Conster?

Correct, I haven't started the paladin stronghold (other than laying a few snares in a house at the docks).

[Blackmalkin]

Episode 6
Return of the Wild Mage

Getting back to the mainland was not an easy matter. First, a ship had to be acquired. That part was easy enough, but things got a little complicated when the ship sunk. Party was really furious this time. Ayakanya could deny being responsible and blame sahuagins, but they all saw her casting Nahal’s during the fight with githyanki. But there was no time to argue, as they have been captured by sahuagins. Ayakanya decided to play the chosen one and party was soon thrown into a pit to fight an ettin. This time she didn’t try joining the “Magic Missile party” and cast Aganazzar’s (with no wild magic involved).



Even casting it, she suspected that it might not be the best idea, but she did it anyway. She was right. Ettin was dead before the end of the round, and party was immediately translocated to king’s presence:



A usual dialogue took place: “Kill him and bring me his heart!” said the king. “Sure, why not” anwered the wild mage. But then everyone turned hostile. It had really tragic consequences, as the sahuagin vendor was also aggressive. Party not only didn’t sell anything in Brynnlaw (which is obvious, considering wild magic), but even carried some goods all the way from Athkatla, hoping to sell them for good price. Seems that Ayakanya can ruin party’s economy even without any wild surges.

Anyway, when the area was cleared, party entered the Underdark. Ayakanya had a very strange vision: she saw Irenicus, alive and well. Can it be that it’s she who is mad? She could still remember the taste of his brain... But there where other problems at hand. In the first encounter with drows some Horrid Wiltings were cast, but their magic resistance saved them. After a few rounds party retreated, to deal with enemy summons. Skeletons was easile destroyed by Aerie but Nishruus caused more problems. Then Nalia and Imoen used Mislead to attack the drows. They had a lot of detection spells, but with Melf’s Meteors it was easy to disrupt them all. In the svirfneblin village party found decent prices and decided to sell some of their goods. After the transaction was done, Ayakanya was gagged. Jan snatched her Amulet of Power and then Edwin used Power Word: Silence.



They really wanted to go shopping in the Underdark and didn’t want her to spoil everything. Even Aerie was against her. After killing a demon for svirfneblin (using Edwin's nabassu as a distraction) party went to visit a silver dragon. They took her quest, and went to city of Ust’Natha diguised as drows. First they went shopping, of course. They also took advantage of their disguise and bought a few spells from the svirfneblin’s special selection. Only when all the gold was spent, Ayakanya got her amulet back. Then party went to meet Solaufein and followed him to fight illithids. They fought some Kuo-toa on the way and Ayakanya tried casting Horrid Wilting. She got the “area effect” wild surge, which didn’t work as expected – it simply changed it’s direction. No kuo-toa was affected, but Imoen barely survived with only 4 HP left, while Aerie was saved by the Cloak of Mirroring. As for the fight with illithids, Aerie was supposed to kill every opponent with a Death Spell, but she was held before she could finish the casting (even with borrowed Robe of Vecna). Her Contingency (Invisibility if helpless) soon kicked in, saving her from certain death. Rest of the party cast Mislead and cleared the area with meteors.

Back in the city party killed a beholder and spent some time at the tavern. While resting, Ayakanya read Irenicus’ journal again and discovered that is had changed since last time. Fortunately, she had screenshot, so she knew she wasn’t crazy:



Then she did some dueling, while party went to kill some monsters on the other arena. Amusing situation occured when Jan used Mislead to backstab the umber hulk. He was so confused, that after finishing the beast he backstabbed his own illusion:



Party also killed Qilue and her servants for some fish (yes, now they are talking with fishes). Then they got another quest, which was to kill gnomes. Ayakanya decided not to do it and led her party for a little sidetrip. They killed some beholders and Kuo-toa, and then reached an ominous statue. Edwin sacrificed a spider and party was attacked. They were well prepared for the fight and defeated the demon knights easily with Mordenkainen Swords, Melf’s Meteors, Lower Resistance and Magic Missiles (Ayakanya tried again, and this time it was Invisibility on target). I managed to catch a nice screenshot:

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 07 avril 2012 - 08:05 .

[Blackmalkin]

Later, party met a drow party and Ayakanya managed to get them to open the doors for them. [It was really surpising for me, I had no idea such a thing was possible. I didn’t want to skip the Ust’Natha episode, but couldn’t just waste such a success at diplomacy.] When party entered the passage their disguises suddenly ended and they had to face some drow warriors. Horrid Wiltings didn’t do any good – it seemed as if they had 100% magic resistance, and party didn’t have much Lower Resistance spells left. Meteors weren’t any good either, as enemies' AC was just too high. Ayakanya’s Stoneskins were brought down and she had to gulp a potion, while Jan was running to cast Invisibility on her. [Last time such a situation happened somewhere in Baldur’s Gate 1]. Party decided to change tactic. Everyone cast Mislead and started summoning. Ayakanya was trying to summon a genie to restore some spells. When summons were ready Nalia and Edwin cast 2 Spheres of Chaos, which were useful against enemy spiders and a summoned earth elemental. When Ayakanya saw the elemental polymorphed into a squirrel, she decided to ask for a horde of rabbits instead of spell restoration [It might be appropriate to mention that some real-life beer was involved.] Here’s a screenshot from the late phase of tha battle, to give some idea of how chaotic it was:



Party rested after the battle and killed some other drows with 4 hasted Mordenkainen Swords. Then they went back to sell the drow equipment. This time the doorkeepers attacked them. Surprisingly, they didn’t display any resistance to Horrid Wiltings. When business was done, party finally got to the surface and where captured by elves. Conversation with one of their leaders was as irritating as it was disturbing. It seems that everyone believes that Irenicus is not dead. Anyway, she continued her hunt for Bodhi. On the way to Athkatla, she met Drizzt and recruited him to her cause. She made a strategic mistake and chose graveyard, her favourite resting place, as her destination. Party was attacked by vampires and had to run, while Bodhi abducted Aerie. Party regrouped, and returned to kill the vampires with Horrid Wiltings. Ayakanya didn’t want to face Bodhi so soon, but she had to win Aerie back, so she multiplied some Protection from Undead scrolls (using Simulacrums) to protect whole party. With such protection killing vampires was an easy matter, and soon Bodhi joined her brother in true death. Aerie had to be killed during the fight, but Ayakanya found a way to bring her back.

When party was complete again, they went shopping. Ayakanya already reached 9th spell level (chosing Improved Alacrity as high level abillity). Thanks to Ribald’s special store she learned Chain Contingency, Time Stop and Shapechange. One Chain Contingency was also bought for Edwin. Ayakanya wanted to play with her new toys and went to the temple district. She killed some priests and paladins using Shapechange and Chain Contingencies (triple Horrid Wilting among others). Nalia reached 9th spell level and also learned Imroved Alacrity. Party rested at the graveyard and Ayakanya prepared a protective Chain Contingency: Mislead, Simulacrum and Protection from Magical Weapons (as she forgot about memorizing Improved Mantle). Then she started playing with Time Stop. It was great! She could cast whatever she wanted and not recieve any wild surge effects until time resumed. She also discovered that she can talk to genie with time stopped – it meant that she could keep the time frozen as long she liked, unless she got very unlucky with wild surge rolls. She spent some time (or no time at all – depending on view) running around the cemetery casting Time Stops and Limited Wishes (The Ecstasy of Time Stop). Finally she decided to test this in battle.

She led her party back to the Underdark. Kuo-tao were to be her first victims. It didn’t work well – she tried using a greater werewolf form during the Time Stop, but then had a series of failures while trying to recast it. When time was running again, wild surges caught up with her and she ended up held. Her Chain Contingency kicked in, so there was no danger. And with Simulacrum from Contingency, toying with Time Stop could continue. Ayakanya’s copy succeded in her first casting. Then she tried Horrid Wilting. “Wild Surge: Roll 4 more times!” occured. One of the effects was normal casting, but also a “Caster also targeted” wild surge and a Fireball.



Ayakanya’s copy couldn’t cast Protection from Magic Energy on the original, thanks to the invisibility, so she just tried some other offensive spell [I wasn’t much concerned about the whole thing, as Ayakanya had Belt of Inertial Barrier and immunity to fire]. When time resumed Ayakanya died:



But what a death it was! Very stylish suicide. I couldn’t see the log, so it took me some time to figure out what could have happened. Ayakanya had a wrong belt equipped. It was Girdle of Fotitude, the one she used in her morning ritual. I just forgot about reequipping (and it wasn’t the first time, by the way). Still, she was at full health so she must have also failed her saving throw. Her spell saving throw was at 2 with Staff of Power, but after Shapechange weapon is not automatically reequipped, so it was probably 4. I wonder what damage was actually done. Probably wild caster level changes did something to increase the damage, as it would be hard for a copy to take 74 HP without it.

Final party status:
Ayakanya – wild mage 18, 63 HP (74 after using Girdle of Fortitude), fav. spell: Chaos Shield, 410 kills (Thaxll’ssillyia as most powerful vanquished)
Nalia – thief 4/mage 18, 71 HP, fav. spell: Magic Missile, 380 kills (Adamantite Golem)
Jan Jansen – illusionist 13/thief 16, 56 HP, fav. spell: Magic Missile, 207 kills (Statue)
Aerie – cleric 15/mage 14, 59 HP, fav. spell: Cure Light Wounds, 402 kills (Chromatic Demon)
Edwin – conjurer 17, 59 HP, fav. spell: Melf’s Minute Meteors, 224 kills (Firkraag)
Imoen – thief 7/mage 14, 70 HP, fav. spell: Melf’s Minute Meteors, 32 Kills (Drow)

I’m pretty sure that the rest of the party will win the Throne of Bhaal for Imoen.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 07 avril 2012 - 08:04 .