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[Blackmalkin]

Update on Dhanushka’s party:

I did the circus quest and killed the party resting at Den of Seven Vales (with Webs, Greater Malison and Emotion). Then I eliminated slavers, cleared the graveyard and did some other minor quests (like fetching the stuffed bear). I bought th Strong Arm bow for Dhanushka, so she swapped belts with Samadarshin (Inertial Barrier for Stone Giant Strenght).

And then I decided to do something stupid again and attacked the “sewer party”. Webs, Greater Malison, Emotion and summoned spiders killed only one of the dwarves, as later I had to run from the mage (Gaius). I didn’t have anything to counter his Spell Turning, and he kept recasting his Protection form Magical Weapons. He cast a Horrid Wilting, but killed only a summoned efreet. When he summoned a Mordenkainen Sword Jan managed to dominate it. The other enemy dwarf have freed himself and aided Gaius. I still couldn’t hurt the mage, so after killing the dwarf, party started running again. Dhanushka escaped south-east and hid in shadows. Arcane spellcasters turned south-west, killed some goblins and were concealed by Jan’s Invisibility 10’ radius. Dwarves run north. Gaius went after them, but then gave up and started fighting with Mordenkainen’s (using Incendiary Cloud among others. Sword managed to cut through a few layers of Stoneskins but didn’t do any damage. It looked like Gaius was out of protections, so I decided to attack. I wanted to take him by surprise, so Vaitali joined the dwarves to cast Invisibility on them. Before she did that, they stumbled upon enemy cleric and archer. Emotion took care of the archers, while cleric (who was already wounded) was quickly killed by Korgan and Samadarshin. Finally, invisible party gathered around Gaius and finished him.

Then I traveled to Trademeet and had an unpleasent encounter with orogs on the way, but after killing their mage and some manouvering most of them were webbed (Emotion was useless as they were all enraged). In Trademeet I bought Cloak of Displacement and the Dwarven Thrower (both for Samadarshin). Now both dwarves have good ranged weapon, as Korgan acquired Hangard’s Axe in the sewers.

Party Status:
Dhanushka – archer 10, 91 HP, 111 kills
Samadarshin – fighter 9/cleric 9, 95 HP, 82 kills
Melodia – skald 12, 62 HP, fav. spell: Stoneskin, 23 kills
Vaitali – sorcerer 11, 45 HP, fav. spell: Magic Missile, 30 kills
Jan Jansen – illusionist 9/thief 11. 46 HP, fav. spell: Stoneskin, 19 kills
Korgan – bereseker 10, 117 HP, 91 kills

[saros_shadow_follower]

Update on Astarta and party:

Alia hit lvl 12, choosing Giant Strength* as new spell (an undispellable IA spell, granting giant strength to one individual for 2 turns - for now grants Stone Giant strength, +1 str /2 lvls of xp up to Storm Giant str at lvl 20). Temp hit clerical lvl 11 and is now able to cast one sixth lvl priest spell.

Party traveled to Slums, bought several minor items from Aledrian (another +1 amulet, and a gem bag), bought scroll case from Bernard in CC, fought Corvale and Amalas, bought a +1 Sword of Flame from Bernard, rested, entered the cells area. 2 adept mages were waiting here, however they're separated and lack good fighter support, so they were breached and chopped to pieces.

Killed some minor beasts, rested, buffed very well. Charged on the beastmaster, gave him a fake answer so the party could position themselves well. 3 fighters were near the beastmaster, the R-C was between the beastmaster and Tabitha, and an Aerial servant was near the Minotaur cell door, ready to intercept him when he comes out, but in the meantime the Aerial servant was given the task to attack the beastmaster. Alia had already started Breach, when enemy buffs triggered, and were immediately dispelled. The beastmaster was almost dead, when Tabitha managed to kick the R-C a mile away from the party - straight into the gladiator pits Astarta and Alia rushed to help the R-C, who had his Ironskin peeled in no time - but he managed to damage Tabitha with his +3 mace (Enchant weapons spell), and Astarta released her sequencer on Tabitha (2*MM), Alia joined with yet another missile, and although Tabitha managed to lay one hit on the R-C, she died afterwards by 2 more magic missiles. The beastmaster had died long ago, leaving the party to defeat the Minotaur at their leisure. Still, Saros and Torham were also seriously wounded. Overall - bad planning for this fight, could've done far better. Still, managed to do it. Got +2 axe as off-hand weapon for the Ranger, got him a +3 club as main-hand weapon, a Cloak of protection +1 for Saros, another Ring of Protection - this one for Torham, and some ingredients and gems. Completed freeing Hendak.

Traveled to Bridge district. Solved Skinner murders. Reputation went to 18. Torham hit lvl 11. Bought some scrolls from a local merchant (ProMW, Minor Sequencer, PW: Silence). Sorceress read Minor Sequencer, loaded it with 2*MM). The party prepared carefully for the coming fight, casting only undispellable buffs beforehand (3*Giant strength, and a True Sight). Also, a potion of Clarity was bought at a local Temple of helm.

Enemies appeared. Party buffs were immediately dispelled. Party fighters acted, while the Assassin summoned a berserk warrior from the horn as a decoy. Enemy buffs triggered - mage ones, and priest ones. Tons of things happening now: Astarta's Contingency kicked in, she also released a Minor Sequencer at enemy cleric, all party fighters attack the enemy cleric, Berserk warrior starting to appear, Alia is about to release her own Sequencer at the cleric. Enemy cleric's Greater command was foiled, and he was dead a moment later.

Astarta had quickly recast Contingency, and loaded it with Remove magic, but unfortunately had closed too much and the enemies saw her. Two of the fighters attacked her (she's still unprotected, and they're hasted and all). In the meantime, party fighters killed enemy Assassin very quickly. They focused on Suna, in the meantime True Sight finally kicked in and enemy illusions were dispelled. Astarta's contingency triggered, and she cast Stoneskin, and also recharged Contingency with Emotion this time. Suna was brought to Near-Death, but as soon as the enemy mage started chanting Chaos, the three fighters dispersed in different directions in order to be seen who's the target of the spell. It was obvious that Torham's the target, and Saros quickly threw him the potion of clarity, which Torham quaffed at the moment the spell was released. Suna died, and PC's Emotion triggered almost at the same time as the R-C's Greater Command spell. One enemy fighter, of course, managed to save vs both spells and continued chasing Astarta - thankfully, his haste was dispelled earlier. In the meantime, party fighters were all slowed, but afterwards were hasted by Alia. The fight was over very soon.

Traveled back to Slums, then to the graveyard (daytime). Traveled to docks from here, triggered second bandit encounter. Again buffs were dispelled, again there are identical cleric and mage present, but at least the fighters in this group are pathetic. But bad planning and bad prebuff almost cost Saros his life, as he's quite vulnerable at present. He was confused, but Astarta had Dispel magic for that.

Triggered a third bandit fight afterwards, but that one's easy, since there are no spellcasters - just 2 slavers and 6 orogs. The rest of the bandit fights are tougher than Suna's group, but buffs aren't dispelled, so it's easy to escape under invisibility. Or better yet, haste + invisibility.

So far the party is traveling around the city, completing minor vanilla quests - illithium ore, Mae'var, Montaron&Xzar, Fallen paladins, etc. Will write when the party completes all of these. Some items are needed from Trademeet and especially from De'arnise keep, but for that - later.

[Krazy Solo]

Update....

Inveeme, the Wizard Slayer, cleared the remainder of the first floor of Irenicus Lair. Clearing the Air Plane, aka the Djinni Room, and the Cambian. Took minor damages unlike previous attempts. Jumped into the portal to floor two. Yoshimo joined the crew, clearing the mephit room with minimal trouble, although one of the fire mephit seemed to locked on to jaheira even though she wasn't attacking it it followed her around, at that time she was low on health. One of the chest spawned a magical hammer, which will make Viconia joining the squad less of an issue early should i venture into the government district. Cleared all the mobs on the floor including the vampire. Leveled up prior to freeing the doppleganger. So Inveeme is Level 8, only 5 more levels to go before dualing.

Upon leaving Irenicus dungeon we lose Imoen for the time being. The party is now without an Arcane specialist. At this stage isn't too much of an issue. Future plans is to clear the circus, clear the fighter stronghold picking up Nalia and dropping Minsc. At this point is just a simple matter of avoiding getting in over my head doing too much too soon.

Inveeme, Wizard Slayer lvl 8 95 hp

[corey_russell]

Picenon (pronounced pik-uh-non) the level 24 fighter/level 28 thief (level cap) continues his solo adventure...

Last we heard, Picenon had obtained two hearts for Nylee. He suspected trouble, so in preparation laid down 6 spike traps around the area, and summoned a lesser fire elemental, lesser air elemental and a shambling mound (via items). He put up hardiness and ilbratha and talked to Nylee.

Sure enough Nylee went hostile and summoned some helpers. The spike traps killed Nylee outright, but Picenon had to GWW a number of her friends. He did fine though. He went to his plane to rest and then headed to the siege camp.

Yet again he summoned the lesser air elemental, lesser fire elemental and shambling mound. He also put up hardiness and went invisible. Yaga can see through invisibility (too bad), but a solid hit was enough for Yaga to run and then his buddies attacked PIcenon.

Picenon used an invisibility potion and ran far away and healed too. He eventually found Yaga and did GWW on him (note: using yamato since it's +4 and wasn't sure if I needed +4 to hit Yaga, otherwise would have used black razor). By time the GWW wore off, PIcenon had taken a ton of damage and got hit with plague of insects, I think. He ran away (oh forgot a haste potion was active at this point). Picenon used his RoR to heal, but it poofed! Yikes! Well he has one left, think I will need it for Melissan, so better not lose that one...

In any case, he tried to hit Yaga, but Picenon was going down fast, so Picenon ran all around this log pile and hid in the shadows...invisibility potion wasn't very effective due to the enemy true sights, but hiding in shadows will work thanks to the cloak of non-detection. Picenon healed up again, did GWW and it finished off Yaga!


Next up was the Oasis...I would have skipped these guys, however, the weapon type that Picenon gets the most attacks with a 1-hand weapon and is also thief backstabble is long sword. Therefore, I need to do the Oasis fight to get the Answerer which is long sword and +4, perfect for both Ravager and Melissan, provided I can get that far...

When Picenon arrived, he tried an invisibility potion, but despite no enemy true sights running, ALL the enemies converged on his position..uh, oh. Picenon ran all the way to the Amethratkan side of the Oasis, in case he needed to run. Wasn't sure what to do, and had no buffs (but did have -13 AC thanks to Yaga's shield) so tried a few cloudkills and hardiness. Picenon did warcry too, which helped tremendously. Then he did some GWWs, and actually was never in danger with at least 1/2 the enemies with their broken morale due to either warcry or the damage they were taking from the cloudkills. Cloudkill wand ALMOST poofed (down to 2 charges), recharged immediately after the battle.

Surprisingly (to me), Picenon did kill all the enemies. Answerer is now his! Yay, immediately equipped. He went to the merchant in the North Forest to recharge his wand of cloudkill. Picenon will sell the mass of junk he's collected by now, then move on to Amethratkan as Melissan suggested.

[ussnorway]

This sword has an Achilles heel i.e. it’s as slow as some two-handed blades... just so you know.

[BelgarathMTH]

Gratz, everybody. Nice to see so many runs going on.

[corey_russell]

ussnorway wrote...

This sword has an Achilles heel i.e. it’s as slow as some two-handed blades... just so you know.

Yes I know. But 3 attacks per round is 3 attacks per round. Also I have lots of haste type abilities (ring of gaxx, haste potions, WW/GWW) so it's speed is not much of an issue. Also, I need a +4 weapon to hit a number of enemies. Although really, if I don't need to backstab or need a shield, Carsomyr is better since I do have ** in two-hand sword as well.

Modifié par corey_russell, 20 avril 2012 - 04:40 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Nah, guess I haven't played that mod for a very long time to run a successful no-reload now Forgot that reputation above 12 disables joining Bodhi, had to join the Shadow thieves, and failed to complete the second mission (that guild contact can be quite deadly at insane difficulty on lower levels). That's that for the no-reload and frankly, I don't have the time or nerves to try another anvil no-reload. At least not the crappy v6

[corey_russell]

Tough break there Saros. Hope you give it another try after you've "recovered".

[saros_shadow_follower]

I would, but frankly, it's the long days of exploiting that will make me give up. In addition, I usually get bored around the end of chapter 3, or in best case scenario, in chapter 6. The battles are pretty much the same, although indeed each one is very hard, especially on Insane. And any other mods after the Anvil will just be too easy for me - even SCS II for example. In addition, since I wanted the BG1 tomes, I should start all over BG1 again after completing it only recently. So probably will just leave the whole thing for now. Maybe will run a solo whatever class through the entire BG1 SCS instead. Maybe a Wizard slayer. Yes, that should be interesting, will definitely try it.

[corey_russell]

I definitely second the notion of going solo -- it's a nice way to change things up. You can skip a lot more of the areas if desired, which saves time. I'm currently doing a solo F/T in the no-reload and thoroughly enjoyed him and am enjoying him.

And I will definitely grant you, BG 2 is huge, and easy to burn out before completion. Even the designers of the game said they made it too big, though I'm not complaining, more for the buck. : )

[corey_russell]

Picenon the solo fighter/thief continues his adventure in ToB...

Picenon arrived in Amkathran - and did nothing except talk to Balthsazar. Then Picenon headed to Abizigail's lair.

For Draconis, did a few equipment changes:
Donned shadow armor for the AC and acid protection
Equipped Carsomyr and Gesen's Bow

First I laid 6 spike traps and an exploding trap close to the entrance to this area.

I did no buffs and moved forward. I tried to cloudkill out of sight, but apparently that doesn't work on Draconis. As he was casting I fired a few shots from Gesen's bow. I then moved back, hid and did another cloudkill. I repeated this about 3 times. The bow shots and cloudkills were interrupting his spells. I also did a detect illusions to speed up his dying. Eventually he moved in to melee, then I knew I had him. I started whacking him with the Carsmyr. The invisible stalkers were no threat as an enemy needs +2 to hit me, and they don't have that. About 6 hits or so, then his human form was slain.


He buffets me and kills all his stalkers - thanks Draconis, that means they can't set off my traps, just you! So I fired a few shots from my Gesen's Short Bow to make Draconis mad. He tried to cast a few things (no idea what) but of course Picenon saved. Draconis finally pursued to try to get into melee range -- that was my cue! I ran back, directly past my traps. Draconis was nice enough to follow me, and was slain by the traps.


This was MUCH easier than party play, interestingly enough. My parties often have chaotic battles here.

Picenon broke into the lair and dealt with the initial guardians, using hardiness and a lot of GWW. That scary Greater Wyvern who stopped my fighter druid, did not stop Picenon. Picenon dual wieled the Answerer and Usuno's Blade and had to use TWO GWWs - man this thing is tough. The rest of the guardians fell fairly easily to Picenon's dual-wielding.

When we next hear from him, he will explore the first pool.

[angiras108]

saros_shadow_follower wrote...

 I don't have the time or nerves to try another anvil no-reload. At least not the crappy v6

Sorry to see your run end, Saros.
I couldnt even imagine an anvil no-reload.
And I wont play v6, ever.
I prefer v5, where at least some of the loopholes for varied gameplay remain.

Good luck everyone.

[Blackmalkin]

Dhanushka is not dead yet:

After shopping in Trademeet I went to d’Arnise Hold. Most of the trolls I killed with help of Webs. I also fought with umber hulks (after feeding them for experience) to check if SCS changed them in any way – didn’t notice any difference. But I did notice another change – all of the ammo stored in containers were gone. Later I found that “Remove unrealistically convenient ammunition from the game” component is to blame. It appears that it removed all of the ammo stored in containers. I have no idea what’s wrong with a ranger having arrows stashed in his home, so I’m going to uninstall this later. In the keep’s chapel I discovered that the Dwarven Thrower’s bonus damage applies to golems as well (not just ogres and giants as stated in description). Samadarshin equipped Flail of Ages as his main weapon.

Back in Athkatla I went to buy some arrows of dispelling, only to find out that they have been removed from the shop. It’s as if someone had a grudge against archers. So I only bought some +2 arrows and went to Trademeet to buy Tansheron’s Bow (should be helpful against enemies immune to +2 weapons). Then I did the Umar Hills quest and acquired a stronghold. No liches were spawned so Dhanushka, protected with Protection from Undead scroll, easily cleared the temple. I had a strange encounter with some bugged shadows after removing a light gem from the pedestal. Not only did they ignore the protection scroll (which is normal), but they also kept drinking potions. Shadow dragon was left undisturbed. Shadow Lord surprised me with his new abilities, but when his mantle was down, he died momentarily. Vaitali got her first 6th level spell – Improved Haste. I forgot to loot Patrick’s body, so Dhanushka still have no decent melee weapon.

After returning to Athkatla I bought a staff of resurrection. I was cheated – it turned out that it is a staff of raise dead in SCS. I did the fallen paladins quest and went to the graveyard to make a deal with Bodhi. I really wanted some payback for Shari, as well as a +3 throwing axe for Korgan (Rifthome Axe). But just when I was about to agree, I realised I haven’t done Renal’s quest yet. After much thinking I decided to turn Bodhi’s offer down (now I think it was a mistake – that axe would be more valuable then experience and gold earned with Renal’s quest). So I went to Gaelan Bayle, expended 15 000 gp and acquired Ring of Protection +2 and the Amulet of Power (used by Vaitali, unless Samadarshin needs it for tanking level draining undead). During the first of Mae’Var’s quests I almost got all of my party killed (or rather SCS did). Since I had to go to the temple of Talos, I decided I might as well kill everyone inside (after buying most important items from their store, like Protection from Undead scrolls and Belt of Bluntness – the one form Irenicus’ Dungeon was lost along with Grunkh). When I attacked the priestess a party of enemies (storm knights and a mage named Shalline) appeared from out of nowhere and freezed the game.



Even after pausing I couldn’t do anything, not even read the log, since someone kept recasting Blade Barrier (on pause, yes). When I regained control of the game, Samadarshin was dead, while rest of my party, apart from Dhanushka, was unconscious (later I leafed through the log and found out that Earthquake – precast? – was responsible). One of the knights was dead too, some of the others unconscious, but not all, so Dhanushka started running, alarming other knights on her way out. Everyone she passed cast Doom on her. Thanks to that I discovered that the spell works as usual – multiple casts are cumulative. SCS changed the spell description (it now states that spell is not cumulative), but didn’t change the spell itself. It was a good thing to know, but it didn’t make me happy, as it serioulsy hindered Dhanushka’s THAC0. For the first time in BG 2 she had accuracy problems. Nevertheless, she managed to kill some of the pursuing talassans (she was buffed with Improved Haste). When she reached Helm’s temple rest of the party was already dead.



When she lost or killed all of the pursuers, she sneaked back to carry the party’s equipment to the graveyard stash. Enemies had detection spells, of course, but the Cloak of Non-detection worked flawlessly. By the way, it’s the first time I really used this cloak. In original BG enemies didn’t use any detection spells and in BG 2 it seemed to be competely useless (as it was supposed to protect only from the low level detections). But the changed description states that it protects even from True Seeing – and it really does. I wonder whether that’s just a description change (provided by Baldurdash probably) or the item was actually upgraded. While Dhanushka was running to the graveyard and back, Dooms have expired I couldn't resist finishing the storm knights spread throughout the district. Then I found out that one of those that remained inside the temple was standing on Vaitali’s items. So I used wand of resurrection to raise Vaitali, so that she could cast another Improved Haste on Dhanushka. Then, using hit and hide tactic, I managed to lure the mage outside. Then I sneakily killed the reamaining storm knights, stashed their equipment in a chest, grabbed Vaitali’s items and went to the graveyard to resurrect, heal and reequip party. When I came back, the talassan mage went down easily, since it was my turn to make a surprise attack. It all turned out to be a very profitable event as every storm knight had a full plate mail.

Rayic Gethras was killed before he cast any offensive spell. While going after Embarl I was attacked by Cowled Wizards. In the time waaay back, before I bought the spellcasting license (or should I rather say: bribed Cowled Wizard representative), Melodia went to the upper level of the Sea Bounty Tavern to check if the Cowled had this place under surveillance. They did, but she escaped downstairs before the enforcer appeared. Normally, he would have disappeared after a few hours, but SCS must have messed something up and he was still standing there, even after several weeks have passed. He stated that I’m unlicensed (I guess he was left out of the loop while standing there) and I was attacked by four Cowled Wizards. I didn’t stay to fight, but Dhanushka was nearly kiilled by summoned demons that kept teleporting next to her, instead of attacking some of the city dwellers, not to mention the Cowled, who weren’t protected from evil (while my party was). In the end Samadarshin was killed by a bone fiend, mostly because I was more focused on “to reload, or not to reload” question rather the fighting (since the whole incident was obviously a bug). Finally I decided not to (especially that last save would be an autosave from before entering the district) and sent Jan to the local temple of Oghma to order one Raise Dead for the fallen dwarf. And then the bug started to be more funny then annoying – there was a Cowled enforcer in the temple too (and I didn’t notice him at first, because he looked like one of the priests). He was standing there since the time waaay back, when Melodia cast Friends spell to buy some potions of genius. This time I run to the egde of the map as fast as I could.



After spending some time on the graveyard (my favourite inn) I returned to the docks (aggressive Colwed Wizards disappear after some time as they should). During the attack on Mae’Var’s guild party members switched roles – arcane spellcasters were standing in the front to tank backstabs, while warriors were shooting arrows and throwing axes or hammers from behind. Of course, endowed with SCS AI, enemies were usually targeting party members unprotected by Stoneskins, but found it difficult to get to them, and Samadarshin had True Seeing active. I noticed that Mae’Var didn’t have a hood, so I expected trouble. But his protections didn’t include Minor Globe of Invulnerability, so he was webbed and killed like the rest of his party.

Then I spent some time killing trolls in d’Arnise Hold (the still keep spawning for some reason) and doing the ranger stronghold quests. Melodia reached level 15 and now her song gives +4 to hit, damage and AC. Vaitali learned some new spells: Improved Invisibility, Spell Immunity and Pierce Magic (I think I forgot to mention that she have taken Breach as her first 5th level spell). Korgan got one proficiency point in two weapon style and is now dual hacking with Stonefire and Frostreaver. Dhanushka got proficient with short bows. On level 12  her Called Shot reduces strenght, so I decided to kill the shadow dragon. I bought some Protection from Acid scrolls (only 4, but I decided that it will suffice). While using them I recalled that I wanted to find a Limited Wish scroll also, to have everyone protected from level drain. But I didn’t want the protection scrolls to be wasted, so I continued battle preparations, even though Samadarshin didn’t have any Protection from Negative Plane prepared. I thought about resting, since the scrolls are supposed to last 12 hours, but I remembered that it wasn’t true with Protection with Petrification scrolls, and decided otherwise. After some buffing, Jan went to the lair to lay some traps. Dragon turned hostile as soon as the gnome have failed in laying the first one. But he didn’t attack Jan, which surprised me (I don’t think invisibillity was a problem for him). Anyway, Jan retreated safely, but the surprise element was wasted. I finished buffing and led party into the lair. Then I summonned a few creatures and attacked. Vaitali and Melodia were supposed to open with 2 Lower Resistance spells, but I forgot to make Melodia prepare the spell, so the dragon managed to resist some of the spells that followed (some Dooms and Malison). In the next round dragon’s protections were breached and Vaitali used double Efeeblement sequencer. Dragon resisted both, achieving 20s on both saving throws. Another try seemed to have worked, but he didn’t die even though Dhanushka have already showered him with Called Shots. Later I noticed that there was a successful saving throw before the Enfeebled line, so maybe it didn’t really work. Meanwhile, the dragon used his breath attack. Samadarshin gulped a magic shielding potion just in time. I was surprised that the breath didn’t do any acid damage, only level drain. And an extremely powerful level drain at that – Korgan had all 12 of his levels drained and died. Samadarshin survived (thanks to the potion) and was “only” reduced to levels 2/3 (Vaitali passed Amulet of Power to him only after he was drained). With no HP to tank dragon’s attacks he had to retreat, but, luckily, Dhanushka’s newly acquired moon dog was still alive and could keep Thaxll’ssillyia busy for a moment. It was enough for Dhanushka to finish the fight (just before the dog, along with Melodia, was hit with Wing Buffet), though the killing blow was stolen by Samadarshin, with his wand of the heavens (I was rather surprised it worked, as dragons tend to have good fire resistance). Now he keeps bragging about how he killed a dragon when he was a level 2 character.



Party status:
Dhanushka – archer 12, 99 HP, 235 kills
Samadarshin – fighter 10/cleric 10, 97 HP, 153 kills
Melodia – skald 15, 68 HP, fav. spell: Stoneskin, 99 kills
Vaitali – sorcerer 13, 47 HP, fav. spell: Web, 78 kills
Jan Jansen – illusionist 11/thief 12. 49 HP, fav. spell: Stoneskin (strange that it’s not Strenght, since he uses it to enhance both dwarves’ prowess), 43 kills
Korgan – bereseker 12, 123 HP, 217 kills

Party’s reputation reached critical level of 18. I have to think of some way to decrease it, preferably slightly, before another good deed causes Korgan to lose his patience. Suggestions are welcome.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 21 avril 2012 - 04:40 .

[Grond0]

Sounds like a fun session. Won't being caught stealing let you manage your reputation down?

[saros_shadow_follower]

Turn Valygar in for the reward. You'll get an extra Ring of the Ram, and reputation decrease of several points. Use him to open the door of the Planar sphere first, of course.

Edit: Decided to restart my recent no-reload Anvil party. Will not replay BG1, because I'm lazy. That makes it a failure on the trilogy no-reload - just a simple plain BG2 + ToB v6 Anvil noreload, which I think is appropriate. If anyone has any objections, please share them and if I feel they're legitimate enough, I may take the time and replay BG1 again for the tomes.

Will write when everyone is at least lvl 12. Exploiting...

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 21 avril 2012 - 06:49 .

[Blackmalkin]

I thought about getting caught at stealing. It would be -2 which is exaclty what I'm looking for, but it would also turn all nearby people hostile. I could do this with Roger, but he is needed for the gong quest. I was just going to write that turning Valygar in is an excellent idea, but then I recalled that I have already lost one warrior and, who knows, maybe a day will come when I'll need his help.

So I think I'll tell Jan to wait for me in the Copper Coronet while I recruit Anomen and do his quest. Urging him to kill his enemy's daughter also causes minor reputation loss. I remember it well, as It  once caused my undead hunter to fall (my reputation was already low after Edwin killed a cook, because of an accidental AI activation). It was fitting that this act caused both Anomen's and my character's fall (who then failed one of the stronghold quests and remained fallen till the end). It was my best no-reload playthrough in terms of roleplay value.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 21 avril 2012 - 07:20 .

[PPewt]

So I haven't played many solo runs, so this should be interesting. Lost a few characters early on in BG1 but once I got the hang of what to watch out for it was really easy to just cheese all the harder fights with Hide in Shadows. I ended up skipping most of Durlag's Tower and Chapter 7, as well as the majority of the wilderness quests, since I was so high level that it wasn't worth my time and I had all the persistent items (ie the tomes) anyways.

(fun fact: apparently you don't actually need the evidence of Sarevok's plan to display said evidence to Belt... all I did in Ch 7 was kill the assassins in the undercellar, enter the party, beat up Sarevok, stealth through the thieves' area, stealth through the Undercity, then Skull Trap + Wand of Fire Sarevok to death from out of sight (using Hide in Shadows to prevent him from attacking me))

Eryn, the Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief, graduates from BG1 (I did a speed playthrough today). BG1 was on core rules throughout so my health is by no means maxed. I'm playing with a few tweaks, notably True Grandmastery, PnP Spellcasting Tables, Use Thief Skills with Heavy Armour, Cast with Armour (both of the preceeding tweaks incur heavy penalties when in armour though, and I probably won't actually be wearing anything other than the Robe of Vecna in this playthrough), No Level Cap, Unlimited Item Stacking, Unlimited BoH size. Not sure how No Level Cap will work out; I decided to turn it on because I wanted to fool around with a triple multiclass and it wouldn't really be viable to play one with the level cap.

Upon leaving Irenicus' Dungeon:



I quickly cleared the Circus Tent, then rushed over to the City Gates to grab Daystar and kill the lich. This is one of my favourite ways to open the game in any situation, since daystar is always a great weapon. The lich did a good chunk of my health with a surprise Meteor Swarm but accomplished little else.

From there I grabbed Namarra from the Crypt King, then ran over to do the Harper quest. On my way out I talked to Renal, got access to Mae'Var's Guildhouse, and then raided all the valuables on its second floor. After several trips to the Adventure Mart, I was able to afford the Robe of Vecna.



Probably won't be playing this one anywhere near as quickly as my last one, but we'll see.

Modifié par PPewt, 22 avril 2012 - 03:36 .

[Blackmalkin]

PPewt wrote...
(fun fact: apparently you don't actually need the evidence of Sarevok's plan to display said evidence to Belt... all I did in Ch 7 was kill the assassins in the undercellar, enter the party, beat up Sarevok [...]

You mean you just attacked Sarevok and didn't talk to Belt? From what I know you need either Sarevok's journal or his letter to Slythe to present it to Belt after the fight with doppelgangers. Otherwise, main character just dies.
Sarevok don't need to be hit even once in order to proceed. I usually just run from him until he decides to flee.

[PPewt]

Blackmalkin wrote...

PPewt wrote...
(fun fact: apparently you don't actually need the evidence of Sarevok's plan to display said evidence to Belt... all I did in Ch 7 was kill the assassins in the undercellar, enter the party, beat up Sarevok [...]

You mean you just attacked Sarevok and didn't talk to Belt? From what I know you need either Sarevok's journal or his letter to Slythe to present it to Belt after the fight with doppelgangers. Otherwise, main character just dies.
Sarevok don't need to be hit even once in order to proceed. I usually just run from him until he decides to flee.

Oh, did his letter to the assassins count? I guess that explains it then. I thought you needed the journal. Anyhow, all I did is kill the assassins for their party invitation, go straight to the castle, enter the party, and follow the cutscene.

Modifié par PPewt, 22 avril 2012 - 04:54 .

[Blackmalkin]

PPewt wrote...
Oh, did his letter to the assassins count? I guess that explains it then. I thought you needed the journal. Anyhow, all I did is kill the assassins for their party invitation, go straight to the castle, enter the party, and follow the cutscene.

There are different dialogue options for the letter and the journal. I like this part of the main quest as it's not entirely linear. There are many ways to find out what's been happening in the city, and a few ways of uncovering Sarevok's plot. And it's even possible to get inside the palace without invitation, by using a hidden switch to open the gate. It's probably not intended, but the variety of responses to the "Can I see your invitation?" question suggests that more then one way of getting inside was considered by the designers at some point.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 22 avril 2012 - 06:24 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

OK, time to make the entry of Astarta & party. As I said, it's identical to the old one.

Exploited up to lvl 12. Differences from previous run: Temp has been leveled properly, thus he has ** in Quarterstaves, and thus the ability to use the Staff Mace properly. Alia's sixth level pick is Improved Haste rather than Giant Strength. Reason: The 20 str means +3 THAC0 +8 DMG, while 18(00) str of both the ranger and the riskbreaker means +3 THAC0 +6 DMG. Not a significant difference, whereas Improved haste surely can make a big difference.

Did the circus tent without trouble. Didn't buy the +3 Martial staff this time, only containers, protective items and a couple of scrolls. Also bought two +1 scimitars for Torham.

Went to the Slums, talked to Gaelan, bought another +1 amulet from Aledrian, didn't buy the Sword of Flame from Bernard this time.

The fight with the improved CC guards: Alia entered alone, invisible, thus causing a nearby enemy mage to start chanting Oracle (its animation and chanting are that of an abjuration spell). The fighters + an aerial servant entered and quickly slew the mage. There is yet another mage to the left, who was breached and dealt with quickly.

The party rested and went to the animal cells. They gave a fake answer to the Beastmaster, but while they were positioning for a deadly strike, the Beastmaster lost patience and attacked. However he was quickly Breached and slain. The party now focused on Tabitha with melee strikes and magic missiles. She was preoccupied with an Air elemental. The minotaur was slain almost at the same moment as she was.

Loot: *Tabitha's hide, *Magical Flower Seeds, Buckler +1, Cloak +1, Ring +1, Club +3, some gems, Axe +2 (from minotaur),

*Improved Anvil recipe ingredients.

The rest of the quest was uneventful, the party didn't buy anything from Bernard's new stock, and just a scroll case from his old stock.

Travelled to the bridge. Didn't exposed Reijek yet. Got Mekrath-Haerdalis quest. Bought a couple of scrolls from a local night-time fence. Also, a potion of Clarity from the Temple of Helm.

No Giant Strength prebuff this time - just True Sight. Enemies' starting buff sequences triggered, but not before the party take some action. Two enemy fighters were successfully misleaded by the Berserk warrior while Astarta and Alia released their sequencers with great success. The cleric fell a moment later. Astarta's contingency finally kicked in, as did Temp's True seeing. The enemy assassin can be quite deadly on Insane with his backstabs so he was eliminated ASAP. Party mages finally erected some combat protections. Astarta was spamming Contingency, but not with a very good effect. Suddenly, there was a message in the dialogue window about a Chaos spell. No chanting was heard nor animation of the spell were seen beforehand. With little time for planning, everyone tried to disperse, but the target - Temp - was too close. He managed to avoid the effect by quaffing the potion of clarity, but 3 other party members were in the range. They all saved.  The enemy wizard was quickly punished. Greater malison + Emotion completed the fight.

Loot: Arbane's sword +2, another ring +1, some scrolls, and minor enchanted weapons. Well, at least now everyone in the party has an appropriate +1 weapon. Also, a suit of plate +1 for Temp. Also, some extra healing potions.

Travelled back to Slums. Rested. Travelled day-time to graveyard. Cast True Sight. Travelled to docks. Met with second bandit group, this one easier thanx to absence of good fighters.Cleric's Greater Command spell was interrupted much in the same way as with Suna Seni fight. This time the enemy mage couldn't even cast Chaos.

Loot: some more minorly enchanted weapons, and some more potions.

Traveled to docks. Took Mae'var's quest. Started Harpers&montaron quest by killing the apprentices and getting the bird from Harper Hold. Rested. Traveled to Temple district. Was intercepted by third bandit group. A Greater command spell rendered unconscious all enemies except 3 orogs. Fight over.

Temple district: Started Sir Sarles quest, Unseeing eye quest, Fallen Paladins quest. Looted the necklace of Talos.

Traveled to Government. Talked to Sarles.

All travel between city areas is done under Haste spell, otherwise the party cannot escape the constant bandit groups safely.

Traveled to City gates. Took Trademeet quest.

Traveled to Docks. Completed Mae'Var's quest without much effort. Mae'var's only slightly improved, and his cleric is identical to that in Suna Seni's group. Bought yet another +1 ring from Gorch beforehand.

Fight with Rayic Gethrac may pose some interest (btw Reputation drops by 1 when fighting him):

All were Invisible upon entering, thus Rayic started TS spell while still neutral. That was disrupted.
Rayic's buff sequence. Fighters switched to normal weapons and quickly penetrated enemy Stoneskin. However, Rayic's next move was not Breach at the sorceress, but rather Remove Magic. Bad. And his golems appeared too. Refreshed some buffs. Rayic fell next second, and his golems were killed with enchanted weapons afterwards.

Got Shadow Armor +3 for Captain Sparrow.

Reported to Renal. Got quest reward and the short sword +3 (refused guild). Killed Renal. Got 2 +1 cloaks from him and his goon. Went to graveyard (night-time). Joined forces with Bodhi. Looted some items from her lair (some gems, some weapons, and Ashen Scales +2 armor, which sometimes is better than a plate +1). However, not this time. Temp switched to Ashen scales for better missile + piercing protection, and that almost cost him his life at the harbor, since Arkanis Gath wields a +3 slashing Rifthome Axe. Temp's Ironskins were penetrated and he was left on 30 HP. He managed to refresh Ironskin though and no casualties were sustained.

The party completed this and the second task too (freeing a captive from the Shadow Thieves). One higher-level mage in this fight, was eliminated via normal weapons under ProFire (because of enemy Fireshield Red and ProMW spells). Another +1 cloak looted.

Raised rep to 14 via donations, raised it to 18 via completing various minor quests (circus tent guard, Reijek exposed to authorities, Fallen paladins slain, Neb's head returned). Forged IMoD +2, which is a lame Anvil weapon, since it has no NPP, and IA undead are immune to instakill effects. Still, a +2 mace that inflicts slightly more damage upon the undead is good. Forged a Cloak of Protection +2 for the Riskbreaker (Anarg drops a Laeral's tear necklace).

Took Bodhi's final task. Here's the hardest fight in that task - battle on the ground level of the Thieves' hold. There are 2 Shadow thief mages, probably lvl 14, but thankfully separated. They're identical to the mage in the previous task. Enemy TS was interrupted. Melee with normal weaponry under Profire. Contingency at near-death. Second mage under same barrage, casting a non-efficient ProMW. And dying soon after. Two more +1 cloaks looted, and one +1 cloak looted from Gaelan Bayle as well.

Shadow thief hideout: Nothing very scary here. Traps disarmed by assassin (although PC stepped into a lightning trap, but fortunately escaped without much damage). Enemy mages were killed either with successful backstab from the assassin or with normal weapons (Haz). Haz managed to cast Remove Magic, much the same way as Rayic did. That didn't save him. Aran Linvail also favors ProMW spell, and he died bravely under its effect. Loot: more +1 and +2 items, an elven chain +1 (but the Shadow armor is still better for Captain Sparrow), and of course, the Amulet of Power and a ring +2. Reported to Bodhi.

Exploited a bit. Raised party levels as follows:

PC: 13.
Alia: 13. New spell picks: Minor Sequencer, Lower Resistance, Giant Strength
Torham: 12. Now has ** in Axes
Captain Sparrow: 15. 95% lockpick
Saros the Riskbreaker: 13. ***** Flails * Shortsword **Two-weapon
Temp: Ranger (7)-Cleric (13)

Traveled to Umar hills. Did the vanilla stuff here, except meeting Valygar, for the short sword Ilbratha. Riskbreaker needs that, being very fragile at lower levels.

Traveled to De'Arnise hold. The hardest fight was undoubtedly the Greater Yuanti and his Whisper spider. Prepared well for the fight. Unfortunately, the Whisper spider went invisible when the Greater Yuanti appeared. Invisible Captain Sparrow dispelled enemy illusions.  Spider down, yanti breached. Victory seems close, but somehow, despite being under mutiple hits, the Yuanti succeeded in casting Remove Magic. Haha. His mage level cannot be more than 13, as is party mages' and cleric. But still he managed to dispel all buffs on all fighters. Saros, without his buffs, was quickly brought to near-death and retreated. Yuanti was breached again (contingencied Stoneskin) and an improved haste was refreshed too. Captain Sparrow decided to join the fight with a poisonous backstab. That disrupted enemy's Stoneskin or ProMW (dunno which) spell. Party fighters had to quaff some healing potions before finally joining forces and killing the Yuanti.

Loot: Ice flail head, some spell scrolls, a ring +1, some potions, +2 longsword.

The acid flail head is in the custody of Glaicas, who was defeated relatively easy. He managed to drink a Fire giant str potion though

The final head is protected by a Spirit and killer spider - easy at these party levels to squash.

So, Saros got a +3 weapon - the Flail of Ages. Then the party attempted the keep viper, with significant amount of +3 armaments (the viper is immune to weapons +2 or lower). Frostreaver axe was used in this fight by Torham, of course, who can wield it best. The viper had no chance whatsoever.

Next, the party traveled to Trademeet, and completed the quests there. Got a +1 amulet from the Genies before killing them, got the Shield of harmony +2, the Staff of Thunder and Lightning, the Root of the Problem (still has its acid damage as in vanilla), and the Staff of Striking, plus some containers. Also raised party rep to 20.

Back to the city - exploited until party mages hit lvl 14. Astarta bought several 7 lvl scrolls - Limited Wish and Spell Sequencer. Alia chose Mass Invisibility as new spell. Astarta wished for several new things, including a full plate +2 for Torham. Temp also has a full plate now, though unenchanted.

Traveled to Temple Ruins. The fight with the Shadow Jailor went totally awry:

Before the fight, Temp used his Turn undead to kill some monsters. However, two Skeleton warriors simply escaped to the Shadow jailor (level 15 not enough to destroy them obv). The party sent the Anaconda first (*Animal Summoning IV, 7-th lvl divine spell). The jailor was breached and under heavy hits, when suddenly Saros was slain in an instant, and even Torham was injured. BTW, noticed that Torham had his weapons wrong for that fight, so he quickly switched Club +3 main and Frostreaver axe off. Temp's protections were dispelled by the Shadow jailor, and he was slowed and somewhat str drained, but still managed to kill the Jailor, while one Skeleton lord was hitting him. Temp had only 1 Ironskin spell extra, and it was already gone. After the battle I saw he had a third 5th lvl slot, unoccupied, unused - yeah, stupid. Still, back to the fight - party mages tried to occupy the attention of the Skeleton lords with Stoneskins and Mirror Images. Sparrow summoned a Warrior from the horn. The tactic somewhat worked, but the lords are not stupid, so healing potions had to be combined with cowardly running in order for the fighters to survive. Alia decided to lower enemy's magic resistance and shower him with magic missiles, but this was unnecessary. Still, her role in absorbing blows did the trick.

Talking about close calls. Raised Saros. Loot: Morningstar +2, Cloak +1, Chaotic Commands scroll. Got the Sun gem, opened the first shadow barrier, checked the position of enemy lich via Farsight (sometimes a skeleton lord of that group is positioned outside due to bug, which causes the entire enemy group to attack if a character approaches that Skeleton lord). This time all were inside - a Shade lich, 2 Greater Mummies and 2 Skeleton Lords - thus Temp grabbed the Pearly white Ioun stone (that's what it was all about), and gave it to Saros. Now at least he won't die that easy to 2 critical strikes.

That's it for now, exploiting a bit more, up to clerical/mage/fighter levels 15.

[Grimwald the Wise]

Diary of Azure
The Air Genasi Fighter/Mage
GENASI: Genasi are descended from elemental-related creatures, such as efreet, dao, djinn, jann, and marids, among others. Most of them have had no direct contact with their elemental forebears, but the signs of their heritage are apparent. Genasi take great pride in their distinctive features and abilities. In this case blue skin, the reason for the name Azure
- ADVANTAGES: Infravision.
- DISADVANTAGES: -10% experience modifier.
Different Genasi also have their own racial advantages and disadvantages:
- AIR GENASI: +1 to Dexterity and Intelligence, -1 to Wisdom and Charisma, Breathless (Immunity to spells like stinking cloud), and Free Action 1/day.
Started put in BG1 with all stats at maximum except charisma. Due to various mods such as “The secret of bone hill” “The Grey clan episode” and “The stone of Askvar” these stats were increased more than when playing the vanilla game and now stand at:
Stats: Str 19, Dex 20, Con 19, Int 23, Wis 20, Cha 3
After leaving the dungeon, Jaheira and Minsc left and I carried on alone. I helped out at the circus and upon leaving was told about Jafir’s lamp. I was also asked to help the bookkeeper who has been burgled. I decided to go to the city gates as soon as possible to make enquiries about the lamp. I was able to acquire the freedom of the genie of the lamp.
In the slum district, I came upon a slaving organisation that I put out of business and I also rescued a kidnapped girl.
In the Bridge district I came across some murderers who had been burying their victims alive. They will do so no more. I also came across Rejiek who had been killing the poor for their skins. He fled.
In the same area I came across a father and daughter who were being harassed. I put a stop to it and the daughter rewarded me in a most entertaining fashion. I entertained her too, with the result that she thanked me afterwards. Let us hope that our night together will not result in offspring as that could make things difficult for her.
I was asked to help Nalia and as a result of doing so, I am now the protector of her lands. She showed me the den of a lich in the Gate District. I dealt with it quite easily and as a result, now have a powerful sword and staff in my armoury.
As a result of using the staff, my charisma has changed to 25. I decided to stop using the staff when I gave away the ring that made it safe to use the staff. I no longer need it anyway as I have bought a selection of staves in the adventurers’ mart that are far more useful.

[PPewt]

So I played for a good chunk of today and I don't think there's much point in posting about it after all. I haven't found a single fight which wasn't trivial so far... I'm starting to remember why I don't like soloing.

[Blackmalkin]

Update on Dhanushka:

After making an armor from shadow dragon scales (equipped by Dhanushka) I tried lowering party’s reputation. First I went to the sewers to rob Roger. In my current installation potions of master thievery stack (potions of genius too, by the way). Which is strange, as they didn’t in BG 1 with SCS. I didn’t really want Roger to turn aggressive, since I wanted to do the gong quest, so Melodia gulped about 4 potions. Poor fence didn’t notice that he kept buying the same full plate mails from Melodia. I didn’t lower my reputation that way, but at least I earned some gold. About 200 000, to be more precise. I felt a little bad about this exploit, but only a little. I soon found out that spending such amounts of money is an easy thing in the City of Coin (even with 18 reputation and 20 charisma). I mostly bought some potions (had to open a new stash in the graveyard), spells for Melodia and Jan and 6 Rings of Air Control.

Then I get back to my quest for reputation loss. I expelled Jan from the party and recruited Anomen. Unfortunately, I couldn’t trigger his “family quest” by just going to his father’s residence. So I took him to d’Arnise lands for troll-hunting (party’s favourite sport). Party spent a few days on killing, sleeping and making team screenshots. Like this one:



Anomen’s quest still haven’t begun, so I expelled him and welcomed Jan back. Time had come for plan C: acquiring Garren Windspear's land deed for Firkraag. After arriving at Windspear Hills whole party used Rings of Air Control to disappear, because I don’t like being ambushed. But instead of killing the paladins I decided to check what would happen if I don’t. Frikraag’s lair was inaccessible (“The entrance [...] appears blocked”). I killed the vengeful driad and her allies, then checked Garren’s home. It was empty, so I went to finally kill those knights. Garren appeared and offered his help. And then something strange happened. When the usual dialogue was over, I got this:



I went to the dungeon entrance and found a second Garren standing there. Before entering I ordered a rest and was attacked by orcs. For some reason it made Garren hostile (the second one, first was still neutral, as I learned later). Maybe he took pity on the poor orcs? I didn’t take pity on any of them, First level went easy. On the second I had an epic battle with vampires and other undead. Enraged Korgan was blocking the doorway while others were standing in the golem corridor and firing from behind his back. It would have probably worked flawlessly in original game, but this was SCS. Samadarshin was targeted with Domination. He had shield of harmony equipped, so it shouldn’t affect him. But it did, only in a strange manner – his intelligence was lowered to 3 and he became completely unresponsive (but not technically stunned). He was standing in the doorway leading to the exit, so rest of the party could escape only after his dead body. 3 hordes of rats were summoned: one in front of Korgan, one to the room behind and one inside the party’s corridor. Some dread wolves were also summoned: one pack in front of Korgan, the second one inside the corridor.  Since Korgan was blocking one entrance and Samadarshin another, Dhanushka’s moon dog, Cerebus, was useful in tanking the enemies inside. Melodia was dominated (her Melf’s meteors prevented me from equipping her with the Spear of the Unicorn to prevent that). Jan tried countering that with his Domination, but the capricious skald saved. There was some problems with keeping Cerebus from attacking her. But the main problem was targetting enemies through the door, as usual. Perhaps vampires had the same problem, as I don’t recall Vaitali and Jan (who had most problems) being targeted with Domination (Dhanushka was, but she swapped helms with Korgan – Pale Green Ioun Stone for Helm for Charm Protection). At some point of the battle Jan cast chaos, which affected most of the enemies and Melodia (so she was still confused when Domination have expired). After a lenghty battle only the ancient vampire remained. She turned into a gaseous form, but still was attacking and casting Dominations. Still, I couldn’t retreat as Melodia was confused by Jan’s Chaos. And so the gaseous form drained some levels from Korgan before party could run (slamming the doors shut).



After some rest I turned back and found the vampire in normal form. She surpised me with a teleport, which alowed her another try at Dominating Melodia, but this time she didn’t have meteors equipped and could defend herself with a spear (though she made a save anyway). Focused attack allowed chunking the vampire before she could change form again. During this fight I noticed an irritating thing – vampires could target invisible party members with Domination, while Cerebus couldn’t do the same with his Healing Lick.

I didn’t fall for Samia’s trick and killed her party before entering the tomb. Enemies were greeted with 4 Webs, which eliminated everyone but the mage. Samadarshin was standing too close an was also webbed. Dhanushka was webbed too, when she suddenly charged at one of the enemies (I think she wanted to strangle him with a bowstring). Before the enemy mage was stripped of his illusions and protections (which allowed Korgan to hack him to pieces) he cast Chain Lightning and Teleport Field. I was terrified for a moment, as the graphical effect of the latter is the same (or very similiar) to Sphere of Chaos. But it was actually a beneficial spell for Dhanushka, as it teleported her outside the Webs.

The tomb guardians were defeated easily, as Vaitali was able to cast 6 Protections from Fire. Melodia equipped Dragonslayer sword as an off weapon to take advantage of it’s special features. Werewolves and golems died easily. I made a nice screenshot of a greater werewolf with Hangard’s axe stuck in it’s skull:



After killing the air elemental Korgan replaced Helm of Charm Protection with Dragon Helm. Tazok died even faster then he did in Baldur’s Gate. Buffed Korgan (buffed just in case) was sent to treat with Firkraag. Unfortunately, he couldn’t propose fetching Garren’s land deed, so I had to fight with Coster (it takes an evil main character to turn on Garren, it seems). Coster died quickly, but Garren’s son proved incooperative. When Korgan opened the cell, he tried hiding in the corner. Apparently killing his father made him hostile too. Dominating him didn’t help [I really hate this BG 2 “mind-controlled creatures cannot talk to you of their own free will”. This sentence doesn’t even make any sense. And robbing the victims of their free will is exactly the point of this spell. Another reason to play unmodded BG 1]. I went outside to talk to the first Garren (the one who was still alive). He urged me to rescue his child, so I used a console command to summon him (took me some googling to accomplish that). But the summoned one was as hostile as the one I left behind, which also turned the first Garren hostile. I got angry I killed them both. No reputation loss for either.

So I went back to plan B – I took Anomen back to the party. A messenger appeared moments later, and I could finally encourage the fool to take revenge for his murdered sister (reputation –2). SCS Saerk Farrahd turned out to be a dangerous and tough cleric. He opened the fight with a fallen deva summoning, despite being badly wounded during the casting. Some of his guards were rendered unconscious with Vaitali’s Emotions. Saerk’s son (Yusef) was engaged by Samadarshin and a deva was entertained by summons. When Yusef’s escape dialogue appeared, Saerk’s Blade Barrier did this strange, log-blocking recasting thing, and Anomen suddenly died. It was good thing, as he couldn’t steal experience that way. Plus, I never liked him. Saerk didn’t cause any more trouble before dying. Korgan and Samadarshin tried killing deva from a safe distance, but found it difficult to hit her. So they went after the remaining guards (who even managed to take Vaitali’s Stoneskins down in the meantime) and left deva for Dhanushka. She didn’t have any accuracy problems – after all, she is a racist who hates everyone living outside her own plane.

I decided to resurrect Anomen – I might not like him, but he can be useful. Before kicking him out of the party I took him back to his father (more experience) and used him to cast some Chaotic Commands. It is very useful while killing illithids – and that was I was going to do. During the battle with the dominated party Dhanushka was backstabbed for 55 damage. She gulped a potion, escaped and closed the door behind her. Assassin was killed before he backstabbed anyone else. In the second chamber I noticed that mind flayers seemed to be unchanged in SCS (though I’m not sure if they had any physical damage resistance in the original) but ulitharids displayed some completely new abillities. One of them was teleportation (along with one mind flayer) to stunned Samadarshin (his protection was dispelled during previous fight). They couldn’t get to him otherwise as Korgan was blocking the doorway (which is starting to be his specialty). There was nothing I could do to save Samadarshin, but his death was only temporary. After resting I attacked the final chamber – no problems this time. Not until I faced Alhoon (who didn’t join the main fight). When I saw the list of his protections (had to do some scrolling) I ordered a general retreat – there was an Absolute Immunity, as well as immunity to abjuration and divination among others (one would think that absolute immunity should suffice). After a hasty escape I dominated Alhoon’s Mordenkainen Sword and killed a demon. Then I retreated to rest. Alhoon did the same, but this time I kept pressure on him by sending summons, starting with his own Mordenkainen Sword. When he seemed to be out of spells I attacked with full party to finish him. It looked as if he had a lot of 7th and 8th level spells, but almost nothing from lower levels. Samadarshin took Hammer of Thunderbolts as an off hand weapon.

Later I solved the “skinner murder case”. I even managed to kill Rejiek with Enfeeblement and Called Shot. It had an interesting effect. I didn’t send Aegisfield to his death this time, so I went to talk to him. He rewarded me, but I suffered a reputation loss, not gain as expected (for actually killing Rejiek, apparently). Important life lesson: if you do something, fail – people won’t like you if you don’t.



Then I went after the Unseeing Eye cult. In sewers I found that the way was blocked. While speaking with Keldorn I could state, that I was hired by Helm’s temple, so I think I did acquire the quest. Anyway, after speaking with Helm’s priest the way opened. But what’s important, is that inabillity to proceed made me consult the SCS readme. Thus, I learned about Unseeing Eye new properties. They didn’t make any sense to me. Why should it behave like normal beholder if it wasn’t one? Not to mention those absurd demilich-like resistances. Still, I refused to turn back. I suspected that with said resistances my plan won’t work, but I needed to do it anyway. It was similiar to my shadow dragon fight – I knew I was ill-prepared and should turn back, but just couldn’t resist (heroics saving throw failed).

First I talked to Gaal, agreed to his task. On the way to the temple I used enraged and invisible Korgan to check if the beholders are still fooled by illusion spells. They were, so I turned rest of my party invisible and reached the temple unmolested. There I acquired the piece of the rod and turned back. I talked to the conspiring cultist as suggested and entered the pit filled with undead. Invisible Samadarshin was scaring off the undead while Dhanushka and Korgan used ranged attacks to clear the area. Korgan equipped Gauntlets of Dexterity – which was the main reason I risked coming to this place. Then party turned invisible to sneak past the beholders and safely exit the tunnels. My main quest was basically done, so i could simply walk away. But I just HAD to kill the Unseeing eye.

Plan was to give the rod piece to Gaal and allow the beholder to kill himself on Jan’s traps. Of course it couldn’t be so simple with SCS. Apart from the fact that the new Unseeing Eye was supposed to be nearly immune to damage, my main concern was with the cult guards, who could have taken the traps on themselves. So, when maximum number of traps were set, I heavily buffed my party (especially Korgan, who had the most dangerous task), summoned some creatures and got to work. Korgan was waiting outside Gaal’s quarters with the efreet, while Jan and Samdarshin dominated the guards. Two of them were sent to Gaal's room. Then Korgan activated his rage, talked to Gaal, gave him the rod and started running. Gaal didn’t pursue as he was busy dealing with his guards and efreet. Jans trap’s dealt only 1 point of damage each to the beholder at first, but then they starting doing some more serious harm. It wasn’t enough though. I spent a few rounds observing (via log, of course) what the Unseeing Eye was doing with dominated guards and summons. Scary stuff. When it finished, it went after the party, but I had Korgan as a rearguard. Turned out that traps managed to reduce him (beholder, that is) to the near death state:



Korgan tried finishing him with Hangard’s Axe (+2). It was ineffective, so he switched to Dwarven Thrower (+3). No effect either. Meanwhile, the beholder was attacking the dwarf, but couldn’t do much against berserker’s rage, saving throws well below 0 (thanks to potion of invulnerability) and 50% magic resistance (from potion). Main danger were the Cause Wounds spells, so I gave Korgan Belt of Innertial Barrier. I also made him switch shields to raise magic resistance to 55% and helms to provide some regeneration (elemental resistance was useless). Two hostile cult guards have appeared after some time, but Korgan quickly massacred them (he had Improved Haste active). Then I started wondering why Korgan’s weapons were ineffective. Beholder’s Protection from Magical Weapons must have expired by then, so I figured, that demilich-like resistances also include immunity to all weapons lesser then +4. So I checked what +4 weapons I had available. There was Staff of Rynn and Flame Tongue longsword (changed item description states that it’s considered as +4 when determining what it can hit). Korgan wasn’t proficient in either, so I chose the staff. My assumptions were correct – +4 weapon was effective, but the beholder had Stoneskins. With two attacks per round it took some time to bring them down (and a few healing potions too). A scary moment came when Unseeing Eye cast Imprisonment, just when Korgan’s rage have expired. But it turned out that the spell was slightly premature and didn’t work.



When Korgan finally took down the Stoneskins, beholder recast them. I decided to risk breaching. Vaitali cast Spell Immunity thrice, protecting herself from abjuration, alteration and necromancy, then approached to cast Breach. It didn’t work – “spell ineffective”. I tried Pierce Magic in the next round. Also “spell ineffective”. And then I recalled that this Warhammer +1, +4 vs. Giantkin, also has a changed desciption, stating that it counts as +4 weapon (which was the main reason I kept carrying it, by the way). With it, Korgan reached 5 attacks per round and soon finished the Stoneskins. Beholder didn’t recast them and the dwarf could finally do some damage. 1 per hit. 2 if critical. With 24 strenght. It’s even better then the demilich resistance. But the beholder didn't have much HP left and soon was dead:



Then I sent Vaitali (invisible and immune to abjuration and divination) to see what happened to Gaal. She couldn’t find him anywhere, but then I noticed that the rod piece was still in Dhanushka’s inventory. So I turned back to the beholder’s lair to grab the second piece. It was protected by a gauth, but after soloing the elder orb it was piece of cake for Korgan (strictly speaking it wasn’t soloing, but try telling that to an enraged berserker). He fell the gauth in two hits, so I decided to let him also kill one beholder. After 3 swings enemy was down and Dhanushka became a happy owner of Dragon’s Bane halberd. Next, I took the assembled rod to the temple. On the way out, I decided to check if Invisibility+Blade Barrier tactic would work on SCS beholders. It did, mostly, but they were moving around and had good saves, so Samadarshin didn’t manage to kill even one. By the way, my Blade Barriers also behave strangely. Vaitali reached 7th spell level and chose Limited Wish.

Party status:
Dhanushka – archer 13, 102 HP, 348 kills
Samadarshin – fighter 11/cleric 11, 99 HP, 210 kills
Melodia – skald 17, 72 HP, fav. spell: Stoneskin, 117 kills
Vaitali – sorcerer 14, 48 HP, fav. spell: Melf’s Minute Meteors, 130 kills
Jan Jansen – illusionist 11/thief 12. 49 HP, fav. spell: Stoneskin, 55 kills
Korgan – bereseker 14, 129 HP, 390 kills – he finally bested Dhanushka