15228 réponses à ce sujet

[Grond0]

Blackmalkin wrote...

This time she cast more Magic Missiles, to make sure Bodhi cannot survive.

Nice story Blackmalkin - I especially enjoyed the impromptu fireworks display!

[Gate70]

Cnerd, love it. Deliberate or coincidental Wise Grimwald?
& agree with Grond0 about the screenshots of magical overload. Great stuff.
edit, posted here too. Force of habit, & removed to minimal thread.

Modifié par Gate70, 30 avril 2012 - 04:15 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Oookay, time to write about my progress.

First of all - wanna clarify that IA doesn't work with any other mods, especially mods, which add items or increase the amount of certain in-game items. In a vanilla game, there are 2 pairs of Boots of Grounding, and 2 pairs of Boots of Speed attainable in the chapters 2-3. In IA, there are none - the first ones that can be achieved are either upgrading (boots of Speed) or token machine (Spellhold), and there is exactly 1 pair of boots of Grounding and of the North in the entire game (not to mention they're needed as components for an item upgrade). Boots with some bonus are scarce in IA. Very. That's why the lich won't get his slippers. Never! Although they grant only 25% resistance to cold.

Second - I didn't play at all these past three days because of Avacyn Restored prereleases, so now I got the chance to finally level up the party:

Alia the Sorcerer: lvl 28, xp 8 410 000, armed with Martial Staff +3, spell picks:

Lvl 1: MM, LMD, Shield, Armor, Cromatic Orb
Lvl 2: Blur, MI, Invisibility, Resist Fear, M's Acid Arrow
Lvl 3: Haste, Flame Arrow, Lightning Bolt, Remove Magic, Vampiric Touch
Lvl 4: Stoneskin, Minor Sequencer, Emotion, Ray of Fragmentation, Ice Storm
Lvl 5: Sunfire, Breach, Lower Resistance, Spell Immunity, *Soul Armor
   *Undispellable 3-turn duration protection spell, caster only, sets base AC to 0. Thought about Cone of Cold here, but it actually is helpful only in a couple situations, and the sorceress doesn't cast as quick as PC anyways.
Lvl 6: GoI, PfMW, Improved Haste, Giant Strength (now sets str to 24)
Lvl 7: ProElements, Spell Sequencer, Ruby Ray of Reversal (RRR), Mass Invisibility
Lvl 8: Spell Trigger, Monster Summoning VI (summons 1 Elite troll for 15 rounds), Protection from Energy, Foreknowledge
Lvl 9: Wish, Chain Contingency, Monster Summoning VII (summons 1 Greater Yuan-Ti for 15 rounds), *Absolute Immunity, and all HLA spells. Plus 2 Alchemy and 1 Scribe Scrolls
    *In IA, the spell grants absolute immunity to all weapons (including +6 or higher) and weapon based spell attacks, such as Harm. In addition, Harm is nerfed to allow save vs spell and not bypass MR check.

PC: Necromancer, lvl 28, xp 8 460 000, armed with a Cleric's Staff +3. She knows not so much spells. Severely lacking at present - Spell Immunity, Globe of Invulnerability, Improved Haste. There are a GoI and ImprHaste scroll inside the Planar Prison, but I'd postpone that quest a bit. Spell Immunity is the most important one, and for it, preparations have to be made first.

Captain Jack Sparrow the Assassin (23)-Fighter(24). Total xp 8 460 000. He was leveled very carefully. Last level up was hit at lvl 20. First HLA chosen-Hardiness. Up to that moment, he achieved Grand Mastery in Two-Handed swords and Halberds. Next level up was when he accumulated enough for lvl 24. Four simultaneous HLAs - Power Attack, Critical Strike, Smite, Hardiness. Didn't wanna pick Smite, had no choice, since I couldn't pick 2 Critical Strikes. Most importantly, Jack could now put 2 stars in Quarterstaff, in which he regained 1 star from the inactive class, so now he has *** in Quarterstaves and * in two-handed weapon style, and thus wasted no proficiencies. Armed with Harmonium Halberd, which is gonna be his main weapon of choice in many battles, due to the Str bonus. However, many IA enemies are quite resistant (or immune) to piercing damage and vulnerable (or less resistant) to crushing, so he'll be at a disadvantage, at least up to lvl 30, when he could attain grandmastery in quarterstaves. His crushing weapon option is the Staff of Striking +3.

Saros the Riskbreaker - total xp 8 400 000. Lvl 34. Proficiencies: *****Flail *****Shortsword ***Bastard Sword **Two-weapon style. Wields FoA +3 and a Morningstar +3. Has the Short sword of backstabbing +3 in quick-weapon slot. 183 HP.

Bane the Riskbreaker - total xp 4 900 000. Lvl 24. Proficiencies: *****Long Sword ***Warhammer **Short Sword **Two-Weapon. 163 HP. Currently wields two +2 longswords - maybe the worst armed character.163 HP.

Torham the Ranger (18)-Cleric (25) - total xp 8 290 000. Got and equipped a holy symbol - another Greater restoration spell is always handy, but had to sacrifice the second RoP +1 for now. HLAs - Foreknowledge(identical to the 8-th lvl arcane spell, it's 7th lvl for priests though), Aura of Flaming Death, Energy Blades, Implosion, Globe of Blades. Priest also have as innate 7th lvl spell pick the new anti-undead spell, *Disrupt Undead.

  *A necromancy 7-th lvl arcane/divine spell, casting time 7, touch, deals damage to Undead regardless of MR or protections (except SI:Necromancy or spell protections like Spell Turning) as follows:

Skeleton Lords &lesser undead: 10d6+10
Skeleton Warlords : 8d6+8
Skeleton Grandlords: 6d6+6
Liches, Master Vampires, Vampire Lords: 5d6 + 5.

More powerful/other types of undead won't be affected.

Torham is armed with a +3 club, and +2 mace of Disruption off-hand. He also has the +1 Root of the Problem club, which still applies 1 acid damage on each hit - good for disrupting spellcasters, compared to almost all other IA-nerfed weapons, which have a 5% or 10% chance per strike to inflict some elemental damage.

Okay, now time for some artifact hunting. The party needs some head protection for the second Riskbreaker (so few Anvil Ioun Stones, so well guarded), a +3 two-handed sword for the A-F, a +3 longsword and warhammer for the second RB, a bag of holding...where to start. Oh well, one by one.

Edit: Each party member has at least 2 Rings of protection +1 and a cloak +1 equipped. Two cloaks +2 and a ring +2 are distributed amongst the riskbreakers. Also, for better protection, the Riskbreakers carry potions of Defense, created in sufficient amount for them by the two mages via Alchemy (in IA, it creates potions of Defense, Oil of Speed, potion of Strength, Agility, nerfed Stone Form). Also, Jack sparrow carries some Blur scrolls and Armor scrolls, created by the mage HLA scribe scrolls. Since the riskbreakers can't wear any armor, and are immune to Barkskin and Spirit Armor, the best protection for them is potions - best replenishable. And Jack is wearing Jansen's adventurewear, which sets base AC to 8, as any unenchanted leather. Physical resistance is good, but AC is also important somewhat. So it's either Barkskin, or Ghost Armor for him. Blur will additionally decrease his AC, if only for a bit.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 30 avril 2012 - 07:08 .

[Gate70]

Nawgrim/Gate70 and Peer/Grond0. Session 9 (run time 1h40m. Total15h50)

Planar sphere continued
Spiders, more halflings, frost salamanders, fire salamanders and genies, clay golems. All dealt with.

Tolgerias and his mage work through our summons using their own. Peer tackles him while Nawgrim distracts a mage and wyvern. Once Tolgerias loses his stoneskins he is attacked in a pincer movement and quickly succumbs.

A single demon heart is retrieved felt too risky to go for the other two, and the planar sphere shudders along a final journey. Lavok is given the dignity of seeing a final sunrise.

Nawgrim claims the sphere for his own, and arranges for the solemnic knights to be returned to their home plane. After a few rests the three apprentices survive all the tests can't remember the exact outcomes so played safe, then a few more rests sees us summoned by Teos.

Caught with our pants down
He asks why we summoned him. Oh. An ambush, & we've turned up un-buffed. Peer wades in as Nawgrim starts to cast malison, only our enemies are hasted and disrupt. The enemy mage is commanded though so we attack with melee weapons.

We're getting hurt so Peer heads south as Nawgrim heads north. A melee attacker and a hidden attacker follow each of us and Nawgrim is soon in trouble. Peer tries a bit too hard to help and keels over. Nawgrim runs, casts two sets of magic missiles as he runs then casts haste. This allows him to open up a gap and summon a minion. More distance and he resurrects Peer.

Some hasted skeletons seem like a good idea, as do stoneskin, DUHM, mirror images, blur, fireshield and chant.

We make our way back, using oracle to flush out a hidden attacker. We manage to hold two attackers from the original ambush site and slow two more. We struggle to finish them though and they fight back. Nawgrim has to run again, but Peer has his equipment back.

Nawgrim is one or two hits away from death and running in circles. Peer brings a fire elemental (staff summon) and throws Nawgrim a potion of invisibility.

As Nawgrim is about to glug the potion his attacker switches to the elemental. Nawgrim dithers over a ranged/magic attack and Peer weighs in with a couple of fatal blows. Pants pulled back up.

Teos re-appears holding a sprained finger amusing, and informs us that maybe we should track down and imprison Argrim, who apparently is behind the ambush. Maybe after we've rested?

Reloads: 0
Near misses: 1 (Planar Sphere Argrim ambush).
Peer Resurrections: 3 (de'Arnise courtyard, Planar Sphere halflings, Planar Sphere Argrim ambush).

Grond0
Peer, dwarf fighter 9 / cleric 10. Tank.
475 (+85 in sessions 8-9) kills, Tolgerias.

Gate70
Nawgrim, gnome fighter 9 / illusionist 11. Protaganist.
334 kills (+24 in sessions 8-9), Torgal.

[corey_russell]

Nice work there Gate70. In surprise ambushes like that, do you guys do a lot of talking to decide what to do, or do both characters just ad lib? I'm curious what it takes to coordinate in situations like that ambush (e.g., actual real time required vs. single player experience)

[PPewt]

To continue on my quest to find a more interesting and challenging run (after fully realizing how horribly easy solo runs are, at least in vanilla, as long as you play a good multiclass), I'm going to try something very different. Hopefully it works out better than my last attempt.

Mods (I'll list any important settings for my run):

SCSII (Harm deals 150 damage for both me and my enemies, no Spell Immunity in Contingency (it's already too powerful), most enemy settings on hardest, nerfed every listed superitem)

Fixes: pretty much everything

Tweaks (No restriction on Xs of Protection... hopefully this should make them a little less weak on most classes--if it turns out to be overpowered I'll uninstall it, True Grandmastery, PnP casting tables and thac0 table, max HP from leveling (might be necessary in a no-reload SCSII, 100% spell learning (should reduce the pointless busywork of carrying around a stack of potions of genius))

I'll be using an entirely multiplayer-created party, and if one of my non-Bhaalspawn party members is chunked I will "raise" them by recreating them by extrapolating from their stats whenever my last save was; this avoids the whole reloading aspect of avoiding chunking, avoids the monster damage nerfs from normal difficulty, and allows me to stick with an entirely-multiplayer party. I hope to have a different experience, both allowing more powerful dual/multiclasses and disallowing broken NPCs (Edwin, I'm looking at you). As a result, the game will only end if my Bhaalspawn character dies, which, barring poor play, would probably involve my entire party going down.

I'll be running a 5 person party because I ran out of ideas for classes and didn't want a third fighter/mage or second sorcerer. I'll use the sixth slot to drag around NPCs for minor purposes (such as hauling Yoshimo to spellhold) for short periods of time (but not to assist in combat).

I've also used ShadowKeeper to distribute 1 STR, 1 DEX, 1 CON, 1 INT, 3 WIS, 1 CHA as if I played BG1 since I don't really feel like BG1 at the moment. It goes to:

CHA: Anne (Sorcerer)
3xWIS: Rebecca (Cleric/Ranger)
DEX, CON: Catherine (Fighter/Thief)
STR: Danielle (Fighter/Mage #2)
INT: Sarah (Fighter/Mage #1)

I'm also using dungeon-be-gone for obvious reasons.

--

Without further ado, the party. They're all elves for roleplaying reason (except the Cleric/Ranger who had to be a half elf), all female because of the relative lack of half decent male portraits that I've found, and pretty well optimized statwise (mind flayer proof, maxed CON and DEX, maxed or overmaxed primary stat):


Anne (Bhaalspawn): Chaotic Good Sorceror 7
13STR 19DEX 17CON 18INT 3WIS 19CHA
+Quarterstaff +Dart
Targeted weapons: Junk -> Staff of the Magi


Sarah: Neutral Evil Fighter 6/Mage 6
18/37STR 19DEX 17CON 18INT 3WIS 10CHA
+++++Long Sword +Two Weapon Style
Targeted weapons: Daystar/Namarra -> Daystar/Adjatha -> Equalizer/Adjatha -> Angurvadal/Equalizer -> Angurvadal/Blackrazor -> BBoD/Blackrazor


Danielle: Neutral Good Fighter 6/Mage 6
19STR 19DEX 17CON 18INT 3WIS 10CHA
+++++Katana +Two Weapon Style
Targeted weapons: Celestial Fury/Dak'kon's Zerth Blade -> Celestial Fury/Hindo's Doom


Catherine: Chaotic Good Fighter 6/Thief 7
18/83STR 20DEX 18CON 18INT 3WIS 10CHA
+++++Two Handed Sword +Two Handed Weapon Style
Targeted weapons: Lilarcor -> Carsomyr


Rebecca: Chaotic Good Cleric 6/Ranger 6
12STR 18DEX 18CON 18INT 21WIS 3CHA
++War Hammer ++Flail +Mace +++Two Weapon Style
Racial Enemy: Mind Flayer
Targeted weapons: Flail of the Ages, Crom Faeyr, Mace of Disruption, Runehammer
Notes: Her low STR is because she's going to be my X of +STR item target all game and I wanted to have a maximally effective team against Mind Flayers.

Modifié par PPewt, 01 mai 2012 - 02:26 .

[Blackmalkin]

Update on Dhanushka:

First step in beating the third level of Warden’s Keep’ was finding a key to the portal on second level (I was also hoping to find missing Wave component). I didn’t find the key in any of the graveyard stashes, so I checked my stash on first level of Warden’s Keep. I found a few things there, but no key nor Wave shaft. I checked every other container and found nothing. Then I checked every container on level 2. Nothing there. Checked everything again and still nothing. And then I noticed a key lying on the floor near in level 2 main chamber. I guess I just didn’t pick it up after the fight with Chromatic Demon.

In the labyrinth I followed Yakman and cured him. I was surprised to find nothing of interest in his journal. SCS must have removed the guide to make things more interesting. Quite successfully. I begun systematically mapping the labyrinth. First I run into a party of tieflings. All died before party suffered any damage. But they did cause some problems: I found out that there is no room for their items in my Bag of Holding. There had to be a lot of inventory management to pack everything. Vaitali gained a level and learned Pierce Shield, Spellstrike and Dragon’s Breath. Then I met a band of baatezu. Fortunately, Korgan was speaking and manged to make a deal with their leader (Dhanushka would have never agreed to that). Then I found myself in a dead magic zone with several demons. No problems there (apart from loosing all buffs, that is). Then I was teleported to the area with an obelisk and 6 glabrezu (normally there were only 2). I started without any buffs, but fight turned out to be easy and profitable (lots of experience). Glabrezu were protected from magical weapons and kept summoning greater fire elementals and ice salamanders. Taking their protections down wasn’t a problem. Ice salamanders had non-magical attack and couldn’t hurt party enraptured by Melodia’s music. So, only elementals could cause any problems and they had serious accuracy problems.



After that fight I could fully rebuff my party before proceeding. I the next chamber I had to face quasits and wild magic. Wild surges included doubling of Korgan’s HP and turning Samadarshin into a women. Then I got to another zone of dead magic. Defeating demons found there wasn't a problem, but the next portal took me to the tanaari group. I had no intention of fighting them unbuffed so I retreated back to the portal, which, luckily brought me to already cleared quasit area. From there I already knew the way to a place where I could rebuff (usually I could rebuff without resting, thanks to Wish spell). I found my way back to the tanaari and killed them easily. Then I fought with demonknigts. This time Jan and Vaitali had Death Wards and weren’t killed by their Power Words and Symbols. Lastly, I killed the wraith spellcaster. Vaitali was cornered by ghosts and had a few levels drained during this fight. I was planning on making a complete map of the maze, but after being repeatedly attacked by teleporting demons (SCS addition, I think) I changed my mind and moved to the final location.

I didn’t want to fight with Aesgareth’s party, so I agreed to play with him. I laid some traps of course, and heavily buffed my party, especially Korgan who was going to draw the cards.  First, I played for the Spectral Blade. Korgan was slowed, Aesgareth was attacked. Korgan’s draw was higher and I won the sword. In the next round I decided to play for the gem. Korgan was cursed with lowered strenght, Aesgareth was hit by a Flamestrike. Again Korgan’s draw was higher. I got the gem, but Aesgareth attacked my party. I didn’t expect this at all. Traps killed only one of the enemies, I think. Korgan was immobilized, but Jan had a Remove Curse spell ready and approached to cast it. Meanwhile Korgan could only hit things close to him. Enemy spellcaster must have had higher level then mine, as her Remove Magic killed almost all of my buffs, while mine didn’t do much. At least Aesgareth didn’t cast anything. First he was stunned by Korgan’s Smite, then Samadarshin kept interrupting his spells with elemental damage penetrating Stoneskins. Tielfing mage have stopped time and imprisoned Jan (fortunately, after he removed curse from Korgan), while remaing fell cat killed Vaitali, just before being shot by Dhanushka. Then tiefling cast Comet, which rendered Melodia unconscious and seriously hurt Korgan. Tiefling assassin was merciful and instead of chunking helpless Melodia (whose Contingency didn’t react momentarily – they never do, when my party is concerned) backstabbed Samdarshin, who could take it. Then Horrid Wilting came, finishing Melodia (which actually was a relief, considering the chunking alternative) and panicking Korgan. Excluding summons, only Samadarshin and Dhanushka remained on my side, Aesgareth, tiefling assassin, mage on theirs. I had two Mordenkainen’s while they only one. My moon dog was also still alive, as well as Aesgareth’s illusion (but it was completely harmless).



I considered jumping into a portal, and wondered why I haven’t done it when the fight started. Once again I failed a heroics saving throw and decided to stay. I finished Aesgareth and assassin, then finally jumped into a portal (since I had no way of defeating mage’s protections. Before I transited to another area tielfling managed to hit Samadarshin and Dhanushka with another Horrid Wilting. Fortunately, all three of my warriors emerged alive on the other side. It some time for Korgan to calm down. After healing and resurrecting Vaitali I led my party outside, where Melodia was resurrected and whole party rebufed. I returned to the battlefield, killed the tiefling mage, picked up dropped equipment and used scroll of Freedom to bring Jan back.

On the start of fourth level I had an unpleasant surprise: Carston decided to “make things mpore intetresting”. And he did – he summoned 4 mind flayers. Dhanushka was dominated before the game was autopaused.



Vaitali and Melodia cast Remove Magic but only dispelled her buffs. Which was a good thing as she had Improved Haste active (she rarely don’t). Even without buffs she did a lot of damage to Korgan. Jan tried countering illithid domination with his own, but Dhanushka displayed magic resistance. Second try worked. Meanwhile, dwarves have hacked illithids to pieces.

Then I made a trip to Athkatla to invest my gold reserves in potions and scrolls before playing with Deck of Many Things. Jan equipped Carsomyr, was buffed with everything I had and started drawing cards. First he got Donjon. “Not again”, I thought, but he saved vs. death at -4. Strange, I though this was supposed to Imprisonment. Then he got Star, rasing his intelligence by 1 and then Moon, raising his HP by 10. After selling some equipment I returned to Warden’s Keep.

First I cleared the illithid area. Their numbers seemed to be increased by SCS, but I didn’t have any problems. Mind flayers and umber hulks were killed with one hit each, thanks to Greater Deathblow (either from Dhanushka’s hight level ability or Vaitali’s Wish). Ulitharids were immune to that, so where hacked to pieces in a traditional manner. I didn’t use any Chaotic Commands – Melodia’s battlesong protect against stun, while good saving throws or special equipment against domination.

Githaynki were even easier, especially that all of them moved to attack my party when I entered. Vaitali used her newest toy for the first time – 3xHorrid Wilting Chain Contingency. It only took care of the initial wave, but her Dragon’s Breath did much more damage. Many enemies were also killed by Greater Deathblows. I didn’t want to fight demilich, of course, but another dragon fight was most welcome. Battle started when Jan and Melodia laid Spike Traps (after getting Use Any Item they were taking only this as special abillities, with an exception of Magic Flute for Melodia). Vaitali used her anti-magic Spell Trigger at once. Which was a grave mistake – spells hit the dragon before his protections kicked in. Saladrex managed to hit both dwarves with his Wing Buffet (don’t know how it was possible, since I positioned them at opposite sides). Then I noticed that I forgot about recasting my spellcasters Stoneskins. Things were going to hell rather quickly, but then Vaitali’s Horrid Wilting Contingency finally kicked in, killing the dragon.



Then I cleared the main part of the level, mostly by using Wish to cast Horrid Wiltings on everyone.



I let Carston run away and used Lum’s Machine to increase Dhanushka’s dexterity (as she was going to suffer a dexterity loss in hell), strenght (so she could use Strong Arm bow without the belt), constitution (now she is as tough as a dwarf) intelligence (to restore the original value of 11, making her vulnerable to illithids) and magic resistance. Melodia raised her charisma, Vaitali wisdom (I decided that better Wish options are more important the additional cleric spells). After some inventory management I led my party for into final Shadows of Amn chapter.

Party status right before entering Suldanessellar:
Dhanushka – archer 21, 138 HP, 663 kills (Baalor)
Samadarshin – fighter 16/cleric 16, 109 HP, 451 kills (Thaxll’ssillyia)
Melodia – skald 28, 94 HP, fav. spell: Stoneskin, 128 kills (Spirit Troll)
Vaitali – sorcerer 20, 54 HP, fav. spell: Magic Missile, 278 kills (Saladrex)
Jan Jansen – illusionist 15/thief 18. 79 HP (with Paladin’s Bracers), fav. spell: Stoneskin, 100 kills (Shade Lord)
Korgan – berserker 21, 150 HP, 789 kills (Bodhi)

[Grond0]

corey_russell wrote...

Nice work there Gate70. In surprise ambushes like that, do you guys do a lot of talking to decide what to do, or do both characters just ad lib? I'm curious what it takes to coordinate in situations like that ambush (e.g., actual real time required vs. single player experience)

Not sure if there was any talking there in the initial stages.  Typically there would be just a few words (like "up" in the case of a travel ambush).  One reason why this run has been a lot quicker is that we are better at predicting each other's reactions. 

This was a particularly dangerous situation though because of the terrain.  Peer was expendable, so I wanted to draw the opponents away from Nawgrim; most of them were attracted to him after he had killed the mage, but he wasn't completely successful in that.  Because of the restricted room available that also meant running into a dead end - meaning that when Peer was killed Nawgrim was left with significant work still to do to avoid his attackers.

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

corey_russell wrote...

Nice work there Gate70. In surprise ambushes like that, do you guys do a lot of talking to decide what to do, or do both characters just ad lib? I'm curious what it takes to coordinate in situations like that ambush (e.g., actual real time required vs. single player experience)

Not sure if there was any talking there in the initial stages.  Typically there would be just a few words (like "up" in the case of a travel ambush).  One reason why this run has been a lot quicker is that we are better at predicting each other's reactions. 

This was a particularly dangerous situation though because of the terrain.  Peer was expendable, so I wanted to draw the opponents away from Nawgrim; most of them were attracted to him after he had killed the mage, but he wasn't completely successful in that.  Because of the restricted room available that also meant running into a dead end - meaning that when Peer was killed Nawgrim was left with significant work still to do to avoid his attackers.

Interesting, thanks. But you are right, it sure makes sense to "take one" for the team, since Nawgrim can't die even once...

[Blackmalkin]

Final update on Dhanushka:

I was eager to slay another dragon, so I quickly run through Suldanessellar, killing some golems and rakshasas on the way. In the clearing Jan and Melodia put some traps (just in case) and Vaitali cast Wish. She got the Time Stop option in first try. After her spellcasting was done, the things looked like that:



Unfortunately, I forgot about casting Farsight and Vaitali had to stay in the area to make a screenshot. When time resumed dragon initiated a dialogue, after which I failed to pause game. So the best screenshot I got is this:



Sorry. no fireworks this time. After that I cleared the city. Raamilat had an an impressive set of protections, but Vaitali’s 3xRemove Magic sequencer worked perfectly. In the temple Suneer died before his protections activated, demon and rakshasa soon followed, so that when Vaitali’s Chain Contingency actvated, only the magic immune golem was left. Irenicus died easily – Spike Traps killed him on the spot. In hell Dhanushka managed not to fall. For the final confrontation I also decided to use traps. Irenicus was dead before the opening sequence was finished.



I never thought SCS final battle will be so easy. Unfortunately, Irenicus’ untimely death have frozen the game (which didn't happen in the unmodded game, I think). I had to reload and give him a fighting chance by laying my traps farther from the gate. I was very surprised by what followed. Looked like an interesting fight, but most of the enemies died from traps – I was laying new ones as they were triggering them. Vaitali’s Wish was also useful in restoring the traps. It was also used to breach defences of the only creature which survived traps, allowing my warriors to shoot it. Before Irenicus trigered the last set of traps, he managed to dispel all my buffs with his new overpowered abillity. I thought it unimportant at first, but then it turned out it wasn’t the end. Like Jan said: “Some villains just refuse to die. Kill them once, kill them twice... it's like some bad play”.



Another fight looked just like the one from original game, but most definitely wasn’t. Lack of buffs turned out to be a least of my problems. I survived the first two rounds by using Smite (Dhanushka and Korgan) to stun enemies. Spellcasters used this time to retreat, prepare traps and cast Wish. Before Vaitali finished casting, Irenicus cast Time Stop (must have got some Robe of Vecna). What’s worse, he did it while in slayer form! First he chunked Korgan. Then Samadarshin have fallen. Dhanushka was next in line. But after two hits time resumed. I didn’t think that invisibility would have helped, so used oil of speed and ordered Melodia to cast Limited Wish. I had a plan, you see, something I saved for a moment like this. Vaitali was stunned just after casting but still got her Wish. Best thing she got was Breach on every enemy. Melodia didn’t even start casting her Wish, as Irenicus stopped time again. He killed Vaitali, then Jan and then went after Dhanushka again.



Time started running again when Dhanushka had but a few HP left. It didn’t matter – Irenicus delivered the final blow before she could even drink a potion.



I wonder if the traps have killed him (They couldn’t hurt him during Time Stop). Anyway, it was a really cheasy tactic on his side.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 01 mai 2012 - 12:10 .

[corey_russell]

Consolations there Blackmalkin -- sounds like you had a pretty good run, nevertheless.

[Serg BlackStrider]

It's a pity that Dhanushka was snatched away by premature death, Blackmalkin... I've enjoyed her run in thy wonderful narrative.

[Grond0]

Hard luck Blackmalkin - those slayer timestops sound nasty!

[saros_shadow_follower]

Hmph, Sikret's stupid bugs. My PC is a Necromancer with Int 19 and Wis 18. IA v6's readme states that a Necromancer PC with Int and Wis 18 should have 100% chance of forging the Robe of the Apprenti. And the robe's forging failed, thus depriving the party of a most needed item. Not willing to play a no-reload without it anyways, so that party's dropping the adventure. Otherwise, so far everything went smoothly, having cleared many of the minor improved challenges - Mencar, pirates in Sea's Bounty, Tarnor + Alhoon and his slaves, the Planar Sphere.

[Gate70]

Nawgrim/Gate70 and Peer/Grond0. Session 10 (run time 2h10m. Total18h)

Planar sphere stronghold continued
Argrim is imprisoned and the planar sphere is ours.

Watchers Keep, out of town shopping centre
Peer braves all sorts of traps to get a quiver of plenty and golem manual.

Temple sewers
A brief trip to retrieve a cloak of the sewers results in the removal of a sea troll too.

Aran Linvail
Our 15000gp has procured a ring of protection +2 and amulet of power. Mook has perished and Lassal been scared off. Two thieves and their guild contact have also been killed.

Sir Sarles
He is less than impressed with our fake illithium, but on the other hand we have turned in the head of Neb, collected a reward from the temple and obtained pure illithium.  Peer survived an impressive 84 damage from Neb's green-gloop painting trap

Kidnap
We've dealt justice to some kidnappers, obtaining the boots of avoidance. We'll give Welther the good news in person....

Vampire lair
Peer is dire charmed twice, dispelled once and avoided the second time. Nawgrim has grabbed the mace of disruption +1 and Cromwell happily upgrades it for us.

A lot of running around tonight.

Reloads: 0
Near misses: 1 (Planar Sphere Argrim ambush).
Peer Resurrections: 3 (de'Arnise courtyard, Planar Sphere halflings, Planar Sphere Argrim ambush).

Grond0
Peer, dwarf fighter 10 / cleric 10. Tank.
533 (+58 this session) kills, Tolgerias.

Gate70
Nawgrim, gnome fighter 10 / illusionist 11. Protaganist.
345 kills (+11 this session), Torgal.

[corey_russell]

Grond0/Gate70: I'm curious why you guys don't have Peer wear a charm protection helmet (one in a temple store I think in the temple district) anytime you fight vampires or mages who have charm in their spell book. That's what I do, I have enough trouble dealing with enemies without having to deal with hostile party members. Of course there are other options, SoH and Lilacor. Is there some tactical advantage you guys are getting by not using these kind of items?

[Grond0]

Partly laziness and partly that we tend to only switch equipment in crucial situations. Balduran's Helm is more useful in most situations so I just keep that on.

In single player it would be different, but having Peer charmed in this game would very rarely be a problem. He nearly always uses melee weapons so is easy to avoid if Nawgrim is hanging back (which he would be against potentially dangerous enemies).

[saros_shadow_follower]

saros_shadow_follower wrote...

Sorry for your loss, Alesia. It's much harder with SCS and Ascension obviously compared to a normal Ascension run.

Astarta's recent adventures include (will post pictures after I get home):

Forged the Guildmaster's dream +4 dagger, using two +3 ones (wasted one Permanency scroll here), and some other ingredients. The dagger has 1 Assassination HLA use per day, which may prove useful for Captain Sparrow to backstab for 1 round with a +4 quarterstaff. Some improved enemies are still vulnerable to backstab, like spiders for example, or drow. Also, the dagger while equipped offers immunity to Poison, which may be useful as well in some situations.

The party next travelled to Watcher's keep level 1. Here they had an interesting encounter.

The spider queen fight triggers right after Pai-Na dies. Although at present levels the party has no trouble in winning that fight, they still need a good amount of +4 weaponry to take on the queen (she is immune to +3 or less weapons). But the queen fell very quickly to the Critical strikes of all warriors, and the rest of her spiders were no match as well.

Using the Spider Queen eggs obtained from this fight, the party assembled the Golden Spider Figurine.

End.

Found this no-reload party from 10 months ago. Probably got fed up with their run and left them after they defeated the Spider queen. Will resume that run instead of leveling up anew (ugh) a whole team.

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

Partly laziness and partly that we tend to only switch equipment in crucial situations. Balduran's Helm is more useful in most situations so I just keep that on.

In single player it would be different, but having Peer charmed in this game would very rarely be a problem. He nearly always uses melee weapons so is easy to avoid if Nawgrim is hanging back (which he would be against potentially dangerous enemies).

I see...I suppose there be could other advantages as well. Maybe Nawgrim always wanted to petrify Grond0, and once Peer turns hostile, now he has an excuse to do so! He can always use the ring of earth to control to bring you back...He could even do sunfires without worrying about Peer. Peer: What was that for? I'm burned up and dead! Nawgrim: Oh, you were hostile. Have to kill all hostiles you know...

[PPewt]

With the lack of abundant +1 weapons and Daystar not being grabbable at the start of the game, the party found itself in a strange position; most quests weren't accessible because weak enemies like Shadows were actually unbeatable in significant numbers (as in once I ran out of spells). I had to open rather creative as a result.

As usual, I forgot the Copper Coronet is easy for even a low-level solo character, let alone a well built party. I went to Renal did Mae'Var's first quest, grabbing a good chunk of change in the process. After that, I ran around and fired some random encounters, eventually getting the Harper and letting me do that quest chain for some more money and experience. After grabbing Namarra, I decided I might as well do the Unseeing Eye since most enemies in it can be killed with nonmagical weapons.

The quest was pretty uneventful; Danielle died to the Blind Priests in the Beholder Lair and had to be raised, all the Beholders were killed with Skull Trap spam, and I "gave" the rod to Gaal for the +75000 XP and chance to fight the Unseeing Eye later rather than sooner. After a quick run to the temple for raise dead (my C/R was only a level 8 cleric at the time) I found the Unseeing Eye himself; he was pretty straightforward, although two characters got Death Rayed, and raise dead is unfortunately expensive. However, after turning in the quest and subquest, my C/R hit level 9 so raise dead will no longer be an issue.



From there I decided to test whether getting Celestial Fury was viable, and my tests said it should be pretty straightforward as long as Sion either died in the initial volley of magic missiles (before his protections went up) or didn't follow me downstairs. Unfortunately, test runs have a habit of going better than the actual playthrough...

First, a Glabrezu taught me that infinite Chaos + Hold Person + Mirror Image with 0 cast time is good


And then the first half of the CF crowd cleared out a few characters on their way down



After clearing out the melee characters, I pulled down everyone else but Sion after much bouncing between levels (although his Simulacrum followed me once and wreaked some havoc). To this day he stands there wondering why all his companions went downstairs and when they'll be back; he's far too powerful for me to fight at the moment.

Acquiring Celestial Fury got my momentum going, as now I could do "real" quests. I breezed through the de'Arnise Keep (turns out Improved Tor'Gal is still a pushover) and acquired the FoA for my C/R, then quickly visited the Windspear Hills to drop off the dryads' acorns. After heading back to Athkatla and dumping all my loot several times, I was able to afford Dak'kon's Zerth Blade, the Belt of Giant Strength, and the Amulet of Power from Aran Linvail. I decided I might as well grab the Mace of Disruption since it'd help in the Windspear and Umar Hills, so I quickly ran through the first two Shadow Thieves quests and arrived in the Crypts.

And here I am right now. My first encounter with SCSII vampires has been... interesting. I have no issues with the fighters, but in my tests so far Tanova singlehandedly dismantles my party and I still haven't decided on an effective approach for my playthrough. It's pissing me off a bit; SCS advertised being an AI mod and "playing fair", whereas Tanova does anything but; she has infinite domination/day, permanent improved haste, a repertoire of mage spells (this is fine, I expected it), and most importantly a bat form which seems to dodge every attack which isn't a 20, be completely immune to physical damage, and have a ton of HP (several hundred from my estimates). It also either regenerates or drains life on attack; I'm not sure which.

So... what the hell? Am I missing something obvious? Tanova seems broken; the infinite instant dominations, permanent improved haste, and powerful arsenal of spells are quite easy to handle, but the super bat form is not. Has anyone here beaten this encounter, and if so, do they have any suggestions?

[Gate70]

Nawgrim/Gate70 and Peer/Grond0. Session 11 (run time 1h30m. Total 19h30)

Shopping, dwarf style
Tarnor the Hatchetman and his gang don't like the way we borrow a helm of charm.

Planar Prison
Mekrath and Haer'Dalis point the way for us. The first set of bounty hunters feel the FoA +3, then buffed summons help us work our way through to the Master of Thralls and Warden. With Haer'Dalis and his troupe free all Peer has to do is gleefully put some boots of speed on.

Skinner murders
Lt Aegisfield congratulates us on solving the murders and scaring the perpetrator off.

Umar Hills
Shopping. Followed by finding a job for Madulf and slaying a golem for a cowled wizard.

Abandoned Temple
Nawgrim cowers behind the Amulet of Power and a mirrored gem while Peer uses the improved Mace of Disruption to swat anything shadowy into oblivion.

Reloads: 0
Near misses: 1 (Planar Sphere Argrim ambush).
Peer Resurrections: 3 (de'Arnise courtyard, Planar Sphere halflings, Planar Sphere Argrim ambush).

Grond0
Peer, dwarf fighter 10 / cleric 11. Tank.
609 (+76 this session) kills, Tolgerias.

Gate70
Nawgrim, gnome fighter 10 / illusionist 11. Protaganist.
379 kills (+34 this session), Master of Thralls.

Modifié par Gate70, 02 mai 2012 - 10:05 .

[corey_russell]

Ppewt: Is there any reason one shot type spells might be good enough for Tanova? Like disintegrate, flesh to stone, finger of death on the bat form? I personally have not dealt it, so don't have any first-hand advice to offer...

Much earlier in your post you said you had a lack of +1 weapons - enchant weapon spell is great for that kind of problem - the weapon summoned lasts a day and you can give it to who needs it and they count as +3.

[Grond0]

PPewt wrote...
So... what the hell? Am I missing something obvious? Tanova seems broken; the infinite instant dominations, permanent improved haste, and powerful arsenal of spells are quite easy to handle, but the super bat form is not. Has anyone here beaten this encounter, and if so, do they have any suggestions?

You might try one of the destroy undead weapons - mace of disruption or Azuredge.

[corey_russell]

Grond0 wrote...

PPewt wrote...
So... what the hell? Am I missing something obvious? Tanova seems broken; the infinite instant dominations, permanent improved haste, and powerful arsenal of spells are quite easy to handle, but the super bat form is not. Has anyone here beaten this encounter, and if so, do they have any suggestions?

You might try one of the destroy undead weapons - mace of disruption or Azuredge.

Grond0, I assume you know this, but in vanilla, Tanova isn't coded as undead, which is why pro undead scrolls dont' work on her, nor do the items you mentioned. So unless Ppewt has a mod that fixes that, your ideas won't work...that's my understanding anyways.

[PPewt]

Grond0 wrote...

PPewt wrote...
So... what the hell? Am I missing something obvious? Tanova seems broken; the infinite instant dominations, permanent improved haste, and powerful arsenal of spells are quite easy to handle, but the super bat form is not. Has anyone here beaten this encounter, and if so, do they have any suggestions?

You might try one of the destroy undead weapons - mace of disruption or Azuredge.

I already tested the mace +1 with Holy Power + Righteous Magic + DUHM + Improved Haste + Improved Invisibility (so she didn't even have any buffs, and was in vampire form) and Destroy Undead works but is not consistent. Not something I want to try when I'm on my run (no reloads) without a backup plan, since gambling my entire run on a die roll is not going to get me very far.

Edit: I'll try stacking some more buffs (Champion's Strength notably) and upgrading the mace to +2.

--

Corey: In SCSII (or maybe just thanks to the fixpack) Tanova is undead.

Modifié par PPewt, 02 mai 2012 - 11:19 .