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[corey_russell]

Coremonk the level 9 monk continues his adventure - Rayic Gethras and Ployer

So Coremonk and gang (Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo, Nalia, Aerie) continue with investigating Maevar. But first they had to deal with Rayic Gethras. The party traveled all the way to Waukeen's Promenade to rest and to avoid Ployer temporarily.  Then they came back, buffed Minsc to the gills, most important buffs being protection from fire, death ward, free action, and CC. Then he went upstairs, activated berserker, and attacked. As it turned out, offensively, Rayic only cast a sunfire and a finger of death. All his other offensive spells were interrupted by Minsc's Flail of Ages. Minsc succeeded as you can see.


Then we reported our success to Edwin. He next wanted us to fetch some documents. But when we got to the tavern, Jaheira got cursed. So we headed to the slums and went to Ployer's house. We used chaos, slow and plague of insects. The plague of insects missed a mage though! We concentrated fire on that mage. The mage had protection from magical weapons up, but it didn't help him much as much of the party was using non-magical ammo and even Jaheira at this point was still using an "excellent" club. He did end up falling. During this time Ployer's morale broke and left his house. We finished the remaining two mages then went outside. Finishing Ployer was no problem per se, but then THIS happened:

Yes that's right - the kids playing outside went hostile when we attacked Ployer! Yikes! Now I will have to remember for the entire run to keep AI off in the slums, unless I want my party slaughtering the kids lowering my rep to who knows how low...

In any case, we went back to the Seas Bounty and got Edwin's documents and reported to Edwin. We also pretended to slay a "traitor". Then we got the evidence on Maevar and reported to Renal.

Next update, party will be dealing with Maevar personally...

[PPewt]

With Sendai dead, I took a detour to sell everything and forge Angurvadal and Carsomyr, and then it was time for Abazigal's Lair.

I buffed up a lot for Draconis, only to be seriously disappointed; he went down almost immediately. Venturing inside for the Breath Potion found me another dragon, whose life I chose to spare after defeating it, and that the monk did not have a rope. I ventured back to Amkethran to get one, and found some people waiting for me on the way back.



Thanks to Protection from the Elements, Fireshield: Red, Resist Fire/Cold (the divine spell), and Protection from Magic Energy in various combinations, all my characters were immune to fire damage, so we made sure to keep the entire fight within 3 Incendiary Clouds to provide some massive supporting DPS. The two Black Dragons went down pretty quickly, at which point a Green Dragon landed. The incendiary clouds helped finish her off quickly too, and then a red dragon landed and was beat to death. The end result was a bit of a dragon graveyard.



The Eyeball Level had two Death Tyrants along with three "Tyrant Golems", which seemed to be Death Tyrants with Demilich immunities (...ouch). They went down thanks to a lot of whacking from Black Blades of Disaster and Energy Blades.



Abazigal himself was a complete pushover and died almost instantly. The trials were unsurprisingly easy, although this time even the Ravager was easy; he couldn't take four Improved Hasted characters, two of which carried Black Blades of Disaster. My Sorcerer tossed the occasional Horrid Wilting to keep the Bone Blade population low while the rest of my characters cleaned him up in a few rounds.

Melissan herself was... appalling. Over the entire fight I used... 3? copies of Improved Haste and 4 Breaches, as well as a Stoneskin or two on my Fighter/Mages. I think I also used a Horrid Wilting or two but it was blocked by magic resistance. SCS apparently made this fight easier, since most of the enemies were the same but the Fallen Planetar was on her own.

I even forgot to use spike traps. It didn't matter. It didn't even come close to mattering.

Maybe I should've installed Ascension. Oh well.

--

My characters at the end of the game (they passed the XP cap somewhere in Sendai's enclave or maybe Abazigal's lair if I recall correctly and ended the game with ~9 million xp each):

Sarah: Fighter 25/Mage 21. (Before items) 18/37 19 18 19 3 10.



Most powerful vanquished: Saladrex
Favourite spell: Stoneskin
Favourite weapon: Long Sword
Total experience value in party: 23%
Percentage of total kills in party: 25%
Experience value of kills: 3647004
Number of kills: 752



Danielle: Fighter 25/Mage 21. (Before items) 19 19 17 18 3 10.



Most powerful vanquished: Bodhi
Favourite spell: Stoneskin
Favourite weapon: Katana
Total experience value in party: 37%
Percentage of total kills in party: 35%
Experience value of kills: 5883473
Number of kills: 1031



Catherine: Fighter 25/Thief 30. (Before items) 19 21 18 18 3 10.



Most powerful vanquished: Carnifex
Favourite spell: Set Spike Trap
Favourite weapon: Two-Handed Sword
Total experience value in party: 10%
Percentage of total kills in party: 9%
Experience value of kills: 1656637
Number of kills: 290



Rebecca: Cleric 27/Ranger 22. (Before items) 12 18 18 18 22 3.



Most powerful vanquished: Pit Fiend
Favourite spell: Cure Serious Wounds
Favourite weapon: War Hammer
Total experience value in party: 6%
Percentage of total kills in party: 7%
Experience value of kills: 961620
Number of kills: 230



Anne: Sorcerer 34. (Before items) 13 18 17 18 3 21.



Most powerful vanquished: Irenicus the Slayer
Favourite spell: Cure Light Wounds (if not for stupid Bhaal powers, it would probably be Chain Contingency)
Favourite weapon: Quarterstaff
Total experience value in party: 22%
Percentage of total kills in party: 21%
Experience value of kills: 3628616
Number of kills: 634


--

My overall impressions with SCS:

SCS SoA was extremely well done, although silly in places. Liches made great fights, but the main problem with non-lich mages was that their relatively low level meant all their spells went towards defensive magic and as a result they didn't really have any way to kill you if you knocked out their companions; they'd have one or two demon summons and one or two horrid wiltings, and that was it. Higher level mages (like Liches) felt like serious opponents. That said, such fights would've benefited from parties such as Odamaron had in Sendai's Enclave in ToB.

I liked the fact that it made the items harder to get, but I also noticed that most of those items were really not as strong as I used to think they are; it was very possible to build essentially invulnerable characters almost exclusively through good spell selection and prebuffing, and thus the most important items ended up being those which gave me more spell slots, especially levels 2, 4, 6, and 8. In addition, the fight with the Robe of Vecna was actually made easier since his entire plan was dumping all his low level slots into damage spells which really didn't pan out.

I think the main item which needs to be moved is the Amulet of Power since it just makes the entire vampire lair a joke if you have a melee character which can use it. Maybe put it in Bodhi's coffin at the end of chapter 6, or have her wear it. The Mace of Disruption is also too strong, and should be available at the very least at the end of chapter 3, preferably later. Basically permanent negative plane protection is very harmful to the main questline since vampires are pushovers with it.

SCS ToB was a little more lacking, although that wasn't really their fault. 2e, or at least the way it's implemented in BG2, just breaks at high levels, and it's unrelated to the items or anything. My sorcerer could've been totally nude and could probably have soloed ToB. That said, I think it would've been more interesting to see enemies which used more protections and such, maybe even making them break rules (like giving them multiple active contingencies) or just making them abuse flaws that the player can (like using chain contingency to instantly triple-cast spells at the cost of a level 9 spell slot). It seems like SCS ToB instead hoped that I'd run out of Spellstrikes and Breaches before it ran out of dragons/liches/whatever to toss at me, and I didn't (and that was with only one caster carrying a lot of abjurations).

As much as I complained with the game "cheating" with Tanova, I think that it would've benefited from that mentality later on. Jon ended up being the toughest fight period thanks to it, but he was still fun, whereas the ToB stuff was mostly a grind, or easy even though it was fun (like Sendai).

Modifié par PPewt, 10 mai 2012 - 07:41 .

[corey_russell]

Thanks for sharing your impression, Pewt. I respectfully disagree your notion about the IMoD. Spell casters, especially druids, mages of any kind and bards, have a ton of defensive spells available to them which can help vs. level drain, plus ways to be simply untouchable, PfmW and also thins like misleads, invisibilities, summons etc.. A melee that is not an undead hunter's ONLY defense is the IMoD. High AC can help somewhat, but high AC doesn't stop criticals and the level drains.

[PPewt]

corey_russell wrote...

Thanks for sharing your impression, Pewt. I respectfully disagree your notion about the IMoD. Spell casters, especially druids, mages of any kind and bards, have a ton of defensive spells available to them which can help vs. level drain, plus ways to be simply untouchable, PfmW and also thins like misleads, invisibilities, summons etc.. A melee that is not an undead hunter's ONLY defense is the IMoD. High AC can help somewhat, but high AC doesn't stop criticals and the level drains.

Yeah, but Negative Plane Protection has a relatively short duration and is blocked by plenty of better defensive magic. PfmW's duration is pathetic. Mislead is just cheese.

Modifié par PPewt, 10 mai 2012 - 10:57 .

[corey_russell]

Pewt if you looked at my list carefully, Clerics were NOT in the list. I agree NPP is too short, especially for a vampire coven. The point of PfmW of course, so you can off an offensive spell that can't be interrupted, cone of cold, burning hands, whatever, nor can you be level drained while casting. I put druids in the list with their armor of faiths and iron skins. There's not just mislead, but simulcrums, improved invisibilities, heck simply invisibility to position yourself to cast a devastating spell (horrid wiltings, delayed fireballs etc.) is strong. Not only that, but your casters could put up MGoI and cast web on the vampires and just sling them! Yes, AoP and IMoD make your two fighter/mages nigh invincible to the vampires, but you had a very powerful party 2 F/M, a F/T, a C/R AND a sorcerer! A more melee centric (a party with less magic) would need the IMoD, is all I am saying.

I guess I'm saying it's your party's classes that's overpowered, not the IMoD. Trying do your same setup, but with 3 rangers, 1 thief unkitted, a cleric and a mage - you would not find the IMoD overpowered then!

[Gate70]

Nawgrim/Gate70 and Peer/Grond0. Session 18 (run time 1h10. Total 28h10)

Bodhi
With Lassal staked Bodhi appears, fights a bit and runs away.

Brynnlaw
Aran Linvail sends us on our way. Chremy and Perth are dealt with and we head north.

Spellhold
The warden gives us a guided tour then reveals he is none other than Irenicus.

Spellhold maze
We are released to explore. It's not long before we have released Dace Sontan from his undead state, as well as various mummies, ghasts, greater mummies, skeleton warriors and a lich.

A book of summoning has been read, releasing creatures from kobolds to beholders. Similarly, a portal door has released three other-worldly enemies and two puzzle rooms have been completed.

We push open the makers mouth and stand at the exit, ready to continue our adventure another night.

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

[corey_russell]

Gate70 since you are a duo, I am very curious on the levels. Things like do either you have HLAs yet, or if so which ones. Also how many spell slots are level 7 or higher and if so what are you using them for. I'm also curious if there are any spells/equipment one is using to complement the other -- example, Grond0 uses free action ring so Nawgrim can do 2x web from a sequencer with Peer in melee, etc.

[Gate70]

We've not done ring/web this run. Tried it last time. Done a couple of fire protection/fireball combos. The main ploy is for Peer to melee while Nawgrim de-buffs, lowers resistances/immunities or uses emotion/slow. Sequencer with pierces etc should be fun against dragons and now getting to the levels needed to do them effectively.

We're just at the first HLA point, will try and report them from now on.

Nawgrim got his first two HLA's (multi-class both levels at the same time) from the lich/undead before Dace. He selected 2 extra spell slots, just been trying Improved Alacrity with Vecna and Amulet of Power in my other run. Crazy combination compared to Edwin who gets a lot less bang from Alacrity due presumably to lack of robe/amulet. Tempted to see what swapping robes does as not sure if one or both items are the reason.

Peer got his first 2 HLAs from Dace (again both levels at same time I believe). Grond0 said he's not reached cleric HLA's before so we had a quick chat about that. His initial thought was Deva based on our first run but I mentioned that for a Paladin it is an innate ability (great) whereas for a cleric it is a level 7 spell slot (would reduce availability of the other level 7 spells such as regeneration, archons etc).

I thought it was probably best for him to add a few fighter specific ones as his level 7 spell slots already have some decent choices so he went for WW and Hardiness I believe. Once he gets a few more levels and spell slots I expect Deva, Flaming Aura etc will be added. Assuming Blade Barrier works well the Globe of Blades might be a good way for it to last longer (if Blade/Globe/Flaming stack then that could be awesome but I don't think I've ever tried as part of my usual larger party runs).

As usual, any suggestions welcome as to how bad my advice was and what he should have chosen instead.

[corey_russell]

For a cleric, storm of vengeance a really good choice since it's party friendly and has many different types of damage so works on almost everything. But since Peer is in the front all the time, WW/GWW certainly not bad choices. As a front-liner, Globe of Blades is certainly excellent. Note that that the physical resistance of hardiness DOES stack with armor of faith! Those two together are great for strong melee enemies.

But I think you gave sound advice, lot of good 7th level spells already for a cleric. Skeletal Warriors/Ariel Servants are plenty good for Underdark, you can get Deva when you get closer to Suldanessler.

No idea if the two barriers stack.

Modifié par corey_russell, 11 mai 2012 - 12:00 .

[PPewt]

corey_russell wrote...

Pewt if you looked at my list carefully, Clerics were NOT in the list. I agree NPP is too short, especially for a vampire coven. The point of PfmW of course, so you can off an offensive spell that can't be interrupted, cone of cold, burning hands, whatever, nor can you be level drained while casting. I put druids in the list with their armor of faiths and iron skins. There's not just mislead, but simulcrums, improved invisibilities, heck simply invisibility to position yourself to cast a devastating spell (horrid wiltings, delayed fireballs etc.) is strong. Not only that, but your casters could put up MGoI and cast web on the vampires and just sling them! Yes, AoP and IMoD make your two fighter/mages nigh invincible to the vampires, but you had a very powerful party 2 F/M, a F/T, a C/R AND a sorcerer! A more melee centric (a party with less magic) would need the IMoD, is all I am saying.

I guess I'm saying it's your party's classes that's overpowered, not the IMoD. Trying do your same setup, but with 3 rangers, 1 thief unkitted, a cleric and a mage - you would not find the IMoD overpowered then!

Sure I would. This isn't the only playthrough of BG2 I've played; most of my playthroughs have been completely vanilla parties (with my PC being a Fighter, Cleric, Sorcerer, Cleric/Mage, etc) and the game works out exactly the same. Perhaps you'd need something to make you slightly more effective against vampires if you had no AoP + IMoD, sure, but the problem is that currently if you get IMoD vampires are no challenge in the slightest, and not just on a fighter-mage.

Think of Daystar as a good example of what I am aiming at; a powerful weapon against undead, but you don't just autowin against an indefinite number of them by having it.

In addition, I'm not sure what you're talking about with Druids; none of Armour of Faith, Stoneskin, or Iron Skins protect against level drain.

--

Gate: skip WW and GWW, they're junk. Hardiness/Critical Strike/Energy Blades/Elemental Summoning are your best HLAs and probably the only ones you'll want. Improved Haste doubles your attacks/round and a fighter/X can get grandmastery which means you should be able to get 8+ attacks per round with IH, at which point GWW is a waste of a slot and WW is even worse. With the Bracers of Weapon Expertise I was able to get 10 attacks/round, but I was using True Grandmastery so without it you'd be at 9/round.

Edit: Globe of Blades and Aura of Flaming Death aren't bad, I'm mostly saying "Skip Deva, Mass Raise Dead, and Storm of Vengeance, since they're all bad".

Modifié par PPewt, 11 mai 2012 - 02:23 .

[Krazy Solo]

@Pewt: I believe he is thinking of Jaheria who happens to get some of the cleric spells for some odd reason in vanilla, at least for me she does. This only happens if she is lvl 8 or higher with her druid class at the start. I play strictly without Mods and with the official patches Just to clarify.

Ok, I assume every class/kit has been attempted and completed in NR with party correct? Of those which were the hardest to complete? I simple believe the reason I'm dying so much is i'm playing some of the easier character classes.  Odd I know, just how I am i get reckless when playing easy mode lol.

Modifié par Krazy Solo, 11 mai 2012 - 04:25 .

[Grond0]

PPewt wrote...
Gate: skip WW and GWW, they're junk. Hardiness/Critical Strike/Energy Blades/Elemental Summoning are your best HLAs and probably the only ones you'll want. Improved Haste doubles your attacks/round and a fighter/X can get grandmastery which means you should be able to get 8+ attacks per round with IH, at which point GWW is a waste of a slot and WW is even worse. With the Bracers of Weapon Expertise I was able to get 10 attacks/round, but I was using True Grandmastery so without it you'd be at 9/round.

Edit: Globe of Blades and Aura of Flaming Death aren't bad, I'm mostly saying "Skip Deva, Mass Raise Dead, and Storm of Vengeance, since they're all bad".

Are you talking about gauntlets of extraordinary specialisation (extra 1/2 attack per round rather than bracers) - if not that must be another mod change you've got.  The gauntlets would get Peer up to 4 attacks a round with dual wielding so 8 with improved haste.  However, I'm not sure we're ready to tackle the 5th level of Watcher's Keep yet, so will probably be at 3.5 attacks for quite a while.  Given that, and the other uses for Nawgrim's 6th level slots, GWW still seems like a reasonable deal - I also like the fast casting speed, which would be particularly helpful in case of being debuffed (always a problem for my fighter/cleric, though it might not affect a fighter/mage). 

Critical strike is already covered by clerical buffs and energy blades seems less relevant for someone who's normally in the front line, but I will probably try the others you mention at some stage.

[Grond0]

Krazy Solo wrote...
Ok, I assume every class/kit has been attempted and completed in NR with party correct? Of those which were the hardest to complete? I simple believe the reason I'm dying so much is i'm playing some of the easier character classes.  Odd I know, just how I am i get reckless when playing easy mode lol.

I don't think the class makes a lot of difference in party play as other characters can compensate for any weaknesses.  In solo play it is a big deal - as far as I know there's never been a no-reload with a totemic druid for instance.

[PPewt]

Grond0 wrote...
Are you talking about gauntlets of extraordinary specialisation (extra 1/2 attack per round rather than bracers) - if not that must be another mod change you've got.  The gauntlets would get Peer up to 4 attacks a round with dual wielding so 8 with improved haste.

Oops, yes. Anyhow, seeing as the only related mod change I had was +0.5 attacks/round from True Grandmastery it seems like you're missing a half-attack somewhere else as well. Maybe you're too low level?

(Also yuck, Belm would be great for you but unfortunately you're half-cleric. By the way, why a Fighter-Cleric and not a Cleric-Ranger?)

Given that, and the other uses for Nawgrim's 6th level slots, GWW still seems like a reasonable deal - I also like the fast casting speed, which would be particularly helpful in case of being debuffed (always a problem for my fighter/cleric, though it might not affect a fighter/mage).  

Critical strike is already covered by clerical buffs and energy blades seems less relevant for someone who's normally in the front line, but I will probably try the others you mention at some stage.

What else do you need?

Level 6 is basically 1x Globe of Invulnerability, 1x True Sight, a million x Improved Haste. In addition, you can get Improved Haste from the Improved Cloak of Protection +2 and from the Ring of Gaxx (although Gaxx's only lasts a few rounds), so you still don't need it.

The reason I advise IH + Critical Strike over GWW is because with Critical Strike you're going to hit (nearly?) all your attacks, which will be much better than +1 attack in exchange for using up your spell for that round. Sure, you won't use it much, but it's unlikely you'll *ever* need GWW so it's kind of a "least worst" option for a skill to spam once you have enough points into Hardiness. In addition, if you get hit by a dispel or your buffs time out it's way faster to cast IH + spam Critical Strike than it is to rebuff a bunch of long-cast time cleric buffs in combat.

As for Energy Blades, it's worth picking up since every once in a while you just want to yank it out and chuck some. Yes, usually you'll be working in melee, but it doesn't hurt to have a copy (you don't have much else to spend the point on, after all). Treat HLAs in general as "nice utilities" moreso than "the crux of my play", because they really aren't all that strong once you start realizing some of the fun stuff you can do with normal abilities.

--

I should also probably clarify something:

I recommended Elemental Summoning over Deva. Yes, Deva is usually a stronger spell in a vacuum. However, you can only have one Deva/Planetar at a time and Planetars are way better than Devas, so have your mage summon a Planetar and use Elemental Summoning for your high level summons.

Modifié par PPewt, 11 mai 2012 - 06:08 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta & party, current adventures:

Retried the Improved Ranger Stronghold. No luck. Stuck again. Stupid Delon. Okay, then it's bye Athkatla. Forged a +3 cloak of protection out of four +1 ones and 4 Laeral's tear necklaces. Since only Cromwell can produce +3 cloaks, and this one may actually come in handy, decided to forge it and be left without Laeral's tear necklaces for the moment.

Jon on the tree: Jon Irenicus has the support of four Hardwood golems, is immune to all weapons and spells while those are still alive, and won't trigger any protective spells or anything. His buffing contingency triggers when the last golem dies, which is cheating, since buffing sequences in start of combat are actually imperfect simulations of pre-combat prebuffing. And a buffing sequence triggering 15 or more rounds after the fight started...

Nevertheless - the strategy. Party is under  RVE combat prebuff (50% HP maximum and several Regenerations). Jon cast True Sight (party under Mass Invisibility, mages under SI:Div). Hardwood golems saw fighters on the left branch, and immediately rushed to attack. Mages were a bit further away on the north branch, so that golems don't attack them. Golems went for fighters. Mages summoned a Greater Djinni and a Skeleton Lord. Jon can't handle those, and is stuck in place fending off their attacks. Not that they can harm him.

Golems fell one after another. Batllefield was lit thanx to Farsight spells. One Wish got for Rest. Not very important btw, but still nice. When the third golem fell, Astarta cast a single RVE, thus dispelling her own and Alia's Improved Invisibility. Alia refreshed Mass Invisibility, and both mages refreshed SI:Div. In the meantime, they had summoned yet one more Skeleton Lord and Greater Djinni. Jon cast several Vampiric touches on a Skeleton Lord. Fighters killed golems. Astarta cast Alacrity, refreshed Foreknowledge, dispelled Jon's buffs and decided to leave skeleton lords chop him to pieces. Bad move. Jon wasted an Absolute Immunity scroll. Oh yeah? Fighters were rebuffed with ProEnergy (original ones dispelled by Hardwood golems), and they approached to kill Jon.





















Hell trials - vanilla. Blackrazor - nerfed. A +2 weapon with a very small chance to increase Str by 1 is a stupid weapon, there is absolutely no dilemma in deciding whether to keep it. A big boom was made upon some unfortunate Elder Orbs and Gauths - they were showered with 7 ADHW spells and 7 Dragon Breaths while PC had a reduced casting time of 9. None survived.



Jon in hell: Has the support of an Elemental Golem, a Noble Marilith, a Death Lord (something like a Death Knight, a bit more stronger) and a Balor. While those are alive, Jon in Slayer form can't be slain. He himself uses SI:Abj again, as on the tree. Had summoned 2 Greater Djinnis and 2 Skeleton Lords pre-combat, and buffed with RVE accordingly.

Jon appeared. PC cast Alacrity and first released a couple of Remove Magicks, then focused on Jon with Ruby Rays. In the meantime, the Death Lord was slain, and next was the Balor, with its protections dispelled. The Poseidon's wrath is the best weapon here, since almost all enemies are vulnerable to cold damage. Balor fell, fighters focused on the Noble Marilith, Astarta forced the Slayer to cast defensive spells (now when his buffs are dispelled this is the first thing to do), enemies were anyways occupied with Skely Lords and Greater Djinnies (those must not be underestimated, they also deliver good damage on a successful hit), Astarta and Alia subsequently (after the Marilith fell) showered the Elemental golem with their prepared sequencers, triggers and usual anti-golem spells, bringing it to Badly Injured. Fighters eliminated the 2 Abyssal Escorts, looted some gems dropped by enemies, killed the Elemental golem and focused on Jon, killing him in 2 rounds.

























Amulet of Seldarine was equipped by Saros. His AC is extremely good (maxed to -24 under Defense potion anyways), so this amulet with its 10% mr bonus is better than an amulet of protection +1.

Illasera: Enters under SI:Abjuration (she's an Assassin-Fighter like Jack, uses poison weapon and her backstab damage is *7, has Stoneskin and AI scrolls). Combat buffs are dispelled right after talking to the heads, but still party has 3 rounds to prebuff. Thanx to RVE, Astarta managed to cast lots of protective spells, but couldn't cast ProEnergy or ProMagicEnergy on Torham and Jack Sparrow. Thought that Jack doesn't need it, with his 80% MR (Carsomyr + Master of Disciplines + improved Cloak of the High forest). Enemies have also a mage, a cleric and a fighter in their numbers. Mage was eliminated fast, but despite everything, the mage managed to release CC with 3 ADHW, killing Jack and severely damaging Torham. Only the 50% bonus HP from RVE saved him. Killed the remaining enemies + illasera, but in the meantime, 2 Skeleton Grandlords had appeared.  Killed 4 such enemies (more kept coming, thankfully one by one), raised Jack, healed him, re-eqipped him, killed several more Grandlords and thought - is there an end to this! Rebuffed fighters with Improved Haste and Hardiness. After killing the 8th Skeleton Grandlord, was finally teleported to the Pocket Plane.









Loot: Boots of Speed and some +3 weapons.

Cespenar: Forged several vanilla items, like Ixil's spike, Bard Gloves, etc. Also forged a +2 ring (found two +1 rings on Illasera & goons), Ring of Burglary (what the heck, only one +1 ring wasted here), a Cloak +2 (laeral's tear dropped by Noble Marilith in Hell), Noble Staff of Air and of Fire (but not the Royal Elemental Staff yet, don't have a Manual of Elaboration, strangely. Out of Permanency scrolls for the moment too. Bad. Need 2 Manuals of Elaboration and six more Permanency scrolls, hope there are sufficient in ToB, or may be left without a powerful weapon for the last fight. Also forged one Improved Cloak +2. This Improved cloak is considered to be of higher than +2 value, since it cannot be used together with another powerful protective item or enchanted armor. Still, rechargeable IHaste is important. Sadly, don't have more IHaste scrolls to forge more such cloaks at present.

PC equipped boots of speed. Undispellable Haste is essential in many situations.

Went to Saradush. Sold some items. +3 weapons are removed from local stores, probably because they're ingredients of certain IA upgrades. Returned book to Lazarus, bought everything of value from his shop. Got Bigby's Clenched fist spell for PC. In IA, it simply delivers 3d6 damage with no save and ignores MR. Also got Imprisonment, although IA enemies are usually immune to it.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 11 mai 2012 - 07:36 .

[Grond0]

PPewt wrote...

Grond0 wrote...
Are you talking about gauntlets of extraordinary specialisation (extra 1/2 attack per round rather than bracers) - if not that must be another mod change you've got.  The gauntlets would get Peer up to 4 attacks a round with dual wielding so 8 with improved haste.

Oops, yes. Anyhow, seeing as the only related mod change I had was +0.5 attacks/round from True Grandmastery it seems like you're missing a half-attack somewhere else as well. Maybe you're too low level?

True Grandmastery is +1 attack, so that's the difference.

(Also yuck, Belm would be great for you but unfortunately you're half-cleric. By the way, why a Fighter-Cleric and not a Cleric-Ranger?)

Dwarven saving throws - these have been hugely beneficial so far in the run. 

Level 6 is basically 1x Globe of Invulnerability, 1x True Sight, a million x Improved Haste. In addition, you can get Improved Haste from the Improved Cloak of Protection +2 and from the Ring of Gaxx (although Gaxx's only lasts a few rounds), so you still don't need it.

Pierce magic has been used extensively recently.  It may be that the higher level spells will make this less essential in future, although in our last run it proved useful right through ToB.

[angiras108]

Great work everyone. Keep it up.
Saros, I am deeply impressed by your fortitude in surviving and enduring SoA with IA6. Kudos.

[PPewt]

Grond0 wrote...
True Grandmastery is +1 attack, so that's the difference.

Strange, just tested it and you're right. Looks like the readme and ingame tooltips lie.

Pierce magic has been used extensively recently.  It may be that the higher level spells will make this less essential in future, although in our last run it proved useful right through ToB.

3x Pierce magic on a spell trigger will handle any enemy in the game, and that takes 0 spell slots and a level 16 wizard. I didn't even find myself needing more than that many Pierce Magics in SCS.

Modifié par PPewt, 11 mai 2012 - 02:49 .

[corey_russell]

Coremonk the level 9 monk - Micro-update

The party has dealt with Maevar. We used all the buffs that made sense, most important probably being haste, bless and chant. Then we moved downstairs. We sent a druidic fire element toward Maevar, with a nymph slightly behind it. Then Yoshimo showed himself to start the dialog -- Yoshimo ran away and hid, then Yoshimo would backstab and run and hide, backstab, and so on until all the enemies were dead.

Interestingly enough only Aerie leveled when reporting our success to Renal Bloodscalp. We headed to Trademeet but got ambushed by orogs -- chaos, slows and call lightnings, plus Coremonks and Minsc melee, sorted out the ambush nicely.

We decided it was time to get the shield of harmony. We made it to Trademeet. We rested and buffed to the max again, most important being protection from petrification on Coremonk. We first attacked the genie outside to get the genie lamp. Then we went inside to finish off the leader. Coremonk took a hit form a genie that was invisibile, so Coremonk backed off and slinged. Success!

We will report to the guild mistress our success next update.

Modifié par corey_russell, 11 mai 2012 - 02:55 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Replayed Gromnir's battle 4 times. Because of game crashes. First time crashed when Karun the Black was the only enemy alive. Second time when Karun and Gromnir were the only ones left. Third time battle won, cast Greater Restoration in the end, screen bugged itself. Fourth time immediately pressed quick-save when battle was won...

Up to that moment: Cleared Saradush, hoping to find at least one ring +1. No luck. Starfall ore found, however Storm Star mace was sacrificed while making the Noble Staff of Air +4. Sellable items. Didn't sell the important +3 weapons though. Forged the Foebane +5 though, will try it vs Gromnir. Forged the Circlet of Netheril + Bronze Ioun Stone for Alia.

Gromnir himself: Tactic is relatively simple, though hard to complete without failure, thus on the first attempt Torham was breached thrice by Karun the Black (but still would win the fight despite that). Basically, Karun uses multiple Improved Alacrity spells (stays almost under permanent alacrity for 2 turns or more), is immune to Dispel/Remove magic, refreshes SI:Div after first one runs out, and has multiple ADHW and Breaches. Usually his tactic is breaching fighters who enter his line of sight and spamming ADHW on them afterwards. Even his constant breaching under Alacrity alone is dangerous, since there are powerful enemy fighters around.

PC's counterstrategy: Entered under heavy RVE buffing with Mental Agilities for reduced casting time by 8. Also 50% HP to party, and several Regenerations. Mages are under Mass Invisibility and SI:Div. Don't wanna think what would happen to them if they are under SI:A - probably multiple RRR, Breach and multiple magic missiles. Karun has True Sight, Alacrity and Foreknowledge as prebuff too, but thankfully, starts with a long-time casting spell, Monster Summoning V. PC casts Alacrity for 1, then shoots 3 RRR at the other battlemage, multiple Remove Magicks and 3 fighters (no R-C) chop him to pieces. In the meantime PC summons 2-3 Elite Trolls nearby Karun the Black to keep him occupied so that he doesn't follow the fighters. Basically, all fighters must be out of his sight until his SI:Div runs out, or any fighter will be breached. In the meantime, an Il-Khan Ancestor spirit is gated near PC. Alia activates ProMW as first combat buff, Astarta also (under Alacrity) and starts breaching lesser enemy fighters who activate Hardiness, and also showers the Salamander Noble with all the Melf's Acid Arrows which she has. Then the party fighters retreat, luring Gromnir and the remaining fighters with them. However, the Il-Khan Ancestor attacks the Elite trolls, and he slays such summons with a single hit. Alia gates in a Greater Djinni near Karun, Astarta gates in a Skeleton Lord. Seeing which one will be attacked by the Il-Khan Ancestor, that one quickly rushes to the fighters, thus luring the Il-Khan Ancestor and taking it away from the mage. Then the Ancestor is lured to fight the fighters, and the summon (in this case, a Greater Djinni) returns to occupy the attention of Karun the Black. Karun cannot kill neither the Djinni nor the Skeleton Lord.

Now the fighters have to first eliminate the lesser fighters, then the Ancestor, and finally to slay Gromnir, who's extremely damage resistant under Hardiness, and is immune to Breach. Weapons with good elemental damage are required. For example, Foebane +5's LMD deals only 1 additional damage to him, while Poseidon's Wrath and Hammer of Thor do significantly more when their elemental damage strikes.

Misklicked with an action and brought Torham in the sight of Karun. Torham was immediately Breached, PC refreshed protective buffs (she had ProMagicEnergy and ProEnergy available)

The Ancestor is quite resistant to melee damage, but falls in the end. However, Gromnir activated his Hardiness, then activated Smite, and knocked fighters away, one of them (Bane) was near the enemy mage after the knockback, and was Breached. Astarta refreshed protections on him.

In the end,  Gromnir died, protections and IHaste were refreshed, also Mass Invisibility was cast upon fighters, party waited, enemy SI:Div waned, they approached, Bane activated True Sight from the sword, enemy was under Alacrity, cast SI:Div and ProMW, Astarta cast Alacrity and started showering the enemy via Breaches, and one RR to remove SI:Div. Alia also approached to Breach, even Jack Sparrow used one Breach scroll. Enemy tried ADHW spamming under Alacrity, but since all fighters are protected at least from Energy, it did very little damage, and in one moment, Karun forgot to focus on defences, and fell. Maybe should've waited longer for all his alacrities to wane, but didn't have the patience for it.





















































Loot: Many items. +2 ring, Roranarch's Horn, Lavender Ioun Stone, Ice star morningstar, Grandmaster's Armor +6...in fact, almost all items here are vanilla save maybe from the +2 ring, and scrolls which mages carry, plus the Permanency scroll on Gromnir.

Forged:
Staff of the Ram +6. IA's Roranarch Horn is a nerfed item which grants 3 AC modifier vs crushing attacks. And the staff is maybe the most damaging crushing weapon still, despite IA upgrades.
Another +4 ring. Also summoned every NPC from SoA, slew them all, collected six more +1 rings, forged yet another +4 ring. And a cloak +2 (found a Laeral's tear necklace on the body of Gromnir)
a pair of Boots of Speed for the sorceress. Would like to equip everyone with such boots. Need some more Permanency scrolls to do that, still. At least 3 more, hope there are enough left.
Death of a Thousand Cuts, Bastard Sword +4. No permanency scroll wasted here, but the weapon is nothing that great, since it's nerfed to allow save vs the bleeding damage.

Traveled outside of Saradush, bought some items&containers from a merchant. The Obsidian Ioun Stone grants +10 HP bonus instead of Constitution bonus, but is still very good for Bane, who's more than glad to finally drop the Mask of King Strohm III.

Traveled to WK, transferred all items stored in there to the pocket plane, also now the party can use the Frostbrand scimitar for fire protection if need be.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 11 mai 2012 - 07:49 .

[Gate70]

Nawgrim/Gate70 and Peer/Grond0. Session 19 (run time 1h. Total 29h10)

We grab a second pair of boots of speed. Lonk the sane, Irenicus, nothing stops us from getting out of Spellhold.

In Brynnlaw we spend 10 minutes selling various items then break into a house at the wrong time of day. Nawgrim stupidly looks in a wardrobe and fails his save vs death (3).

"Crup" says Peer. "Now I'm stuck here". There is nothing left of Nawgrim or his equipment.

Brief discussion afterwards. Grond0 will be the next protaganist, not firmed up classes yet. Good luck folks.

[corey_russell]

Gate70/Grond0, are you guys doing a trilogy run or just BG 2? If trilogy maybe dogdancing and I will see ya guys in the BG 1 no-reload thread. Good luck in your next run. Still, nice work getting as far as you guys did.

[PPewt]

I hate that wardrobe; it was reload-central for me for long enough that as of a few playthroughs ago alarm bells go off in my head every time I go in there. Other such locations include the leftmost painting in spellhold and the floor at the entrance to the Temple of Amaunator under the sewers.

I have a feeling I'd kill myself at some point in a no-reload without a thief. Traps, gotta hate 'em.

Modifié par PPewt, 12 mai 2012 - 01:51 .

[ussnorway]

Grond0 wrote...

PPewt wrote...

Grond0 wrote...
Are you talking about gauntlets of extraordinary specialisation (extra 1/2 attack per round rather than bracers) - if not that must be another mod change you've got.  The gauntlets would get Peer up to 4 attacks a round with dual wielding so 8 with improved haste.

Oops, yes. Anyhow, seeing as the only related mod change I had was +0.5 attacks/round from True Grandmastery it seems like you're missing a half-attack somewhere else as well. Maybe you're too low level?

True Grandmastery is +1 attack, so that's the difference.

(Also yuck, Belm would be great for you but unfortunately you're half-cleric. By the way, why a Fighter-Cleric and not a Cleric-Ranger?)

Dwarven saving throws - these have been hugely beneficial so far in the run. 

Level 6 is basically 1x Globe of Invulnerability, 1x True Sight, a million x Improved Haste. In addition, you can get Improved Haste from the Improved Cloak of Protection +2 and from the Ring of Gaxx (although Gaxx's only lasts a few rounds), so you still don't need it.

Pierce magic has been used extensively recently.  It may be that the higher level spells will make this less essential in future, although in our last run it proved useful right through ToB.

I keep forgetting to buff Do'Dad because his saves are so high... I'd go FoA (main) & CF (OH) but it's your game.

p.s.
If you need to free up a W6 slot then the “Wand of Spell Striking” gives you up to six shots each of ‘Breach’ & ‘Pierce Magic’... I find it useful in rooms that don’t allow normal casting.

Modifié par ussnorway, 12 mai 2012 - 02:29 .

[corey_russell]

Coremonk the level 11 monk and gang continue the adventure...

Coremonk and gang solve the Trademeet problem. They fought their way to Faldorn, then Jaheira challenged Faldorn. Jaheira did insect plague, fire elemental, nymph, insects and then shift to brown bear form. She won handily. Though the massive # of buffs we gave her before she started the fight may have had an impact...but maybe not, as the end result is Faldorn eventually got held by the nymph.

The mayor of Trademeet was pleased with our results. We were hired to do a chore for a local family, but the Mayor wanted us to give the circlet to him to avoid bloodshed. That was good enough reason for us, we battled some skeletal warriors and gave him the circlet.

Coremonk is engaging more and more in melee, as his damage dealing is getting more and more powerful. With more levels under his belt, he's not quite so squishy anymore as well. We did get the cloak of displacement for him.

Next up, now that we've had all the vampire ambushes (I think), the party paid off Galen Bayle his fee. The party then talked to Linvail and got a couple of items. The AoP went to Jaheira, that will help a lot with her in the front lines. The +2 ring went to Coremonk -- we can't let Coremonk get disintegrated, can we!

Then party returned to the slums and battled the slavers in the moored ship. The initial slavers had no chance at all. Then Yoshimo scouted ahead and waved Nalia to fire a cloudkill at a nice spot. She did then both of them withdrew. The cloudkill managed to kill both enemy mages. Then Yoshimo got rid of the horrible poison trap, and the party charged the sole survivor. We asked Yoshimo to scout ahead and Yoshimo decided he's show off his backstab skills on the 2 Yuan-Ti. While he did kill them with backstabs, he missed a ton, despite the +4 thaco bonus from attacking from the shadows. It was very inefficient to say the least, no wonder I don't backstab with him much. After looting the stuff in the area and battling another group of slavers, who were basically taken out of action by insect plague, the party was full and had to sell and return.

Next update, the party will deal with Captain Haegan -- maybe we can get a one-one-one with Coremonk and him.

Modifié par corey_russell, 12 mai 2012 - 06:19 .