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[Gate70]

Burr the CE human male berserker + Jaheira, Yoshimo feared by all, Aerie and Anomen.

I pick up a lock of Jaheira's hair and everybody levels up. No sooner have we rested than a messenger appears for Aerie. I reluctantly agree to help Quayle, half wondering if this is enough to prevent Aerie from whining about it at a later stage. I intend to pay Mae'var back first by pretending to work for him.

As we head to the temple district we are attacked by muggers at the docks. After moving on we have to rescue Renfeld too; return him to the docks urgently. I hate the docks at night so send Yoshimo to skirt past Hareishan, and then we rest until daybreak before heading to the temple district. We agree to investigate the cult of the Unseeing Eye and the fallen paladins led by Anarg. Down into the sewers we go, dealing with kobolds (holy smite), a sea troll (Melfs Acid Arrow) and a rashaka (melee plus Yoshimo snares). As he sneaks towards Tarnor the Hatchetman I find myself wondering how they fail to hear him "Hai Ya - the tourists love that stuff". Subtle indeed.

So it proves, Gaius casting True Sight. Yoshimo is too quick though, having retreated before the spell concludes. Draug Fea and Tarnor don't notice the pair of special snares thrown beside them, and Yoshimo adds two normal snares where we will be standing. I follow a skeleton in as everybody else positions behind us. I am blocked though so arrive late and the skeleton is already dead so we retreat rather than have me get the attention of several enemies.

Draug Fea has killed a nymph while we retreated, but my magic missiles and a Melf from Aerie soften him up enough for Yoshimo to hit with an arrow (8). Anomen shows how it is done with a non-critical bullet (22 damage with Righteous Magic and DUHM), dropping the dwarf instantly. Jaheira has ordered a replacement nyph in a momentary lull, good job too as a badly injured Zorl arrives. Another set of MM, Melf, bullet and fatal arrow dispose of him but in attacking I have stepped too close to Tarnor, Gaius and Gallchobhair. Gaius Ruby Ray's me but my buffs survive the protection removed notification. I have moved back and while Gaius is out of sight Tarnor and Gallchohair are fair game for doom and slow. The nymph holds Gallchobhair but is stunned by Gaius as she moves in to smooch his stricken companion. I stand idle as my companions missile Tarnor, my mirror images foiling his throwing axe. Anomen lands a massive critical (42 from an ordinary bullet) to slay Tarnor.

Anomen kills Gallchobhair with another bullet but our enthusiasm wavers as Gauis FOD's the nymph. We've no death wards available, by this time Gais re-casts true-sight and moves into sight. We retreat but he has cast a spell. Not good news. Not good at all. Oh poo. Poo poo poo. We consider the options and I decide magic resistance is essential but I am too slow in using a cloak to switch to mustard jelly form no other option available. More poo.

Fortunately I save against the effect save vs spells is 11.

Aerie casts silence while I creep away from a sword spider and invisible stalker. My companions kill the spider and as I move away Jaheira and Yoshimo melee Gaius everybody else is trying to help me with the stalker. I tranform back to human shape and outpace the stalker until it switches target and is killed. We work our way back, looting each corpse as we go until we confirm there is nobody left alive.

Modifié par Gate70, 08 août 2012 - 11:01 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

Update of BlackStrider & Co (Temple Ruins):

I made another mistake by traveling empty-spelled and not invisible - right after Harpers Compound without rest I headed to the Umar Hills - and paid the price. An ambush of Mage, Cleric, two invisible Thiefs... I was Chaos-ed (luckily I ran away to the edge of an area without enemies followed me), Viconia was backstabed hard but survived, Jaheira got Stunned and Enfeebled, Nalia Emotion-ed and backstabbed to death... Disaster! Jaheira had some Iron Skins on so was relatively safe. At least long enough for Viconia go  invisible (lured enemies out of my sight beforehand), heal herself and then cast Remove Paralyzis on her. Jaheira immediately went invisible (by using potion), Viconia followed, as well as I (free from Chaos by that time). We picked Nalia's gear, waited till Jaheira's Enfeeblement expire and ran away to the Trademeet. There we rised Nalia and helped Tiris vs Skin Dancers.

Temple Ruins.

Jaheira together with her Fire Elemental cleared the outdoors. Inside we joined Mazzy and gave her Azuredge. even non-proficient with Axes she fought fonderfull with it. Shadow Dragon was left alone at the moment and Shade Lord doesn't managed to cast something significant and fell by Azuredge (as well as Shadow Patrick):

  

  

We reported of our success to the Mayor and now thinking about our next move.

Current state:

BlackStrider - Priest of Helm (11) inactive / Mage (11), 38 kills (Cohrvale);
Jaheira - Fighter (10) / Druid (12), 123 kills (Bone Golem);
Nalia - Thief (4) / Mage (12), 113 kills (TorGal); 1 death (by slavers ambush);
Viconia - Cleric (10), 1 kills (Shadow), 1 death (by Rune Assassing);
Mazzy - Fighter (10), 24 kills (Shade Lord)

to be continued...

[Alesia_BH]

 Alyssa at the Guarded Compound

Alrighty. Alyssa is ready to continue her adventure. To get her back in the flow, I had her pay a visit to the Guarded Compound. This went smoothly- a little too smoothly in fact. 

Some of you may have noted a certain lack of enthusiasm in my posts on Alyssa. The ease of playing her is the cause. If you can Stealth and use Wands, BG1 is a breeze; if you can Backstab and run arcance buffs SoA is even breezier. Before my most recent break, I was considering adding a 50% EXP progression nerf to my install. I wish I had for Alyssa's run. I also wish I had restricted her usuable tactic set more (excluding Mage "Assasination", ProUndead, and seperation techniques amongst other). I'm semi-tempted to send her back to the Keep and have her complete SoA in a more satisfying fashion. We'll see. I suppose there is nothing wrong with doing a breezy re-familiarization run with a new class. Perhaps I'll find some interesting things to do with her along the way.


Anyhoo. Here's Alyssa battle at the Guarded Compound. 

The buffs here were Alyssa's standards: SK, Strenth, Spirit Armor, MSD, Polymorph Self, ProEvil, Blur, MI, II, SI:A,SI:D, Improved Haste, DUHM. She keeps additional Spell Immunities in her book to use as needed. That and her Potion set keeps her safe from spells. The lack of a prophylactic against Spell Trust based attacks is disconcerting, but as a practical matter she can navigate around that threat untill she has Spell Shield or extra slots for Level 6+ protection. ProMW provides addtional insurance against physical attacks. 

Here spell defenses weren't terribly important. Alyssa drew out Sion's Divination cast, and chunked him before he erected his buffs (going forward, this tactics will be out of bounds: I wish I had done so sooner).


With Sion gone, Alyssa focused her attention on shutting down Stalman's casting while keeping an eye on Koshi et al. By using her Aura on invisibility casts, she limited enemy attack rolls while staying close enough to Stalman to foil his spells. 


All of his spells except one that is: he got off a Sanctuary which kept him in play for a few extra rounds. Alyssa took care of Koshi and then Ketta while Stalman was in hiding.  

First Koshi.


Then Ketta with the aid of Ras. Decent backstab here.


Stalman's back from Santuary now. A solid backstab took him out of the action for good.


Olaf was finished off with backstabs. His potion chugging allowed him to weather a bunch. 


Used the ProMW and finished off Maferan in melee.



Fin.

Alyssa will do the Planar Sphere either tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully she'll get some good mage fights in the sphere.

Best,

A. 


Btw. Sorry for your loss Belgarath and Krazy Solo. Best of luck with your upcoming adventures.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 09 août 2012 - 02:08 .

[corey_russell]

Nice work in the guarded compound, Alesia_BH. Goodguy and Badgirl had a lot of trouble there as a duo, it's nice to see a solo take those guys down. As a cleric/illusionist, Goodguy had a lot of defensive buffs, but they got dispelled. I probably should have done some SI to protect against that.

[Blackmalkin]

corey_russell wrote...
Gate, that inset looks strange, is that NWN or something?

Or something: Icewind Dale. If you haven't played it yet, you should. It's great for no-reload playing.

Modifié par Blackmalkin, 09 août 2012 - 05:51 .

[Gate70]

Blackmalkin wrote...

corey_russell wrote...
Gate, that inset looks strange, is that NWN or something?

Or something: Icewind Dale. If you haven't played it yet, you should. It's great for no-reload playing.

Grond0 & I are on 6 reloads and a duo is a challenge at times (I've always played with a full party but don't think controlling more than 1 character each would work well in multiplayer). If anybody wants to join in from time to time or even just try it let one of us know (install is IWD, Heart of Winter, Trials of the Luremaster and Trials patch from memory).

[Alesia_BH]

corey_russell wrote...

Nice work in the guarded compound, Alesia_BH. Goodguy and Badgirl had a lot of trouble there as a duo, it's nice to see a solo take those guys down.

Understood. The Guarded Compound crew can make a nuisance of themselves. They are highly susceptible to thief tactics though. With a Thief, I'd feel semi-confident taking them down straight out of the Chateau (visiting some potion sellers first of course). 

As a cleric/illusionist, Goodguy had a lot of defensive buffs, but they got dispelled. I probably should have done some SI to protect against that.

Agreed. In vanilla, the classic anti-debuff approach is SI:A+SI:D+II. II will stop single target protection removers and SI:A+SI:D will prevent II from being removed. SI:A+SI:D will also stop Remove, Dispel, and Divination stuff. With that anti-debuff strategy in place and appropriate Specific Protections, you can shutdown vanilla mages. 

Best,

A.

[ussnorway]

Alesia_BH wrote...
Agreed. In vanilla, the classic anti-debuff approach is SI:A+SI:D+II. II will stop single target protection removers and SI:A+SI:D will prevent II from being removed. SI:A+SI:D will also stop Remove, Dispel, and Divination stuff. With that anti-debuff strategy in place and appropriate Specific Protections, you can shutdown vanilla mages.

I have encountered SCS mages with this defence setup and FYI the counter is that a high 'Detect Illusion' thief will break through the II but I've yet to see any difficulty mods use that skill tactically... thank goodness!

[Alesia_BH]

ussnorway wrote...
I have encountered SCS mages with this defence setup and FYI the counter is that a high 'Detect Illusion' thief will break through the II but I've yet to see any difficulty mods use that skill tactically... thank goodness!  

Detect Illusions is among the approaches that will work. There are a number of others as well. The details hinge on your install.

In SCS, SI:A+SI:D+II isn't formidible. Some of the SCS spell tweaks were implemented with the objective of weakening that combo (that's the basic logic behind giving single target spell protection removers an AOE). Lowly Spell Thrust will suffice though this is easier for enemy mages to execute since they can target accurately whereas a player can have difficulty.

While foiling SI:A+SI:D+II is easier in SCS, the Consistent Breach component is a boon for defensive spell fans since it lets you use Spell Protections to foil Breach (though at the cost of letting Breach pass through Spell Shield). Consequently, that mage in SCS who has lost II to Detect Illusions can use Spell Shield to catch attacks on Spell Protections and use the Spell Protections to stop Breach. So, if you are running, say, SI:A+SI:D+II+Spell Shield+ Spell Deflection. Detect Illusions->Spellstrike->Breach, for example, will not work in SCS whereas it would strip Combat and Specific Protections in vanilla. It's arguably the case that the SCS tweaks have strengthened the Abjuration school while moving the battle away from the well trodden SI:A+SI:D+II path.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 10 août 2012 - 04:37 .

[ussnorway]

I don’t use the (single target spells become AOE) component because it’s a major rule change and more cheat than tactic in my mind however ‘Detect Illusions’ is “as intended” and can even be coded/ scripted in but then enemy thieves might decide to ‘Detect Illusions’ instead of defending themselves in melee.

I agree that SCS does try to move away from SI:A+SI:D+II especially on the solo gameplay path... but IMO solo play is almost a different game and heaps easier/ harder than group play depending on how many potions you are willing to cart around (consume).

p.s.
Does using “Ras” simply distract them and allow you to get behind/ backstab or is it immune to some spell/ effect? Nice Work.

[Alesia_BH]

ussnorway wrote...
I don’t use the (single target spells become AOE) component because it’s a major rule change and more cheat than tactic in my mind

I can understand that. It is a significant rule change, I sympathize with the objective though. 

SI:A+SI:D+II was clearly overpowered to the players advantage in the original game. There is a reason why tweaking the way those three spells work together was one of the first things that Improved Anvil and SCS-II did. David's approach isn't an unreasonable one and given that his scripts are written to accomodate the change -and that it helps tip the balance in favor of enemies- I prefer to install the component.

So you know, I've never actually targetted an II mage with an AoE Spell Protection. I've yet to encounter a situation when that would have been a wise use of Aura. I'm glad enemies have the ability available to them however.

I agree that SCS does try to move away from SI:A+SI:D+II especially on the solo gameplay path... but IMO solo play is almost a different game and heaps easier/ harder than group play depending on how many potions you are willing to cart around (consume).

Solo play does change the game dynamics and I agree that playing solo isn't necessarily harder as many people assume. Playing solo can decrease your margin for error, it also makes the end game more challenging. At the same time, it can make mid SoA much easier.

In future installs, I intend to use EXP progression nerfs to counteract some of the benefits of solo play. I'm not sure whether I want to use stage based caps or a 50% across the board nerf.

Does using “Ras” simply distract them and allow you to get behind/ backstab or is it immune to some spell/ effect? Nice Work.

Ras is basically a Mordy Sword (with the same immunity to physical attacks) that you can summon without breaking invisibility. It's especially useful for drawing out thieves.


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 10 août 2012 - 09:27 .

[Alesia_BH]

 Alyssa in the Planar Sphere

Alyssa's journey into the Planar Sphere began in the typical perplexing fashion.

Valygar made a bold declaration.


Ok, got it: you are completely unwilling to enter the Planar Sphere with me. What do you propose then?


Right...Let's go then I guess...

The Hungry, Hungry Halflings

The hungry, hungry Halflings gave Alyssa her first real fight- mostly because Kayardi managed to summon a pair of Improved Fiends.

Alyssa opened by taking out Mogadish and Entu.




Kayardi got his buffs up though and called in a few friends. With Invisibility Detection, Teleport Without Error, and infinite Lightning Bolts, they were a problem for Alyssa (especially since she was feeling stingy with the Potions of Absorption). 


MSD kept Alyssa safe at first, but once they were consummed, she had to cave in and drink.


Without a plan to take the Cornugans down quickly and efficiently, Alyssa just stayed on the move and ignored them. This worked fine once she was immune to Lightning Damage. She circled back and took care of the stragglers.

Backstab->Magic Missle dropped Togan.



Now for that pesky mage. Standard range weapon based take down here. Elemental Arrows disrupted, mid round post disruption, Alyssa took shots with a Darts of Stunning. Once one stuck, she equipped Belm, cut though the skins, and finished.



Necre and Tabiela

Necre started Stoneskinned. Alyssa took him out of the action promptly with Arrow of Dispelling->Invisibility->Backstab.


Tabiela got ProMW up, but was dropped by range weapons soon after. SI:A foiled her Remove.




I'll post on Lavok, Tolgerias, and the Tanar'ii relatively soon.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 10 août 2012 - 09:08 .

[Alesia_BH]

 Alyssa in the Planar Sphere (Continued)

Alyssa's battle with Lavok felt like a game of Hide and Seek followed by a game of catch.

Lavok took his buffs, Alyssa disappeared.



Alyssa engaged, Lavok vanished.



Found ya! Time to play catch. Tuigan+Tactical Ammo+MSD+Stoneskins+IH beats MMMs+Stoneskins.



Refreshed MSD when a little fire damage got through.


The end.


The Tanar'ri

The Tanar'ri fell to a buffed Flind. The only question here was whether Alyssa was going to have to burn a ProMW scroll. She didn't. Pro Magic Energy, Potion of Freedom, MGOI, 100% Fire Resistance took care of the spell effects.




Tolgerias

Alyssa was not permitted to insta-chunk the un-StoneskinnedTolgerias. She took a shot at executing Arrow of Dispelling->Invisibility->Backstab on his protected girlfriend though. She turned (thus catching a 27 HP melee blow instead of a Backstab) and survived.


Tolgerias said Praeses, Alyssa said bye, bye.



Refreshed the SI:A then skinned and Poisoned the nameless Mage.



Took a hitpoint boost off the Mordy before moving on to Tolgerias.


Endgame.







Last hurdle.


Fin!

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 10 août 2012 - 09:12 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

It looks so easy in your writings, Alesia... How I wish it to be so in my run (sigh...) as right now it's quite a challenge by itself  (not counting a no-reload)  

Well, here is a little bit more news about BlackStrider & Co (medley):

Back in Athkatla and:
- Mazzy challenged Gorf; got Boots of Stealth from old acquaintance; 
- Headed to the Temple District and started Cult of Unseeing Eye quest;
- Tried to gain the Services of Sir Sarles for the Temple: disposed of Neb and obtained real illitium (stored in a chest for a while); ordered fake illitium from ore merchant;
- Hunt Anarg for the Order of the Radiant Heart.

  

Current state:
BlackStrider - Priest of Helm (11) inactive / Mage (11), 39 kills (Cohrvale);
Jaheira - Fighter (10) / Druid (12), 127 kills (Bone Golem);
Nalia - Thief (4) / Mage (12), 113 kills (TorGal); 1 death (by slavers ambush);
Viconia - Cleric (10), 1 kills (Shadow), 1 death (by Rune Assassing);
Mazzy - Fighter (10), 26 kills (Shade Lord);

to be continued...

(tho I'm afraid it will be after about 2-3 weeks or so as I'm going on vacations now. See ya later, friends and safe journeys to all of you! )

Modifié par Serg BlackStrider, 10 août 2012 - 12:00 .

[Blackmalkin]

Gate70 wrote...
I've always played with a full party but don't think controlling more than 1 character each would work well in multiplayer).

Why not? I think that lagging is always the same. I played with a full party devided between two players in both Icewind Dale 1 and 2 and didn't find managing the whole party that hard. Though I have to admit  that my characters did suffer some damage from friendly fire (my friend's mage really loved his Fireballs and Aganazzar's). Of course it depends on players' communication – we had a luxury of being able to see each other's screens.

[corey_russell]

Blackmalkin wrote...

Gate70 wrote...
I've always played with a full party but don't think controlling more than 1 character each would work well in multiplayer).

Why not? I think that lagging is always the same. I played with a full party devided between two players in both Icewind Dale 1 and 2 and didn't find managing the whole party that hard. Though I have to admit  that my characters did suffer some damage from friendly fire (my friend's mage really loved his Fireballs and Aganazzar's). Of course it depends on players' communication – we had a luxury of being able to see each other's screens.

If you're playing with someone who wants to get to the action right away (like my wife), the extra clicks for extra NPCs slows it down too much. In addition, more party members means more pausing, and this is problematic in muliti-player play. We pause only if we must, as it can interfere with the other's tactics/plays. Once my wife was in a tough spot, and I had to pause to cast a spell - this caused her to path wrong and she got killed, she could have easily avoided the enemy otherwise. This is a major reason the wife and I just duo and no NPCs.

[amanasleep]

Alesia_BH wrote...

ussnorway wrote...
I have encountered SCS mages with this defence setup and FYI the counter is that a high 'Detect Illusion' thief will break through the II but I've yet to see any difficulty mods use that skill tactically... thank goodness!  

Detect Illusions is among the approaches that will work. There are a number of others as well. The details hinge on your install.

In SCS, SI:A+SI:D+II isn't formidible. Some of the SCS spell tweaks were implemented with the objective of weakening that combo (that's the basic logic behind giving single target spell protection removers an AOE). Lowly Spell Thrust will suffice though this is easier for enemy mages to execute since they can target accurately whereas a player can have difficulty.

Alesia, do you find that SCS mages actually make use of Spell Thrust to defeat player Spell Immunities?  It doesn't look as if they are doing that at all in your playthrough.  Possibly they are assuming you would also run GOI, which would foil Spell Thrust.

In SCS, if you are protected with II, SI: A/D, GOI, then the only way to get around it is Pierce Magic ->Spell Thrust->Dispel/Detect Illusions.

While foiling SI:A+SI:D+II is easier in SCS, the Consistent Breach component is a boon for defensive spell fans since it lets you use Spell Protections to foil Breach (though at the cost of letting Breach pass through Spell Shield). Consequently, that mage in SCS who has lost II to Detect Illusions can use Spell Shield to catch attacks on Spell Protections and use the Spell Protections to stop Breach. So, if you are running, say, SI:A+SI:D+II+Spell Shield+ Spell Deflection. Detect Illusions->Spellstrike->Breach, for example, will not work in SCS whereas it would strip Combat and Specific Protections in vanilla. It's arguably the case that the SCS tweaks have strengthened the Abjuration school while moving the battle away from the well trodden SI:A+SI:D+II path.

Do you find that thieves in SCS use the detect illusions ability?  This would make them much more threatening.

edit: after some research, I turned up some interesting facts on the tactical interplay between spell protections and removal.

1. In vanilla, all spell protection removals have correct power level equal to their spell level (Ruby Ray is PL7, etc.) except Spell Thrust, which is Spell level 3 but PL4. This means that vanilla Spell Thrust can take down Minor GOI but is blocked by regular GOI. Secret Word is also blocked by GOI.

2. G3 Fixpack through v9 changes Spell Thrust to PL0, which means it is not blocked by GOI, and in fact will remove all of your SI's and lower level protections regardless of GOI presence.

3. G3 Fixpack v10 Beta (posted in the forums by aVENGER) changes Spell Thrust to PL4 as vanilla and changes Secret Word to PL5, which allows it to remove GOI.  IMO this is not a desirable change because it denigrates the value of Pierce Magic.

The point here is that unless you have G3 Fixpack v10 beta (or vanilla), only Spell Shield will Stop Spell Thrust in SCS.  Of course, even in a G3 v10 SCS environment, a successful spell thrust will not allow Breach if you have Spell Deflection or Spell Turning active, and these work just as well as invisibility to foil other spell targeting. But it's really the SI:A that you are protecting, since enemy remove magic will really kill (although an Oracle or True Seeing would also be bad.

In any event, it seems that DavidW is not currently taking advantage of these realities to let SCS spellcasters stick it to the PC.

Modifié par amanasleep, 12 août 2012 - 05:21 .

[Blackmalkin]

corey_russell wrote...
In addition, more party members means more pausing, and this is problematic in muliti-player play.

Yes, pausing is a problem, but one that can be at solved by autopause to some extent. With autopause on enemy sighted, spell cast, character hit, end of round and target destroyed, manual pausing is seldom needed (mostly during desperate retreats).

[Gate70]

I find the same as Corey, not saying that's right - it just suits me. The other side to auto pause is two people both unpausing and unintentionally pausing again, then you both sigh and unpause (pause) again. Our sighting run had pause on enemy sighted and possibly spell cast - took a lot longer to complete the game that way. We did try just one of us unpausing but that leads to the game being continued when somebody is in their inventory, a container or hasn't selected the option they were going to.

Our runs are a bit messier as a result (would have paused in single player), with two characters you can usually muddle your way through whereas with six characters you are forced to pause or have some characters standing idle (or I suppose use AI scripts - no thanks).

Edit (after Corey's post). I should caveat this is BG. Haven't tried it in IWD and may work better as it seems more polished for multiplayer. We just stuck with what had worked in BG without thinking about trying another approach.

Modifié par Gate70, 10 août 2012 - 10:50 .

[corey_russell]

Good thinking Gate70 - if all party members were melee/ranged only and using scripts, you wouldn't have to click on them, per se during battle - but you still have to select the NPCs to move them around, and while moving, you may have a battle trigger, so you're back to pausing again.

We have the same problem as Gate70 mentioned, both players try to unpause, so pause it again, or try to pause and end up unpausing, due to the slight lag in response. We did try the auto-pause, but they got in the way. In fact, they frustrated Dogdancing so much we turned off all auto-pauses.

[Krazy Solo]

Update 1: The Escape

Cleared all of ID again, Sorry if I'm not thrilled to give the detail as it was done pretty much the same way each time. Almost to the point as routine. Only thing odd the goblin group in the library decided not to spawn initially, but spawned after I cleared the Air Plane. Was odd but nothing game changing.

Future endeavore includes Circus, Slavers, then De'arnise Keep. Party makeup should end up being Anomen, Nalia, Yoshimo until rescuing Imoen then Imoen will take over for Yoshimo. By that time I should already dual'd to a thief prior to picking up Imoen, but it depends what I want to clear prior to heading to spellhold.

[ussnorway]

UD4b;
@amanasleep, No they don't use 'Detect Illusion' in SCS.

By the sword we stand defiant:

 

Irenicus springs his trap and I have to rush ahead into the library (-1 wisdom)... I summoned some help and then attacked my sole from range.

Tainted Reunion:



Imoen gave me the ability to remove traps again and even made a +3 sword for Mazzy but unfortunately space was at a premium so Haer’dalis got the chop... speaking about gear, Viconia agreed to recover the “bag of holding” (without combat) and we started our first battle against the portal guards for the armour.

   

The battle started well but the Raksasha tossed a spanner with his ‘stink cloud’-‘Web’ combo... messy but having two characters with ‘Raise’ dead comes in handy sometimes. With the “Doomplate” for Mazzy and the “Cleric's Staff +3” for Jaheira we crawled our way up towards daylight.

That’s my wand:

I set the loons free and collected my old gear... “yes... my precious I won’t ever leave you again”.
After carefully setting my spells for a show down & patently teaching sis how to cast ‘Melf's Minute Meteors’ I cheerfully descended the staircase without placing my buffs... dolt!

This is so gonna hurt:

   

First Rounds = We retreat to the corner and try to kill the soft (Imoen, Nalia & myself) targets before a well-played Jaheira ID downright raped us with ‘Chaotic Commands’, ‘Insect Plague’ & ‘Conjure Fire Elemental’...

Valando: “Where is that ring of earth?”
Nalia: “Mazzy has it!”

Middle Rounds = Irenicus digs a PF out of his hat and Jaheira B-slaps it back to hell with her “Staff of Arundel” & then cast her ‘Conjure Fire Elemental’ into play while Viconia introduces Ickky to the joy of NF (Naughty Floggers) with her “FoA”.

 

The Final Rounds = Just parked J & V in the doorway whilst sis {brings the rain} with her 'Wand of Fireball'.

Bugs/ Issues

 

Mazzy bugged when Nalia finally cast ‘Stone to Flesh’ on her and please “SHUT UP WOMAN... MY GOD”, Nalia is so needy with the de'Arnise Romance installed.

Note to self, Looks like Fixpack assumes Mazzy has killed the Shade Lord.

[corey_russell]

Trendan the level 17 Undead Hunter continues his adventure...
Traveling with Korgan, Minsc, Anomen, Edwin, Imoen
Areas Battled: All paladin stronghold quests, Firkraag's Lair

Trendan decided that he and his party had kept Mr. Windspear waiting long enough - it was time to rescue his daughter. The trash mobs in Firkraag's Lair, truly were trash mobs.

All the undead here, even the high level vampires, were destroyed instantly with Anomen using sanctuary and turn undead. We knew there was a reason we kept him around.

Golems were dealt with with Azuredge, +3 returning dart from WK, and firetooth throwing dagger. The werewolves were no trouble. Conster was defeated with the help of 5 skeletal warriors. We rescued Windspear's daughter and reported our success. Garren suggested Trendan talk to the Prelate of the Radiant Heart, so Trendan went ahead and did so.

There were 3 basic quests to accomplish - the invasion was dealt with easily with 2 chaoses cast by the party's mages - not a single paladin lost his life. Baron Metrich and his cronies was slaughtered, and the Order ended up being OK by that. A rather bratty survivor needed protection, and thanks to Trendan's detect evil, she was saved from death.

Time for the big event, take down that Firkaag! The party traveled to Firkraag's cave, and then summoned 4 ariel servants and a skeletal warrior, just in case. Edwin said, wait a minute, he can take down Firkraag on his own. Anomen challenged Edwin's claim, so the party let Edwin try it first. Well, Edwin just crept invisible, saw Firkraag and backed off out of sight, then spammed cloudkills via his cloudkill wand until Firkraag keeled over.

Not very sporting, I suppose, but Trendan needs the Sword that Firkraag is holding for ToB. Trendan reported his success, and the Radiant Heart gave the Avenger Sword to Trendan. The session was ended here.

[corey_russell]

Trendan the level 19 Undead Hunter continues his adventure...
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Anomen, Edwin, Imoen
Areas Battled: Twisted Rune Hideout, final confrontation with Bodhi, Illithids in Sewers, North Pass, North Forest, Suldanessar

The party decided it's time to deal with the Twisted Rune Hide-out. We did a few buffs, probably most important buffs being remove fear and SI:N on both mages. We put 2 skeletal warriors, 2 ariel servants and a deva in the center area.

Shandalar teleported to the party's position - and Minsc with his quick reflexes slew Shandalar before he could get his defenses up with the IMoD. The rest of the enemies really weren't much trouble at all after that. Minsc and Korgan had shield of balduran and cloak of mirroring, and Trendan Carsomyr, so the Beholder wasn't too much trouble as a result. The staff of the magi went to Edwin, he deserves it for all the help he gives the party.

Time to take down some illithids. This was probably the easiest I have ever defeated them. Edwin cast a dark planetar, Anomen put CC on it, the plantar did Globe of Blades then it attacked. It slew a room and 1/2 of enemies before expiring. Edwin cast one more, with CC being put on it again, and it soloed the remaining enemies here. It was directed via Farsight from Anomen (love that spell).

Imoen wasn't feeling well, so we went after Bodhi. We changed up our line-up for this portion of the adventure. Minsc was in front with his IMoD, Trendan was 2nd in line, using the Foe Bane, and Korgan stayed in the back using Tarnor's throwing axe so he wouldn't get level drained (yeah he could use berserk, but I didn't want to keep casting it). This line-up was extremely effective. We didn't take the most damage from vampires, but instead from the trap room - Trendan in particular going to 1/2 life (yikes!).

For Bodhi, we opened the door, and while out of sight, threw in a firestorm, storm of vengeance and a horrid wilting. Korgan then showed himself. Then the vamps turned to their normal forms then Korgan backed off. In this way, we only had to deal with a few enemies at a time, while the rest were taking a lot of damage. What was kind of fun, was Bodhi only lasted two rounds, the melee/ranged power of the group was far too much.

Most party members have at least 1 HLA now, except for Imoen.

The party then cleared North Pass (only encountered a group ankhegs there, wasn't really worth the time) and North Forest. The powerful party was dealt with Farsight and several waves of summons...well kind of, the enemy party attacked our summons, and they saw our unbuffed party - chaos ensued, the party's good saves kept everyone intact until victory was achieved. With a fresh batch of 5 summons, the remaining enemies on the map were no sweat.

Time to return the Rhynn Lanthorn to Elhan. Suldanessar was very smooth, partly due to Korgan's 5 attacks (Crom Faeyr main hand for this portion, belm off hand). Even the enemies in the temple weren't much trouble for the party - too bad no one can use the nice staff.

We had a rather long battle with Nizidramyiit, the dragon. While we did have 5 summons and did mostly ranged attacks at first, with a few spells like horrid wiltings, call lightning from Minsc and storm of vengeance. However, soon no one in the party could cast spells due to that poison attack. Also the summons were all slain, including the fallen planetar. The 3 melees moved up, the casters moved back out of range. We continued to battle, but Trendan got picked on and got hurt bad and was forced to retreat. The battle continued to rage, including a bolt of glory from Anomen. Minsc was getting hurt and he was forced to retreat and use his +3 returning throwin dart. I think Anomen got credit for slaying Nizi, probably with his storm of vengeance.

The party made it to the palace, opened the passage, and ended the session here. Irenicus is our next target...

[BelgarathMTH]

Gratz on your near-completion of SoA, Corey.

Nobody else seems to be doing any minimal-reload playing currently, so I'm entering a new no-reload run, just for kicks and giggles. Once I die, which is almost certain, I will surely continue playing, but may or may not post further, depending on whether anybody else is doing a minimal-reload.

Entering Soprana the Skaldress:



EDIT: BTW, those stats seem to be a *very* lucky roll with maximum possible stats. Three 18's, a 16, a 15, and a 10. Wow. SInce I now know that such a roll is possible and completely legal, I see no reason why a player wouldn't just roll over and over until getting those stats. So, I will probably just use SK from now on to give every character those stats, since I know it is legally possible.

I am using vanilla, except for Enkida's portraits, Kelsey, Gavin, Xan, Getting RId of Anomen, and Dungeon-Be-Gone. The difficulty slider will be set to normal, to give me a slightly better chance to actually complete a no-reload for the first time. (Ha, not going to happen - "Our quest is vain! We're all doomed. Life is *so* hollow!")

This should be *quite* interesting for role-playing - I am using for my party, Anomen, Gavin, Kelsey, Xan, and Jan. Xan is set up as a sorcerer. So I have two sorcs, which should make for a very powerful party, but only two divines, which will make us weaker. My singing magic as a skald is the wild card.

I have entered SoA with the assumption that I became engaged to Gavin in BG1. I will now have four handsome men fighting over me.

Farther dooming this run as a no-reload run is the fact that Kelsey has a witch chasing him, wanting to dissect his sorcerous ability out of his dead body, who has a Symbol:Stun, and I know she will attack us while we are defenseless against it. She will cause a party-wipe very early in this run, unless I get lucky with saves against the Symbol:Stun.

Here is a shot of my new party, having just purchased our magic license in the government district:

Modifié par BelgarathMTH, 11 août 2012 - 11:39 .