15228 réponses à ce sujet

[ussnorway]

@Alesia_BH Does she have the ring of regen from spellhold or is armour what she walks around in?

[Gate70]

corey_russell wrote...
Hmm well, you know when I play multi-player, we click really fast through the dialog to get things going, and I don't even see 20% of the dialog, since I know what to do from choices alone. Thus, his name problem...

Indeed. I struggle to remember outside the game, e.g. Marl has something like 3 1 3 3 enter enter enter 1 but once in the game I hardly look at the dialogue and the keys will be done as the text arrives. Does lead to the odd mistake when I press the wrong key because I'm not looking at the keyboard either (this sounds like a recipe for disaster in no-reload but there you go).

& Alesia, your comments about different target priorities makes sense. I need to adapt along those lines if I go back to SCS, although the hopeful proximity of the enhanced edition patch means I'm aiming for a blackguard party run if it runs on my laptop;

and I'd like to just fit an unimprisoned/unmazed kensai trilogy no-reload success in too.

[Alesia_BH]

ussnorway wrote...

@Alesia_BH Does she have the ring of regen from spellhold or is armour what she walks around in?

No Ring of Regen: It's a nice item, but it gets crowded out. Ashanti is working on getting Gaxx right now.

FYI: Here is her standard inventory setup.


Here are her saves with that arrangement. 


She'll typically start fights running RoAC II. That takes four off of all of her saves and gets her out of the danger zone for spells that impose save penalties. 

During battle -and especially after RoAC II has worn off- she listens for incantations. If she hears "cupio, virtus, licet" she equips the Shield of Harmony. Harmony and her base saves cover most of the enchantment school save malison. If she gets tagged with malison, she counters with a potion of invulnerability. If she hears, "praeses, alia, fero" no action is taken unless it is a high level mage with time stop available. In that case, she heads for the shadows if she can make it within 6 round segments. If not, she quaffs an invisibility potion. "Mano, potentis, paro" similarly induces a mad dash for the shadows or an invisbility potion quaff. "Facio, voco, ferre" from a high level mage sends Ashanti to the shadows as well- this time awaiting a demon. A potion of invulnerability is additionally readied in case it is a symbol spell. From lower level mages -or later in a fight with a high level mage- "facio" elicits The Reflex. On hearing "incertus, pulcher, imperium" she readies her elemental damage defense potions or -more commonly- prepares to counter the damage with a quick slot extra healer. "Vita, mortis, careo" usually means wilting or FoD. Wiltings are cushioned by the BoIB and her saves, the damage is then countered. FoD evokes a potion of invulnerability quaff. "Scio, didici, pecto" means CoND time. "Vertas, credo, oculus" usually means no action.

You'll note that the materials for that standard decision tree are in her inventory. That inventory gets tweaked from battle to battle however. Inspired by a New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker...fa_fact_gawande) I run a checklist before each substantive encounter. I walk through Ashanti's battle specific defensive needs, and then make sure they are all covered. Once every thing is in place, battle begins.

Anyhoo. I guess that was more info then you had been asking for, but now seemed like a good time to talk about Ashanti's inventory and defensive strategy.

Best,

A. 


Btw. You may have just been wondering about my take on magical armor. I find one SoA set useful: the Shadow Dragon Armor- and that only on occasion. The rest of the magical armor sets are an easy pass (that's true of pretty much all of my characters irrespective of class). If there were acid resistance potions in the game, I'd probably pass on the shadow dragon armor as well. Enkidu's is the only appealing option in ToB and that again is just a situation use item.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 21 août 2013 - 01:41 .

[Alesia_BH]

Gate70 wrote...
& Alesia, your comments about different target priorities makes sense. I need to adapt along those lines if I go back to SCS

Yeah. The prebuffs, contingencies, triggers, sequencers, and abjuration school heavy spell slot allocations recommend against going for quick mage kills in many cases. My preference is to just keep my aura clear, be ready with counters, drop the thugs, and then re-focus on the mages once their defenses are tapped. 

and I'd like to just fit an unimprisoned/unmazed kensai trilogy no-reload success in too.

Understood. That would be neat. Mages would see a lot of Firetooth +3 from any Kensai of mine.

Best,

A.

[Alesia_BH]

Btw. So much for getting Ashanti caught up during my two hours of free time: I opted for a five hour nap instead.

[Alesia_BH]

 Ashanti, Elven Beastmaster: The Planar Sphere

Ok: Quick, quick -super quick- double time coverage of the Planar Sphere- to be followed by similarly quick coverage of the Planar Prison.

Ashanti opened the feral halfling battle buffed and with animals on the field.


Her furry friends didn't last long against this onslaught, however.


Though they did buy Ashanti some time to make modest progress on Mogadish nonetheless.


The slaughter of the bears led to this familiar scene: one of my characters, blinded, evading demons while looking for an opportunity to attack. 


Found one here.


And again.


Ashanti's bears made more progress in the dual mage battle. My bears for your warriors: fair trade.


But now I'll take your buffs.


And your casting abilities.


And your lives.


Lavok declared "Show yourself! You can't hide from a mage!" but then quietly added: "Oh. You have the Cloak of Non-Detection: I guess you can."


That led to a predictable series of attacks and counters. Crimson Dart countered with ProMW.


Fireball countered with an extra healer.


Cave bear countered with a bigby's clenched fist...Wait, what? Yeah: that one threw me too...


Now with her first HLA, Whirlwind, Ashanti had the pleasure of punking the Tanar'ri from afar with Seeking while the animals ran distraction.


All that remained was to step over Tolgerias's corpse...


and flick on the engine.


I'll post on the Planar Prison soon.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 21 août 2013 - 08:54 .

[Grond0]

Wrecking Crew VIII (update 1)

The Crew made it through the dungeon without any problems from the physical attacks.  However, they were exposed to magic attacks on several occasions - there were at least 2, if not 3 chromatic orbs that required characters to save against them when I couldn't be bothered to manoeuvre everyone round to try and keep those with the best spell saves as the targets.  The Crew's lives in BG2 are likely to be rather short if I don't tighten up on that a bit.

Exiting from the dungeon got everyone to level 8.  After poor rolls in BG1 everyone had excellent rolls this time to bring them overall up much closer to the average (of 88.5 HPs).

Stats (cont. from BG1):
Flail, fighter L8, 88 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm, -8 from Claw), 239 kills
Hammer, fighter L8, 90 HPs, 281 kills
2-H, fighter L8, 88 HPs, 286 kills
Axe, fighter L8, 82 HPs, 198 kills
Boss, fighter L8, 86 HPs, 301 kills
Halberd, fighter L8, 78 HPs, 249 kills, 1 death

[Grond0]

Theo - dwarf swashbuckler (update 2)

In the belief that I'm likely to make more mistakes waiting for the Crew to keep up with Theo, I'll concentrate on our solo hero/villain for a bit.

The need for avoiding mistakes was immediately clear at the circus, when I clicked on the wrong conversation option with Aerie causing her to attack.  She hit Theo with a flame strike, but then disappeared.  Upstairs, the werewolf damaged Theo several times and it took a while before he found a critical bolt to finish it (even with the assistance of Kalah who put a magic missile into the werewolf after killing Quayle).  Aerie (now restored to normal appearance) didn't hold Quayle's death (or indeed their previous differences) against Theo, but he was not tempted to recruit her.

Theo then got some thieving potions from Gaelan's house and set about improving his equipment. While doing that the Suna Seni ambush triggered, but he was stealthed at the time and 3 traps and a couple of Bhaal horrors left just the job of finishing with his crossbow.

Wanting some headgear Theo made his way through some graveyard spiders into Pai'Na's lair, running potion of speed and DUHM.  Before she went hostile he had time to set a trap that made a mess of lots of the summoned spiders.  In addition Theo noticed that his bolt of biting had struck home on the druid.  That encouraged him to stick around, rather than retreating immediately to restealth, and it didn't take long before victory was complete.

Theo then attempted to go to Watcher's Keep, but was delayed on the way by the need to save Renfeld - another bolt of biting effectively settled that encounter.  Theo tried to take Renfeld straight to the Docks, only to run into the orog ambush.  There was no value in fighting that - but Theo did so anyway.  A bit of sneaky manoeuvreing allowed him to hide round corners and set traps to reduce the opposition to a manageable size to finish off with his crossbow.

After a mad cleric became another bolt of biting victim, Theo returned Renfeld and resumed his journey to Watcher's Keep.  There were no vampiric wraiths there and it didn't take Theo too long to clear the top floor of enemies and treasure (to speed things up a bit he dual-wielded Arbane against the shadow fiends).  That also got him to level 12.  At one point he had to do a mercy-killing of an orog that was foaming at the mouth and attacking a stone statue!

Returning to the Bridge District Theo picked up the berserker horn and solved the skinner murders. Annoyingly he got backstabbed by one of the Rune Assassins when movement failed to respond to clicking to move away from the stairs and the Assassin survived a full complement of 7 traps (he didn't survive the subsequent attentions of Kitthix and the berserk warrior).

Back at the Docks Prebek provided entrance to Harper HQ and Theo found 'Montaron' and watched as Xzar came to (another) sticky end.  Staying in the Docks Theo's just accepted his first task for Mae'Var.

Stats (cont from BG1):
Theo, swashbuckler L12, 68 (incl. 6 from ioun stone) HPs, kills 339

[Alesia_BH]

 Quick Note on Ashanti's Game:

Ashanti has defeated the Suldanessellar guardians and is now prepping for her showdown with Jonicus. I should have time to get her posts caught up this evening.

Go Moondog! Go!


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 21 août 2013 - 03:55 .

[corey_russell]

Here's hoping for the best result for Ashanti. A solo beastmaster taking down Melissan would be one for the record books...

[Serg BlackStrider]

Well done, Alesia! Nizi easily wiped out my Planetar, Skelly Warrior and two fighters - looks like your little dog quickly found his Achilles' heel. Good boy!

[Alesia_BH]

Ashanti, Elven Beasmaster: The Planar Prison

The Planar Prison can get dodgy in SCS. But Ashanti and her troupe of furry do gooders handled it deftly.

Now with Whirlwind -and the saves to make the +3 against Pixie ******- the opening bounty hunter battle was a breeze for Ashanti.


Mininal buffs sufficed, no consumable were used.


The quadruple mage battle can get a bit hectic...


And in this case it did -especially after Ashanti stirred the Master of Thralls to action by running too far north.


But with her winter wolves providing stoneskin bypassing range support, Ashanti made quick work of her arcane foes.


The Master of Thralls -awakened but slow of foot- played little role in the fight in the end. When the time came, Ashanti dispatched him with Seeking. Like many of Ashanti's foes, he never got an attack roll in.


As in my prior runs, the Warden began with a blindness, and ended with a tactical ammo kill.

Ashanti, blinded, pulling back from her foe.


A Dart of Wounding post dispel.


The finish.


(Apologies for the irritatiingly concise updates everyone, but Ashanti's posts are pretty far behind right now. I'll flesh the posts out a bit more once she's caught up.)

Best,

A. 

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 21 août 2013 - 07:33 .

[Alesia_BH]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...

Well done, Alesia! Nizi easily wiped out my Planetar, Skelly Warrior and two fighters - looks like your little dog quickly found his Achilles' heel. Good boy!

There's a trick to killing dragons with lowly summons. Care to guess what it is?


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 21 août 2013 - 05:16 .

[corey_russell]

feeblemind?

[Alesia_BH]

Not from a beastmaster. Rigid thinking applies the confusion opcode and dragons are immune.

It's something simpler.

I'll give you a hint: you have two of them.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 21 août 2013 - 05:41 .

[corey_russell]

Blindness?

[Grond0]

Fists?

[Alesia_BH]

Grond0 wrote...

Fists?

We have a winner! Virtual lemon poppy seed cake for you! :happy:


(I thought you'd get that Grond0)

FYI: I was considering giving Ashanti's familiar, Winston, a shot at a kill here, but I chickened out.

Best,

A.

[Alesia_BH]

corey_russell wrote...

Here's hoping for the best result for Ashanti. A solo beastmaster taking down Melissan would be one for the record books...

Thanks Corey!

[Grond0]

Theo - dwarf swashbuckler (update 3)

A pretty straightforward session this time and Theo's now high enough level that he should have a good chance of going deep into the game.

He started off with Mae'Var's tasks.  The only nasty moment I remember in the session was during those when a stone golem duplicated while Theo was in Rayic Gethras' house (blocking the exits on both floors).  Fortunately Theo had acquired a potion of invisibility from Ribald for such contingencies and that allowed him to escape.  Rayic himself was run between floors until he ran out of spells.  The guild was suppressed with no problems, using the RoAC for the first time (getting to level 14 in the process), but Theo rejected the responsibility of running the guild himself.

He defeated a pirate hide-out and completed the fall of the Fallen Paladins with the help of some pre-laid traps.  Then he started the Unseeing Eye quest in order to get access to the lich in the sewers.  The City Gates lich provided Daystar (using a scroll of protection from undead and a potion of speed).  Back to the Temple Sewers, then the Bridge District (getting level 15 there) before heading for Kangaxx.  He quickly fell without trying to run, while the original potion of speed was still active (took about 4 turns for the 4 liches).

Cleared the Graveyard tombs (mainly while scroll still active) and then the Southern tombs below (using traps on the vampyre as no protection against level drain yet).  Following leads from the graveyard Theo collected some shiny pantalettes and punished a teddy-bear-napper (level 16).

Took on Mencar and his cronies.  Brennan was webbed by Kitthix and killed swiftly.  Pooky was scared by Bhaal horror and he and Smaeluv died in traps.  Amon & Mencar were finished off up and down the stairs.

Freed the Copper Coronet without incident and set off into the sewers.  With Theo's spell saving throw negative there was nothing threatening there and he moved on to the Slaver ship.  Stealthing in allowed him to deal with the rest of the guards before finishing off Capt Haegan.  One mage was webbed by Kitthix and the other shot down from stealth.  Theo got to level 17 there and will be making his way to a temple in the next session to get the Claw removed.

Stats (cont from BG1):
Theo, swashbuckler L17, 79 (incl. 7 from ioun stone) HPs, kills 550

[Alesia_BH]

Ashanti, Elven Beastmaster: Brynnlaw

After completing the Planar Prison quest -and buying enough potions to fill Saemon's hold- Ashanti set sail for Brynnlaw. The seas were rough, but our beastmaster has a tough stomach: the kind that comes from constantly watching lions shread human entrails.

Once on the island, Ashanti ended Galvenna's reign of terror. She then started one of her own- though with only one target for her tyranny: Perth the Adept

(If someone told you that dart tossing beastmasters are weak, then someone lied.)


In the asylum, the kobolod crystal encounter proved to be the most challenging (or at least the most damaging) yet again. Go figure...


Why not just cut to the chase, huh? Yes. Let's do that: Jonicus.

Jonicus put up a decent fight this time- summoning the Ashanti clone and promptly wiping out Ashanti's inmate allies while also dispelling Ashanti's carefully chosen buffs. Midway into the fight, Jon held the advantage: backed by efreeti allies while Ashanti -now low on invisbility potions- frantically countered spells.


Maintaining distance and remaining patient paid off in the end, however. And ultimately, Jon-Jon and his efreetis became but more blokes to be shreaded by wild animals.

Yeah, you better run...
 

(You too Jonicus: a beastmaster is on your tail.)


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 22 août 2013 - 12:34 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

Truth to be told I couldn't even imagine to chase a Dragon with bare fists... To live is to learn.

[Alesia_BH]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...
 I couldn't even imagine to chase a Dragon with bare fists...

It's not something I'd recommend in real life.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 21 août 2013 - 09:18 .

[Alesia_BH]

Ashanti, Elven Beastmaster: The Underdark

While the screenshots may not show it, much of Ashanti's most gruelling combat to date occured in the Underdark. Beasmaster restrictions may seem onerous, but in truth, they are largely  irrelevant except in a particular context: toe-to-toe melee combat. When you consider that toe-to-toe melee is often tactically inferior to the alternatives, the beastmaster kit doesn't look so bad any more. Sure, beastmasters are bad at something, but it's something that's hardly worth doing in the first place.  

The only problem with that line of reasoning is that there are occasions when ranged fighting is either unworkable or awkward, and it is those situations that run the risk of breaking the beastmaster's back. Fortuntately, at high levels, beasmasters can turn themselves into formidible melee combatants. Combining a potion of defense with a good shield, RoAC II, Moondog howl pro evil, armor of faith, and hardiness, for example, grants the beasmaster defenses comprable to some of the stoutest warriors. And when it comes to raw damage output, not many options can substantially top a Staff of Striking or Staff of the Ram whirlwind. Are there better defenders? Sure. Are there better damage dealers? Absolutely. But beastmaster scan get the job done in melee- even if they are sub optimal.

In the Underdark, Ashanti was forced out of her comfort zone and into toe-to-toe melee again and again. And while that meant far more damage taken -and far more potions quaffed- than at any other stage of her adventure, Ashanti toughed it out in the end- leaving herself well positioned to finish up SoA and make it deep into ToB at the very least.

Running resist fire/cold, protection from fire, potion of defense, potion of stone giant strength, Moondog howl pro evil, RoAC II, Staff of Fire fireshield:red, barkskin, hardiness, and armor of faith -while wielding Blackblood and Harmony- Ashanti faired well in dense melee combat.


The only dangerous moment cam later when, after having achieved her goals in melee, Ashanti faded and tried to settle in for the range based kill. A lapse in attention on my part let some flame arrows through. Ashanti ws hurt badly: worse than at any prior time in her adventure.


Equipping the Ring of Free Action to ward against PW:S, Ashanti broke for the shadows. Thankfully, she made it.


She then healed, regrouped, and returned for the kill.


After finishing of the balor with a Staff of Striking whirlwind and battling on through the kuo-toans, Ashanti engaged the second drow party. 

Stealthing north first, Ashanti crept to the entrance of Adalon's lair where she summoned a trio of panthers.


Those panthers were then used to draw the drow north... 


while the stealthed Ashanti moved in on the southerly priestesses.


After working through her southerly foes in melee, Ashanti faded and engaged her remaining foes at range, aided by her summons.


Nearing the end now.


I'll cover the Chandrilla ambush and Ashanti's escape to the surface next.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 22 août 2013 - 06:30 .

[Alesia_BH]

Ok. Now I totally want to watch the 1982 film The Beastmaster: It looks fracking hilarious.



(How awesome is it that he has attack ferrets?)

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 21 août 2013 - 10:53 .