Baldur's Gate 2 No-Reload Challenge
#7351
Posté 30 août 2013 - 08:45
The latest perennial in the swashbuckler line is under way in BG2 after a quick trip through the Sword Coast. So far so good with the dungeon, circus and Copper Coronet being ticked off the list.
He got a slight scare in the elemental plane when I was trying to finish off a scared steam mephit and it turned and stunned Hardy. There was also a reminder to me in the Copper Coronet to make sure that a melee weapon is equipped before trying a vampiric touch.
Stats (cont. from BG1)
Hardy - swashbuckler, L12, 65 HPs, 213 kills
#7352
Posté 30 août 2013 - 08:46
ps mind the traps Grond0
Modifié par Gate70, 30 août 2013 - 08:47 .
#7353
Posté 30 août 2013 - 08:55
corey_russell wrote...
As to where I got them, I'm not 100% certain (they are always real expensive), but either from the potion merchant in the druid grove or Roger.
Interesting. Perhaps our installs differ here?
(FYI: I don't recall ever seeing a potion of magic blocking in BGII- nor do I recall hearing of anyone finding one. Secondary sources do not include them on lists of BGII potions. The .itm file does exist, however.)
Modifié par Alesia_BH, 30 août 2013 - 09:03 .
#7354
Posté 30 août 2013 - 09:03
#7355
Posté 30 août 2013 - 09:07
Alesia_BH wrote...
corey_russell wrote...
As to where I got them, I'm not 100% certain (they are always real expensive), but either from the potion merchant in the druid grove or Roger.
Interesting. Perhaps our installs differ here?
(FYI: I don't recall ever seeing a potion of magic blocking in BGII- nor do I recall hearing of anyone finding them. Secondary sources do not include them on lists of BGII potions. The .itm file does exist, however.)
I doubt it. I use potions of magic blocking heavily in BG 1 (especially when solo), so I just assumed there were some in BG 2. I certainly don't think my memory is better than secondary sources. I'll load an old save and take a look when I get a chance to confirm...will be a while, tonight I drive to Portland (about 4.5 hours drive) to get some sleep and play in the Oregon Chess Open this weekend.
#7356
Posté 31 août 2013 - 01:02
corey_russell wrote...
I doubt it. I use potions of magic blocking heavily in BG 1 (especially when solo), so I just assumed there were some in BG 2.
Makes sense.
tonight I drive to Portland (about 4.5 hours drive) to get some sleep and play in the Oregon Chess Open this weekend.
Good luck!
Best,
A.
#7357
Posté 31 août 2013 - 05:52
Tensor, human blade (Grond0) & Roche, human blade (Gate70)
A short, but eventful session last night saw the duet off to Spellhold.
The last thing attempted in Athkatla was the Twisted Rune. We were concerned about being targeted by beholder anti-magic there, so attempted to deal with Vaxall with 4 summoned skeleton warriors. However, they shouldn't all have been sent in at once as a single death spell wiped them out. As back up both of us released double MM sequencers to badly wound him and a few improved haste MMMs finished him off.
Shangalar was protected by his buffs for a while and released a painful Wilting - good job Roche saved against that one! With him eventually out of the way, the duet were free to target Layene; a pair of skull traps made a nice neat job of her.
In Brynnlaw there was time for one further scare. Perth's house was entered without rebuffing from the opening vampire ambush and improved invisibility had run out - allowing Tensor to be targeted with a Finger of Death.
Stats (cont. from BG1):
Tensor, blade L23, 90 (12 from familiar) HPs, 557 kills
Roche, blade L23, 99 (9 from ioun stone) HPs, 575 kills, 3 deaths
#7358
Posté 31 août 2013 - 06:23
Went to get the pale green ioun stone from Pai'Na. Then off to Watcher's Keep for Firetooth and a potion bag (Kitthix helping with Suna Seni on the way). There weren't many guards there so Hardy looted the top floor as well.
Back in the city he helped Roger in the temple sewers, shot some kobolds before trapping their rakshasa master and started the Unseeing Eye to get access to the lich there.
Stats (cont. from BG1)
Hardy - swashbuckler, L12, 71 HPs, 322 kills
#7359
Posté 31 août 2013 - 05:50
The session started with a lich hunt to get the Ring of Gaxx. Cleared a pirate hide-out and then did Mae'Var's tasks, though left the Guildmaster himself for the moment. There was a lucky escape against Rayic Gethras when I got bored with gently damaging him with Firetooth and tried to interrupt a spell with LMD - choosing PW:stun, which is not easy to interrupt! Fortunately his HPs are high enough that the spell duration is only 1d4 rounds.

Rescued Renfeld and explored the Harper HQ. Also watched a few vampire ambushes before going to (safely) pick up the berserker horn and trade a kidnap victim for some fashionable attire.
Hardy is currently in the process of clearing the de'Arnise Hold. In the early stages of that he used the rod of terror and ring of human influence to get charisma to a suitable score for an aspiring god.
Hardy - swashbuckler, L14, 75 HPs (incl. 6 from ioun stone) , 371 kills
Modifié par Grond0, 31 août 2013 - 05:51 .
#7360
Posté 31 août 2013 - 11:07
#7361
Posté 01 septembre 2013 - 06:20
Tensor, human blade (Grond0) & Roche, human blade (Gate70)
Yesterday's session saw the duet through Spellhold and encountering the world of the Underdark.
In Spellhold Tensor completed the statues' riddle in order to get a better source of regeneration and shortly afterwards both blades found they had an enhanced ability to use items. A few skeleton warriors sorted out the lich, though Roche's stunning blade did most of the work in the area. The gauth script requiring them to attack the protagonist showed up impressively when one started targeting Tensor despite already being stunned and suffering morale failure! One of the yuan-ti mages did manage to confuse Roche, but he had no problems dealing with his own skeleton warrior.
Tensor was pleased to accept some speedy boots from a machine, but found the duet was unable to afford boots of the north as well (seems to be a common MP problem - I think we need to ensure all tokens are concentrated on one character).
Irenicus was at near death before being time-stopped, but that only delayed his end marginally.
The duet took ship with Saemon and duly arrived in Fish City, though there was another reminder of the dangers of spells when Tensor was held (briefly until the arrival of a remove magic) in the battle on the sinking ship.
Roche went to negotiate with the Spectator, but couldn't convince him to look away so resorted to the argument from his trusty katana. After picking up the Cloak of Mirroring the duet killed the king ... and the prince, before shinning down a rope into the Underdark.
A group of drow and their captives in a soul gem didn't cause much trouble. Vithal was slightly more of a concern; he produced 4 timestops and imprisoned 2 skeleton warriors before giving up. It wasn't entirely clear if it was him or some sort of image that actually died - there were no items left behind. However, dead or not he now seems to be out of the picture.
Stats (cont. from BG1):
Tensor, blade L27, 98 (12 from familiar) HPs, 632 kills
Roche, blade L27, 107 (9 from ioun stone) HPs, 700 kills, 3 deaths
Roche has been killing about double Tensor's tally in the last couple of sessions. That's partly the effect of using more skeleton warriors, but his habit of chucking skull traps into a group of enemies before engaging is also extremely effective.
#7362
Posté 01 septembre 2013 - 07:45
Hardy is still going and levelling up nicely.
He started off by finishing off the de'Arnise Hold.
Back to the Bridge District to do the Skinner Murders. I got surprised when both Rune Assassins followed Hardy upstairs at once. One got a backstab in and things might have been nasty if Hardy had not pre-laid two clusters of traps to deal with the assassins.
On to Trademeet where Hardy cleared everything without trouble (buying most of Adratha's potions before killing the rakshasas).
In Athkatla again did the Sir Sarles and Lathander temple quests and followed up with the Fallen Paladins. Then took on Mencar. Annoyingly, Brennan managed to save against stinking cloud and a web tangle and then disappeared into thin air before reaching the traps set on the staircase, but the rest went down easily enough (though Mencar was annoyed at being caught in a scorcher and pinched the XP for Sorcerous Amon). A similar, trap-heavy, approach was used on Captain Dennis' gang.
Stats (cont. from BG1)
Hardy - swashbuckler, L18, 84 HPs, 503 kills
#7363
Posté 01 septembre 2013 - 11:40
Hardy has managed to complete a bit more work (still without using any healing potions in the run to date). He's now reaching the over-powered stage so should really be OK from here if treated with a bit of TLC.
He started off by dealing with Mae'Var - none of his assassins managed a backstab. He turned down the opportunity to run the guild.
Then paid Gaelan Bayle and rapidly ran through Aran Linvail's tasks (before doing that went to the temple and swapped the Claw of Kazgoroth for ring +2). The bulk of the damage in the vampire guild was with traps - as against Bodhi - although Tanova was treated to a first use of the necklace of fireballs as well. While in the area also cleaned out the Southern Tombs (to revenge one of my recent deaths) and the rest of the Graveyard.
Stats (cont. from BG1)
Hardy - swashbuckler, L21, 91 HPs (incl. 8 from ioun stone), 602 kills
Modifié par Grond0, 01 septembre 2013 - 11:42 .
#7364
Posté 01 septembre 2013 - 12:41
#7365
Posté 01 septembre 2013 - 05:17
A vampire called Hareishan was avoided by heading into the Ships Bounty inn, three thieves not being quite so quick witted and were left to die. A group of pirates were disturbed at the rear of the inn, once they were dead Xarik left to deal with Prebek and Sanasha then departed to Umar, rapidly returning after helping a mage called Jermien.
A few more jobs have been picked up; namely helping Mook, matching some red cloth to kidnappers, tracking down Valygar, shutting down the cult of the Unseeing Eye, securing the services of Sir Sarles and looking into the skinner murders. Lots to do.
(this has been my slowest SoA run for some time due to reputation 10 stinginess not purchasing equipment. Several combats have seen the use of extra healing potions to a greater degree than usual)
Modifié par Gate70, 01 septembre 2013 - 05:20 .
#7366
Posté 01 septembre 2013 - 06:52
Sir Ryan Trawl slams the door - reputation has dropped from 11 to 9 with the pantaloon episode. Fine, time to visit the temple. 400 + 500 + 700 + 900 + 1200 + 1500 gets the reputation back to 15 and the glasses of identification become vaguely affordable. A few trinkets can be hocked but more importantly the two short swords Arbane and Ilbratha reveal their secrets.
& go figure, cough up 5200gp and the paladins come over all nice again (they'd probably have settled for 400-900). SickeninG - they can be bought!
Modifié par Gate70, 01 septembre 2013 - 06:55 .
#7367
Posté 01 septembre 2013 - 08:51
The Bridge district next. After killing Anarg he is forced into a running battle against Reynald de'Chatillon and the fallen paladins. Some muggers intervene, trying to nab all his gold - do they think he was born yesterday (they're right that's when he left Candlekeep) This time, however, the muggers don't get the answer they want and die for their sins.
The fallen paladins have turned on Reynald and killed him so Xarik tracks down the remaining three and deals with them. There are piles of loot everywhere but on the way to Bel Dalemark the badly injured Xarik is confronted by Sansuki. Del and her vampires are in no mood to talk, recognising the shaky alliance Xarik has made with the Shadow Thieves.
Xarik reaches the temple and orders a protection from undead scroll. Sansuki may be dead but Del and one of her vampires are treated with Roses. Xarik wipes his brow and picks up anything of value to sell to Bel.
No time to think about how to maximise value on the remaining PfU effect. Down into the Temple sewers and kill four ettercaps (save vs poison is 0), ignoring shadows but trying to kill a vampiric mist. It turns invisible so kai the second - it turns invisible too. Never mind, speak to Gaal and kill the shadows on the way out.
Purchase a storm giant potion from Roger. Hand back the battered cup that Anarg no longer requires as the PfU expires (so the city gate lich gets a reprieve). Reputation now 17.
Lieutenant Aegisfield stares in horror as Xarik describes how Rejiek Hidesman got away but that two ghasts, two rune assassins and a bone golem put up a mighty resistance only overcome by four extra healers and a dwarf-golem race around the dry-docked boat once the others are decked. Aegisfield shows Xarik how to get an extra half an attack in every few seconds and bids him farewell.Reputation now 18, charisma 20 with the ring & Blade of Roses.
Hendak belatedly hands over a sword to be identified and sold. Reputation 19.
Kensai 13, 106hp. 557 kills, bone golem.
Various items of loot are stashed in containers or tables around the city instead of my usual single location. 1 near Bel, another near the Shadow thief merchant next to the hideout of Aran Linvail, a third near Unger Hilldark, some in the preferred location of Watchers Keep and a final set outside the Adventurers Mart.
#7368
Posté 01 septembre 2013 - 10:17
Trademeet is under attack and after saving all the militia at the SE gate one of them is dying from spider venom. Xarik cures the poison (ought to get brownie points for this sort of thing) before agreeing to help the mayor and guildmistress. The Dao djinn are encouraged to leave and the guildmistress hands over a huge pile of gold plus a shield and some gems. There are converted into cash, and then into a cloak, girdle and throwing hammer. The dancing sword stays on sale for the time being.
Watchers Keep - purchase a potion case, store some items, retrieve and identify others. Same at the docks with the Black Market thief. Report in to Aran Linvail and offer condolences over Mook - he doesn't care. Sell a few more items to Bel Dalemark in the merchants square. Drop in on Jaylos, Caehan and Gracen. Sell the last set of stash at the Adventurers Mart and pick up a scroll container.
What's left - need to find some way to foil these ladies of the night. Cloud giant > PfU > speed > Shade Lich (avoiding level drain trap twice) > Daystar > City Gates lich > Mirror Image > RoAC II > Bridge district lich / Rune doors (saves of 11 & 2 respectively, was -3 with ring) > Elemental Lich > drained to level 11 by trapped door > Arbane haste > Kangaxx the lich > Kangaxx the demi-lich > DUHM > kai > 3 minotaurs.
Aran Linvail shakes his head, suggesting something better than the ring of Gaxx is required. Xarik grabs a second PfU scroll and suggests using it at the appropriate time.
Buffs quickly overwhelm Pai'Na before a Daystar Sunray leaves a lone spider to mop up. Xarik pops the ioun stone on his head and quickslots Kitthix, readying himself for the vampires ahead.
#7369
Posté 02 septembre 2013 - 05:37
Did all the quests at Umar Hills. The liches' defences were worn down by successive summons before Hardy went in with Daystar. Thaxy was trapped. The Shade Lord saved against a sunray, but could do nothing about the follow-up critical. Picked up Valygar's body before leaving the area.
Off to Windspear Hills where returning some acorns gave Hardy the ability to use any item. No real problems in the dungeon, though had to retreat from a greater werewolf after forgetting to unequip Belm when trying to use a whirlwind. Firkraag died of a time stop WW before the rest of the traps could hit him. Didn't bother picking up most of the treasure in the area (I've been playing pretty slowly and collecting most things up to now).
Back in Athkatla Hardy decided to clean up the Temple sewers. He did a quick hatchet job on Tarnor, trapped Mekrath, cloudkilled the yuan-ti mages and used a trap-heavy melange on the illithid.
Hardy - swashbuckler, L28, 106 HPs (incl. 9 from ioun stone), 867 kills
#7370
Posté 02 septembre 2013 - 05:53
Tensor, human blade (Grond0) & Roche, human blade (Gate70)
More adventures in the Underdark have seen 2 of the 3 available creature remains pocketed.
The initial idea with the beholders was for skeleton warriors to help out. The duet both used contingency to bring a warrior out on sight of the elder orb, but they were a bit too slow arriving to really help there. Tensor's buffs were dispelled by an anti-magic ray, but the elder orb died almost instantly after this. The beholder did also manage to debuff Roche, but again only just before dying. After that the skeleton warrior army worked well - a few were killed by death spells, but they made steady progress. However, both blades had unnecessary scares. Roche came into sight when not realising he was moving rather than a warrior and had to beat a hasty retreat; Tensor tried a skull trap and then found the beholders ignoring the fact he had gone invisible after that - he had to take a hasty potion of invulnerability with a death spell on its way.
The illithids seemed to be played better with no real difficulties there. Attackers were dragged near doors to open them, while a few traps helped Roche against the illithid. Tensor alternated between using his newly enhanced bard song to improve Roche's AC and using spells and MMM to take down attackers. I think there was only 1 tactical retreat to avoid the suckers on the way to confront the Master Brain. That was obviously very scared as it seemed to be moving round the room, but eventually it was cornered and finished off.
Stats (cont. from BG1):
Tensor, blade L29, 102 HPs (12 from familiar), 657 kills
Roche, blade L29, 112 (10 from ioun stone) HPs, 734 kills, 3 deaths
Modifié par Grond0, 02 septembre 2013 - 05:53 .
#7371
Posté 02 septembre 2013 - 06:28
Say what you will about beastmasters, but there are worse classes to play when facing Illasera. Beastmasters miss out on metal weapons and armor, but not missle weapons and shields. And against many foes -including Illasera- the latter pair trumps the former: maligned though they are, missle weapons and shields have their power.
Ashanti prepared for her fight with Illasera by summoning some animal friends. She deliberately left them south of the encounter zone.

She then took her long duration buffs, touched the statues, and filled out her defenses. She initiated combat running potion of frost giant strength, shield, resist fire/cold, pro fire, armor of faith, RoAC II, and hardiness. The Reflex was in the off hand of course. Her first move was to take down the black reaver cleric with a Blackblood whirlwind.

Now pursued by the lumbering black reaver fighter, Ashanti headed south and rendezvoused with her animal friends. They intercepted him and set up a range weapon based kill.

With the black reaver mage and his flunkies juked by Ashanti's initial hide in shadows, all that remained was Illasera. Stumped by The Reflex, she fell harmlessly to Ashanti's sling bullets.
Fin.

I'll post on Pocket Plane Challenge 1 next.
Best,
A.
Modifié par Alesia_BH, 02 septembre 2013 - 09:20 .
#7372
Posté 02 septembre 2013 - 08:34
Lassal taunts Xarik about the death of Haz and vanishes. Out comes a green scroll to protect against the many undead. A few greater ghouls later the likes of Tanova, Gellal and the other one are cleared out as are the nameless undead downstairs. Lassal refuses to talk even after a brutal Daystar/MoD combo badly wounds him. Xarik takes a brief 8 hour breather and the protection expires. Lassal immediately suggests a fight upstairs and Xarik agrees.
Selling some loot is in order first though, and collecting the head of Neb before chucking it at Chief Inspector Brega. Cromwell upgrades the Mace of Disruption and immediately returns to destroy Lassal and stake him in the vitals.
Bodhi apparates but DUHM > II > Mirror > IH > Daystar/iMoD sees her depart before the short-lived haste expires. Xarik is finally satisfied that the 200lb of illithium must be doing a cracking job in the lightweight mace. The iMoD2 is certainly a marvel of engineering, thinner than it's predecessor and a much improved battery life.
No doubt Aran Linvail will have the next job lined up, Xarik has lost his train of thought though and can't remember what spare equipment he needed to pack. Ras, Invulnerability, magic protection and the Sword of Balduran - all costing too much at present. Was there anything else, maybe a Shield amulet?
Modifié par Gate70, 02 septembre 2013 - 08:37 .
#7373
Posté 02 septembre 2013 - 09:00
Gate70 wrote...
I wonder what the crimson dart is made of. Wood or bone I guess
Exactly- just like all the shields and helms in the Realms.
That's what Ashanti keeps telling me anyways. Though I have to admit she is less than convincing on that point.
Reminds of Abigail's explanation of why she couldn't use a steak knife, but could conjure up a swirling globe of blades.
Modifié par Alesia_BH, 03 septembre 2013 - 03:54 .
#7374
Posté 02 septembre 2013 - 10:14
After collecting a few stashed potions and purchasing a couple of protection from magic scrolls Xaric is skint and has to face the prospect that Ras and the Sword of Balduran won't be packed. & yet...
"No milady. I've touched nothing, just killed the bare minimum of trolls so you can make your way to your niece and safety. Nothing to see in my gem bag, scroll case or backpack. Why yes, I've always had this rather fetching amulet and I do believe the flail is one of a matching pair. Oh, some of your golems seem to be worse for wear and the captain of your guard cleared off once I charmed him".
Lady Delcia Caan teaches Xaric some new words as she tells him to leave the de'Arnise hold immediately. Her
Lady Delcia's 5 items or less policy means Xarik has to return for a second earbashing. She mistakes him for the golem repair man and on his return he informs her that the golem damage was worse than first feared and has spread to the entire collection. Perhaps he should take these nearby weapons away to check for corrosive content before placing more golems near them?
That's enough cash for Ras but it will take time to loot the keep any further so no way to take the Sword of Balduran. & yet...
The Temple Sewer branch of Tarnor's bank is briefly open for business until Xarik loansharks it, rapidly laundering various items with Roger in return for a few select potions. On to the Promenade where the Sword of Balduran is added to the burgeoning pile of weapons. "Don't worry lads" he mutters to Ras as Balduran is co-located with it "we're going on a foreign trip the likes of which you'll never believe".
Deidre smiles. These crazy dwarves are what keeps her in business.
672 kills, Kangaxx the demi lich.
Modifié par Gate70, 02 septembre 2013 - 10:23 .
#7375
Posté 03 septembre 2013 - 03:46
Hardy was able to wrap up work in Athkatla pretty easily and has now arrived at Brynnlaw.
With the use of Balduran's Shield there were no problems in closing the Unseeing Eye for good.
On to the Planar Prison where Hardy successfully cleared all the cells and the rest of the nasties the hard way - cloudkill featuring prominently. His stock of extra-healing potions found also went up over 100 there. I wondered for a while how I could kill a clay golem without weapons, but managed to trump him with a fleshy cousin. Inventory overload was a significant problem there - the boots of stealth are no longer needed and were easy to abandon, but giving up the Saving Grace shield was a bit more of a wrench.
In the Planar Sphere the only problem was when an elder orb was misplaced and not attacked by the golem. With its magic resistance and unwillingness to move Hardy resorted to a Firetooth Whirlwind to clear it out of the way. The same tactic was used against the 3 demons; the back-up traps needed only once.
At the Guarded Compound Hardy made sure the opposition was split up so he was tackling only 1 or 2 at a time. Sion tried him out with a PW: Stun, but Hardy was safe with 122 HPs.
Final target was the Twisted Rune. A time trap waiting for Shangalar allowed Vaxall to be killed with a WW. Shangalar's mislead was dispelled by Hardy's thief skills, allowing the demi-lich to die of standard traps. Greater evasion pushed his AC to -22, allowing him to comfortably melee Revanek and then Shyressa. Layene was revealed by more illusion dispelling, setting her up for another WW (starting with Carsomyr).
Stats (cont. from BG1)
Hardy - swashbuckler, L36, 124 HPs (incl. 11 from ioun stone), 1,129 kills





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