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[Alesia_BH]

Has everyone found their way to our new home?

[cuttysark]

Dostoevsky, Elven Sorcerer

 

The Copper Coronet was cleared without incident, the license for magic bought, a few ruffians beaten up, the silver pantaloons ransomed. Feeling he needed more levels and spells before he takes on much of this new world, Dostoevsky travelled to D'Arnise Keep for a simpler challenge. Two noteworthy fights:

 

1) The Yuan-Ti Mage on the 2nd floor.

 

From years back, I remembered this worm kicking my party's butt for some reason. Wasn't sure what to expect, but I used my first ever Baldur's Gate high-ish level arcane counter spell. After looking up the spell tables, I decided to use Dostoevsky sparkling new Spell Immunity. D-Man took immunity to Enchantment, just in case. This proved oh so vital.

 

Dostoevsky went down the stairs to meet him, but this was before I remembered he existed. So D. just had his stoneskin up. He immediately cast spook (-5 to save at this point, and a casting time of 1), but the yuan-ti had a contingency: minor spell turning, which actually fired in between the time spook was cast and the time it hit the mage, melee distance away. So spook rebounded on D., but he barely made his save.

 

He ran upstairs again, and 1 troll followed, who was dealt with. Then he cast the Spell Immunity, and went downstairs better protected. Yuan-Ti fired a different contingency which buffed the ice troll in the room. D pulled a spell thrust out of the case to take down spell turning, followed by greater malison. But at the same time the mage fired secret word, which removed the spell immunity, followed up by chaos, before D had time to put another immunity up. Thank goodness D. made his save. Life will be so much more comfortable with the Robe of Vecna and spell immunity has a rapid casting time. Plus I'll have to remember also to use SI:Abjuration.

 

The battle raged on, a spider summons for D and a major skeleton warrior for YT. The YT cast several more enchantments, but all were useless. But then he threw a lightning bolt which went right through my Mirror Images (do they always do that?) which put D. at 30% HP. Another retreat was in order. The summons followed and were executed. Then D. rested, went down again, and the battle was soon won.

 

2) Tor-Gal

 

I'd discovered that trolls have bad saving throws. Chromatic Orb was petrifying them 75% of the time. So at the beginning of the fight (brought 5 hasted phase spiders) D-Man cast a great malison. Within three rounds all the spiders were dead, but the two greater trolls were also petrified. So it was just Tor-Gal and D. Tor-Gal had given magic resistance to the malison, but worse, it turned out he could see through invisibility. Soon D. had lost three strength, and was slowed. Tor-Gal hit so fast and it was impossible to get away. At one point D. had lost his stoneskin and had 1 mirror image left. He managed to cast haste and run. A sleep followed. Coming back with a new posse of spiders was a complete failure, but this time, after 3 attempts, Dostoevsky managed to blind Tor-Gal. After that it was easy.

[Alaestr]

Safe travelling, Grond0 and cuttyshark.

 

I didn't know that fact about Lilarcor, Polytope, thank you for the piece of information.

[corey_russell]

Reem the solo dwarven fighter-cleric Update

 

Reem continues to make progress. He's cleared out the planar sphere, and did really well. However, he came near death vs. Tolgerias - Tolgerias and his pal pumped Reem full of magic missiles, multiples in succession. Reem nearly died, and risked RoR (his aura wasn't clear) - however, the enemies must have emptied their spell book and didn't kill him - closest to death this entire run.

 

The battle vs. the Guarded Compound was fun. 4 Ariel servants assisted with the summons downstairs (a little overkill). Reem did sanctuary upstairs and ran to the far corner. He then summoned a Deva, activated its globe of pain, and sent it after the enemies. It did kill one, but was killed fairly quickly was surprised how well the enemy party did. Once again, Reem sneeked, found the nearest enemy and backed off a sec. He then did firestorm and ran away. The firestorm managed to kill all of the casters, and badly wounding the surviving melees - Reem entered melee and got the job done. With all the massive traps in this area, he didn't try to loot the compound, just looted the party and ran.

 

1st level of Watcher's Keep cleared, except the statues - they don't have any items that Reem needs. Reem was primarily here for the ammo belt, with all that ammo you get in Spellhold.

 

Windspear Hills went pretty smooth, including killing those Greater Werewolves, who have ended a run of mine before. Reem refused to be afraid and did Deva plus globe plus Greater Whirlwind of throwing hammer plus haste potion - complete success and level, yay.

 

Reem wasn't going to be afraid of Firkraag either - Reem had 127% fire resistance, had 3 ariel servants assisting. He did use a haste potion and whatever buffs he had available by this point - he still had a lot of buffs running from his encounter with Conster. Reem also remembered to not use his throwing hammer, as it doesn't seem to work on dragons, he brought out his trusty Sling of Seeking and the sling did in fact slay Firkraag.

 

Reem will deal with the Mind Flayers in the Sewers, as a sort of test run before the Underdark. He's probably going to attempt the Twisted Rune hideout, his saves are excellent, then it will be off to Brynnlaw.

[Alesia_BH]

(still haven't figured out how to install any WeiDu mods on my Mac). Dostoevsky joins us from his solo victory in BG1.

 

I just noticed this comment Cuttsark. I may be able to help: I'm a Mac user who plays modded (SCS+Ascension).

 

Are you using the original Mac edition or a Winebottled Windows install? 

[Alaestr]

Joniren, the brave blade. Update No.8

 

The adventures of the pesky blade resume after a short break. I mentioned Joniren had gone to the Planar Prison. I don't remember how exactly I prepared for the fight, but it was rather easy all up to the Warden who chased Joniren throughout the whole prison, while I waited for the Warden's buffs to dispel. After that I chunked Warden vigorously.

 

I made an appearance in the Planar Sphere. Lavok and Tolgerias were defeated with a combination of heavy buffing and an arsenal of abjuration spells (thrusts, breaches, remove magics, SI, and GoI). Tolgerias precast Spell Shield, Stoneskin, ProfMW, SI:A, but not before I landed three good hits on him (he dropped to badly injured). I took time to dispel him with a Secret Word, Thrust, and Breach, after that the fight was over, Lavok went down very similarly. Demon (Tanar'ri) was no match for the bard, although I chanced the saving throw on the Death Gaze (my mistake, I should have equipped the shield of harmony but forgot about it). Lavok died watching the blue sky of his home plane. 

 

Shaken from the tragedy of Lavok, Joniren headed to Guarded Compound in Temple District. I placed one Spike Trap downstairs (SCS prohibits the use of more than one HLA trap in the same location), two skull traps in the vicinity, buffed (SI:A, SI:D, SS, GoI, ST, II, IH and potions of power, invincibility, I had two PfMW in spellbok just in case), equipped Shield of Harmony and went upstairs. Did foil the trap, lured warriors downstairs, traps heavily damaged warriors, mopped the floor with the rest in melee while under PfMW. Then I met with Sion, dispelled him with Karsomyr and ended the job.

 

I had long thought about it and finally decided to attempt mind flayers in the temple sewers. Firstly, I summoned three skeleton warriors, buffed myself with II and opened the door. As it turned out, Mind Flayers in SCS can teleport! The mess their ability created led to nasty situation I found myself in. I couldn't move! In this picture it is not clear that I am surrounded by two mind flayers as well (they can cast invisibility). I made a quick search through my bag, considered casting mislead from scroll to lure the enemies away. In the end I brute forced them with a bunch of potions of genius and shield of harmony (I had potions of invisibility just in case). It was enough to get me through the first room. The second one was a tad trickier. I layed down a trap, gulped a bunch of potions and opened the door. I tried luring big guy to the trap, but he refused to move, he summoned a fiend instead, cast whilting on me, summoned Mordi sword and waited. Mordi got killed by trap, demon I meleed in the previous room, the Umber Hulks are not even worth mentioning. Alhoon left alone. I was afraid of maze or imprisonment, so I cast misled and let the illusion tank the guy for a while. When I made sure Illithid was peaceful enough to approach him, I got him acquainted with FoA (still wearing Shield of Harmony). Tired of adventuring Joniren headed to Copper Coronet to celebrate.

 

I won't be chancing Twisted Rune nor bothering with the Unseeing Eye quest. I think Joniren will be sailing to Brynnlaw soon.

[Alesia_BH]

Nice work Alaestr! I'm liking Joniren's chances!

 

Best,

 

A.

 

 

 (SCS prohibits the use of more than one HLA trap in the same location)

 

This isn't a SCS feature: It's an Enhanced Edition bug. It should be addressed in the next patch.

 

FYI: The bug only affects bards: thieves can set multiple HLA traps.

[corey_russell]

Reem the solo dwarven fighter/cleric - FINAL Update!

Experience: about 7 million

 

Well Reem lives up to his name and reemed many enemies, Spellhold, Cave of Caverns, Kua-Toa Lair, gnome village demon all fell to his might. However, since he was solo, he wanted to try out his globe of blades against the ambush you get on way to rescue Phaere in the Underdark. This party I rarely fight fair with my parties, I just use farsight and send summon after summon - the problem though is this meant I never learned the enemy mage's script - well turns out the mage did in fact cast maze on Reem - I could have protected against that with CC buff, but didn't know that was needed - thus Reem is mazed and the game ends. Back to the drawing board. Maybe I could gulp a 50% potion of magic protection, but thought it was too late once I saw the graphic, not 100% on that.

[Alesia_BH]

Condolences Corey. Reem did well for himself nonetheless.

 

Do you intend to soloing next time?

 

 

 Maybe I could gulp a 50% potion of magic protection, but thought it was too late once I saw the graphic, not 100% on that.

 

 

Which graphic do you mean? The cage 3D effect or the projectile? The checks (spell level immunity, spell school immunity, effect immunity, magic resistance) occur when the projectile reaches your character. Once the 3D cage effect appears, it's too late. Your counter window consists of the 3 round segments that it takes an enemy mage to cast the spell plus the travel time of the projectile.

 

As a reminder, Maze is a fairly easy spell to recognize in the casting phase. It's a Conjuration spell and uses the suppressed "facio" incantation, "voco, ferre." The casting animation is purple. If you hear "voco" from a high level mage who is in touch range and you aren't protected, take immediate action. Whichever counter you choose, be sure that you can execute within the fairly narrow window. Assuming you aren't facing a creature that can target invisible foes, quaffing a Potion of Invisibility -or vanishing through some other means- is one of better counter options since it's cheap, effective, and quick. Bear in mind, however, that your counter window is slightly narrower if you go this route: you'll need to disappear before the spell is completed.

 

Of course it's best to avoid putting yourself in the position of executing a counter within such a narrow window. It's better to evade targeting and or use pre-buffs. Here are some options for everyone's reference:

 

Spell Level Immunity Approach- Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Spell Trap, Shield of the Archons, Protection from Magic Scroll 

Spell School Immunity Approach- Spell Immunity: Conjuration

Immunity to Effect Approach- Barbarian Rage, Berserk, Otiluke's, Chaotic Commands (*)

Magic Resistance Approach- (many avenues: Ex-Potion of Magic Protection + Carsomyr; Polymorph Self: Mustard Jelly)

Target Frustration Approach: Stay out of touch range (simple, available to all, effective), Improved Invisibility, Shadow Door, Mislead

 

* CC won't work against Psionic Maze sans G3.

 

Stay out of those Mazes everyone!

 

Best,

 

A.

[corey_russell]

Thanks for the tips! I think Reem did well for himself too, he was a powerful character in BG 2. It's been a while since I did a random party, so will use my generator to make one and give it go. I usually do poorly, so it's a good challenge - if Enuhal can make it, maybe I can too, if I try enough of them...going to do a 4 many party to level faster, they will need it, as they usually have very low HP...

[polytope]

Yay, we have a new forum with post counts and

 

Spoiler

spoiler tags

 

there's also a like button but I can't see how many likes each post gets, so it would seem pointless

 

As a reminder, Maze is a fairly easy spell to recognize in the casting phase. It's a Conjuration spell and uses the suppressed "facio" incantation, "voco, ferre." The casting animation is purple. If you hear "voco" from a high level mage who is in touch range and you aren't protected, take immediate action. Whichever counter you choose, be sure that you can execute within the fairly narrow window. Assuming you aren't facing a creature that can target invisible foes, quaffing a Potion of Invisibility -or vanishing through some other means- is one of better counter options since it's cheap, effective, and quick. Bear in mind, however, that your counter window is slightly narrower if you go this route: you'll need to disappear before the spell is completed.

 

Of course it's best to avoid putting yourself in the position of executing a counter within such a narrow window. It's better to evade targeting and or use pre-buffs. Here are some options for everyone's reference:

 

Spell Level Immunity Approach- Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Spell Trap, Shield of the Archons, Protection from Magic Scroll 

Spell School Immunity Approach- Spell Immunity: Conjuration

Immunity to Effect Approach- Barbarian Rage, Berserk, Otiluke's, Chaotic Commands (*)

Magic Resistance Approach- (many avenues: Ex-Potion of Magic Protection + Carsomyr; Polymorph Self: Mustard Jelly)

Target Frustration Approach: Stay out of touch range (simple, available to all, effective), Improved Invisibility, Shadow Door, Mislead

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that most mages with vanilla AI just stand around in between casting spells, so if one actually begins walking towards you you can be sure he intends to cast either Maze or Imprisonment (alright, maybe it's just Vampiric Touch...)

 

Eryx the blade and party, on their very long quest to get supplies before returning to Aran.

 

Took on the Alhoon in his hideout, he has an ability called "split mind" which allows him to use both a wizard spell and a psychic power in the same round, which could make things dangerous (RM or breach followed by any of a mind flayer's save-or-else attacks). Also, his attendant mind flayers can do nasty damage by spamming ballistic attack.

 

 

Sent in Eryx and Aragrish (MI from Ilbratha to protect from them going ballistic on him) to chop up the mind flayers and Randolph to debuff the Alhoon, who disabled our sorcerer with an interesting spell trigger (again, Randolph needs some kind of spell protection, improved invisibility is becoming inadequate), but the Alhoon didn't have a chance on his own. I got paranoid and used a potion of magic shielding for the barbarian after malison, which was quite unnecessary.

 

Returned to the Umar temple and slew the shadow dragon, who inspite of his extra hp and other SCS improvements didn't manage to do a single point of damage to anyone; I left him till late because his breath has a good chance to one-shot low level PCs (kept drainable members out of LoS anyway). This is also the first "boss" Eryx has killed.

 

Aleks got 12th level not here but after collecting tax from the castle, what a lame way to level up. He has his priest of Lathander abilities back though, which is great. After forging the shadow dragon armor some kid appeared to talk to me about the bard stronghold, which sounds daft - sure I have time to stage a theatrical production while my sister rots in prison, or, alternatively while I'm trying to get my stolen soul back. I suspect it would end with a trivially easy and boring battle.

 

Enough whining from me. Off to Watcher's Keep, here the party bought the amazing firetooth crossbow for Artemisia.

 

The first set off Statues (awakened by taking the book from the altar) last longer than expected. Both priests were buffed with Shield of the Archons and Physical Mirror, also one had Globe of Blades and the other had Aura of Flaming death. Strangely, both Secret Word and Ruby Ray failed to remove their Shields, so they couldn't be breached - the one with the Aura could be meleed anyway (used a potion of icedust) but I didn't dare get non-stoneskinned people (except the barbarian) near the one with a Globe, he took some time to beat down, due to his physical resistance. The statues were no great threat anyway, but it would be bad if, Sendai turns out to have an unremovable Shield of the Archons!

 

The remaining statues were mostly slain quickly by buffed Aleks (they seem most succeptible to crushing damage), they have fighter HLAs, but got little chance to use them, the mage was a nuisance though, she cast Wish and chose breach on all of us - Eryx avoided getting his protections dispelled by staying around the corner, while everybody except Eryx then ran out of that mage's sight. Randolph recast ProFire on self (paranoid of Dragon's Breath) while Eryx summoned a flesh golem for distraction - the mage in turn cast Warding Whip on him (an irritating spell, I look forward to a Spell Shield scroll). Our sorc then contributed some Ruby Rays, infuriatingly the mage rebuffed with a sequencer just as PC was about to breach her, also petrifying our summoned aerial servant with a Prismatic Spray (good thing I had some summons to absorb that, rather than our debuffed party members). Leksa detected illusions, then our sorc finally breached the mage and the battle was over a second afterwards (these statues explode in very un-statuesque showers of blood).

 

Leksa, Aragrish and Eryx all leveled up from the statue battle and ritual, as did Artemisia upon slaying a couple of fire giants in the fire libray on the second level of the keep (who also have figher HLAs, fortunately they wasted Critical Strike on my stoneskinned/mirrored blade rather than use Whirlwind...). The barbarian now has specializiation in bastard swords, even the un-upgraded Foebane will be a great asset in the demon maze...

 

Party lineup

 

Eryx, blade 18

 

Aleks, PoL 11 -> fighter 12

 

Leksa, swash 10 -> cleric 15

 

Artemisia, archer 14

 

Randolph, sorc 14 (should gain 15th level by completing the elemental rooms)

 

Aragrish, barb 15

 

Interesting note: Carsomyr and the Shield of Reflection have gone the same way as the Rod of Resurrection, they just vanished! I didn't sell em, definitely didn't throw em away, but they're gone. On balance this may be a good thing:

 

• I feel bad about using Carsomyr with a non-paladin, UAI aside Holy Avenger swords are only supposed to work in a paladin's hands.


• The shield of reflection is imbalanced like the cloak of mirroring, lack of reflection will make the endgame pretty interesting


• I was after all complaining about the overpoweredness of my party.

[Alaestr]

Joniren, the brave blade. Update No. 9

 

I swepped clean the 1st and 2nd levels of Watcher Keep (got the wand of striking) and set sail to Brynnlaw. I went straight to Perth's and killed him for the wardstone (no useful spells in the book). 

 

Spellhold was a nightmare. To my surprise, I ended up in the situation reminding me of the beginning of the game. I took Imoen for a ride and start clearing. I let Imoen remember two enchanted weapons, which I dual wielded and I used a bunch of mislead illusions siniging the improved bard song. It was a rest-fest. I didn't touch any unnecessary content and beelined to the exit. Lich was a challenge (no +4 weapon), but I killed him with two Death Fogs and a few traps (thankfully he didn't cast any really threatening spells). Imoen died in one of the between-riddles-battle to poison. I made a huge mistake of not taking my equipment before the battle with Irenicus (I chose to bribe the keymaster instead of killing him - I don't quite remember, but I think I would have had a chance of taking my stuff, if I had killed him). At least I rested and packed my spellbook apropriately. 

 

I ran to the corner as soon as the battle started and waited out Time Stops in safety. As it turned out I didn't have enough spellpower to dispel Jon's defenses, so I juked Irenicus and watched him kill my cellmates with Horrid Whiltings. In the end I finished him with Darts of Wounding, hasted and chased by three SoM. I protected myself with GoI and SI during the fight. I went throught the portal and arrived in the Underdark.

 

I think Joniren came on top of the hardest battles he had ever had. Lack of resources, constant respawning of enemies were my main concerns. I met a drow skirmish party soon after entering the underdark. They are tough son of bitches, I have options to take them down, though. 

[Alaestr]

Corey, I am sad to hear the news about Reem and wish you better luck next time.

 

Alesia, your knowledge of the game surprises me once again. I now am not so optimistic about the fight in Hell, if I won't be able to place enough traps there. Maybe I will find some hotfix for it.

 

[corey_russell]

Corey, I am sad to hear the news about Reem and wish you better luck next time.

 

Alesia, your knowledge of the game surprises me once again. I now am not so optimistic about the fight in Hell, if I won't be able to place enough traps there. Maybe I will find some hotfix for it.

Thanks Alaestr! I fell prey to something that happens to so many solo no-reloaders..by this point, I had destroyed the shadow dragon, Firkraag, all Twisted Rune encounters, and so on, all his saves were very negative (spells at -4 ), etc. And thus I didn't prepare as much as I normally do in the early phases when I have bad equipment and my character is fairly weak. If I had buffed for my standard anti-mage buffs (CC, death ward, fire/lightning resistance), there would have been no problem, but my solo success made me overconfident. In my party play, my characters almost never get this powerful, and thus getting over-confident almost never happens when I play a full party.

[Gate70]

Alaestr, Near Infinity could be used to edit the traplimit, I've just tested it with a bard. Copy this file into your override folder and see if it helps. & Alesia I didn't realise you were following the EE bugs so closely

 

https://drive.google...dit?usp=sharing

 

Corey, condolences. I'm trying to memorise mazers so was aware of N'ashtar and the gith in that area also try it if they get chance. I keep thinking we ought to build some sort of wiki of mazers including the dirty ones (Irenicus in timestop) and the confined space ones (the mage in Suldanessellar temple of Rillifane who seems to use his quarterstaff for a bit more reach).

 

[cuttysark]

I just noticed this comment Cuttsark. I may be able to help: I'm a Mac user who plays modded (SCS+Ascension).

 

Are you using the original Mac edition or a Winebottled Windows install? 

 

I'm using the edition from Beamdog. The installation is weird.

[cuttysark]

Update: Dostoevsky, Elven Sorcerer.

 

D-Man completed the D'Arnise Keep but didn't get quest XP for it. Before entering, he had had Nalia join his party briefly and then ejected her. She stormed off, and then when he spoke to the captain, he said 'the young lady is dead, but will you destroy the trolls in memory of her' or something. After finishing, there was Nalia outside, a little distance from the enclave, who had very little to say, but did agree to meet at the Copper Coronet if we met her again. Speaking to the captain after that, he said 'the lady is dead, so the Roenalls will take over the keep' and we didn't get any XP.

 

Dostoevsky has finished the Mae-Var quests, the druid quest, and destroyed the Vampires. He's up to L14.

 

Interesting battles:

 

1) Rayric's stone golems.

Here Dostoevsky experienced for the first time the power of Melf's Minute Meteors. Took the golems down in 4 rounds or so. The only problem is the ranged-weapon status which makes melee opponents difficult. He has to keep casting summons to get in their way. (With Vecna and the AoP, spider summons take only 1/10 round to cast, so not a problem)

 

2) Rayric himself.

Dostoevsky here first started making extensive use of Spell Immunity. He made himself immune to Enchantment, Necromancy, and Alteration (to counter disintegrate). With improved invisibility and the cloak of non-detection, he was immune to a lot of spells. Only damage Rayric did to him was a sunfire targeted against one of his spider summons. Then I learned that sunfire (and I suppose all area of effect spells) go through stoneskins, and so Dostoevsky hit Rayric right back with two sunfires, until dead. After that he got hit for 52 damage opening the Rayric's acid trap, which is the closest to death he's come in BG2 so far.

 

3) Massed trolls.

Was fun kiting them all into a bunch and then firing sunfire.

 

4) Vampires.

Proved easy. SI:Enchantment was extremely important, as usual, to defend against Domination. Tanova fell over quickly, had to pull out a true sight from the scroll case of tricks. Downstairs Dostoevsky applied a scroll of protection from undead, which was unnecessary, and also meant that he was invisible to Lassal, couldn't trigger the conversation, and Lassal wouldn't die. So had to rest, waste the scroll, and finish Lassal upstairs. Also had just got to L14, so tried out his first Project Image. SI:Evocation meant the traps in the spike room weren't a threat. The only real beast was that hasted clay golem. He's so fast, he freaked me out. Had to just melee him. I look forward to spell trigger where Dostoevsky can cast 3x lower resistance.

 

Thoughts:

 

The cloak of non-detection combined with improved invisibility seems almost as powerful as the cloak of mirroring, excepting versus the opponents who can intrinsically see through invisibility.

 

Got death spell as my first L6 spell. Seems a bit of an indulgence, though I'm hoping the ability to kill summons will prove important. What a joy! Entering Pai-Nai's lair-->as if million of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

 

Wondering about my next summoning spells. Specifically Animate Dead and Mordenkainen's Sword. They do similar things, though they're certainly not redundant. Not getting Animate Dead would allow me to take Spell Shield. Not getting Mordenkainen's Sword would allow me to to choose 2 of Finger of Death, Summon Hakeashar, and Spell Turning.

 

Causing heavy damage quickly is difficult. Much easier with a fighter. Holding out for Abu-Dalzim.

 

It seems SI:Evocation doesn't protect against his own webs. Is this right? I know SI usually doesn't protect against own spells cast, but I thought a target-neutral area of effect like web would be an exception. A pity. Makes it more difficult to use web, especially since he's got two of them in a minor sequencer.

[corey_russell]

 

It seems SI:Evocation doesn't protect against his own webs. Is this right? I know SI usually doesn't protect against own spells cast, but I thought a target-neutral area of effect like web would be an exception. A pity. Makes it more difficult to use web, especially since he's got two of them in a minor sequencer.

Free action ring from the monster summoning book in spellhold? Other than that, not sure what else you could do except get your save vs. spells really low so you always save vs. your own web.

[cuttysark]

Ring of free action means I don't have haste, which always feels like my most important buff after stoneskin. I could always go for one of the globes of invulnerability, but feel that would be a waste. The saving throws thing is a good idea, thanks. With Improved Invisibility, my spell saving throw will be at 0 in two levels.

[Alesia_BH]

The saving throws thing is a good idea, thanks. With Improved Invisibility, my spell saving throw will be at 0 in two levels.

 

The save based approach is workable. Note well though: The save on Web has a -2 penalty. Also, bear in mind that if you are tagged with Doom or Malison while standing in a web, you could quickly find yourself in a sticky situation.

 

If you plan to use Web frequently, then you may want to rethink skipping the globes. I personally find GoI to be a solid pick at L6: It can widen your range of tactical options by permitting liberal use of low level AoE spells, while also offering protection from some dangerous enemy spells, such as Malison. Sure, GoI isn't the most exciting spell pick, but it has a lot of potential utility: Feel free to choose it if you think you can work it into your game plan.

 

Another option would be to take Limited Wish at L7 and use the "I wish to make my party invulnerable" option. If you have other plans for Limited Wish then this could make sense, however, I wouldn't recommend selecting Limited Wish for this purpose alone. If you do go this route, be sure to remember that the duration of the Limited Wish globes is 1 turn (the same as Web). Consequently, if you pre-buff with the Limited Wish globe and then cast Web later during combat, your globe will expire before your web dissipates. 

 

Best,

 

A.

[cuttysark]

@ Alesia

Thanks for the tips. I opted for charisma over wisdom at character creation (never thought I'd make it this far) so limited wish is out. Saving the rare potions of insight for true wishes. Globe's a possible choice for L6 and will make things much simpler, but I feel L6 has one of the widest array of good options.

 

Question, anyone:

Was working my way through the temple ruins, and found the Shade Lord quite difficult. I guess I came at a higher level than I'd done before. His first cast was Spellstrike, and then he started repeatedly doing two spells that weren't named specifically in the dialog box: one which automatically blinded me (could have been PW:Blind, but didn't seem to last for 6 rounds, more like 2 or 3 rounds), and the other which level drained (I was immune) and forced me to save vs. breath. I decided to leave the battle, not knowing what I was saving against. Anyone know what that spell/intrinsic breath ability is? (Also when he reached near death, he fired a chain contingency incl. mislead, and I didn't have true sight yet. Also he sees through invisibility, grr.)

[corey_russell]

I don't know the answers to your questions, Cuttysark, but if solo my preferred action vs. shade lord is...pro undead scroll. No idea if that's viable in SCS, but sure works in vanilla.

[cuttysark]

 Dostoevsky, Elven Sorcerer

 

All right, I'm not sure whether to proceed. Dostoevsky died, but the circumstances were very strange. Need some advice. After abandoning the shade lord, Dostoevsky wandered the countryside and quickly picked up his 15th level, giving him Spell Shield, True Sight, and Mordenkainen's Sword. With the swords he went and knocked on the Rakshasa's door and slayed them easily. Then went to deliver the tiger head to the genies, changed his mind, and killed them instead. I enjoyed putting my sole copy of protection from petrification in the quick slot and casting it on himself with a project image, then killing the image with a spider summons. With Trademeet saved, he bought the belt of inertial barrier which with buffs brought his save vs. breath to 0, so he decided to back to fight the Shade Lord.

 

He cast SI:Conjuration, because it seemed like the Shade Lord's special abilities might be Conjuration based. When he went up to the altar, he cast the efreeti. And D-Man was throwing some stones and casting a couple of things, and the Shade Lord was wailing on the efreeti. Shade Lord wasn't chanting any arcane spells at all. I guess he doesn't reset even if you leave for weeks. And then suddenly, 4 rounds into the battle, with full health and protections and not once having been targeted, Dostoevsky died. Instantly, no warning. Sad day.

 

I figured it must have been the Shade Lord's breath attack. But my saving throw was at 0. Maybe whatever he had has a bonus to save modifier?

 

So I went back and redid the battle to see if I could figure out what had happened. I played the battle the exact same way. I raised my saving throw vs breath back up to try to recreate the death. But nothing happened. I've spent a long long while running around or just standing, letting the Shade Lord cast his special ability (no casting animation, no travelling time, drains 2 levels, automatically blinds, some sort of breath weapon). Sometimes I would see save vs. breath. But then when my saving throws went bad, I started to see more 'levels drained.../...blind...' and then nothing, just as you would expect if you failed the save. But nothing happened. I could not replicate the death. I'm frustrated. I'd love to call it a bug, but I really have no idea what happened. Even if I knew why I died, I'd be OK.

 

One weird thing, not sure if related:

When Dostoevsky died, the genie happened to die at what appeared to be the exact same instant, in the same way. If I'm remebering it right, they both did some kind of explosion animation. Dostoevsky had been in the process of casting Mordenkainen's sword. It's certainly weird that the shade lord, who had until now not demonstrated any area of effect spell casting, suddenly managed to kill both the genie and me at the exact same time.

[Alesia_BH]

And then suddenly, 4 rounds into the battle, with full health and protections and not once having been targeted, Dostoevsky died. Instantly, no warning. Sad day.

 

Interesting. Just to confirm: You're running the Enhanced Edition, sans SCS, on a Mac, correct? Can you provide a detailed list of the buffs you were running when the incident occurred?  

[cuttysark]

Yes, EE without SCS on a Mac

 

Stoneskin

Resist Fear

Spell Shield

SI: Conjuration

SI: Evocation

True Seeing

Improved Invisibility

Mirror Image

 

and from items

 

Vocalise

Negative Plane Protection

Magic Resistance

Protection from Magical Energy

Non-Detection

 

Edit:

 

I could be misremembering the death animation--I'm certain the genie died in an explosion (maybe chunked), but to be honest i'm less confident about Dostoevsky.