I have reproduced this behaviour.
That answers my question: I was just about to ask Polytope whether he was aware of any documented cases.
In any event, we now have a documented bug. And this candidate explanation is easier to reconcile with the facts as they've been presented. If Cuttysark feels he can confidently rule out FoD based on what he observed in game, then a reload is justified to my mind.
Nice work Polytope and Gate!
Best,
A.
@polytope
Demons in WK I wouldn't reccomend that early, no. They have a nasty tendancy of spamming PW:Stun all day long at vulnerable characters, Glabrezus are annoying as always, and the whole battle can get very ugly very fast. Personally, I'd wait for ToB.
@polytope
Demons in WK I wouldn't reccomend that early, no. They have a nasty tendancy of spamming PW:Stun all day long at vulnerable characters, Glabrezus are annoying as always, and the whole battle can get very ugly very fast. Personally, I'd wait for ToB.
My experience with WK in SCS is limited, since I've only completed it once, with a solo beast master, but I'm inclined to agree: I'd wait.
(I have to admit that I'd be interested in observing an attempt, though.)
Best,
A.
Yeah, that explanation fits much better. I'll carry on with the sorcerer run. Thanks for looking into it Gate and Polytope!
I'm half-way through an install of SCS at the moment. Think I'll uninstall it and carry on in vanilla, for bug-avoidance, and to give my character a better chance to level up and start to play with the highest level spells.
Which means yes, I finally sorted out WeiDU installation. Thanks for the link, Alesia. It's definitely useful. But actually it wasn't the full solution. I figured out that the current WeiDU isn't compatible with my version of OSX--I was running Lion, 10.7.5, which was barely current when I got this machine 2 years ago. So I just updated to Maverick, version 10.9.2, and everything works.
And thus begins the SoA portion of what's hopefully going to be a trilogy no-reload. Here's the link to the Sword Coast. I'll see whether I can actually do this is journal/diary form. So. Initial stuff: Ansset, Neutral good male half-elf Skald, entering at level 9 with stats of 10/19/16/18/9/19. Only relevant mod is Rogue Rebalancing, other than random banter packs. Roleplaying to a certain extent: I'll always choose for him to work directly towards a goal, not abandoning a quest halfway, and choosing to not kill people if he has the choice. And if they're not directly attacking him/his party instead.
I woke confused in a cage, a cell that I had no memory of. How did I get here? The last thing I remember was finally meeting with Gorion's friends after killing Sarevok, and then... Darkness and pain. Phantom thoughts tickle my mind, the effect of memories covered deep within blocks. I had no time to mull over this strange situation - an assassin or a thief burst into the room only to be disintegrated by some spell or another. Imoen entered - good to know that I was not the only one captured, unlike when I was a child... We freed the other inhabitants, Jaheira and Minsc; I seem to recall Branwen and Kivan leaving us before I... Before I cannot remember.
We equipped ourselves and started our daring escape. My song was my only source of comfort in this place, and even that was whispery and quiet as I tried to not attract too much attention. Control. Do not break Control. We learned we were in the dungeon of one Jon Irenicus, a familiar name - Centeol, that fat spider-person that had that huge tumor inside of him, had said that it was this Jon that had changed him into what he had been. And this man seemed vile - I do not think I could sing to him with him understanding any of it. There were so many atrocities down here - the captive Nymphs, the bizarre disembodied in jars - my head pounded, as if I knew something about this already, but no coherent memory came to mind. Control. Do not break Control.
We were joined by another person, Yoshimo, a man fairly skilled with a sword and a bow. He agreed to help us escape, if we did the same for him. Upon first hearing me sing while we were in combat against multiple mephits, he halted and froze, his concentration breaking enough to allow several of the reptilian things to hit him. When I asked him about it after the last portal was destroyed, he merely said that the song had brought up memories that he would rather have forgotten. I pressed him no further on the issue.
Jaheira was adamant upon finding her husband - but we found him, shredded and torn with his body broken. Imoen said she had seen Irenicus do the mangling, but that Khalid was already dead. I nearly doubled over in pain as a thought pounded at the blocks, but the memory blocks held. If only Gorion the Songmaster was here, he'd know how to remove them, but I do not have the skill.
We emerged into daylight soon after, freeing ourselves from what the others complained was a stifling darkness. Stifling it may be, but it had stone walls, and stone walls always comfort a child of the Songhouse of Candlekeep. As we climbed out, we heard sounds of a ferocious cacophony of spells and words, all bitter, all painful words. I longed to sing myself in response, but Imoen hushed me with a quick glare. I soon saw what was causing it: the mage Jon Irenicus was in a tussle with a group of cowled wizards encircling him, and he was crushing them. As the final one fell, Irenicus looked at me and smirked, saying, "So the Songbird is free. I wonder how long this will last?"
Before I could answer, Imoen had cast a basic damaging spell at him; Deaf though she may have been, her skill with magic was above my own. I started to sing a haunting tune, but before we could rally to face this sorcerer together, more of the wizards teleported into the area, and took both Irenicus and Imoen away before I could stop them, saying that they had been in a use of illegal magic. I yelled for them to stop, but they were already half-ethereal and vanishing before they could respond.
I almost lost Control completely, whirling on a bystander nearby, asking what was the deal with this "illegal use of magic." Anything arcane in source, it seems: my own spells would have to be hidden until I could get it legalized.
... OK, I'm done for now. I've progressed further, finishing the Umar hills quests and the Trademeet quests, gotten my 15k gold and another 5k gold for the spell caster's license, and now I'm pretty much waiting for Jaheira to be taken and returned so it doesn't happen randomly while I'm at Spellhold. No perma-deaths, and my team is myself, Mazzy, Jaheira, Rasaad, Yoshimo, and Aerie. Had to reload once due to a really odd bug of a Raise Dead spell not actually raising a dead character... But nothing game-changing.
Paid for a magic license.
Bodhi didn't last long either.
and swap to a decent weapon to smack them. He upgraded the berserker horn and did the Sir Sarles quest to upgrade the MoD before setting out for the de'Arnise Hold. An ambush on the way took him to level 14 and killing Torgal to level 15. 
He agreed to take control of the Hold, though he's unlikely to spend any further time there.
The Shade Lord saved against destroy undead, but his attempt to buff was disrupted and he was quickly finished off (level 18). Krak picked up Valygar's body before coming back to the City.
and killing him got Krak to level 19. Lavok's improved mantle was beaten down by the iMoD. Krak initially used invisibility to trigger Tolgerias' 2 true sights. The mage was then silenced by Namarra before surprisingly failing against Bhaal horror as well after Krak attacked under the cloak of II. Krak got to level 20 in the fire room (taking Hardiness as his first HLA). The Tanar'ri died within seconds and Krak was soon escorting Lavok for his last sight of the stars (level 21 - WW).
Reporting to Garren got Krak to level 24 - GWW.
Looks good Grond0! Keep up the focus!
Well, good thing I didn't work too much on attempting to write further: my own spotty memory ended my run, though quite honestly I think I'm lucky to have survived thus far. (Mazzy was hit by and saved against no less than 3 Disintegrates, for example. And I still can't remember which mages cast it...) Here's the gist of everything Ansset accomplished before I derped out. The circus tent was cleared as usual, grabbing Aerie for the spell casting. Located a couple key quest characters to gain access to Trademeet and Umar hills, both of which were cleared out. Picked up Rasaad, dropped Minsc, picked up Cernd for the time being. Trademeet was... spotty, as both Jaheira and Cernd bit the dust against a couple spell casters, but we prevailed in the end. The Rakshashas were dealt with in typical BG1 fashion, darting in and out of the house every single time they started to cast a spell.
Umar hills was next, dropping Cernd at the druid grove and picking up Mazzy. Here's when Harper's Call failed to work, as Aerie was STR drained to death, but her portrait remained... And Jaheira's Harper's Call didn't revive her. (Note: I'm fairly sure this IS a bug since I tried it again on another dead character to no avail. That time Aerie could cast Raise Dead though, so no big issue besides a wasted 5th level slot.) Anyways, no other problems at Umar as Hasted and Strength'd characters took out in Shade Lord in a single round.
Back to the city, solved the Skinner murders, did the planar prison, which was again very, very spotty. One of the Disintegrates came from this fight, IIRC. The Master of Thralls was the major problem, though, as every single one of my front-line fighters melted. Aerie survived, Ansset survived, Yoshimo survived, and a few Raise Deads afterwards, the demons were quickly finished off. If you can believe it, the Warden was held by a silly Nymph that I had called to take a few spells and die. No chunks ever happened somehow or another.
Bodhi's lair was a similar story as the above. Almost all fights went smoothly, except for the one against that danged spell caster. Four characters bit the dust here against her ridiculous amounts of 6th level spells. Spammed the RoR this time after the fight, and swept everything. Brynnlaw is easily handled (has ANYONE lost a run here? Maybe against Perth Mazing or something, I guess...)
Imoen is rescued, and here's when I made the idiotic mistake: I couldn't remember what the third being that came out of the portal was. And I wasn't prepared for a Pit Fiend. PWS disables practically everyone, his Fear taking the rest of them out of my control before bursting out at least 2 fireballs of some sort. Even if I HAD prepared for it, I couldn't take it as I tested directly after - I only had one +3 weapon on me, and for some reason none of my arcane casters had Magic Weapon available. I'm continuing for the heck of it (Actually, still continuing after letting the Pit Fiend out. Lured him back through the doors with a Fire Elemental before closing the doors behind him and running the heck out of there.)
Thoughts on the Skald: an amazing class for a group, especially when you're abusing melee attacks. By level 13-14, I had characters with THAC0 0 after bonuses. I don't think I hit his peak point yet - that's when GWW comes online, and the song aura is starting to contribute another +5 damage upon every hit. With a potential 3 GWW's running (Jaheira, Mazzy, Rasaad,) that's a ridiculous +150 damage in a round if everything connects. Say there's two or three critical misses. Still +135 damage. And that doesn't even use the Skald's aura.
Brynnlaw is easily handled (has ANYONE lost a run here? Maybe against Perth Mazing or something, I guess...)
Thoughts on the Skald: an amazing class for a group, especially when you're abusing melee attacks. By level 13-14, I had characters with THAC0 0 after bonuses. I don't think I hit his peak point yet - that's when GWW comes online, and the song aura is starting to contribute another +5 damage upon every hit. With a potential 3 GWW's running (Jaheira, Mazzy, Rasaad,) that's a ridiculous +150 damage in a round if everything connects. Say there's two or three critical misses. Still +135 damage. And that doesn't even use the Skald's aura.
I agree the Skald is vicious in a party. In vanilla the aura will eventually protect against fear and stun (which might have been handy against that pit fiend), though the immunity is not gained until 20th level. Your installation sounds like the song has slightly different effects though to vanilla.
Yep, Perth has ended a few runs with Maze. The trap Grond0 mentions is in the house with the pirate horn.
& Harper Call is indeed a known bug, at least on the Enhanced Edition and might be the same on vanilla. From memory it sets to 1hp then applies the -6 con modifier for a minute which results in further hit points being lost for many NPC's.
Update: Dostoevsky, Elven Sorcerer
The gods discussed his fate, twiddled with his thread while he was jerked around between life and death, and finally decided he would be granted another chance to live.
This time, Mordy's Swords took dead care of the Shade Lord. In fact the Swords have become a staple, just like spiders in BG1. Cast Project Image, 4x Mordy Swords, haste, swords kill the image, then into battle has become standard now. Hum, if I were to pick up wizard eye I wouldn't even have to kill the image, but then I'd miss out on flame arrow, which is a bit of a tough loss especially once I get 3x project images running through chain contingency. Flame arrow would be a good spell for them. Hmm.
The Slum Slavers were executed. An enemy mage handily managed to poison himself on the repeating stair trap there. The efreeti fired a stinking cloud into the upstairs and the swords handled everything. A number of the guards simply died to death spell (a spell which is making the run significantly headache-free). In the large room downstairs with the boss-warrior, Dostoevsky ran into another acid trap, just like in Rayric Gethras's room. This one didn't do any damage (maybe because of Mirror Images?). Also, both traps said 'held', but Dostoevsky didn't experience any hold effects. Odd.
Dostoevsky failed the conversation path to get the berjuril gem in the Umar Hills, so after creating the bronze horn of valhalla, the next logical choice was Firkraag's dungeon. Death spell handled a lot of the early enemies here. The adamantine + 2 stone golems were easily dealt with through swords and minute meteors. The vampires were annoying. I'd completely forgotten about them. Gave me a surprise. Quickly fired SI:Enchantment to protect against domination. They came through the doors only 1 or 2 at a time, so hitting them with area of effect took a long while. Tried to use Mordy swords + skull traps, but the swords were vulnerable to skulls and would die first. Eventually kited/meleed/magicked them to death slowly. But overall tense, and could have been much cleaner.
Greater wolfweres went down easily to swords and meteors. Conster was kited. Dostoevsky was running several spell protections. When he went back to dungeon level 2, Conster didn't follow as expected. When he went back down, Conster was at the farthest edge of the stairs up, just walking forward. Some weird scripting glitch. Anyway that made him easy to kill.
At this point we left, sold equipment. I also caved and decided finally to shadowkeeper in a Bag of Holding. Was accumulating too much useful-in-a-pinch equipment which made dungeon-crawling for saleable loot very tedious. I can't wait to use the wands of lightning once Dostoevsky gets a reliable way to be invulnerable to them. 6 bursts at once is pretty darn cool.
Returning, Dostoevsky confronted Firkraag. Nervous, but shouldn't have been, it was a bit anticlimatic in the end. The swords pretty much took care of everything. Was easier than it should have been, for some reason. Didn't see Firkraag cast stoneskin once. He couldn't hurt the swords. Only occasionally he would wing buffet them away. Dostoevsky used his brand new first L8 Spell Sequencer to lower his magic resistance to 0 and pull off something fun, but Firkraag saved against everything anyway, even under Malison. Eventually he went down. D-Man had protected himself against chaos with SI:Enchantment and remove magic with SI:Abjuration (plus Spell Shield), so that's probably why he was never targeted by anything. He made sure to stand far enough away from the meleers to be outside the range of dragon breath.
Next stop: Guarded Compound or the Planar Sphere.
I'm glad to see Dostoevsky back in action Cuttysark!
Best,
A.
My friends, I come back with a promise of unfathomable glory and unimaginable loots!
Lo' 'n behold! MalvaeThe Flower. She is imported from BG1, which she has done in a duo with Imoen (it wasn't a no-reload).
So far she has breezed through the Irenicus' Chateau, unveiled the foolishnes of one small gnome in the circus, done the random encounters (fire breath potion on the Suna Seni), helped lifting the Djinni embargo, and cleared the graveyard. Now she is resting in Copper Coronet.
I play on the Core Difficulty with SCS (all the improved components are on as well as AI), solo. Never really played the divine caster class, so I am pleasantly surprised by the opness of 5th level cleric spells.
Edit: I forgot the name of my character and wrote it wrong. "My girlfriend came up with it" is my only excuse.
Dostoevsky, L17 Elven Sorcerer, Final Update
Well, after Dostoevsky cleaned up Firkraag, before returning to Athkatla, he stopped by the Temple Ruins to finish some business with the Shadow Dragon. He cowardly hid in the NE corner where the dragon couldn't do anything but blind him occasionally, though one of the spell immunities he had running (Abjuration? Enchantment? Necromancy?) prevented even this. A few lower resistances, missiles, and sling bullets later, he bagged his second dragon in 2 days.
He was 4000 XP away from L17. So he went to the easiest source of XP he knew, the graveyard tombs. 2 mummies and a skelly later, he was at L17. Still under all his spell buffs, he went to another tomb, where he found 1 mummy and two shadow fiends. Spell Trigger: 3 sunfires took out the mummy. He prepared to summon Mordy's sword to take on the fiends. Then they enter melee range, and he got...held. Crap. About 1 turn later, he was dead.
That makes my runs 3 for 3 for a melee death to a mid-level goon while held. Dostoevsky had engaged fiends in combat before, but always with summons, so I never knew what danger he was in. I'd just assumed that they had a standard level-drain ability.
You'll see a new run in the BG1 topic appearing soon.
Edit: I forgot the name of my character and wrote it wrong. "My girlfriend came up with it" is my only excuse.
I did wonder - describing Maevar as 'the Flower' would probably be asking for a backstab down a dark alley 
.
He was 4000 XP away from L17. So he went to the easiest source of XP he knew, the graveyard tombs. 2 mummies and a skelly later, he was at L17. Still under all his spell buffs, he went to another tomb, where he found 1 mummy and two shadow fiends. Spell Trigger: 3 sunfires took out the mummy. He prepared to summon Mordy's sword to take on the fiends. Then they enter melee range, and he got...held. Crap. About 1 turn later, he was dead.
That makes my runs 3 for 3 for a melee death to a mid-level goon while held. Dostoevsky had engaged fiends in combat before, but always with summons, so I never knew what danger he was in. I'd just assumed that they had a standard level-drain ability.
Sorry to hear that Cuttysark. Shadow fiends are a significant challenge for arcane types, particularly where there's not much room to run round. They are immune to fire and cold damage (though not electricity) and their touch uses a save vs death - which is far harder to get an automatic saving throw against for a mage (the Cloak of Displacement, improved invisibility and blur may do it for a high level character).
@Cuttysark: Sorry to hear the end of your sorcerer. Many runs have ended to shadow fiends (including runs of my own) so you are in good company. There's nothing to feel bad about with your fine run. Key as always is learn from this so you can apply it to your future runs.
). To be more cautious he used his hammer with GWWs on the illithid guarding the Master Brain (level 36 - intended to pick GWW, but clicked on hardiness by mistake).
). Adalon's dispel was not aimed at Krak, but still got rid of his mirrors. However, his cold protection was untouched so he continued attacking. Regular wing buffets and cure spells kept Adalon on her feet long enough for Krak's rage to expire just as she did, though she only managed to scratch him in the meantime (level 38 - critical strike).
Thanks for commiserations.
And good fortune Grond0!
Fortune is important. The dice can be managed, but they can't be transcended.
..
Congratulations Grond on a successful SoA run.
He prepared to summon Mordy's sword to take on the fiends. Then they enter melee range, and he got...held. Crap. About 1 turn later, he was dead.
That makes my runs 3 for 3 for a melee death to a mid-level goon while held. Dostoevsky had engaged fiends in combat before, but always with summons, so I never knew what danger he was in. I'd just assumed that they had a standard level-drain ability.
Congratulations Grond0! Keep up the focus in ToB...perhaps this character is the one?
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