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[Blackraven]

Amaru Sakura, reckless Kensai 9 -> Thief 18.

 

I once again accidentally deleted my post with a Tab-Backspace combo. Eh, times. 

 

Amaru heard of the Shield Amulet in the bowels of DeArnise Hold, so she headed that way. While travelling there she noticed an  unusally placed guy. She didn't know how he got there and just left him in piece. Amaru grabbed the amulet, killed trolls in adjacent room and came back to the city. She sold loots and set on clearing the way to the Temple lich. 

 

My lady tackled the mercenary group first. She backstabbed Gaius (Staff of Striking +3), used RoAC, backstabbed the priest (Namarra from then on), drew power from Sandthief's Ring, backstabbed the archer and then ran around hiding and backstabbin the rest. She came invisible to the Rakshasa and almost hit him, but she spotted a mouse, got scared, squaled and her plan backfired - she was in the middle of the enemy position! Nooone could tell this shameful story, so she slaughtered any live soul she could find in the vicinity. After the bloodbath, Amaru helped Roger killing Sea troll, stole all of the useful potions from him (gulped 4 potions of Master Thievery) and unlocked the way to the Temple lich next. 

 

My reckless character felt like lich hunting, so she prepared locations accordingly. Traps in Bridge and Slums disarmed ,doors opened, minotaurs killed. The order of killing liches was as follow:city gates lich(one hit), bridge lich(he managed to cast some spells, but I lured him out of invisibility with Iron Horn and soon he fell), Temple District lich (two hits), Gaxx. Amaru used Oil of Speed and Protection from Undead scroll to tackle all the liches. Gaxx is always a tricky one, since his Demilich form is immune to Azuredge and having in mind Remove Magic sequencers one cannot just walk up and whack with a melee weapon. Kensai class prohibits the use of any ranged weapons, so I had to be smart about it. The girl summoned 3 remaining entities to lure out the spells. Finally Gaxx fired his 2 x Fire Shield, Stoneskin, PfMW spell sequencer, which for me indicates he is short on spells. Only then Amaru approached and ended Gaxx's dreams of roaming free. Unusually Gaxx didn't summon any Cornugurus, alltough the girl had potions of insulation and clarity at hand.

 

I reckoned the safest choice for her next conquest would be Temple Ruins. She wielded Daystar and Arbane (Free Action protects against hold which Shadow Fiends like to do) to deal with the majority of the enemies. When she encountered a lich, she quickly read Protection from Undead scroll, which lasted long enough for her to kill the first lich, lure out the second one of his initial invisibility with Horn of Valhalla, kill the second one and destroy Shade Lord. Following the example of Kenthief she left Shadow dragon. She simply had defence too low to withstand the assault of any dragon. Unfortnately I can't remember now (I usually play and write at the same time) when she got her level ups.

 

Coming back to Athkatla, Amaru dived deep into Aran's questline. Recognizing where the enemy HQ was located got her to level 21. I didn't want to fight with vampires without protection from Domination. I had some choices - potion of clarity, Lilarcor. Both choices had its drawbacks so I decided to grab Adjatha the Drinker and solve my dilemma. Mekrath died to a backstab. I felt confident enough to kill Yuantis in the hall. First thing - Berserker from a horn to lure out spells. He died quickly but Yuantis already fired off their dangerous spells. They even founded a zoo in Mekrath's bedroom. Amaru snuck past it, grabbed the gem, waited out summons, summoned efreeti to lure out more spells and then struck at them herself. Amaru gulped Clarity Potion before attacking Master of Thralls. Placing the gem in the machine advanced Amaru to level 22. Her first choice of HLA was just two levels ahead. Warden was being guarded by a bunch of Yuantis, so Amaru implemented the old wait for buffs to end tactic. After Amaru lured him away from Yuantis (Warden can see through invisibility), she dodged his HLAs (in my installation he has warrior's) and begun the assault, which soon enough ended in victory. Amaru had to reapply potions in the middle of the fight, because Warden managed to Remove Magic her. 

 

I decided to finish Sir Sarles quest before I let Amaru fight with vampires. Neb was backstabbed, false Illithium delivered to Sarles and the sad lump of ore handed to officials in the temple. The time had come for the vampires to die! Amaru with Daystar in one hand and Adjatha in the other started to kill those pesky vamps. Killing Durst got her to level 23. Amaru grabbed Mace of Disruption to upgrade it. Once it was done, she came back to falling vampires, now she was protected from level drain. The girl let summons tank Tanova's spells. Bodhi got wrecked by the same setup with added Oil of Speed and Potion of Defense. Amaru juked the traps in the room with Lassal fight with Mirror Images from Ilbratha. Amaru talked to Aran after the job had been done. She decided to stop by Watcher's Keep. Killing everything except the statues bumped Amaru to level 24 (Use Any Item). With unlocking UAI the world of endless possibilities opened to Amaru. She immediately equipped Jan's Adventurewear, Helm of Balduran, Scarlet-Ninjato (as a flat upgrade from Belm+2). With Firetooth (crossbow) she disposed of guardian golems as I decided to kill the lich this time. BTW: Firetooth is amazing for killing those big golems. I sent the golem from the manual to attract Priest's attention. It surpassed my expectations - golem was killing the guy. Amaru soon joined her summon to end the deed. Statues were slain by hiding behind the columns and backstabbing. Amaru succesfully descended into 2nd level of Watcher's Keep.

 

I ended my session there to eat a dinner. Dragons, beware!

 

Edit: fixed malfunctioning urls in the last 3 paragraphs. I noticed I sometimes use one word too many times. It is a direct consequence of me writing one sentence, playing a few turns out, writing another and so on. I often forgot I am repeating a word from the last sentence. I will try to avoid doing it in the future updates.

Your updates are fun to read. Thankd for sharing (in spite of your tab-nackspace combo!). Happy travels

[Aasim]

@Aasim - berserker has certainly an easier time levelling up, but late game potential I think is similar or even tilted in Kensai's favour. Both variants are good, though I wonder what Grond0 thinks of soloing pure Kensai. Does it seem harder or easier than WS?

If dualed to thief at level 9, berserker is imo far superior. You get helmets, gauntlets, armor, shields, and Rage. If you want to remain a single-classed fighter, I don't know. Kensai gets a total of +13 damage, which can equal to extra 130 damage in WW attacks.

[Mr_Goldbeard]

Kensai gets a total of +13 damage, which can equal to extra 130 damage in WW attacks.

Which is extremely brutal.

[Alaestr]

Amaru Sakura, reckless Kensai 9 -> Thief 24.

 

The hero of Trademeet left Watcher's Keep and travelled to DeArnise Keep. Clearing trolls outside the hold advanced her to level 25 (Spike Trap). She also killed left-over trolls on the first level. I recalled Amaru needs protection from confusion, so she came back to the town to buy Aegir's Hide. Umber Hulks fell to the mighty Flail of Ages. Torgal preparations included: Potion of Invulnerability, Potion of Magic Shielding, Storm Giant Strength potion. Amaru lured Torgal away, meleed him for 5 rounds and got him down after using Mirror Images from Ilbratha. She tried to finish him on her own, but failed, so was forced to relive the experience. Next time troll was on the ground, she summoned Efreeti and he scorched Torgal with Flame Strike. The girl got to level 26 (second Spike Trap).

 

The last unvisited location to explore was Firkraag's lair. Thinking of challenges the dungeon presents I couldn't find even one Amaru wouldn't handle, so the girl skippidy hopped to Windspear Hills. Protection from Fire scroll saved her from being blown up by kamikadze kobolds. It is easy to get to the Orc Archers in the alcoves as a Thief. I went to grab a snack while Amaru wask killing Adamantite Golem with Firetooth. Removing the pack of vampires (Adjatha in one, Mace of Disruption in the main hand) granted my character level 27 (third Spike Trap). Before tackling Samia's party, Amaru trapped the room they spawn in, summoned Efreeti, drank Oil of Speed, Potion od Defense. Amaru initiated fight by backstabbing Kaol, Legdoril died of traps while the girl was hiding behind a corner, Akae died of critical backstab, next one was dedicated to Samia (she needed two more hits to kill), then Amaru hide and backstab the others. Seeing off Greater Wolweres on the way to the well got Amaru to level 28 (fourth Spike Trap). Amaru found Heartseeker, rekindled her relationship with Tazok, didn't let Conster cast even one spell, fished Dragon Helm from the well. Returning Garren's daughter to him levelled up Amaru (level 29 - fifth Spike Trap). She then came back to deal with Firkraag. Sneaky kensai girl laid down 5 spike traps, equipped Dragonslayer, Shield of Harmony, attacked the dragon, aimed him at traps and watched the red disease die. The girl decided to be a real man and kill the other dragon the proper way - with fire and blade instead of some cheesy tactics. She equipped Jansen's Spectroscopes to protect against blindness, Amulet of Power to avoid level draining, Shield of Harmony to counter any possible spells, drunk Oil of Speed, Potion of Cloud Giant Strength and Defense. Thaxy's breath was useless against her and the dragon soon met his demise.

 

I completely forgot about Rune Assassins that I had left for later in Rejiek's house, so Amaru headed that way to grab Human Flesh. She decided to shatter the illithid underground in Athkatla. While doing it she got to level 30 (sixth spike trap). Alhoon goonies were lured out of the room and killed (Amaru used one potion of genius to counteract Intelligence drain), the girl waited out Alhoon's Absolute Immunity. Alhoon summoned one Cornugon who was killed by prelaid traps. Other obstacles Alhoon placed in Amaru's way: 2 x Morde swords (one waited out, second killed by Efreeti's spells) and that was it. He soon succumbed to Amaru's hits. 

 

I am considering my proficiency points. So far Amaru has: two pipes in axes, bastard swords, long swords, two-handed swords, flails, two weapon style and one pipe in: scimitars, crossbows, quarterstaves, two-handed weapon style. She will get 2 more points and I am torn apart by the possibilities. What is your advice on proficiencies? 

 

I figured the only untouched location left is planar sphere, so I steered Amaru there. Rotten Valygar's body which sat in my bag for months dissolved as the doors to the sphere opened. Sneaky kensai blitzed through enemies and got to level 31 in Fire Elementals room. Efreeti and Berserker lured out Lavok's spells. Amaru drained the bottle of Magic Shielding potion before killing Tanarri, she  avenged Dori Grey's death,kileed Noble Efreeti (level 32, 8th spike trap), feeded the engine, watched Lavok draw his last breath looking in the sky of his home plane one last time.

 

I ended my session by saying goodbye to Athkatla and sailing off to Brynnlaw. Good luck, everyone!

[Blackraven]

Amaru Sakura, reckless Kensai 9 -> Thief 24.

I am considering my proficiency points. So far Amaru has: two pipes in axes, bastard swords, long swords, two-handed swords, flails, two weapon style and one pipe in: scimitars, crossbows, quarterstaves, two-handed weapon style. She will get 2 more points and I am torn apart by the possibilities. What is your advice on proficiencies?

Isn't your Fighter(Kensai)=>Thief allowed to master his weapons all the way up to Grandmastery? Or do you have a mod or a self-imposed restriction that prevents you from going beyond specialization. In the former case you could consider further developing your skill with one of the weapons you already specialized in (2h sword for Carsomyr, longswords for backstabbing for example). In the latter case you could consider putting another pip in staves or scimitars, and perhaps one in maces if you play SCS (slaying Bodhi and co on SCS isn't easy, and making yourself more effective with the Mace of Disruption could help).

[Grond0]

 

@Aasim - berserker has certainly an easier time levelling up, but late game potential I think is similar or even tilted in Kensai's favour. Both variants are good, though I wonder what Grond0 thinks of soloing pure Kensai. Does it seem harder or easier than WS?

I agree that a dualled berserker can do more damage than a dualled kensai as well as having major benefits from immunities.  The kensai bonuses are fixed at the point that they dual, so the berserker's advantage remains for the entire game.  The only time when that reverses is if a fight lasts longer than 10 rounds - causing the berserker rage to expire.  However, if you set up encounters properly that will very rarely happen.  

 

Although the late game solo kensai bonuses are attractive they are still very vulnerable to magic attacks (like rage and imprisonment).  I would say completing the game is therefore still significantly easier with a berserker.

 

Making progress with a solo kensai is far easier in SoA, but I think the advantage shifts to a wizard slayer in ToB (by which time they will have the opportunity to have magic resistance greater than 100%).

[Grond0]

I am considering my proficiency points. So far Amaru has: two pipes in axes, bastard swords, long swords, two-handed swords, flails, two weapon style and one pipe in: scimitars, crossbows, quarterstaves, two-handed weapon style. She will get 2 more points and I am torn apart by the possibilities. What is your advice on proficiencies? 

I would suggest a third pip in 2-weapon style if you're going to use dual wielding much.  Thieves don't get very good THAC0, so the penalty with your off-hand weapon is significant.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 43 - (update 5)
Waltz, half-elf bard (Grond0) & Hallie, halfling swashbuckler (Gate70)
 

A couple more major areas were cleared yesterday.

 

We started off at the de'Arnise Hold where Hallie's increasing fighting skills made short work of the trolls.  Glaicas proved a more difficult opponent and Hallie initially ran from him.  He then fastened on to Waltz, who couldn't run fast enough to escape.  She made use of an oil of speed in order to be able to get away, but that immediately proved a waste as Kitthix removed the problem with a well-placed web.  Faced with not only a capable fighter, but traps and a couple of skeleton warriors as well Torgal had no chance.

 

Before moving on to Windspear Hills the duo decided to clear up the shadow dragon.  However, while preparing for that encounter, Thaxy turned hostile (I was in Waltz's inventory and I think I must have clicked on the wardstone).  Fortunately Hallie saved against dragon fear and was able to get out of sight, while Waltz went under the canopy and produced three skeleton warriors and a golem.  They were then hasted and attacked from the front, while Hallie crept up behind to land the killing blow.

 

Windspear proved pretty straightforward.  Hallie did get drained and then dominated when using a sunray on a large group of vampires, but Waltz quickly finished off the remaining enemies attacking Hallie with a scorcher.  Waltz used a fire shield and a couple of skeleton warriors for most of the genies - the skeletons finishing off the last couple by themselves after the shield expired.  Samia's crew did manage to kill those skeleton warriors, but without making an impression on Waltz or Hallie.  Another skeleton warrior was left behind to deal with Conster, but Firkraag was left for now (Hallie's traps currently do bonus fire damage, so will make little impact on him - once she gets to level 21 traps will do poison damage and Firkraag will look a much more attractive target).

 

Stats (cont from BG1):

Waltz, bard 20, 92 HPs (incl 12 from familiar), 433 kills
Hallie, swashbuckler 19, 74 HPs (incl. 6 from ioun stone), 456 kills, 2 deaths

[polytope]

Eryx and party, SoA finale.

 

Decided to annoy the Cowled Wizards a bit more, I discovered 2 things, one is that it pays to have ProMW up when fighting high level mages, because they throw Energy Blades at you, 2 of which are sufficient to destroy Spell Turning or similar, the other is that 3x Secret Word triggers don't work (not always, anyway) against wizards with Spell Shield, because of this bug Zallanora's protections were difficult to remove. Didn't find one good scroll on these wizards, and they're worth rather pitiful xp (although we did get 20,000 for Zallanora's Dark Planetar), I think Cowlies are not worth the effort.

 

Right after that we get ambushed by those disguised Rakshasas, they are terribly annoying for a party of any level due to spamming many Web and Cloudkill spells, fortunately they got focused on Aragrish, who can save always vs the web while enraged whilst Randolph found a corner out of their AoE spam to retaliate with ADHW (one of the few spells that works upon them).

 

With those powerful Orwellian wizards all dead, it wouldn't be responsible to leave the subversive Twisted Rune wizards alive either... prepared well for these guys including potions of clarity and stone form for PC, Aleks and Artemisia in case they used that unblockable Wish:Breach. 3 skeleton warriors and a Simulacrum of Leksa were summoned and sent into the NE corner of the room under Farsight.

 

Unexpectedly, Shangalar triggered his buffs while still on the table, and cast Death Spell on the skeletons, fortunately not aimed at SimuLeksa.

 

After that things proceed normally, or as normal as they can be in this weird place. Randolph casts Improved Alacrity and moves forward to absorb an Anti-Magic Ray from Vaxall the beholder (which ofc was foiled by Spell Shield). Layene’s Chain Contingency prep includes Simulacrum, SimuLeksa casts Holy Word (hopefully catching SimuLayene) then attempts melee. Real Leksa casts Holy Word, close enough to affect Shangalar without attracting Vaxall’s attention. 

 

 

The lich manages to summon a Dark Planetar anyway, next to Randolph (who cast ProMW instantly under IA… Eryx OTOH had a contingencied ProMW). Vaxall’s starting buffs include ProMW rather than Improved Mantle, so he is simply attacked by Aragrish using Whirlwind with a normal Short Sword and IH Artemisia using normal arrows. Randolph takes down Layene’s spell protections with Ruby Rays and follows up with PW:Kill – not a moment too soon, as she had managed to cast Wish! Fortunately she didn’t get a chance to speak to her genie.

 

Vaxall dies before he has a chance to use his AMR again, followed by the Dark Planetar before she can cast Insect Plague, Shangalar then casts a Wish of his own, removing the party’s protections (good thing that planetar was down...). Since the lich is on his own now just need to retreat the vulnerable party members out of his LoS (distracting him with Aragrish who has high elemental resistances + is enraged) until he uses another spell (which was a 2x MM sequencer) then bring Eryx over for a Breach and finish him off.

 

Kangaxx was kind of anticlimactic, the hasted party attacked his first form as soon as he finished his speech and before he triggered his buffs (kind of an exploit but it’s stupid for him to have protection spells pre-cast, he was lying in a tomb with no hands), so he cast nothing before turning to demilich.

 

A little explanation, with SCS demiliches have the spellcasting ability of 35th level mages, but their Trap the Soul ability is weaker (allows a save vs death at a -5 penalty, but drains 2 levels even on a successful save). Like all SCS liches they can be breached if you remove their protections first.

 

Anyway, interrupted Kangaxx’s first spell (probably Time Stop) with Ring of the Ram, used Mass Invisibility from Vendurius’s ring to get my warrior’s saving throws vs death sufficiently low, while the casters rely on spell protections. Used potions of invulnerability to keep Aleks and Aragrish's saves negative after Kangaxx dispelled their buffs, while Randolph under Improved Alacrity spammed the demilich with Ruby Ray and Breach whenever he recast ProMW, it was a success! Though I was a little worried about that Malison which Kanagxx just cast.

 

Maybe I should've done it "properly", let the Lich form dispel my protections the fight the demilich unbuffed... yeah, maybe not.

 

Returned to Elhan and went to save the elf city, to make it a bit more challenging and for RP reasons I didn’t allow myself to rest here – okay that’s not such a big challenge with a 20th level sorcerer.

 

The Rakshasas guarding the temple were vaporized with CC 3x Horrid Wilting (no fighting fair here, as I say I find them really annoying). Then Suneer almost caused the first death of our run with a 3x Skull Trap sequencer shot at Leksa. Randolph successfully wished for rest before party went to tackle the dragon with the unpronounceable name, I thought I would give him a fair fight with no HLA’s/9th level spells used, his tripled hp allowed him to last about three rounds, rather than one.

 

Irenicus on the tree of life was a pushover, he bounced a spell trigger off Randolph’s spell turning, thus removing his own buffs and fell immediately afterwards, managing to do no damage but still drag us all down to hell with him…

 

Hell trials, I did Wrath the bad way (+2 strength and I can now give that girdle to someone else), selfishness good, greed good, fear neutral (+2 dex rather than immunity to normal and +1 weapons... the latter would prob be better), pride good… thus my blade’s alignment stays LN. Beholders fell to the same tactics (sorc with IA) as in the Underdark.

 

Irenicus the slayer in hell was a very different matter to his weak asylum and treehouse appearances. Randolph the sorc prepped Chain Contingency with triple Pierce Shield with target:Nearest enemy, condition:Hit and a Spell Trigger with Secret Word (that’s an AoE with SCS), ProMW, Larloch’s Minor Drain (the last to trigger CC); the idea being to strip Irenicus’s protections before he can cast Time Stop and start chopping my frozen party up.

 

Sadly two major things go wrong with this fight, Leksa was only level 24 cleric (about 1000 xp short of level 25) so most of her buffs on the party got dispelled by the Balors (who cast at 24th level also), more importantly though, the slayer remained invisible for nearly the entire round he was casting Time Stop (the Detect Illusions ability is unreliable like that). When he became visible Randolph used his trigger on self, thus also firing the debuffing CC…

 

 

Then a fraction of a second later the Slayer casts Time Stop anyway, clawing Leksa to death (luckily not gibbed) and mauling Aragrish badly inspite of his barbarian resistances (Eryx was under contingencied ProMW, so no danger). The Slayer’s second TS was interrupted easily, and party even managed to kill all of his demons, which did not help Leksa level-up, as she was dead (…) but Aragrish got a level and another Hardiness, then a mass attack on the debuffed Slayer finally got him to relinquish Eryx’s soul. He hung around at near death taking hits for quite a while though, in that buggy, troll-like manner bosses have… Jhor the Bleeder bastard sword was used by Aragrish to counteract his regeneration rate.

 

I don’t consider that battle a success, I’d been intending to do this run without resurrections since this party is all Bhaalspawn… then again, I didn’t resurrect Leksa, she was brought back automagically during the cutscene with Ellesime. Oh well.

 

Current levels

 

Eryx, blade 27

Aleks, priest of Lathander 11 -> fighter 21

Randolph, sorcerer 20

Leksa, swashbuckler 10 -> cleric 24 (1 death)

Artemisia, archer 21

Aragrish the Cliched, barbarian 23

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congratulations, Polytope, with finishing SoA! Only one party member ever died in the whole run with your setup - impressive! Looking forward for your ToB adventure.

Out of curiosity, which mod allows a neutral solution for Hell Trials?

[Grond0]

I don’t consider that battle a success, I’d been intending to do this run without resurrections since this party is all Bhaalspawn.

Maybe not perfection, but looked like a pretty good attempt .  Best of luck in ToB.

[Aasim]

Congratulations, Polytope, with finishing SoA! Only one party member ever died in the whole run with your setup - impressive! Looking forward for your ToB adventure.

Out of curiosity, which mod allows a neutral solution for Hell Trials?

Seconded, congratulations Polytope. A neat run.

Neutral Hell Trials are a component of Dingo's Questpack.

[Blackraven]

Yes, very impressive polytope, the final round against improved Irenicus in hell is one the hardest fights in the game. Best of luck in ToB!

[Alaestr]

Congratulations polytope on completing SoA. It was a very clear run nonetheless. 

 

I am not a big fan of putting more than two pipes of proficiencies on characters that are somewhat points-starved. And Thieves are certainly an example of that. Especially when gains for putting more than two points in my opinion don't validate not growing another proficiency. It suits my playstyle well - I use a variety of weapons and need my characters to perform well enough with them. I finally decided to put another point in long swords, since additional hit bonus will help hitting with not so great long swords Amaru will be using. Second point goes to two weapon fighting - following Grond0's piece of advice (might come handy with IH). 

 

Amaru Sakura, reckless Kensai 9 -> Thief 32. Update No.5 and Finale.

 

Amaru was amazed by the raw beauty of pirate's haven - Brynnlaw. Saemon's treachery didn't allow her to fully appreciate its marital fairness as three vampires interrupted her reverie. Offended she helped them find eternal peace with Mace of Disruption and Adjatha the Drinker (Amaru can now wield Shield of Harmony, but she despises going on the defensive). She visited nearby shops, bought some scrolls of protection, then beelined to Perth's house and rewarded his long service to Cowled Wizards with a friendly pat on the back. Unfortunately there was nothing of interest in the books of spells. Amaru barged into the Spellhold, got outsmarted by Irenicus, sacrificed Wisdom to the demon. When she woke, she found herself stripped of all worldly possessions, in the dungeon, haunted by a bloodthirsty vampire. Imoen lent her magic prowess to conjure a Mace + 3 and Long sword +3, then I booted her from a party. Also Amaru somehow through all of these advanced to level 33 (Spike Trap). 

 

The girl killed a clay golem in the room with basic equipment with a Spike Trap (didn't want to risk getting cursed wound). She solved all the riddles, received Doom Plate, killed monsters spawning through a book with traps, Some enemies were skiped while hidden. Lich killed with Spike Traps. So died Dace Sontan. Amaru laid down the traps for the Yuanti pack, but nevertheless she had to wait out summons. After all, she just lured the mages out and sneakep past them. Exchanging pleasantries with a talking head levelled up Amaru to 34th (Spike Trap). There was one grave moment when an Umber Hulk managed to confuse Amaru, but she fought through that and smashed the guy to the ground. She skipped most of the enemies, unfortunately got cursed wound in the room with 3 golems, scared off Bodhi, answered correctly all the riddles, killed trolls near the altar with traps (my spike traps can kill them), received the blessed weapon from a troll god and finally got out. Killing Lonk advanced Amaru to level 35th (Spike Trap). I initiated the fight with Irenicus by unequipping Amaru's items, so her illusion would be senile as a baby cat. Then Amaru waited out the battle standing hidden in the corner. When she came out of the hiding Irenicus cast a bunch of spells - among them Domination, which ended Amaru's run. 

 

Unfortunately this fight is really unfair for soloer - you don't have your equipment, just the things you grabbed in the labirynth and your on your own. Caster characters might live through that, but usual figthers are just helpless against Irenicus's high level spells. I tried traps but Jon foiled them with Absolute Immunity on and they didn't work. To lower Amaru's saves... I guess I could have tried salvaging some potions from the bodies of other inmates hoping for Invulnerability ones. I have been considering turning off this element of SCS for quite some time and that might be the nail in the coffin. Though I am not sure if I just played badly (I certainly could have handled the situation better) and one can win this battle 10 out of 10 tries. Well... back to the basics. I enjoyed the dual-class much more than the multiclass. Might try Berserker -> Thief next time I will be rolling Fighter Thief character. Perphaps my next playthrough would be with Yorik's son - Yorik II the wizard slayer. I need to practice the route more though.

[Serg BlackStrider]

Feel sad of Amaru's demise, Alaestr. Better luck with your next character.

 

@Blackraven: Polytope's Irenicus in Hell wasn't improved with Tactical Challenges of SCSII (//SCS II version of the classic Tactics component of the same name by Wesley Weimer//) of which I couldn't even think how to handle in no-reload... But then this don't make him a pushover.

 

And I agree with others - very clean and professional run, Polytope. I learn a lot from your posts. Keep it up!

[Blackraven]

Feel sad of Amaru's demise, Alaestr. Better luck with your next character.

 

@Blackraven: Polytope's Irenicus in Hell wasn't improved with Tactical Challenges of SCSII (//SCS II version of the classic Tactics component of the same name by Wesley Weimer//) of which I couldn't even think how to handle in no-reload... But then this don't make him a pushover.

 

And I agree with others - very clean and professional run, Polytope. I learn a lot from your posts. Keep it up!

Ah ok, that does make a difference I hope. My last no-reload before I began posting on these forums ended against Improved Irenicus with Tactical Challenges. My party got shredded there. Perhaps I should de-install that component before I get there

Either I agree that Polytope's run has been an impressive one. There are uncountable moments where one could fall...

@Alaestr, condolences... A very frustrating way for you charname to fall. I'd uninstall the component that makes you lose your gear in the Asylum. As you say it's disproportionately harsh on (solo) fighters and thieves.
Good luck with your upcoming berserker dual.

[Mr_Goldbeard]

** I put Grith'atzu on hold, to do Valthrix **

 

Valthrix - 1st SoA Update

 

I'm currently stuck on if I should dual class at LvL 10 or LvL 13 as originally planned.  I plan on having 5** in Two Handed Swords and 4** in Flail for the FoA.  LvL 10 for a couple of reasons : Quicker XP and gaining class back, Can be done with just mainly scrolls, end up having the same PiPs in weapons, max HP gain, one extra thac0 over the famed Fighter LvL 9. So I'm going to go for LvL 10 Beserker. 

 

I escaped the dungeon and decided to skip the Dwarf and Circus for later.  Even though that money would be nice, but I have to be careful for XP, I only have about 400k XP before I can cap at my LvL.  To gain the most pleasing XP and the most bang for my buck, i'm going to start off by doing the Druid's quest and the Genie Quest.  Each give a tremendous amount of XP (but not over the top) and the absolute most pure coin.  Which all that coin will be used to buy scrolls and such.  After the greating of Galean, I went from district to district to trigger the Suna ambush, so I can take their gear and get easy gp for fire and acid arrows. With the sword in hand, I make my way to WK so that I can grab a potion case, and get the items identified and sold.  I went back to the Copper Cornet to get the Lilicar, incase I want to kill the cat men at the grove, but i'm leaving the management quest for my mage to complete.  Now its off to Trademeet, I can't remember if my 3 CHR is going to cause any problems or not. 

 

I arrived at Trademeet, and went to speak to the lord of the land, and I accepted his quest. Upon exiting however, I was caught up by the Halfling that was offering the alternative path of the quest, by poisoning the druid grove, i'm probably not going to do it, as the reward of doing the quest normally is far better than the reward of poisoning the grove.  I made it down to the grove by slicing and dicing my way through druids, trolls, and spiders.  Arriving at the cat man den, I drank a potion of speed to boost my apr to 3, and went Berserk.  I cut through the three cat men, and grabbed the head for the genies.  Inside the grove, Cernd mauled Faldorn and I turned the quest in for the extra money, not sure if that was a good idea or not just yet, but never the less I did.  I followed up with the mantle quest, grabbing the key and mantle, then turning it in to Cohran, for the extra XP. 

 

I started to make preperations for my dualing around the city : stealing the idol for Maevar, killing the two for the harpers.  I have finally reached 500k for the dual classing with 35k gp for scrolls.    I bought about 20k gp worth of 1-5 LvL scrolls and got my mage up to LvL 9 with 170k XP.  Now i'm going to go drop the circus quest and the thieves quest.  When I went to go do the thieves quest, Maevar made a strange request, instead of taking the Lathander doll, he wanted a necklace of talos.  In my over a decade of playing this game, I have never had this request lol.  How odd lol.  When I was leaving I figured I would complete the Xzar / Harper quest, and inside the building I figured i'd go ahead and take on the 1st floor Harpers.  Sure enough I can, I casted stoneskin / mirror image/ haste/ ghost armor and blasted them away with a sunfire and MM when they would reach Near Death.  Their deaths got me closer to the 375k that I need to gain my Berserker back.  Only 65k more to go.  Grabbing the bird granted me 20k, turning quest in gave me 38k, and i'm now LvL 11 mage, so I got my Berserker back (seems I miscalculated my XP).  I took the cloudkill wand from Irenicus's Dungeon and sold it and bought it back for 50 charges of pure cheese. 

 

I ventured off to wrap up all the stuff I decided I would wait and do, stuff like Dwarf and Friends for more money.  I casted web inside the room and used two charges off cloudkill, fired a fireball. Berserker, mage, mage's familiar died.  I was under haste and I sliced right through the dwarf and drank three potions of health against the fight with the thief, but the thief died.  I figured I would go grab the RoR and face the party in the sewers.  The fight against the party was pretty tricky, I used a charge of cloudkill and it proved that I walked to far forward, and they saw me, and charged after me.  I buffed up really quick and did another charge to hopefully disrupt any spell castings.  The mage was the first to die, and within a couple rounds, they were all Near Death by my sunfires and fireballs.  I prevailed nonetheless.  Inside Mekrath's layer, I casted sunfire after sunfire out of the LOS of Mekrath and he died, I grabbed the Gem and left for the government district to start the mage's quest.

 

Valthrix

[Blackraven]

@Mr_Goldbeard, a Fighter only gets 3 HP at level 10, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to level any further as a Berserker. You might as well dualclass right now no?

[Grond0]

Their deaths got me closer to the 375k that I need to gain my Berserker back.  Only 65k more to go.  Grabbing the bird granted me 20k, turning quest in gave me 38k, and i'm now LvL 11 mage, so I got my Berserker back (seems I miscalculated my XP).

The ToB engine gives an unacknowledged extra 10% XP on top of the stated rewards.

[Mr_Goldbeard]

@Blackraven - if you dual at Fighter LvL 9 you end up at 30 LvL mage.  If you dual at LvL 10, you end up at 30 LvL mage, so that extra lvl of fighter is a freebie if you choose to do so, which also gives you an extra point in thac0.  The most common lvl to dual your fighter it seems is 9, though I don't see why. 

 

@Grond0 - I've had speculations of that, but never really felt like looking further.  Thank you for pointing that out. Also, when I figure out how to make it a JPG file, I start putting the pictures like that, i'm not very computer savy. 

[polytope]

Unfortunately this fight is really unfair for soloer - you don't have your equipment, just the things you grabbed in the labirynth and your on your own. Caster characters might live through that, but usual figthers are just helpless against Irenicus's high level spells. I tried traps but Jon foiled them with Absolute Immunity on and they didn't work. To lower Amaru's saves... I guess I could have tried salvaging some potions from the bodies of other inmates hoping for Invulnerability ones. I have been considering turning off this element of SCS for quite some time and that might be the nail in the coffin. Though I am not sure if I just played badly (I certainly could have handled the situation better) and one can win this battle 10 out of 10 tries. Well... back to the basics. I enjoyed the dual-class much more than the multiclass. Might try Berserker -> Thief next time I will be rolling Fighter Thief character. Perphaps my next playthrough would be with Yorik's son - Yorik II the wizard slayer. I need to practice the route more though.

 

In SCS II 21 and earlier you could retrieve your equipment before fighting Jon, I've no idea why that was changed because apart from being unable to protect yourself from his spells it removes the unique factor of fighting your clone(s) armed with Carsomyr, Flail of Ages etc. Sadly, since the inmates are wizards you have no chance of them dropping potions of anything except healing or extra healing - only fighters have Magic Shielding and such like.

 

@Blackraven: Polytope's Irenicus in Hell wasn't improved with Tactical Challenges of SCSII (//SCS II version of the classic Tactics component of the same name by Wesley Weimer//) of which I couldn't even think how to handle in no-reload... But then this don't make him a pushover.

 

And I agree with others - very clean and professional run, Polytope. I learn a lot from your posts. Keep it up!

 

Ah ok, that does make a difference I hope. My last no-reload before I began posting on these forums ended against Improved Irenicus with Tactical Challenges. My party got shredded there. Perhaps I should de-install that component before I get there

Either I agree that Polytope's run has been an impressive one. There are uncountable moments where one could fall...

 

Obviously the SCS-Tactics hybrid will be the hardest (above battle and another challenging one beforehand). I'm not sure if the "original" Tactics + SCS Improved Irenicus is more or less unforgiving of mistakes...

 

Really, I should've hasted everyone with Eryx before using IH from Randolph, Balors have much worse chance to dispel 27th level blade's spells vs 20th level sorc (it's not funny having Slayer attacking an unhasted character even without him stopping time), should've been slightly higher level (a smaller party) and used Smite to stun the balors in the first round, used arrows of dispelling on the Slayer when ProMW went down (Artemisia spent most of the battle out of his LoS dealing with a persistent Balor, whose telekinesis is also a problem since it splits up the party). Probably summon a simulacrum of Leksa to Detect Illusions as soon as the battle starts rather than risk her being in proximity to the Slayer... meh, DI isn't fast enough anyway, really needed multiple True Sights running (I even had several scrolls from Rakshasas) to reveal Slayer after his SI:Divination stripped. PW:Blind would've also been very helpful but would require a second pure arcane caster (I didn't use un-nerfed spellcasting for bards).

 

I'm afraid it was anything but "clean" and was pure luck not to get someone perma-killed but thanks for your comments anyway.

 

@Blackraven - if you dual at Fighter LvL 9 you end up at 30 LvL mage.  If you dual at LvL 10, you end up at 30 LvL mage, so that extra lvl of fighter is a freebie if you choose to do so, which also gives you an extra point in thac0.  The most common lvl to dual your fighter it seems is 9, though I don't see why. 

 

I'd guess because it's faster to "reactivate" your fighter levels, important in no-reload game, if solo (and with vanilla locks/traps/scrolls xp awards) no fighting or other risks needed at all.

[Mr_Goldbeard]

Valthrix - 2nd SoA Update

 

I proceeded to the Umar Hills to grab Valygar's body for the sphere, and returned to the slums.  I've decided that I will free the gladiator, normally I just kill him, and report to Lethian and call it a day, but this run needs gold and xp.  Hendak was freed and the money gained was just enough to put me up to 23k gp to where I can purchase the Robe of Awesomeness.  Well seems my reputation brought the robe up to 36k so i'm going gold hunting once more, might as well finish up the Thieves guild quest.  My current objective for Maevar is gathering the necklace of Talos, so to the temple I went.  While in the temple district, I figured the guard compound would be a good place to get some good gold and some xp.  Once inside I told them i'd leave, so I can buff without getting hassled by CW's.  I buff up using : stoneskin, berserk, haste, ghost armor. I ran up stairs and threw a charge of cloudkill, and ran downstairs immediately.  Ketta and Maferon followed, when I went downstairs the efreeti and nishruu spawned, I casted x2 sunfires to weaken up Keeta and Maferon.  I swung away on everyone and proved victorious (but not without some potions being consumed and some running around lol).  I went back up stairs and casted another charge of cloudkill, and waited for the remainders to follow.  When they followed downstairs I kept throwing charges of Cloudkill at them, and running around the circle to keep them in it, the three died.  LvL B10/ M12.  With that done, its off to Maevar.

 

At the Thieves guild I turned in the quest and was told to go speak with Edwin.  After speaking with the red wizard I sent out to go kill Rayic.  I killed the golems with the Cleric +3 staff, and went upstairs fully buffed and hastened.  I just kept swinging and casting sunfire till the wizard died.  I finished up the remaining quests for Edwin and Maevar, before receiving my final mission.  I killed Maevar and his little band of misfits by casting a preemptive skull trap, then running in casting sunfire and swinging at Maevar, the fight was over in three rounds.  With 45k gp in hand, I headed off to Waukeens to get the robe of vecna.

 

The Robe of Vecna is now in my possession, and its high time to get to the sphere and finish that off.  I opened the door with the body and entered the point of no return.  The golem in the first room granted me to LvL 13M / 10B.  Sunfire plus Robe of Vecna is now my new basis of attack methods, it made super short work of the halflings, and basically everything else that isn't invulnerable to fire.  I killed Lavok in necro form by casting skull traps out of his LoS and then ran up to him.  After he casted his protection spells, a simple breech fixed that problem right up.  Sunfire and sword attacks defeated him sure enough.  I slayed all the demons, undead, and imps with buffs applied and I was barely touched.  Tolgerias was killed in the same manor as Lavok.  Clearing out the Fire and Ice rooms granted me another LvL 14M / 10B .  In the engine room, I ended up getting blocked off by two Adam Golem's, so I had no choice but to attack through them.  Sadly enough, I used 5 charges of RoR and 12 HP potions.  I let Lavok play outside and concluded the mage's quest.  I finished all the tasks and received the mage ring from the apprentices, although two of them died in a process, but no matter.  Also, for the record, this character has not, nor will not, purchase a license to use magic in the city, I find it **seriously** against my alignment to buy a license to do something that he does naturally (that's equivalent to having to pay an "Air Tax" ) cause its just not going to happen. 

 

It's bed time lol.

 

Valthrix

[Grond0]

when I figure out how to make it a JPG file, I start putting the pictures like that, i'm not very computer savy. 

There are lots of programmes you can use to edit screenshots, but if you've got a windows computer I think the basic Paint programme is as good as any.  In that you can just open the screenshot and edit it (if you want), then do save as (F12 for short-cut) and choose JPEG for the save as type.

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 43 - (update 6)
Waltz, half-elf bard (Grond0) & Hallie, halfling swashbuckler (Gate70)
 

More progress yesterday means this duo should be on their way to Brynnlaw in the next session.

 

Last time they started with a clean-up job in the sewers.  Tarnor's gang found themselves in a sticky situation due to the webs, skull trap and malison thrown in by Waltz.  Some skeleton warriors and Hallie finished things off easily.  There was a nasty moment in the second illithid room when Hallie started running away after being intelligence drained, only for Waltz to get dominated by an ulitharid.  Fortunately Hallie was able to run the illithid away from Waltz before managing to hide and it didn't take long to finish things off.  Mekrath was no problem and nor were his yuan-ti (who were skull-trapped from out of sight).

 

After going to the Bridge District to find Haer'Dalis, Hallie realised we hadn't picked up the planar gem, so went back to the sewers.  While there, we decided to do the Unseeing Eye.  Skeleton warriors made a mess of the beholders by the bridge (a sacrificial summons being sent in first to draw out their death spell).  Hallie breezed through the normal undead downstairs, but had to retreat from the lich when 2 greater mummies hit her almost simultaneously.  However, she had laid some back-up traps and the undead failed to chase her away very far.  Inside the beholder hide-out, skeleton warriors again did much of the work - the blind priests being no more successful than the beholders against them.  When Waltz finally managed to activate the Rift Device the Unseeing Eye was closed for good.  After returning the Device Gaal was cut down, though the elite captain managed to run away.

 

Back at the Bridge District the duo ventured into the Planar Prison.  The intention was to get out of sight before the Bounty Hunter's true sight triggered, but Hallie didn't quite make it.  She did move away in time to stop anyone following, but meanwhile Waltz had gone a bit too far and was sucked into a pit.  She went invisible and eventually managed to cross the pit and summon some skeleton warriors.  They killed the enemies quickly, even though Hallie was subjected to a PW: stun.  The same skeleton warriors led the way past the yuan-ti to kill the Master of Thralls.  Then, after a rest, some more finished off the Warden.

 

Waltz didn't want the hassle of looking after the Playhouse, so went to sing a song with Firkraag instead.  Hallie's traps there got the dragon to near death, but it healed and managed to destroy Hallie's mirrors and kill the skeleton warriors before finally succumbing to Hallie's attacks (with a bit of help from magic missiles guided in following a couple of pierce magics).

 

Stats (cont from BG1):

Waltz, bard 23, 98 HPs (incl 12 from familiar), 470 kills
Hallie, swashbuckler 22, 81 HPs (incl. 7 from ioun stone), 545 kills, 2 deaths

[Mr_Goldbeard]

Valthrix - 3rd SoA update (final)

 

At the bridge district, I finished up the murderer issue, and I took the human flesh and the gesen bow shaft, not sure if you guys know this, but if you are some sort of multi or dual mage that can wear the human flesh, you can still cast spells.  I figure i'd finish up the D'Arnise quest, for the XP, there isn't much gold in this quest, but the turn in XP is ok.  At the keep, there was absolute zero resistance.  With stoneskin / haste / mirror image / ghost armor / berserk applied I never took any damage, even in the fight against Torgal.  Turning in the quest granted me to LvL 15 mage.  Hmmm, I guess its time to go dragon killing, off to Umar Hills It is then.

 

Inside the temple, nothing was of real importance, the Lich was dealt with all my buffs plus spell deflection and spell turning applied, Eventually his ProMW ended and so did he.  The second Lich was done in the same manner.  I'm just kinda standing here pondering if I should actually fight this dragon.  I'm LvL 16 Mage (just got it after killing that last Lich) .  Norros Woodsoul (my recent play through ) died because I want to kill dragons.  Lets see what happens.  I buffed up and summoned some critters (invisible stalkers) and charged into the fray.  I survived, yay, zero damage as well, I used up countless Stones and Mirrors with a few breaches applied and Thax is now dead.  I rested up and rebuffed and went to kill the Shade Lord, which I just did, and now I turned the quest in and i'm on my way to start the red dragon quest. 

 

I arrived at Windspear Hills and did the following : killed the beginning knights, witnessed girl get kidnapped, entered dungeon, sliced and diced my way through orcs / vampires/ golems/ werewolfs, killed tazok, and spoke with the dragon.  I took the path of evil in this quest and had the girl get killed, and I was suppose to go and grab the deed of the land, in which I did.  I went back to the dragon to turn the quest in, I buffed up and initiated combat.  Got the dragon to near death, but my "I've almost got him, I have 60 HP i'll be fine" got the best of the me again, and has slain another character.  Death of Valthrix. 

 

I guess i'll make a cavalier, cause dragons keep killin me.