15226 réponses à ce sujet

[Serg BlackStrider]

Well done, guys! Stay tuned in ToB!

[polytope]

@Alaestr, I think you did well to get a solo wizard slayer that far with SCS btw. while Arbane's sword does protect against regular stun in vanilla I don't believe it protects against Power Word: Stun.

 

Eryx and party, adventures in Throne of Bhaal

 

Our cleric is returned to us, I only needed Eryx to learn one of the scrolls of Freedom I had lying around for her to get lvl 25, damnit... I do learn unnecessary spells for xp, but don't use the erase button to relearn them. Party meets and defeats a new hunter, Illasera (see anything wrong with that screenshot, yeah, I forgot to give Randolph Spell Immunity) and returns to the renovated pocket plane for a challenge.

 

This was not - as you might think - a trivial undertaking.

 

Ascension Illasera would be easy with time traps (in my opinion the most OP and unbalancing ability introduced by ToB, more so than Improved Alacrity even) or the shield of reflection (I've come to view that as a totally overpowered item as well) since party has neither we need to rely on Physical Mirror/ProMW spells for the casters and the barbarian's resistances.

 

Unfortunately the Black Reaver mage messes things up by casting 2x Time Stop (I think he made his MR check against Leksa's Holy Word) and dispelling Randolph's protections (due to me forgetting SI) Eryx's initial contingencied ProMW wears off during first TS, and his recast ProMW during the second, great... I need to stay out of Illasera's sight for the rest of the battle (I have a stack of ProMW scrolls, but obviously don't want to waste them). On the bright side Illasera's frustrating Etherealness power wears off during TS as well (it's a bug that anything wears off in TS, but oh well, swings and roundabout) With SCS scripts if you strip most of a mage's spell protections before TS then they usually use their three rounds to recast them, making TS an annoyance rather than a real danger... unless ofc they also have IA or if you were relying on a ProMW spell just cast.

 

Randolph casts Improved Alacrity, and recasts some protections, finish off the enemy mage (rest of the black reavers long since dead) then moves to join Aragrish in taking out Illasera, with a little supporting fire from Artemisia - Jhor the Bleeder bastard sword is also a good weapon to use on her as she is super damage resistant while Ethereal + using hardiness, but the bleeding isn't affected by DR at all. 

 

 

Incidentally Aragrish the barbarian has 75% physical resistance and 100% missile resistance when wearing abishai's hide from Chosen of Cyric encounter + Girdle of Inertial barrier and using Hardiness; still less op than the reflection shield or even the defender flail, because it can't be switched/passed around in combat (not to mention Illasera's arrows still dispel + have other nasty effects, and Hardiness doesn't last forever either) but I think I'll switch the barb back to white dragon scales for now...

 

Gave Sarevok a second chance at life then told him to get lost... He may be the game's best fighter but I'm sticking to this party of past no-reload candidates.

 

First pocket plane challenge, the trial of retribution: It's very easy for someone to die permanently here with SCS, at least as much as in the final battle of SoA.

 

Some webs and cloudkills are used on the first waves (which are no different to vanilla), these have the side effect of acting as a timer, after the first AoE's expire it will be five rounds before Sarevok + Irenicus + Bodhi spawn i.e. the time to layer on the last few short duration buffs.

 

The room is also lit with Farsight spells, and some skeleton warriors summoned for distraction. Minor Globes on the party are wished for when ogre mages spawn, because they cast Slow (could be disastrous). A Firestorm is used on the drow to ensure they die quickly (before the final wave) and don't get in the way.

 

 

Bodhi's ghost spawns in the upper right hand side of the map so can be lured to the party before Irenicus ghost - fighting them both at once is bad, because Irenicus can dispel not only NPP (and Aleks' Boon of Lathander for that matter) but also haste, and Bodhi is lightning fast + drains 5 levels/hit, anyway, Bodhi drops in seconds to the IH fighters, which also gives Randolph time to cast IA.

 

 

Not fast enough alas... Irenicus cast Wish for double length TS + IA. Nothing to do now but hope the fighters have enough hp to survive, unfortunately this enclosed space gives no chance to get out of his LoS (like other SCS mages he wasted MM on Eryx during IA... maybe not a complete waste as they exhaust Spell Deflection - which seems to be checked by the game engine before Globe of Invulnerability).

 

Unfortunately Artemisia had to make her save vs a Sphere of Chaos shot by Irenicus after TS ended (her Death Ward got breached) and she has the least good saves of any fighter. Irenicus himself eventually fell to good old Emotion (Sarevok's ghost too, but he's irrelevant).

 

Btw. After killing Irenicus the game automatically teleports your PC to the center of the room to speak with the serial killer's ghost again, so Eryx was standing in two Spheres of Chaos - good thing he can save always even if malisoned. Retributive indeed... Also, that cheesy Wish spell used by enemy mages is becoming unfunny, these are the options a PC with 18 wisdom regularly gets from Wish i.e. it's a huge gamble to spend a round casting it in actual combat.

 

Saradush quests, nothing special here although the mages in Gromnir's fortress took ages to kill (could've just walked up to them invisibly and cast PW:Kill, but I restrict myself from attacking casters before they get their protections up). Sorc managed to Wish for rest and for mass Improved Haste before facing Gromnir himself, who was defeated pretty easily - just got to watch out for the wizard slayer near the stairs who dispels protections on hit. Karun the black managed to hang around for a while though, and even remove all of Eryx's spell protections with a Spellstrike (forgot to cast Spell Shield), so I tried out Sound Burst to deafen him, seeing he wasn't immune to magic damage (maybe I'd dispelled it before, couldn't keep track of everything here), he was quickly finished off with Wilting.

 

 

Escaped Saradush, visited Bhaal's temple in the Forest of Mir, everything except the Skeleton Mage is vanilla I think - no difficulty here. Found out how to beat that heartless giant.

 

Marching Mountains, SCS makes a minor change to the fire giants here who are berserkers (ie. no knocking them out with Emotion or Celestial fury) and have HLAs, but they are silly and use Critical Strike mostly rather than Whirlwind... Surely every party member is wearing a helmet by now and they have no mages to cast IH on them, so WW would be better in every way.

 

More significant change to the other critters; fell cats lower fire resistance by 25% with every hit and there's a few accompanying this fire lich and pair of noble efreeti - a good AC is important so as not to become vulnerable to their Firestorm/Dragon's Breath etc. (one place I was wishing I hadn't lost the red dragon scales).

 

 

Sunray fried the lich's simulacrum (funny, since he's immune to fire), Holy Word + IA debuffs from sorc for the lich himself.

 

Another thing to note is that Burning Men have an ability called "Banefire" that dispels all magic on target, which could be bad with cats around (since they move fast and need haste to be outrun), the flaming skulls are a little tougher too I think. Anyway, the Burning Men were quickly extingusihed.

 

Lastly there is a Red Dragon upstairs (how did he get in here??? Same could be asked of Saladrex I suppose) flanked by some of those cats. I don't suspect he'll be any trouble though, this party was easily tackling dragons with about 1.3mil xp each, now we're around 4.5mil... Well and truly past the stage when using a full party has disadvantages. The most trying thing about this place has been my PC's wandering around setting of traps while I try to remember the order of fetching things and switching machinery on because I haven't been here in a long while.

 

Also Randolph's robes have gone out of style, after clearing the temple it might be time to go to WK for an upgrade... I have a sneaking suspicion Saradush is a lost cause regardless of how long we take.

 

Current levels

 

Eryx, blade 29

Aleks, priest of Lathander 11 -> fighter 23

Randolph, sorcerer 21

Leksa, swashbuckler 10 -> cleric 26 (1 death)

Artemisia, archer 22

Aragrish the Cliched, barbarian 25

[Alaestr]

@polytope - I didn't test Arbane, but I was hoping it would prevent the stun. Didn't know it doesn't work. 

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 43 - (update 10)
Waltz, half-elf bard (Grond0) & Hallie, halfling swashbuckler (Gate70)
 

Some dodgy play in ToB saw Waltz perform the role of the one HP wonder, but the duo survive to fight again another day.

 

The session started with Illasera - and a lot of lag.  By the time Waltz was active all she could see was Illasera's body cooling on the ground and the Reavers making a run for it.

 

The first Pocket Plane challenge saw some tougher enemies than I'm used to in solo play and Hallie had to watch her HPs.  However, things remained under control as Sarevok became the last to die.

 

In Saradush there was an immediate nasty moment when Hallie was almost killed by a giant's fireball after finishing off the opening battle with the guards.  The magic shop was opened for business before duo headed for the dungeons to teach some more vampires a lesson.  They worked their way up into the palace and launched an assault on Gromnir.  Halllie was buffed with IH and managed to kill both mages before they could buff - leaving Gromnir with no real chance, although Eler Had hid in invisibility for a while after that.

 

The next major problem came with an initial encounter with fire giants when Hallie got caught out by the amount of damage they can inflict.  Waltz picked up the rod of resurrection from Hallie's body and got her back in order before the duo moved on to the Temple of Mir.  Rather than use green scrolls there a number of traps were set to thin things out a bit and the undead were managed well enough before Nyalee gave directions to the Fire Giant Temple.

 

The Fire Giant Temple was not our greatest moment.  With characters not really able to stand toe to toe there was a lot of running round and a certain lack of co-ordination in the process.  However, the opening collection of fire giants were eventually killed and the side rooms proved easy enough.  Upstairs things started quite well until Hallie decided to take advantage of a fire giant stuck under an archway - the giant fell unexpectedly and an elite's axe came whistling through from behind to cut Hallie down for the second time in the evening.

 

After more work for the rod, Berenn and the last of the giants were killed and the duo moved on to Imix.  Standard resources were short by that time and a mordy sword scroll was used to give him something to focus on while Hallie cut him down.  With just one burning man left in the temple I intended to send the mordy sword over to him, but inadvertently selected Waltz as well.  While I was writing up a note that meant Waltz went into unexplored territory and set off a poison trap - Waltz going down to a single HP before a potion was taken.

 

Back at the Temple of Mir Nyalee fell rapidly, though her shamblers gave a decent account of themselves.  After a rest the duo moved on to confront Yaga-Shura.  Hallie made him run and, when he returned, led him round in a circle to where Waltz had been laying traps.

 

The final action was the second pocket plane challenge.  That went pretty well, with the Waltz clone being cut down just as it finished buffing and none of the others lasting long.

 

Stats (cont from BG1):

Waltz, bard 39, 128 HPs (incl 12 from familiar), 689 kills
Hallie, swashbuckler 39, 113 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 1011 kills, 4 deaths

[Grond0]

Fickle - elven wild mage (update 1)

 

After completing BG1 Fickle found herself in the dungeon without all the equipment that had made life as a wild mage so much easier in BG1.  To balance that, this installation makes things easier by carrying the Cloak of Balduran into BG2 and upgrades the Ring of Koveras to +2.  Together with the Claw of Kazgoroth that brought her standard save vs spells down to 4, meaning that spirit armour protected against the threat of surge petrification.  She went quickly to get that and then started each day by using it; she also preceded it with the Horn of Kazgoroth - which reduces spell save by 2 (just in case spirit armour surged, though it never did).

 

She had got the XP for level 10 in the final fight with Sarevok and levelled up before doing anything in the dungeon (+5 HPs to finish with 64 - an excellent 5.5 above average).  Her relatively high HPs meant she didn't have to worry about traps so much and mirror image protected her pretty well anyway.  Cloudkills from out of sight were used against the vast majority of enemies, with sunfires for those with magic resistance.

 

For the mephit portals a summoned wolf decoyed the mephits into the side room.  SCS enemies can open doors, but the mephits seemed unable to do so after killing the wolf - though it wouldn't really have helped them anyway after the nastiest 2 portals were crisped in a sunfire.  Cloudkilling the escaped clone got Fickle to level 11.  She was successul in killing Ulvaryl - a sunfire finishing off not just the vampire, but the assassins as well after a couple of webs had slowed down the action to start with.

 

She finished the last group of assassins off while using the penultimate charge of the Horn.  She cast friends to try and recharge it, but didn't have quite enough money, so did the circus.  Gate70 will confirm I have ... issues in abstaining from spell use in the City.  However, in a poor move even by my standards Fickle then cast friends again to visit the shop; the second occasion generated a group of cowled enforcers while she was unprepared and she had to run for it.  Thinking she might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb she came back prepared to generate more enforcers and tried to use cloudkills to kill them (with web / stinking cloud / grease / malison to hold them in it).  That seemed to be slightly less effective than in vanilla and a number of them got away when one of the group started wandering around and spotted Fickle.  However, she seemed to be about 10,000 gold to the good (no license + treasure gained), though there was nothing found worth keeping.  

 

The final group hadn't died and I had vague memories that they might not disappear on resting.  I was just going round double-checking on that when Zallanora's chain contingency fired as Fickle passed by invisibly.  The others of that group were a bit separated where they originally spawned and they all died in cloudkills without fuss.  Zallanora, though, moved round so much she couldn't be targeted easily and it took a couple of failed attempts and running away to rest before she finally fell.

 

Fickle then did a bit of travelling round to trigger ambushes.  I was wary of those as I remembered the SCS ones being some of the hardest battles in the game for a new character and the Suna Seni lot certainly moved pretty briskly out of cloudkills - only one of them was killed by those and the last 3 enemies were meleed after Fickle ran out of offensive spells.

 

Unfortunately I forgot where I was travelling when the Suna Seni ambush occurred and went the wrong way next - triggering the Renfeld ambush as a result.  This one was made easier early on when a hold person scroll affected both the cleric and the mage.  However, the mage was invisible and Fickle didn't want to move around too much with a backstabbing thief around, so she ended up taking significant damage from an acid arrow before completing the job.  She's just returned Renfeld and rested a few times to heal up.

[polytope]

The final group hadn't died and I had vague memories that they might not disappear on resting.  I was just going round double-checking on that when Zallanora's chain contingency fired as Fickle passed by invisibly.  The others of that group were a bit separated where they originally spawned and they all died in cloudkills without fuss.  Zallanora, though, moved round so much she couldn't be targeted easily and it took a couple of failed attempts and running away to rest before she finally fell.

 

Fickle then did a bit of travelling round to trigger ambushes.  I was wary of those as I remembered the SCS ones being some of the hardest battles in the game for a new character and the Suna Seni lot certainly moved pretty briskly out of cloudkills - only one of them was killed by those and the last 3 enemies were meleed after Fickle ran out of offensive spells.

 

Yeah, the wand of cloudkill is still a gamebreaker with SCS. Even if the AI could reliably find their way out of cloudkills, there's still no mage spell that protects against poison damage.

 

Eryx and party have just completed Marching Mountains & WK and sent Demogorgon back to hell (he was a total pushover, seems SCS 21 prevented him from summoning any allies...).

 

Then we went to Siege camp and and defeated Yaga's army... but the giant himself is nowhere to be found.

[polytope]

Nevermind, I just realized how I've created this bug with Yaga.

 

Could still continue, since party was in good shape before meeting him, but no longer feels very "legitimate"...

[Grond0]

Sorry you've been suffering glitches polytope.  It would be nice to see you add Yaga back in so your run can continue, although I understand your reluctance to take that sort of action.

[Jianson]

Yeah, the wand of cloudkill is still a gamebreaker with SCS. Even if the AI could reliably find their way out of cloudkills, there's still no mage spell that protects against poison damage.

Spell Immunity - Evocation?

[Grond0]

Fickle - elven wild mage (update 2)

 

Travelling back after dropping Renfeld off at the Docks Fickle triggered yet another ambush.  Her attempted sunfire cost her most of her gold reserves and made what was a tricky fight anyway a bit harder - she used about half-a-dozen scrolls before meleeing the last of her attackers.  That included a stoneskin scroll - I'm going to need to keep more stoneskins available as without that scroll Fickle would have had to run from the SCS backstabbers (and I don't like running from ambushes).

 

Thinking I should make more attacking resources available, Fickle sold all equipment gained to date and got just enough money to recharge the wands of cloudkill, fire and monster summoning picked up in the dungeon.  She'll still rely on her own resources where possible though (and hasn't actually used any of those wands to date).  

 

She oversaw a change of management at the Copper Coronet.  Then, after buying the Sling of Seeking from Bernard, Fickle set out for Watcher's Keep to see what she could find there.  On the way she bumped into another ambush, but a skull trap killed both the mage and cleric and the others were easy enough.  At Watcher's Keep a pair of vampiric wraiths were waiting.  That was a challenge, but skull traps supported by haste, MGOI and spell immunity (necromancy) was enough to kill one of them at the cost of being drained 2 levels.  After healing and resting the remaining one was now easier and Fickle went on to clear the top level of basic enemies - skull traps being used on the large numbers of shadow fiends as Fickle would quickly get held by them in melee.  I took the book from the altar with the intention of killing the 2 statues at the end, but there were actually 4 activated, including casters.  It's a long time since I did Watcher's Keep under SCS and I couldn't remember their behaviour, so just ran outside.

 

After buffing up I came back in and tried to take the statues out one at a time.  A couple of attempts at a sunfire / skull trap combination didn't do damage quick enough to kill the mage statue though and I switched Fickle to producing animate dead - 2 of the 5 were skeleton warriors which proved sufficient.  Switching back to sunfire the remaining statues fell quite quickly now there was no need to worry about spell attacks.  I didn't fancy taking on the remaining 8 statues though so Fickle returned to Athkatla.

 

She made her way through the Copper Coronet sewers without trouble and used area damage spells on Captain Haegan.  Up to this point she's had plenty of surges in BG2, but none that have caused damage to her (though one cow kill at Watcher's Keep was thwarted by stoneskin).  However, there was a burst fireball as part of an impressive nine-in-one surge while preparing to get over the acid trap.  

After resting to recover from that she carried on to clear the rest of the slavers - 2 skull traps killing both mages before they got sight of her.

 

At the Bridge District Fickle used spell immunity to get the Berserker Horn before going on to solve the skinner murders (level 13).  The enemies there were drawn upstairs one by one into a few summons (apart from the ghasts - who died in a sunfire).

[Grond0]

Fickle - elven wild mage (update 3)

 

At the temple sewers Fickle used area damage followed up with a skeleton warrior on a beholder / gauth / mustard jelly group.  The sea troll was attracted to the fight in time to be killed as well.  After killing some separated kobolds Fickle buffed up and assaulted the rakshasa.  It proved difficult to hit and Fickle's initial buffs had largely worn off before a skeleton warrior found a nice finishing blow.  She then opened up access to the Unseeing Eye quest, though I don't intend to attempt that or the liches for the time being.

 

Next, Fickle did the Fallen Paladins - their failure to bring along magical weapons making it an easy fight for a skeleton warrior.  To complete her temple work she also tried to pass some dodgy goods off on Sir Sarles before recovering a relic of Lathander.  After that she tidied up a loose end by collecting Neb's head and taking it to the Government District for display.

 

Back to the Docks to get entrance to Harper HQ.  A couple of skull traps killed Prebek, but Sanasha managed to hide in a corner and her buffs kept her going for a bit until a skeleton warrior helped chase her down.  After looting the harpers I tried to trap Lucette to teach her not to kill people, but she escaped after taking 79 damage - I should have cast haste initially (or used spell attacks).

 

Fickle then undertook Mae'Var's tasks.  She got to level 15 for returning the necklace, before moving on to Rayic Gethras.  He chose to use mantle to protect against a skeleton warrior - big mistake.  The shadow thieves in Rayic's guild didn't put up much of a fight, but Mae'Var himself did better.  His buffs kept him going long enough to be able to breach Fickle's defenses (after spell immunity wore off).  She responded immediately with a sunfire to finish him off, forgetting about the presence of the innocent prisoner in the nearby cell ...

 

Now with surplus money Fickle restored her reputation to 16 at the temple and paid Gaelan Bayle.  She then started Aran's tasks.  Lassal was odd: initially he just stood still doing nothing, but was unkillable (I guess his script couldn't activate properly due to him being constantly hit).  Once Fickle and a skeleton warrior moved out of sight he activated properly.  He still wasn't easy to kill (SCS improved vampires being a lot tougher than vanilla), but the job was eventually done.

 

I've not been bothering with invisible travel for a while, which made an SCS ambush on the way to the Bridge District a bit of a concern.  The 3 fighters, 4 thieves and 2 mages successfully breached Fickle's defenses and she had to use an invisibility potion to find space to rebuff and turn the tables on them.  After dealing with the Guild Contact Fickle was travelling invisibly back to the Docks, but this time a weaker group of ambushers simply ran away themselves.

 

Rather than tackle the vampire guild yet Fickle headed to Trademeet - an orog ambush on the way getting her to level 14.  The genies were quickly beaten up by summons and Fickle moved on to the Grove.  There were lots of spirit trolls there, that can be very annoying in melee due to disappearing several times a round.  However, skeleton warriors to pin them in place, skull traps to put them down and sunfires to finish worked well.  She tried out a fire elemental a couple of times, but that spell appears to be bugged in this installation, with the elemental remaining neutral after the testing period is finished.

 

There was an unexpected twist when Fickle asked Cernd to kill Faldorn - he lost.  In this fight he just attacked with a staff rather than shapechange or use spells, so it's not surprising he lost.  Unfortunately, it therefore looks like I can't complete Trademeet - I have a firm rule that no NPCs can be recruited in solo runs.  I think that probably means I'll have to try and get a better installation after this run.

[Alaestr]

Nice work, Grond0. I usually choose to skip random ambushes with my characters - no need to risk their lives when there's nothing to be gained.

[Grond0]

Thanks Alaestr.  I agree it doesn't make sense, but I hate running away from challenges.  Other aspects of my compulsive behaviour can also prove costly ...

 

Fickle - elven wild mage (4th and final update)

 

With no reputation gain from Trademeet, Fickle was stuck on 19.  Even though it doesn't make sense in the context of a no-reload game I was aiming to get back to 20 before doing any more shopping, so decided I would have a go at the Unseeing Eye after all.  That proved to be one challenge too many.

 

A couple of yuan-ti mages on the way to the bridge were quite enough of a problem due to their regular death spells on summons and use of efreeti, but were eventually dealt with.  At the bridge it was no great surprise to see gauth coming over to play, but I didn't expect the beholders to teleport to block Fickle's retreat!

 

I tried matching their cheesy tactics by leaving a mislead of Tickle behind, but that didn't prevent them targeting her.  They stripped buffs so quickly that there seemed no chance of killing them there so, leaving them for the moment, Tickle went on to the Temple - getting up to level 17 by talking to the Avatar.  That was important to get her basic spell saving throw down to 0 - almost eliminating the danger of a petrification surge.

 

Coming back, she tried using dimension door to get past the beholders, but their anti-magic ray seemed to strip her buffs (including spell shield) and prevent the spell animation working properly despite her starting invisible and dimension door's casting time of 1 (I didn't have the AoP on to make that 0)! As she'd been in and out next to the beholders a couple of times earlier I didn't expect them to follow and hadn't produced the skeleton warriors which had been waiting to jump on any of them following last time.  This time, though, they did follow, but irritatingly only after a bit of a delay. That meant that I had just clicked to cast invisibility so Fickle could rest to try something else, so had no option to take an alternative action when 2 of the 3 beholders appeared next to her and used anti-magic and cause serious wounds to take her down to 50% health.  If she had been wearing the belt from Trademeet (which she would have been if Cernd had behaved more sensibly) she would have had enough time to take a potion of invisibility; as it was she didn't ...

[Alaestr]

Huh, condolences, Grond0. As far as losing a character it is not a pleasant experience, but I am happy that there is some challenge in SCS for you. Btw, what components have you installed?

[Grond0]

My Weidu log for this installation is here.

[Aasim]

@Grond0

Unfortunately, what you experienced is very common with latest SCS; both with Cernd (you have to micro him, and buff him prior to challenge, otherwise he will die to Faldorn) and creature "teleporting" to you once you leave the area - especially prominent in Nalia's Keep.

Something is very wrong with SCS28, I'm kind of reluctant to revert back to v21 but that's probably the most stable install for SCS. For annoying Spirit Trolls invisibility, I highly recommend Polytope's Polytweak mod - it makes them far less annoying to deal with and they remain a decent challenge as well.

Condolences anyway, it was a great run.

[Blackraven]

I agree with the others, great run Grond0, you've got nothing to blame yourself for (as is usually the case with my failed run lol). I found your Dimension Door and Mislead attempts quite resourceful.

Your posts are very insightful for me, now that I'm playing with SCS v28 for the first time.
Good luck on your next run!

[polytope]

@Grond, sad to see your WM die to teleporting beholders, I know SCS Kangaxx does something like this if you try to flee, didn't realize every enemy in v28 did.

 

@Grond0

Unfortunately, what you experienced is very common with latest SCS; both with Cernd (you have to micro him, and buff him prior to challenge, otherwise he will die to Faldorn) and creature "teleporting" to you once you leave the area - especially prominent in Nalia's Keep.

Something is very wrong with SCS28, I'm kind of reluctant to revert back to v21 but that's probably the most stable install for SCS. 

 

The melee scripting of SCS 28 seems somewhat better, they don't chase sanctuaried characters at least, nor do thieves instantly go invisible if blinded and they pick their targets based upon damage type and resistance. However, SCS 28 won't work with Ascension (which I see Grond has installed) unless he does some modifications (thread here), and in fact can't even be played past Sendai's enclave if you don't fix her script. Sadly I think that's just the consequence of the mod becoming so complex and the author having so little time for playtesting.

 

Eryx and party, long ToB update

 

Brimstone, the red dragon added to the fire giant temple is defeated quickly, he didn't make things easier for himself by wing buffeting the party away from his support giants, or indeed by wing buffeting his fell cats away from him (who would otherwise lower fire resistance).

 

 

Next the party confronted Imix, who uses Greater Whirlwind and some sort of sunfire + knockback attack (maybe other powers too, he didn't live for more than a couple of rounds). Still no problem if his burning men support cleared quickly before they shoot their dispelling Banefire (unlike beholders they don't shoot it instantly). Stepped on the poison arrow trap (always gets me). Collected the hearts.

 

Randolph levelled up as sorcerer, and his last 3rd level choice was Remove Magic (wavered with Skull Trap, then decided it's too annoying to use with a party and sorc RM might actually be useful in ToB), picked Mordy for 7th.

 

Upgraded axe of the unyielding to +5, it would normally have bugged healing on equip due to +1 con, but our barb has 19 con (no extra hp for 20) and Eryx 16 (no bonuses for a bard going higher either) meaning I can use this beast without feeling guilty. I decided not to use Roranach’s horn though, it’s just too much, like the Abishai armor or defender flail for the barbarian… might use it in the final throne battle actually (I expect to make it that far).

 

Time to save Saradush, off to the forest of Mir via a little known detour through WK (as a reminder, party has already done everything up to level 5). The mages in the orc horde put up a surprisingly decent fight, large groups of low level mages are sometimes better than a single high level one with their chaining SW, breach, malison etc.

 

Kind of screwed up with the Globe machine, absent-mindedly put the globes in their columns before fighting the last purple group (liches) and green group (beholders), which I was going to buff for, so missed out on some xp. Kept second red globe (a super superior healing potion) and third (+1 saves to the whole party, or so I hear... let’s pretend I finally used those glasses of identification I've been carrying in my pack since the first week).

 

Then we went to fight the green dragon, had no 9th level spells left upon entering his room (I have an irrational tendency to spam Wish in between battles) decided it wouldn't be necessary because I remembered him as the weakest dragon in the game. He probably still is but has a lot of hp and a Contingency: Heal, also another instacast heal latter in the battle. For some reason he had no spell protections or even stoneskin or haste (like all the other dragons). However his breath is poison, thus hard to protect against (kept Randolph out of his LoS until he used it so as not to get him one-shotted), even so his breath deals less than a quarter of the fighters' current hp and didn't hurt Eryx at all, thanks to the ring of Gaxx.

 

 

If you're wondering about the insane to-hit bonus, Artemisia's racial enemy accounts for some, as does the +7 THAC0 for being a high level archer. Since this dragon takes some time to kill but is weak at dealing damage maybe other enemies should spawn while he still lives... such as powerful snakes and Yuan-Ti mages (though not quite the nightmare they were in chapter 2 they could still complicate the fight).

 

Collect the warrior's skull and courage key. As an aside, I didn't remember which pedestal summons which guardians, but this can be tested easily by clicking them with one key in the inventory: Mind key - Rilmani; Heart key - the huntress party; Spirit key - Azamantes and his flying skulls.

 

Spirit warrior challenge, a decent chance of dying here actually, I think this is the safest way to do it: North two rooms, fight the ghost, get the helm, back south to the room with the fountain, east, get the scroll, east again, kill the dog - sad as that may be, get the potion, south, fight the skeleton, get the wand. Back the way you came to the room where the ghost was, then off to the final room not opening the desk (bracers are not worth the chance of being poisoned) but using the scroll on the way, getting the last potion and using the wand on the mummy. Success!

 

Reason for doing it this way; you cannot have the helm before fighting the ghost anyway, but it is (I think) useful against the other creatures in the maze.

 

Rilmani easy, Artemisia shot their chief with Firetooth before he could cast Time Stop, doing it this way also avoids the annoying backlashes from his aura.

 

Another level for Randolph, choosing Fire Shield: Blue and PW:Blind.

 

Now for Azamantes, believe it or not I've never fought "proper" SCS Azamantes - i.e. wearing the robe of Vecna - because I usually use Item Randomizer. He has Improved Alacrity spells and shoots instacast Ruby Ray, Remove Magic, Dragon's Breath etc. while his skulls spam Incendiary Clouds.

 

 

This would be quite lethal for fighters without items granting fire resistance (a good reason to leave him till after the underdark - i.e. helm of brilliance and ring of fire control, also a good reason to kick myself for losing those red dragon scales - I think party had no scaling knife handy for the one in Yaga's temple either). Randolph + Eryx have no fire resistance items so are relying on Spell Shield + SI:Abjuration to keep buffs intact for a round or so, Randolph under IA uses CC 3x Ruby Ray and a sequencer with 3x secret word, followed by a breach from Eryx and a second breach from Randolph of Azamantes' contingencied ProMW. Lich dies for real this time and his skulls are easy with no one to dispel protections.

 

Forged the Ravager halberd, then tackled the final seal guardians, in the span of one GWW barb vorpaled the Hive Mother and drow cleric, with their casters down the remaining fiends had no chance.

 

Told Odren he's a jerk and to go seal the keep himself, then had a change of heart and went to rescue him from Demogorgon, who (like I say) was a pushover because he didn't summon a horde of demons as he's supposed to. Then again, it only took about 2-3 rounds to deal enough damage to defeat him, very unlikely the demons could've killed my party in that time (and they follow their master back).

 

Oh well, that was anticlimatic. I think I could've reliably beaten everything except that Hive Mother (Ravager halberd is MADE for them) and Azamantes in chapter 3, although ring of Gaxx is almost essential to tank Demogorgon because of his horrible disease attack and going for that in chapter 3 is a no. I think this is the most "heroic" way to complete WK, not sure if it nets you the most XP.

 

Where were we? Oh yeah. The hearts. Nyalee has a change of heart too, SCS gives her the ability to summon clones of the party - one per round though, not all at once like Irenicus, I gave her time to clone Eryx and Artemisia (why yes, the Ravager halberd was safely in the backpack). She also has some high level druid powers like turning into an earth elemental to melee... Neat, but a single druid of any level is hardly dangerous for a ToB party, even with a couple of shambling mound minions. Maybe some additional druids or witches (with druid and mage spells) could appear to help her.

 

Unfortunately I had to re-do Yaga due to bugs: I'm sure there's no way he would realistically have caused PC's death the first time and 99% sure not even Leksa would've been perma killed.

 

About the battle, his army start spawning when you cross the bridge, and it takes a bit more than one and a half turns for Yaga to return after first being wounded and fleeing; time enough for a high level party to kill em all, but a bit overwhelming if solo - would probably go with invisibility in that case. Eryx and Randolph cast Spheres of Chaos from scrolls (a semi frequent random drop from Skellie warriors and such) to act both as crowd control and a timer. Thought I would be clever and fight on the bridge to bottleneck them, then realized they spawn on top of you anyway. Since I did it that way (in the bugged attempt) I stuck with that "tactic" in this proper version even though it's useless.

 

Yaga’s army includes quite a few mid-level mages who (with SCS anyway) cast Breach (Mass Invisibility from Vendurius ring is a good foil, but PC has 50% MR with Purifier offhand, so could use a potion of magic protection if breached for 100%), they also cast Telefield and Slow if not shut down quickly (arrows of dispelling are excellent here, not enough memorized breaches/RM for them all). Eryx uses the Axe of the Unyielding rather than Fury (no prize for guessing what I put my 32nd level proficiency in), because it seems all the giants and some of the human fighters here are un-stunnable berserkers. Oils of speed are a must, because haste would be expiring by the time Yaga is back.

 

 

And here he is! His army aren't going to help him at least, but his lieutenants are. I was slightly worried when the lieutenant fighter fired up GWW and went for Randolph who was casting IA, but he finished the spell before his mirrors were even cleared, then immediately cast ProMW and debuffed the lieutenant mage with Ruby ray -> SW -> PW:Blind (I knew I wouldn't regret that pick). Unfortunately Randolph took a bit of Fireshield:Blue damage before I realized what was happening (a tree was blocking my view of the map) and a bit more from the lieutenant cleric's Storm of Vengeance (which he cast inspite of Aleks and Eryx frenziedly beating on him), first time in a long while our sorc has gotten low in health (first time in the game maybe). Anyway, chop up Yaga's allies, then gradually whittle him down (Flail of Ages works well). He's a lot like the chromatic demon, very resilient but no real threat unless you're napping - although he does have lava bombs as a ranged attack, which deal fire  + crushing damage (I think) and knockback.

 

On the way to Amkethran the party is met at the oasis by another army who apparently wanted to reward our efforts in saving Saradush by making us a gift of the Answerer. Seriously, this battle is like something you’d expect in Chapter 2 of SoA... Even so, I wasn't quite sure what the mages might have up their sleeves (nothing remotely dangerous, as it happened), so immediately used Mass Invisibility from ring + SI:Divination for Eryx.

 

In the town I buy K'logarath and Enkidu's plate from Carras, then decide to Pocket Plane and play with that Deck of Many Things. If you're wondering why I left it so late, I've bought the last items I'll ever need to buy and have enough loot from the oasis to sell, so Cespenar's remaining upgrades are affordable even if I draw Ruin.

 

Aleks draws the cards: Donjon (saved), Key and Fool. Funny thing, he got confused by Fool inspite of Chaotic Commands, it was a good idea to play with the deck in this pocket plane rather than in a town full of innocent civilians… Remove curse gets him back to normal.

 

The Warder's Signet ring from the deck is +5 with Item Pack tweaks, rather than +3. A little OTT, but the same could be achieved by wearing the vanilla ring with Gaxx. My blade should never need to worry about saving throws again.

 

Was going to save Marlowe, but forgot that the party is all moved to meet the lich after speaking to him a second time: Do I take on this lich unbuffed, or let Marlowe suffer for making a Faustian deal? Sorry Marlowe. Woke up Malla anyway and gave her money for a new life.

 

Current levels

 

Eryx, blade 33

Aleks, PoL 11-> fighter 26

Leksa, swash 10-> cleric 30 (1 death)

Artemisia, archer 25

Aragrish, barbarian 29

Randolph, sorcerer 24

 

Thoughts on the party:

 

Spoiler

In retrospect I would rather have a berserker 9-> cleric and swash 10-> fighter, plus the barbarian, sorc and maybe archer. A blade is very powerful, perhaps too much so even without the unnerfed spellcasting (no spells above 6th level), it's almost an identical (boring) playing style to Kensage. I would've preferred a 4-5 person party without the blade and the ability to do some NPC quests in SoA.

 

An interesting fact is that if you're not using MP party or NPC mods there's only one single class arcane caster (Nalia) easily recruitable in early SoA (unless ofc your PC is one themselves). Then again, who prefers Nalia to Imoen in the long run? Due to the randomness of enemy spell books Rayic is sometimes easy with SCS (as with this run), but sometimes vicious. Rescuing Haer from the planar prison is also a bit much for a low level party and Haer doesn't know Remove Magic, which is THE spell for a bard. Doing chapter 2 with only one arcane caster has been a longstanding problem for me with SCS. I also use too many parentheses (writing the way that Edwin speaks, but less snark).

[Grond0]

@Grond, sad to see your WM die to teleporting beholders, I know SCS Kangaxx does something like this if you try to flee, didn't realize every enemy in v28 did.

 

The melee scripting of SCS 28 seems somewhat better, they don't chase sanctuaried characters at least, nor do thieves instantly go invisible if blinded and they pick their targets based upon damage type and resistance. However, SCS 28 won't work with Ascension (which I see Grond has installed) unless he does some modifications (thread here), and in fact can't even be played past Sendai's enclave if you don't fix her script. Sadly I think that's just the consequence of the mod becoming so complex and the author having so little time for playtesting.

Thanks for the tip polytope - and for another interesting Eryx update.

[Aasim]

The melee scripting of SCS 28 seems somewhat better, they don't chase sanctuaried characters at least, nor do thieves instantly go invisible if blinded and they pick their targets based upon damage type and resistance. However, SCS 28 won't work with Ascension (which I see Grond has installed) unless he does some modifications (thread here), and in fact can't even be played past Sendai's enclave if you don't fix her script. Sadly I think that's just the consequence of the mod becoming so complex and the author having so little time for playtesting.

 

Tbh, I never experienced blind thieves behaviour since I use Blindness so rarely. I'll probably go for a game with BP instead of SCS, since some stuff there started to be seriously annoying (the constant use of Invisibility potions/spells being probably the worst - it won't save them, just makes the enemies more annoying) and some bugs are indeed quite common. I'll also probably tweak Invisibility spell and potion to last much, much shorter, otherwise this game; especially BG1 part, becomes tedious work. In addition, this will make Stealth feature useful and not useless as it is now.

Also, I find melee targeting in SCS very sub-optimal. They always  wade in on the same target, which was once for me a -13 AC character, basically invurnerable in SoA/BG1....even if they had a -4 AC alternative standing right beside the bait. Some randomness in targeting would be a good thing.

Anyways, great run and a great read as well. Stay focused in Ascension, and do kill of those Fallen Planetars quickly.

[Blackraven]

Hmm, I think I'll return to SCS I & II v21. Thanks Polytope for mentioning this, and congrats on your great progress so far. It's been more than a year since I last made it into ToB, those screenshots look dazzling to me...

[polytope]

It's been more than a year since I last made it into ToB, those screenshots look dazzling to me...

 

Same here, hence me tripping every second snare in the fire giant temple and that nasty Disintegrate trap outside Sendai's enclave, automatic save even if I didn't have Spell Deflection/Death Ward from fighting the drow, and could also be countered via potion but even so... It's been years since I played BG1 too, but after this is finished I hope to do a proper trilogy Ironman.

 

I've forgotten a few other things like the Clasp of Montolio's cloak in WK (our ranger will never dual wield, but a nice item for the protagonist maybe) and I wasted quite a bit of time last night fighting everything in Sendai's enclave to compensate for a few skipped battles in the keep (well, the Derro spawn infinitely, I think I fought only 5 waves before the slavemaster) then I realized that there's no point grinding: Randolph is guaranteed to make level 25 and almost certainly not going to make level 28. Not that levels above 20 matter all that much for sorcerers (as opposed to regular mages), if you can't win a battle with a 25th level sorc you can't win it. So, I haven't fought Sendai herself just yet as I'd planned.

 

I'll probably go for a game with BP instead of SCS, since some stuff there started to be seriously annoying (the constant use of Invisibility potions/spells being probably the worst - it won't save them, just makes the enemies more annoying) and some bugs are indeed quite common.

 

 

Anyways, great run and a great read as well. Stay focused in Ascension, and do kill of those Fallen Planetars quickly.

 

Thanks Aasim, can you comment on the difficulty of BP AI improvements and encounters? The readme is very vague about what exactly it does.

 

Happy Easter all

[Aasim]

Thanks Aasim, can you comment on the difficulty of BP AI improvements and encounters? The readme is very vague about what exactly it does.

You probably played old Weimer's Tactics mod, yes? Ditto Solaufein NPC? BP is somewhat of a "crossbreed" in between SCS (which has outstanding targeting parameters for disables, vulnerable targets, etc.) and older mods like Tactics and Revised Battles; which both rely on sheer force of numbers or cheese to make the game harder.

It was basically used almost exclusively in Megamod installs. It has no SCS targeting, but one thing I really like about it is the new encounters it brings. It adds new enemies, tweaks existing ones, makes use of some new mod-added spells (Megamod legacy I suppose) if you install relevant mods etc. Some battles; example - Tolgerias in Planar Sphere - are completely changed - now he has a slew of guards with him in addition to his backup mage.

Other stuff:

Trolls can cause level drain. 

Mages get smarter scripts  - nothing like SCS, but still an improvement over vanilla. They don't go invisible 3 times per battle (instantly, via sequencer and via minor sequencer happens a lot to me in SCS), but they can be rather unforgiving if you take them for granted.

Fire giants can now throw boulders from range, Sahaugin can take your weapons with tridents and simiar stuff. Drow use PnP abilities such as Dancing Lights and Faerie Fire. HLAs are used by high-leveled oponnents even in SoA (Lavok, for example, in my install gets Alacrity). Dragons are fairly nasty - probably even harder than SCS, but have much less HP.

Unfortunately, not all is perfect with BP - any time you hit an oponnent with a ranged weapon/spell, he immidiately attacks whoever attacked him from range, which leads to awful (imo) gameplay. I'll probably tweak the generic scripts used in control of that and remove this part of the AI. 

Overall, it's probably easier than SCS with hardest settings. 

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 43 - (11th & final update)
Waltz, half-elf bard (Grond0) & Hallie, halfling swashbuckler (Gate70)
 

A poor day for us commenced with an assault on one of our problem encounters - Draconis.  The intention was to lead the dragon into some pre-laid traps near the entrance.  Surely that could be done without any need for acid protection ... or perhaps not.

 

Despite her haste Draconis gained rapidly on Hallie and breathed.  Without acid protection her body melted away beyond hope of resurrection - ending the run.

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear that guys. Best of luck in your next attempts.