15226 réponses à ce sujet

[Grond0]

Emmental - elven wild mage (1st and final update)

 

Emmental had got the XP for level 10 during his BG1 adventures and started by levelling up in the dungeon - +3 HPs to end with a somewhat disappointing 55 (including 12 for a familiar).

 

The dungeon offers several significant challenges for a character trying to complete everything.  In addition to the various casters the mephits can be a pain (magic resistant, fast, call for help and can gate in more mephits).  Most of the challenges can be bypassed, but Emmental was working his way through them (mainly using cloudkill on duergar and summons / MMM on mephits) when he came unstuck on a more mundane challenge - getting poisoned when opening a chest (without having used vampiric touch on a summons first).  I kept hoping as his HPs drained away that the poison was about to stop, but it didn't ....  

[polytope]

Grond I admire your dedication toward never using healing potions... I rarely use them myself but I remember them being needed a couple of times in the early game (I think I've got about 150 superior healing potions now which I expect never to use, already threw away all the extra healing potions in Sendai's enclave).

 

I liked aVENGER's work generally, but not the mephits: At the end of the day it's a mod which makes mephits even more annoying.

 

Eryx and party - what should be the penultimate ToB update (again, it's long).

 

The outside of Sendai's enclave was simple, although the elder Umber Hulks near the Hive Mother (who ofc fell to Ravager halberd) actually brought the barb quite low in health with their bleeding damage. One high level mage to watch out for here (she's disguised as a deer).

 

Thelynn'ss and party easy, tackled without rest. Ditto derro and spiders - although need to watch your saves with latter.

 

Outside Odamaron's hut were a band of drow and glabrezus (with some mages and priests similar to in the barracks). No problems here.

 

Odamaron himself improved a bit, he has two apprentices (a less powerful lich and a vampire mage similar to Tanova) and two tough skeleton warriors. Both liches summoned simulacrums, it was quite an interesting fight with so many spellcasters to interrupt.

 

 

The outcome was in no doubt, though I notice looking at this screenshot that the vampire is trying to dominate Aragrish an instant after his rage expired: Even if it had worked he would just attack the nearest party member - the sorc under IA who could cast ProMW in an instant (charmed creatures are that way, very zombie-like in their behaviour) and he could be brought back to his senses with an arrow of dispelling.

 

On the way out, party meets another gang of drow and beholders, I'm guessing we're supposed to fight them without rest (Pocket Plane ability is seriously broken like that), so that's what I did.

 

Ogremoch is a bit tougher, he recast stoneskins very often and has more hp - but like any hard hitting melee creature he just gets owned by archer called shots, at least enemies are smart enough to blind her whenever possible!

 

Also fought duel with captain Egghead or whatever his name is. He's not improved at all, no need to buff.

 

Upgraded Mask, Purifier and Firetooth, but I almost misclicked and upgraded the fairly useless Taralash instead! Remember Cespenar offers to use the bowstring on Taralash first if you have both in inventory.

 

Rested before the mindflayer area, as I have underestimated them in the past. This time I was overestimating them, they're easy, although SCS adds a few thrall fighters and mages, kinda like that area in the temple sewers, which was challenging >10 levels ago... Randolph got sorc level 25 here (choosing Spellstrike) and it seemed a waste to launch an assault on Sendai without resting to get a few uses out of it. Had no luck wish resting so returned to Pocket Plane and fought the second challenge here before turning in. Note that genie hanging around, Semaj was about to annoy me with a Wish spell before he died. Eryx got an Ascension power: Mass Healing. 

 

Sendai herself had better luck than Semaj, one of her clone statues managing to cast Wish: Breach on the party.

 

A thing to note about this fight with SCS is that the statues activate once per round even if the previous one is still alive, and also the drow reinforcements don't appear near teh door but instead teleport right next to your party.

 

Randolph cast Improved Alacrity and rebuffed, while Aleks (wearing Enkidu's plate) and Aragrish moved to block the stairs where the assassin clone of Sendai just went live. so that she could not get a backstab on Randolph who has just lost his Stoneskin (this would've been at least 60 damage without hardiness + backstab immunity... decidedly unhealthy for a sorc).

 

 

Eryx just recast stoneskin, and on the next round drank a potion of Magic protection, putting him at 100% (purifier offhand ofc.).

 

Cleric/Mage statue -> normal weapons. Archer statue -> ranged attacks. Berserker statue -> entangled with SSoM, then Randolph (still under IA) cast pierce shield and PW:B to take her out of action... This way the berserker statue can be finished off at leisure, which triggers Sendai's appearance! ...she was defeated almost instantly by sorc spamming antimagic under IA and the party fighters.

 

Eryx gave flippant responses to the Solar, triggering an evil version of the 3rd pocket plane challenge and gaining a "bad" power: Dark Taint.

 

Back in Amkethran, the party met a mercenary captain who had a pretty sweet bow, uh, I mean who attacked us without provocation.

 

Captain Erelon is interesting, he is the only spellcaster I've seen (with SCS) using SI:Conjuration, and he had several ProMW spells, while he also turned out to be immune to normal weapons! We had used up all our antimagic (Ruby Rays, Spellstrike's etc.) in the Sendai fight, so had to use AoE damage to beat him, as no weapon could harm him. Darkfire bow is inferior damage-wise to Tuigan, but it's really convenient for every warrior to be able to cast Improved Haste on themselves.

 

Now for the dragons. Draconis in human form was actually quite a powerful mage, he used Improved Alacrity and refreshed his Stoneskins and protection from weapon spells every time he was breached (he seems to cast at Vecna speed), he was also camping in a Telefield, which made him difficult to injure, the Planetar helped by casting Insect Plague on him (shouldn't have summoned one yet, as he banishes it on changing form). In contrast Draconis's dragon form died very quickly; I suspect that the way he transforms to dragon doesn't allow him to benefit from the hp increase most dragons should have (with SCS v21 anyway).

 

Inside of Abazigal's lair is changed a lot by SCS, for one it's full of lizard men, don't laugh.

 

 

I accidentally entered this cave before I meant to, and nearly got Aleks and Leksa killed by the lizard man Shaman's CC Wilting, so dived back through the pool. I was really hoping to avoid using area transition exploits and it bothers me a little. Rebuffed, came back and beat them.

 

Now for a real dragon fight! Anadramtis is a yellow dragon who has sudden mood swings. He guards the breath potion pool.

 

Randolph's CC Ruby Ray/Pierce Shield fired a bit too early, before the dragon got his buffs up. The dragon then cast Wish to dispel our protections, Eryx's contingencied (on hit) Remove Magic triggered, but somehow didn't hit the dragon (AoE spells and dragons are like that...):

 

 

Randolph immediately uses his trigger with Stone Skin, ProME & ProFire, Eryx casts Stoneskin, Leksa casts Armor of Faith, fighters use Hardiness. Potions of clarity were drunk before entering this room.

 

Since plan "A" failed and the dragon is still under ProMW, fighters need to just survive (dispelling his Improved Haste is just as important as dispelling his protections). His breath weapon "Scorching Sand" deals piercing damage and blindness on a failed save vs breath (being a bard, Eryx ofc failed his save)... I remembered that from the Tactics yellow dragon, what I didn't remember is that you can't attack a dragon if you're blind! You can't get close enough. Randolph got off an Improved Alacrity on the next round and Spellstrike/Breached the dragon, allowing Artemisia to dispel his IH with an arrow of dispelling. He refreshed his buffs a few times though. Precast Regeneration spell allowed Aleks to survive the dragon's attacks. Finally Anadramitis falls! His scales can be made into AC -1 armor, wearable even by archers which grants +50% piercing and missile resistance, the armor seems overpowered, but might use anyway in the final fight (it's still not as OP as the reflection shield).

 

On the way back to the entrance, party is ambushed by some fiends. They were no match, but globes from Limited Wish were used to foil the Cornugon's lighting bolts (rebounds would be scary in this confined space).

 

Another change to the plot of Abazigal's lair is that the dying monk has no rope, apparently rope is one of those special things you just can't use a Wish spell for.

 

Sorcerer: I wish I had some rope!

 

Genie: So, let me get this straight, you want yourself and your friends to be level drained?

 

Sorc: What? No I just want some rope.

 

Genie: Oh I see, you want everyone in the area to be hit by Horrid Wilting.

 

Sorc: No, I... Never mind. I'll get the friggin rope in town.

 

Which was what the party did. On our way back, the party encountered some more dragons outside Abazigal's lair. I realized I didn't have Pro Acid memorized (for Randolph and Eryx, the warriors are relying on items and Armor of Faith to cushion acid breath), then I realized I didn't need it. They were only black dragons and the fighters could handle them by themselves - Eryx, Randolph and Leksa ran out of their LoS. Artemisia removed their stoneskins and haste with 2 arrows of dispelling, then our fighters slew them quickly with Critical Strike (unlike most ToB dragons, these guys are quite vulnerable to crits). 

 

Next a green dragon, like the one in WK she healed herself repeatedly. I managed to spread the party out when I saw her about to breathe upon us (since poison damage is unblockable except by Thieves' Hood/Gaxx), wasn’t really necessary though.

 

After she falls, a final red dragon appears. An interesting fact is that the green dragon lasted longer by casting heal than this red dragon with his ProMW and stoneskin triggers… the latter can be countered with breach (or by Spellstrike + Breach if the trigger includes spell protections, it still takes no time at all under Improved Alacrity). On the other hand, a dragon healing several hundred hp takes a bit of effort to reverse. This time, our sorc got the kill.

 

 

Now to get the Geas scroll, the party must fight some “tyrant golems” in Lycanth’s cave, they are either adamantine golems with the powers of beholders or beholders with the resistance of adamantine golems… I’m not sure. No screenshots because they’re tough but not really interesting. Barb with enrage, GWW and Ravager halberd basically soloed them, although Eryx with Hindo’s doom and 70% magic resistance from items joined him in slowly chipping away at them.

 

Next, party attacked the three elder orbs who guard Lycanth's gauth. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds, because sorc had only one 9th level cast left (used it for Improved Alacrity), entered under Mass Invisibility, lured the orbs into shooting their AMR’s at Aragrish, killed the Simulacrum with Ravager GWW, debuffed the orbs with repeated RRR and Remove Magic (they have contingencied ProMW, so need a few remove magics), threw in a Chain Lightning trigger, ADHW, another GWW and they died. Their web spam would definitely have caused the party problems if not for Limited Wish for globes.

 

Also found some Lapis Lazuli, and upgraded the the Stormcharged Axe (an item won in the CoC encounter). It should be a useful offhand weapon vs Abazigal, but I think there are very few dangerous enemies yet to be encountered who aren't immune to stun.

 

Well, now the party has just two more really challenging encounters left; Abazigal (and his extended family) and the throne battles. Fingers crossed…

 

Current levels

 

Eryx, blade 36

Aleks, PoL 11 -> fighter 29

Leksa, swash 10 -> cleric 33 (1 death)

Artemisia, archer 28

Randolph, sorcerer 26

Aragrish the Cliched, barbarian 32

[Serg BlackStrider]

Well, now the party has just two more really challenging encounters left; Abazigal (and his extended family) and the throne battles. Fingers crossed…

You have my fingers crossed there as well, Polytope! Keep the good work and stay focused for a just tiny step ahead!

[corey_russell]

@Polytope: Good luck with your final challenges...

@Grond0: Sorry to hear your wild mage got poisoned to death. In vanilla, you can just immediately rest and you're fine, but that doesn't work in SCS. Best of luck in your next attempts.

[Aasim]

GL Polytope....great job on that dragon army. 

Afaik, SCS does not prevent resting off poison damage.

[Grond0]

Nice to see the dragons taking a beating Polytope - best of luck with the final challenges.

 

@Grond0: Sorry to hear your wild mage got poisoned to death. In vanilla, you can just immediately rest and you're fine, but that doesn't work in SCS. Best of luck in your next attempts.

 

Afaik, SCS does not prevent resting off poison damage.

Interesting.  I have tested that before and died, but not this time so there must have been something different in my previous installation.  First off I quickly ran an autosave through to the same chest that killed Emmental.  I tried opening that half a dozen times and survived every time, so he was clearly a bit unlucky originally.  I then damaged him to ensure poison would be fatal if it continued, but resting stopped the poison dead.

[Aasim]

Grim Deathrock, entering the challenge from BG1.

 

We start of slowly as usual - picking up Jaheira, leaving Minsc inside his cage, finishing circus, adopting Yoshimo (he started at level 10, and requires more than 700 000 EXP for next level. Sigh.), killed the Beastmaster and set the slaves of Copper Corronet free.

 

From Slums, we go to Goverment District, then City Gates, then Umar Hill - this lets me avoid Suna before I pick up Ilbratha. Upon return to city, we trigger Suna ambush from docks. Grim chose to use Divine Wrath innate as an openner, but to little effect.

 

He got backstabed several time, taking huge damage, despite his Full Plate. Jaheira scored a kill on Eldarin with her spells.

 

Grim got charmed. At least he's safe for now.

 

Or so I tought. Call Lightning hit him, since he was "red-circled". 

 

Yoshi's turn to shine. Jaheira summoned a Hamadryad which charmed Grim back. Yoshi is foaming from his mouth after a round in open combat.

 

Summons enter the fray. My summons, since Hamadryad charmed enemy mage as well, so I can use her spellbook!

 

Suna dies shortly after, and I used wizard's spell on her, which  made her hostile. I expended them all, but forgot about her Minor sequencer. As Yoshi soon felt, it contained two sets of Magic Missiles, killing him. If Grim got targeted, game over.

 

She finally dies.

 

We revive Yoshi, but I forgot to pick up his equipment. Tugian Bow, a number of potions, +2 short sword, gems from Thives Guild are lost forever. I say my farewell to Yoshi, he brought me no good.

 

 

Since I don't really like to play w/o a thief, I pick up Jan as a substitute (my plan is to pick up Tiax, but he doesn't come until Spellhold). With Jan onboard, we delve into Watcher's Keep. Jan explores the area invisible, and here I tought I can avoid petrification trap. Apperantly, I was wrong.

 

Cool, now Jan is petrified, and he is carrying some neat loot (luckily, he was encumbered and slowed so I had him return the major stuff to Jaheira and Grim. He still had a fair deal of scrolls and potions). Being petrified isn't that bad after all I guess - we can buy a Stone to Flesh scroll just a few feet away, which we do. With no more invisibility potions (Jan had all with him), Jaheira uses Oil of Speed and snipes the Wraiths/Shadows with her Crimson Dart - Grim helped vs Mephits near the entrance. Grim doesn't have a magical weapon yet - Item Revisions makes it hard work to get them.

 

To my big surprise, Jan's statue was nowhere to be found. Zip, nada, as if he never existed. FFS. 

We cannot explore WK no more, so we return to the city. Decided to try my luck with Mencar. Jaheria summoned Dryads, which charmed enemy fighters - turning this battle from serious to hilarious. I didn't really think Risling is such a leathal backstabber - but this is a fairly leathal blow he delivered. Lol.

 

 

After some Ice Storms by Jaheira, Risling ran away, Mencar had Grim drinking potions mercilessly (and running for his life), but in the end we prevailed.

 

Bought Flame Tongue. Item Revisions makes this a buyable item. It's one of the few +3 weapons available that soon. Unlike it's vanilla incarnation, it actually deals fire damage, per it's namesake.

 

 

Since I want Edwin in my party, Gethras had to be dealt with. Unfortunately, he's a level 14 mage and chances of dying are fairly high. I adopt Korgan for the task. There can be only one dwarven berserker in my party. I love him, but I need Edwin.

Korgan did "absorb" a fair ammount of spells, up until a Chain Lightning (made with a -5 save penalty. With berserker's penalties vs breath, there's no way to avoid getting hit for approx 50 damage I'm afraid) After that, a Chromatic Orb sent him to 5th heaven and my screen to Goverment District

 

The sucker decided to explore his house, finding Grim and Jaheira. Meh. Cone of Cold 2x drops both the temperature and HP pool rapidly.

 

He finally dies after we bash through his sequencer of 2x fireshield + stoneskin..... I left Korgan's body in his house.

 

We adopt Edwin (he transfers straight from BG1 on BGT installs, so has very little EXP - he can't cast level 5 spells yet)

and kill Mae'var.

At least this battle went fairly smooth.

 

Next, Shade Lord. I bought a +2 generic Long Sword and a Potion of Magic Shielding before venturing here. This is "Revised Battles" Shade Lord - I didn't know what to expect, so haveng success on all saves is a very reasonable approach.

I took Mazzy in party. She's a True class Fighter - with Kit Revisions, fighters are no longer whelps overshined by Berserkers in every single aspect, but are probably the best fighter kit, with two valuable disables (Trip and Disarm) and a late-game aura to boot. They can also trade THAC0 for damage or AC; very adaptable kit to say the least.

Decided not to fight Thaxy just yet. Anyways, Mr.Shade, up close and personal. Grim is under a Magic Shielding potion, Oil of speed, Pro Undead scroll (+2 AC vs Undead and immunity to level drain with Item Revisions - it's no longer a "you can't touch me" scroll).

 

 

Edwin uses a Wyvern Call scroll, to keep Shade Lord busy while we deal with Patrick and the altar.

To my surprise, Shade casts Time Stop. 

 

Well, not much I can do but wait and see. If I see a "Remove magic" being cast, I'm officially dead.

He casts ADHW (we say goodbye to Edwin. Grim can laugh it off, but Edwin is dead. No way he can save with a -6 penalty Spell Revisions imposes to this spell) and uses Death Spell to get rid of Wyverns. They'd die anyway.

 

Signed, sealed, delivered, the Red Wizard is dead. 

 

We simply bash the altar. Shade Lord casts Symbol spells at Grim, who laughs at his feeble attempts, waiting for his Mantle to expire.

 

Wail of the Banshee. With Spell Revisions, this spell is so imbalanced that I don't ever use it. Save is made at -6.

 

Finger of Death (again, -6 or die.)

 

His Chain Triggers (again. sigh...the cheesines of old scripting at it's best)

 

It's his final attempt, however. He summned an Efreet, but that was dealt with easilly. Amaunator be praised, Mazzy is with us now.

 

Story will continue.

[Jianson]

Oh wow, fantastic writeup and screenies! Much appreciated.

Too bad about the items on Yoshi and Jan, and the permanent loss of Jan. Are both Yoshi and Korgan still available if you need them? And what about Minsc?

BG2 is so much nastier and the NPCs are fewer than in BG1 so that there is a real risk of actually running out of them with a setup with tough mods.

[Aasim]

Oh wow, fantastic writeup and screenies! Much appreciated.

You're very welcome. I'm afraid I'm not much of a story-teller when writing (I make a living out of telling stories, but I assume you're not children   ). 

 

 

Too bad about the items on Yoshi and Jan, and the permanent loss of Jan. Are both Yoshi and Korgan still available if you need them? And what about Minsc?

Yoshi's available. I'll probably pick him up before I go to Spellhold, Perth has ended my run once (and a rather good one) so I take no chances there anymore. I honestly don't know what happened with Jan, he got petrified near door. Maybe the statue is behind the door ??? I'll blast the area with a fireball to check it out.  I tried pausing to search for a feet circle, but to no avail. Meh, he's rather useful with detect illusions.

Korgan isn't available anymore.

For all I know, Minsc is still locked up in Jon's dungeon.

My "dream-setup" of this run would be Grim, Edwin, Jaheira, Mazzy, Tiax, and Nalia or Sarevok. I'll probably switch Mazzy for Sarevok if I ever get that far, and I'm dead afraid of Torgal with BP changes to Trolls. That means no Nalia just yet.

[Alaestr]

Nicely written, Aasim, pleasure to read. Hope your party's party will never stop

[Aasim]

Grim, 2nd update

 

Altough it's a bit late where I'm at, I decided to play another session before sleep. Edwin was rasied by Harper's Call, Mazzy wears a splendid leather with AC1, and all is nice and peachy. We shortly visited Druid Grove, killed some trolls/spiders, gathered the loot from mound (Edwin went in and out under invisibility)

 

The road further is blocked by a Greater Earth Elemental, which we have no chance of killing right now, especially since without a cleric I have no access to Chaotic Commands spell (Spell Revision Druids loose this crucial spell).

Back to the city. We aquire Yoshi again, solve Lirarcor puzzle, and assault the slavers there.

 

 

Nice and smooth.

 

With Yoshi on board, it's time to visit WK again. Guess who's there - Jan's statue. Boy, was I happy to see him!

 

And then this. For some reason, he wouldn't talk.....

 

So he dies. If I can't have him, then I'll take the loot instead. Unfortunately, he only had Quiver of unlimited bolts. Meh.

 

With my hardly gathered money, I buy this from Sister on top of WK - Item Revisions Yamato.

 

With this off-hand and Cloak of Vengeance, Grim punishes whoever hits him with 1d8+3 slashing and 1d10 electrical damage.  He has no proficiency in katanas, but it doesn't matter for now.

 

Again, back to city. We start Jaheira's Harper quest by killing the Zhentarim mages.

 

After watching Xzar's demise, both Jaheira and Grim get to level 11. Grim now gets regeneration, and Jaheira finally gets a level 6 slot. Needless to say, she memorizes Earth Elemental summoning, since that thing is insane after aTweaks. I modified it so that they're vulnerable to Death Spell, but even so, the power of this creature is outstanding.

Jaheira immidiately gets summoned to Harper's Hold.

Upon her return, we pre-buff in the inn to avoid mage detection, and enter fully buffed. 

Enemy mages apperantly lack coordination - they both fire off Remove magic at the same time. Edwin's Chaos confuses both mages (kensai died in 2nd round).

 

Jaheira summons the Elemental, while Mazzy Trips both mages down. This effect only lasts for a round, but is incredibly effective vs mages (it forces a save vs death, even if succesful, it slows them down)

 

We mop the harper bunch easilly, and now Mazzy gets called home. A nasty ambush foils our plans.

Edwin, w/o Stoneskins, casts Invisibility. Yoshi, w/o armor or weapon, drinks a potion of invisibility.

 

 

Unfortunately, AI was on so they both reveal themselves attacking with fists. Next you know, splat! Red Wizard of Thay, my red jewel, my comrade in blood, a summoner extraordinaire, scriber of scrolls with 19 INT (he got the tome), the reason we sacrificed Korgan, dies to a crap Orog. Permanently.

 

We finish the rest of the enemies without further losses (altough Yoshi came close to dying after a Lightning bolt),

 

but things will never be the same again.  

[Grond0]

And then this. For some reason, he wouldn't talk.....

I presume Jan was invisible when he tripped the trap, so it would take a while for you to be able to see him ...

 

The inability to get a stoned character to rejoin the party later is a bug, so you would have been entitled to force him back into the party with the Console.   That wouldn't have been as much fun though ! 

[Aasim]

I presume Jan was invisible when he tripped the trap, so it would take a while for you to be able to see him ...

 

The inability to get a stoned character to rejoin the party later is a bug, so you would have been entitled to force him back into the party with the Console.   That wouldn't have been as much fun though ! 

Omg, that's it, I used invisibility to avoid Wraiths/Shadows that spawned. He didn't disarm it since I tought disarming would foil his invisibility.....now thinking about it, it wouldn't. 

I guess such bugs are a part of the game's charm. Regardless, now he's dead, so CLUA is out of the question.

[Grond0]

Emmental {2} - elven wild mage (update 1)

 

After taking so many risks in BG1, I had been intending to give Emmental a much easier ride in BG2.  However, very early on he got a dreaded hold surge (and the cloudkill spell would have been useless anyway as there was an aTweaks mineral mephit in the room, which is magic resistant).  Being held would have been fatal in many, many of his encounters in BG1, but Emmental will be trying to practice safe casting as far as possible in BG2, i.e. not casting when an enemy is in sight or moving around.  

 

Immediately after that surge I noticed a couple of major omissions in Emmental's BG1 preparation, i.e. he had not learnt spirit armour, nor bought the Claw or Horn of Kazgoroth.  That makes getting spell save into automatic territory more difficult.  Therefore, rather than buffing before multiple spell use, he tried to minimise the chances of surges by minimising the number of spells cast.  That meant not tackling some parts of the dungeon, with the most significant combat being producing 4 hasted skeletons and a sword spider to take out the mephit portals.

 

Here's his record after sneaking invisibly past the assassins to leave the dungeon.

[Aasim]

GL Grond0.

 

Grim, 3rd update

 

We finished Mazzy's family quest, then returned to Gov District to pick up Xan (Xan NPC mod). He's a wimp compared to Edwin, but he's a mage (Enchanter) and that's good enough for now. Unfortunately, TBTweaks punishes those with 7 CON - he has no more than 18 HP. That means that a single damaging spell will kill him instantly, regardless of spell level...PW spells are unavoidable, even PW:Sleep will get him. In addition, Jaheira's Harper Call spell kills him (I did found a way to have him survive - he has to heal up instantly to full health, which is 9HP after being revivied. )

Also, picked up Keldorn as a backup fighter. He is vastly altered by Kit&Item Revisions, his armor  is now this:

 

his sword is silencing (great vs clerics, but they usually save due to high WIS, mages simply Vocalize)

 

and his kit

 

We kill off some Harpers who are after Jaheira. Fireballs hurt like hell, I might add.

 

Next, I drop Yoshi (again), adopt Nalia. Had huge troubles vs Golems there; no blunt for Clay who destroyed us completely with Cursed Wounds. All Golems went hostile as soon as the first one was attacked, even if my plan was to kill them one by one. 2 Iron Golems were there, apperantly BP addition.

 

I pre-buffed for Torgal extensivly, expecting an outright massacre here. To my big surprise, he was an utmost wimp. I expected Tactics-like Torgal with strenght drain, intelligent Yuan-ti etc. What I got was Torgal who throws boulders, never attacks in melee even if approached, and Yuan-ti mages who don't cast spells....I am quite dissapointed. In addition, I used a lot of potions as a prebuff, even if this battle could be won without a single prebuff. I'll install Tactics version over this in my next run - that's imo the best Torgal out there, even after more than a decade.

 

Forged Flail of Ages, adopted keep as my own.

 

Now, radnom encounters change a bit. Enemies don't fight us no more

 

Bought this shield for Jaheira. Summons are good, and Shambler is awesome. It's a shield from Rogue Rebalancing mod.

 

Bought some Clarity potions and a scroll of Chaotic Commands, went to Druid Grove. Elemental died fast, to my surprise - I have a memory of him killing my entire party after his Earthquakes.

 

Xan died when a mage hit him with a Lightning bolt. One of Jaheira's two memorized spells is Harper's Call - Xan dies very often.

 

Had a really nasty fight vs Rakshasas in the tower. Both Jaheira (still under Cursed Wounds, so she can't heal up with potions) and Keldorn came close to death, while Grim was webbed.

 

Grim managed to roll a save just in time to draw attention away from the Inquisitor...

 

and so it ended.

 

The druid bunch in front of the grove was slain swiftly, and I had Jaheira (pre-buffed with Stoneskins) enter the dueling arena. Cheesy Faldorn insta-casts 5 spells onto herself, including Imp.invisibility, and opens up with Creeping Doom. Jaheira doesn't stand idle herself, and she brings heavy artillery to the table - 2 Elementals are called, and one of them is a Greater Elemental.  

 

Cheesy Faldorn apperantly smuggled in some potions as well...

 

But she will die.

 

Now we're heroes of Trademeet, we have 35k gold, and things aren't looking so bad no more. I should probably do either Planar Prison or start Bodhi's quests...I'll ponder about it.

[Aasim]

Grim, 4th update

 

After resting in Trademeet, we bought Tansheron's Bow for Nalia (20% chance for Horror on  hit for 2 rounds, +3 unlimited arrows) and Belt of Inertial Barrier for Keldorn. It no longer adds Magic Damage resistance, but it can slow the enemies nearby.

 

Decided to try out Windspear Hills (BP version, not SCS). First notable battle, Ruhk Transmuter - quite dissapointing and very easy. He casted Cloudkill and died.

 

Vampires were nice. 

 

They also had a venerable vampire which charmed Mazzy, but not much harm done. Elemental nailed the vamp.

 

For some unknown reason, Samia started off as hostile immediately...so be it, I planned to fight her anyway, so prebuffs were up already.

Jaheira's Elemental was blocking the door unfortunately, so I had to unsummon him to let Keldorn through.

 

A double shot of Chaos from Xan and Nalia

 

followed by a quick mop-up.

 

Due to some crazyness, the genies refused to die. Even when they did, they left no pieces of burial mask! I CLUAed it in, killed the elemental guardian and grabbed Dragonslayer and Dragon shield.

 

 

Tazok

 

This was quite a battle, all things considered.

We didn't know what to expect, so I buffed both Grim and Keldorn and sent them in, guns blazing, but not only did they get dispelled instantly, but Keldorn got hit for massive damage with two Flamestrikes. Healing potions will do little good now, he drinks up an invisibility potion and gets out of the room.

 

Mazzy enters the fray and starts tossing arrows. Jaheira calls for elementals.

Grim is doing what he should be doing - taking hits.

 

Two elementals come to my aid. Tazok goes for the spellcasters, followed by a summoned Wyvern and an Orc Priest, who hid in Sanctuary.

Grim & Mazzy destroyed the lesser Orc troops.

 

Mazzy is charmed...that's a shame. She is however, attacking our Greater Elemental who is immune to her arrows.

Tazok uses Hardiness (KR makes this HLA add 20% to all resistances)

 

All hell broke loose when Xan's Chaos comes in. Mazzy got confused as well.

 

Our elementals are dead, but we're under attack by an Aerial servant - that thing is fairly dangerous. Keldorn launches a True Seeing so we can spot it, and focus our fire upon it - Tazok is way too tanky (NI inspection shows his true nature - a kitted berserker so he can regenerate, 30% natural damage resistance, 168 HP). Mazzy died - an Orc Mage killed her, even tough she was charmed...

 

Nalia gets breached, and Ogres aren't confused anymore - they're coming to get us. Grim and Keldorn are holding the fort.

 

We finally kill both the Servant and Tazok. Just when sun started to shine, a disaster strikes - Grim gets charmed.

 

Well, at least he wasn't hostile like Mazzy was. Xan died to a Chromatic Orb.

 

Few rounds later, Grim composes himself and Rages, Keldorn panicks, Nalia gets blinded, and the Orcs are history.

 

A short preview of Firkraag (no, I don't plan on fighting this thing just yet)

 

And this is pretty much the whole battle with Conster - no buffs, nothing - he behaved like a melee creep. Quite a turn-down, but be that as it may, Garren's child is free, and we happily return to city.

[polytope]

Welcome back Aasim, I might try BP after Eryx's adventures end one way or the other, but from your posts it seems the difficulty is very inconsistent (i.e hard Tazok battle vs pushover Torgal and Conster - mind you, I usually find Conster easy with SCS).

 

Unfortunately, AI was on so they both reveal themselves attacking with fists. Next you know, splat! Red Wizard of Thay, my red jewel, my comrade in blood, a summoner extraordinaire, scriber of scrolls with 19 INT (he got the tome), the reason we sacrificed Korgan, dies to a crap Orog. Permanently.

 

 

Ouch. Even with my current overpowered party I ran away from that orog encounter, as I remember them being worth like 175 xp each and having no noteable loot. Also, I never turn AI on, even though giving orders individually gets annoying in large battles such as Yaga, otherwise party members are guaranteed to do something stupid like charge and get boxed in by 3 firegiants after their hardiness has been breached...

 

In the last update we left Eryx and party outside Abazigal's cave.

 

Usual pre buffing, but added Protection from Electricity and Potion of Power for Eryx to improve his bard THAC0. Venturing inside the party is attacked by wyvern-looking critters, these are clearly the younger siblings of Draconis - like him they're fond of turning invisible and flitting around the map. Abazigal is naturally protective of them and I decided I should disable him while we dealt with the other monsters (one GWW from Abazigal brough our barb with 60% DR very low in health, and he has more than one). Randolph cast Improved Alacrity and summoned a planetar (to heal the barb), then 2x Pierce Shield and PW:Blind on Abazigal - this bounced off his MR, so needed another PS and PW:Blind (very inefficient way to do it, wasting 5 8th level casts on his humanoid form - I'm feeling the lack of Lower Resistance in our sorc's spellbook):

 

 

Anyway, slay the surviving frost Salamanders and dragon-et (there was only one left, their invisibility was confusing me), then Leksa summoned greater elementals (Yay, got air elementals, the weakest type...) and party beat on Abazigal until he flipped to dragon form, with Randolph recasting IA at the last second. The air elementals caused an odd bug, as unlike everyone else they were not knocked back by his transformation and the one closest to Abazigal overlapped his "selection circle"; my experience is that when this happens it sticks both creatures in place - I'm not sure if Abazigal the dragon tried to move (he was engaged in melee the whole fight, so didn't have to chase us), but the thought that I benefited from this bug annoys me, maybe his transformation should kill every elemental on the battlefield in addition to usual effects.

 

Anyway, Abazigal also summons Tamah, a purple dragon (his mate?), Randolph under IA shoots a Spellstrike at both, followed by a Breach and Dragon's Breath - his last 9th level cast, just for the irony. Also a couple of arrows of dispelling from Artemisia to remove both dragons' Improved Haste .

 

 

Tamah dies quickly to the party fighters, although everyone got caught by Abazigal's Remove Magic + Greater Malison sequencer. At least Aleks' Protection from Electricity wasn't dispelled (nice feature of bards, their buffs are hard to dispel), but Leksa's was! I had her run North immediately (...fast as her unhasted feet could go), fortunately she was out of LoS before he could follow up with lightning breath.

 

And a round or two later, Abazigal falls! Even the air elementals and Efreeti survived. (The design of this fight is horribly cruel btw., taunt Abazigal about killing his son, then murder his remaining family before his eyes. They didn't give you much leeway in playing a murderous Bhaalspawn)

 

The 4th pocket plane challenge is different (with Rogue Rebalancing) if you have defeated Vendurius, you can talk your way out of fighting the assassins here - which I didn't: The only party member vulnerable to backstab is the archer, and she can use the yellow dragon scale + hardiness for 90% piercing resistance, the Favoured of Cyric were quickly defeated.

 

Back to Amkethran, to fight our way to Balthazar's fortress and, then try diplomacy with the master of the monastery, remembering to drink a potion of insight beforehand, he agrees to join us against Melissan. Sadly the monks outside didn't get the memo (more of them had spawned, like 50 in total), party took some bruises due to being unbuffed, but no danger. Bought some final scrolls from Lazarus (2x Imprisonment, 2x Absolute Immunity)

 

Ravager no problem for this party, just had those party members who wanted to stay ranged i.e. Leksa and Artmeisia run past him to the back of the room (where bone blades don't spawn), remembered to use ProMW for Eryx due to his dispelling attack, and spammed Horrid Wiltings.

 

Now for the Throne of Bhaal.

 

I had enough time upon arrival to spread the party out where I wanted them to be, arcane casters off to the East - because I had a premonition that something DREADFUL for spellcasters was going to show up on the West.

 

At least our Chain Contingencies fired promptly this time (used a scroll for Eryx, have 3 left).

 

Aleks and Artemisia use Smite to knock Bodhi away from us, she ended up shooting her Cloud of Bats at the barbarian, great! Balthazar was also affected, but no one else.

 

 

Leksa casts Holy Word, hopefully catching Irenicus and his simulacrum, then heads North to attack Bodhi in melee with the club of detonation (mace of disruption offhand, of course). Randolph casts Improved Alacrity, recasts Improved haste on Aleks and Artemisia who got their buffs dispelled by the Fallen Solars, then North to debuff Irenicus. Aragrish vorpals one Fallen Solar with the Ravager halberd.

 

 

Leksa's detect illusions was slow in revealing him, so used Sunfires and Chain Lightning for spell interruption (strangely he had Fireshield Red, but not Protection from Fire so still took a little damage and was disrupted - I noticed this when he was injured by fireball from club of detonation). Aleks and Eryx with offensive spin chop up the other fallen solar, Bodhi dies somewhere here and then Irenicus is sent back to hell, happily this also causes slayer-Imoen to stop nipping Aragrish.

 

A pretty cleanly won battle, but I used more spells than I'd hoped (I should've prepared the contingencies, triggers etc yesterday). Now for the pools, and then the Five...

 

Current Final levels

 

Eryx, blade 38 - 17% of kills, most powerful vanquished: Dragon (the green one in WK, I think)

Aleks, PoL 11-> fighter 30 - 25%, MPV: Bodhi

Leksa, swash 10-> cleric 35 - 6%, MPV: Kangaxx

Artemisia archer 29 - 17%, MPV: Draconis

Aragrish the Cliched barb 33 - 25%, MPV: Firkraag

Randolph, sorc 27 - 10%, MPV: Carnifex (that red dragon added by SCS to Abazigal's army)

[Aasim]

@Polytope

 

I'd skip BP completely I'm afraid - it has a serious number of bugs. Discrepancies bother me as well. While some battles are indeed nice (Tazok is imo spot-on with 2 SCS mages, 2 clerics, and Tazok with 75 total damage reduction) mod as a whole is probably best left alone for the time being.

Conster is relatively easy even with SCS, yes, but if you don't have access to Breach it can be an exercise in suffering.

GJ on Solars, looking good as so far...

 

Grim, final update (yup, the little guy bit the dust)

 

Temple sewers party (Improved battles version)

(and some old-school enemy buffs )

 

Full prebuff, full summons.

 

 

We let the elementals take the initial barrage.

 

Things get flashy real soon

 

Grim gets dispelled

 

Chaos strikes the enemies. Gaius also fails his save.

 

Tarnor apperantly also has innate resistances, he's taking 4 dmage per hit.

 

Regardless, we beat them up to a pulp while drinking healing potions each round (they're very cheesy - one of them is a monk with Whirlwinds  - this is illegal in my game (I use Refinements), I was hoping SCS would fix it but it didn't; archer has a ton of dispeling arrows, cleric has an illegal AC, and they summon a ton of creatures instantly).

 

Finally, the last one dies. It took a critical to nail him down.

 

The loot is nice, including a wonderful Robe of Endurance (Monk only, +2AC, 1hp/round regen, 15% physical resistance), Crushing gauntlets, Full Plate mails, Ankheg plate etc. We sell all of that apart robe, which can't be sold, so I dropped it since I have no monk. Visited Mekrath's lair, almost lost Keldorn to Umber hulks - he just regained his senses as the bleeding damage stopped. They did kill Nalia. Picked up Amulet there - Item Revisions version isn't +5 to saves, it's outright immunity to petrification and disintegration. Grim gets it.

 

Next was an old Tactics mod addition - a crazy gnome Illusionist in Valygar's house. He has 2 familars, and is a high-level fighter-illusionist with staff of striking.

Be that as it may, he killed himself attacking Grim. 

 

Mazzy helped against the familiars and their summoned shadows.

 

Then we went to explore WK further (I need levels. Xan and Nalia are still w/o level 6 slots, Grim and Jaheira are at 12th level, Keldorn and Mazzy 11th but close to level up).

There were plenty of odd things happening here. Upon arrival - a message displays - "All entrances to Demogorgon's Lair have been sealed". Party got 80k exp each....odd. Oh well - we go into the keep anyway. Next you know - the statues have no weapons equiped - no Usuno's Blade, no Foebane, nothing. They couldn't kill me even if they wanted to, since fists can't kill.

Well that's just s***.  

We kill them anyway, to see what other nonsense awaits us. One of the uglier ones was that mist-like creatures cast Flesh to Stone on sight - sometimes twice. Grim is immune to that, but if he wasn't, that be the end.

 

Unfortunately, the end was close. It's been so long since last I played WK - it took a while to figure out just why the Ice Golem wouldn't die - library doors were closed. And I forgot where the key was...

We did finally find the key, Grim rushed in w/o acid/cold protection, got cornered by mists, and died.

 

I'll re-install w/o BP. Too much buginess for my liking. 

For note, Grim died at 1,470 000 exp, at level 12, he had 1030 kills total (75% total party kills), most powerful foe vanquished was Illusionist (from Valy's house), his favourite spell was Healing touch, and his favoured weapon was long sword. May his name rest in peace.

[Grond0]

@polytope.  Nice start to the Throne.  I'm looking forward to seeing Mel humbled!

 

@Aasim.  Sorry to see Grim's butt-kicking days ended prematurely .

[polytope]

I'll re-install w/o BP. Too much buginess for my liking. 

For note, Grim died at 1,470 000 exp, at level 12, he had 1030 kills total (75% total party kills), most powerful foe vanquished was Illusionist (from Valy's house), his favourite spell was Healing touch, and his favoured weapon was long sword. May his name rest in peace.

 

I think you did pretty well to get that far playing "blind". I'd guess that those mages whose scripts are supposed to be improved by both SCS and BP (Conster, the Yuan-Ti etc.) end up broken, no idea why and I'm not going to find out either because the BP setup looks really complex, I guess I'll skip it too.

 

Quick question, you played with Polyweak improved trolls and BP troll component right? Did you notice any bugs like trolls becoming unkillable? If so I'll note this incompatibility for future versions (Torgal isn't affected by Polytweak at all).

[Aasim]

BP has many components I didn't install like "General creature processing" - this should buff up all that's left out, "Smarter Mages" etc. But SCS certainly did improve Conster, only to have BP make him a dart-tossing creep who doesn't even swith to melee weapons. I'm only sorry I didn't fight Firkraag (awesome with Improved Battles) and Planar Sphere (awesome with BP, but probably Tolgerias would be a melee creep as well)

Trolls (including Torgal) can become "unkillable" in my usual (IR/SR/KR/Refinements/SCS/Polytweak) install on a sometimes only if I use specific life-draining weapons from Item Revisions, it has to do something with how lifesteal is implemented with IR - Troll status is "Dead" but he is still kicking and won't change animation. This bugged Torgal twice for me, until I just don't use that kind of weapons (IR Sword of Chaos and Foebane) on Trolls.

So no, all of the Trolls were killable, Spectral ones actually chunkable.

[Grond0]

Emmental {2} - elven wild mage (update 2)

 

It was hard graft this morning and there was one particularly narrow squeak, but Emmental survived.

 

After leaving the dungeon he immediately went to the circus, where unlocking Aerie's chains got him to level 11. There was a nasty moment when Emmental produced another Nabassu when fighting Kalah, but fortunately the demon went for Kalah and didn't cross-over to the new area after he was killed.

 

After talking with Gaelen Bayle Emmental killed Cohrvale & Bregg - noting in the process that the Athkatlan guards have been significantly upgraded as fighters.  In the Copper Coronet Amalas was beaten up in a cage fight before Emmental used cloudkill to prevent the cell guard from summoning reinforcements.  He had already killed one bear and was starting on another when the beastmaster and his pets came to investigate the commotion.  Invisibility followed by cloudkill evened the odds and the surviving beastmaster and grizzly didn't last long.  Lehtinan appeared to be significantly more vicious than in vanilla, so I suspect it was lucky for Hendak that Emmental was helping out with MMM.

 

The first bit of travel after that triggered the Suna Seni ambush.  However, Emmental was invisible and was able to buff up in peace.  That included summoning his first skeleton warrior, who finished off the opposition handily.  However, the skeleton warrior went hostile immediately after that (I wondered if that was a delayed reaction to being in a cloudkill).  Fortunately Emmental and his familiar were invisible so there was no danger from his fear aura.

 

After selling some equipment, Emmental went to pay for a license before triggering another ambush.  No skeleton warrior this time, but standard, hasted, skeletons were more than capable of saving Renfeld.  At the docks Emmental realised the drawback of having summoned skeletons when confronting a cleric!  He performed a quick disappearing trick and waited until his skeletons remembered their true duty.  He then watched Hareishan snack on some thieves before returning Renfeld.  He buffed up for Prebek, but on seeing a couple of ghasts and a flesh golem in the house aborted his attack.  Instead, he used those buffs up on another ambush: there was an interesting counter with the cleric using zone of sweet air to dispel his opening cloudkill - don't see that too often in vanilla!  Emmental nearly died there when I lost track of who was there in the combat and thought both thieves were dead already (perhaps there were three of them).  The mage had used remove magic to strip Emmental's protection, but was out of spells and Emmental was happily chasing her when he ran into a nasty backstab.  He had a missile weapon equipped there, so could easily have been killed even without a critical.  Rather than risk continuing that fight he immediately ran away.

 

After resting he was travelling to Watcher's Keep when he came across yet another ambush.  Again a zone of sweet air was used, but this time just too late to save the mage.  Emmental had also got a skeleton warrior this time and that meant finishing off the ambushers was straight-forward.  I noted though that the skeleton warrior again went hostile after finishing off the bandits - this time the only spell used by Emmental that could have affected him was haste, so I imagine there's something in PnP undead that is causing a problem in this installation.  It seems to be that if the skeleton warrior has actually been fighting it will go hostile when there are no further enemies in sight.

 

At Watcher's Keep he bought a potion case before checking what was waiting inside.  The answer was vampiric wraiths and he made a swift exit.  He tried using a protection from undead scroll there, but was immediately attacked and level drained when he entered again.

 

Back in Athkatla, Emmental sought some easy XP by getting an amulet for Mae'Var and then started the Sir Sarles quest.  Despite only being level 11 and having struggled with ambushes so far, the local low-lives are already starting to get wary of him.  Emmental paid for the substitute ore (though that was a waste of money as illithium is no good to him anyway).  At the Bridge District he bought spell immunity and a few other scrolls from the thief and learned those with the help of potions before using spell immunity to retrieve the berserker horn.  Then he solved the skinner murders - dragging the Rune Assassins separately upstairs into summons, before doing the same to the ghasts and golem (requiring a rest in between).

 

With just a couple of hundred XP needed for level 12 Emmental learned dire charm to tip him over (that was purely for XP as it's not a spell I would normally use).  He tried to put his new ability to cast PW:silence into action against Pai'Na, but her magic resistance stopped it.  Her spiders were all scared by the skeleton warrior fear aura, but she still managed a decent fight - an insect plague launched just before she died could have been nasty, but Emmental managed to haste and run it round  while dodging spiders - once all the spiders were dead and he'd taken the loot, he left the insect plague to circle aimlessly.

[Grond0]

Emmental {2} - elven wild mage (update 3)

 

I decided it was time to have a go at Prebek. A skull trap killed him and Sanasha; meanwhile the familiar recast invisibility and they were able to move out of the corner just before being trapped.  A summoned skeleton + MMM then quickly finished off the golem and ghasts.  After looting the harpers Emmental gave Kitthix a first run out.  That was bad news for Lucette, although she was trapped even before being webbed.

 

Back at the graveyard Emmental used a protection from undead scroll along with haste and phantom blade to whip through the tombs.  One of the skeleton warriors there had a nice spell trigger scroll and another had ADHW.  Emmental failed to save Nevin, though did provide him with posthumous revenge on his uncle.  The protection scroll lasted long enough for him to also kill the undead in the ambush at the Southern tombs except for a couple of skeleton warriors.

 

He then worked his way through the rest of the Southern tombs, though with one nasty hiccup.  The skeleton warrior in the sarcophagus scared the familiar and it initially wandered off to summon some ogres.  Then it came back and flew back and forward 4 times within a few seconds across the sarcophagus spike trap (I thought I'd taken a screenshot of that, but apparently not) - I realised only as it died that Emmental did actually have remove fear in his scroll case!

 

While finishing off the mummies there in melee Emmental was stricken with mummy rot, so had to quickly go and find a temple.  He then summoned a new familiar and had a stern word with Llynis before going back to finish off the graveyard tasks by giving Wellyn his bear back.

 

Selling all the equipment found to date got Emmental just enough money to pay Gaelen Bayle (all the vampire encounters have triggered now, so joining the thieves guild is less of a concern).  He went on to have a go at Lassal, although that was a difficult battle - partly as a result of the improved vampire abilities and partly because 2 attempts at stoneskins surged, leaving him exposed to a backstab.  Ultimately Emmental went invisible and rested - Lassal disappeared leaving Emmental free to report to Aran Linvail.  

 

On the way to the Bridge District he encountered a nasty slaver ambush.  The 2 mages made it hard to stay invisible and the 3 thieves were dangerous given the speed the archers took down stoneskins.  It was also made more difficult as the game insisted Emmental had already reached his summoning limit (presumably as a result of a previous ambush occurring in that map area).  In the end he was triumphant, although he poofed the lightning wand from the dungeon killing one of the mages and the fire wand scorching 2 of the thieves. 

 

The Guild Contact was much easier, though he did run scared downstairs and force Emmental to come down and sling him to death.  Reporting back to Aran got Emmental to level 13.

 

There was another nasty moment going into Rayic's house.  Emmental's MGoI surged, but he went in anyway.  His opening cloudkill killed 3 of the 6 mephits, but I wasn't expecting a steam mephit and Emmental was stunned.  The magma mephits were doing damage fast and Emmental was already down to 19 HPs when fortunately the 3 remaining mephits all died.  He took just a couple more HPs damage from the cloudkill before the stun wore off.  The golems were then led downstairs to play with some skeletons.  For Rayic Emmental went up invisible and summoned a couple of skeleton warriors before using PW:silence.  That shut him up before he went hostile, which stopped his buffs from firing and he died in silence.  Emmental played safe by using a vampiric touch scroll before daring the acid trap, but it hit one of his mirrors anyway.

 

After clearing up the last tasks Emmental exposed Mae'Var and went to teach the guild a lesson.  The shadow thieves upstairs were easy, but he was low on spells by the time he got downstairs.  The cleric was successfully shut up with PW:silence, but Mae'Var cast vocalise and then resisted a second attempt.  Meanwhile the odd surge was complicating matters and he switched to make use of the wand of fire from Rayic's house to finish things off.  After looting both thieves guilds Emmental went to do some shopping - acquiring the Robe of Vecna, Tymora's Gift (belt with +3 to luck and +10% MR) and a few more scrolls.

[Grond0]

Emmental {2} - elven wild mage (update 4)

 

Some more hard work and close calls this morning, but Emmental continues to make progress.

 

He started by launching a successful assault on Mencar and his gang.  Three webs and a stinking cloud, with malison enhancement, kept everyone in place.  Two cloudkills, 2 skull traps and 3 wand fireballs didn't leave much for the two skeleton warriors to do.

 

On the way to the de'Arnise Hold Emmental was stopped by an orog ambush.  However, the mages died in web / cloudkill / skull trap and the rest provided no challenge (beyond using MMM on the skeleton warrior that went hostile as usual when the enemies had all been killed).

 

At the Hold Emmental made rapid progress.  MMM and a pet fire elemental proved reasonably effective even against the spirit trolls and he soon got up to level 14.  Glaicas was a pretty formidable fighter, but had carelessly not brought along a magical weapon to hit a skeleton warrior with.  For Torgal I set up a spell trigger for the first time using NRD (3 x skull trap).  That killed one of the yuan-ti mages and damaged a number of the other enemies.  Torgal refused to die while caught in the web, but went down once he'd got free long enough to have his final conversation.  More skull traps and a sunfire helped kill all but one of the spirit trolls.  The remaining yuan-ti mage chased Emmental upstairs and died in a rebounding lightning bolt from his djinni (level 15).  That still left a spirit troll, but Emmental's final summons left for the day was a fire elemental.  As occasionally happens the spell summoned both a greater and a normal elemental.  The normal one went hostile, but after Emmental killed the other one the greater one made short work of the spirit troll. 

 

After reporting to Nalia Emmental continued his journeys to the Umar Hills.  He quickly completed the tasks in the town (the mimic successfully holding him, but not his skeletons).  He went to the temple via Athkatla, mainly to buy the Staff of Rhynn.  At the temple the opening stages were made easy as aTweaks replaces the shadow fiends with wraiths.  However, I didn't like the look of the lich which immediately summoned a fiend and dimension doored to Emmental before he had shown himself.  As a result Emmental quickly ran out of the dungeon.  After resting he came back and waited by the entrance until the lich dimensioned doored to him.  His opening contingency summoned a mordy sword and a demon, so Emmental left the dungeon and waited for those to disappear.  A PW:silence then shut the lich up briefly until he used vocalise - Emmental again left until that expired and then silenced it again.  The lich vocalised again - and Emmental left again.  Coming back again he used his third and last silence.  I'm not sure if the lich could have vocalised that one as well as I don't think it lasted a full round after that.

 

The first greater mummy in the same group also looked fairly nasty - summoning a couple of extra skeleton warriors to help it.  However, it stopped chasing while standing on the firepit and eventually burned up.  A couple of skeletons helped stop the second greater mummy in the edge of the firepit as well and it failed to cast any spells (also failed in its attempts to turn the skeletons).  

 

The lich with the second group was even more aggressive - not only dimension dooring to Emmental, but chasing him out of the dungeon as well and right over to the other edge of the map.  Returning to the area Emmental briefly silenced the lich before running to the dungeon. A mordy sword followed him, but not the lich and he waited for it to unsummon while invisible.  Upstairs to silence the lich again and back down before it could react after vocalising.  A third silence worked, but a surge silenced Emmental as well.  However, he was able to beat up the lich with the Staff of Rhynn before the silence finished, though he took several MMM hits in the process (I only remembered after the lich was dead that the Amulet of Power gave Emmental permanent vocalise anyway ).

 

Emmental rested and summoned an undead army, but that proved no match for the summons the greater mummy's could bring out.  Careful manouvreing and invisibility eventually allowed Emmental to burn a couple of aerial servants in the fire pit.  The greater mummies and skeleton warriors were much easier to do that to, but calamity almost struck when I attempted to get the XP for the final greater mummy - Emmental showing himself when it was at near death.  It's aura of fear paralysed him (I subsequently checked that's save vs spell at -3), but fortunately it was indeed near death.  It failed to dominate Emmental and didn't complete another spell, but was moving forward for the kill when it finally collapsed.

 

For the Shade Lord Emmental again tried using silence.  The first attempt bounced off magic resistance and he ran away to wait for the Shade Lord's buffs to die down.  The second attempt succeeded, but it didn't prevent the Shade Lord's buffs from firing and Emmental quickly ran away again.  He set up a spell trigger triple sunfire and tried casting that on the shadow altar, but that failed and he ran away again.  He was just buffing up for another try when the shadow dragon indicated she had had about enough of interlopers in her cave.  However, she didn't appear immediately so Emmental continued with the attack on the Shade Lord.  This time he tried casting it on the Shade Lord himself, but again that failed, so I presumed sunfire is coded not to allow casting on another target.  Back again - and, finally, success (somehow failed to take a screenshot there).  That also got him to level 16, with a welcome reduction in saving throws as well as the availability of level 8 spells without the need for NRD.

[Grond0]

Emmental {2} - elven wild mage (update 5)

 

A generally easier session has seen Emmental move into HLA territory.

 

He started off by reporting in to the mayor at Umar and getting a shield from Madulf.  Then he returned to Athkatla to buy a few more scrolls.

 

He wasn't interested in pantaloons, so let Lady Elgea go.  Neb was not so lucky and Emmental took some illithium to hand over to Sir Sarles.  He then recovered a relic for Lathander and rounded off his temple duties with the Fallen Paladins.  Killing Reynald with a sunfire spell trigger seemed to dishearten most of the others and they ran away.

 

Emmental was travelling while visible to Trademeet and was waylaid by a bunch of orcs.  However, they all appeared rather too close to him!  At Trademeet he slaughtered some djinni using summons and MMM before moving on to the Grove.  There, fire elementals again proved vicious as they made their way through lots of trolls.  An elder fire elemental was immune to the attacks of normal & giant trolls and just survived the fight against all the trolls outside the Mound.  Emmental also proved pretty capable himself, either buffed in melee or with MMM.

 

The elder earth elemental looked a dangerous foe.  Emmental tried a first use of a mordy sword to occupy it, but it ignored that and he had to keep chucking up other summons for it to chew through until MMM finally told on it.  Kyland Lind's druids also caused a bit of aggravation due to the number of summons they produced and the fact that Emmental spent most of the time running round invisible dodging an insect plague.  Here he resorts to a sunfire trigger to finish off the last druid after one of his two skeleton warriors had gone hostile.  With everything dead Emmental finally allowed the plague to catch up to him to see what it did - and it bounced off his magic resistance anyway.

 

The myconids managed to confuse a fire elemental, so most of the damage crossing the bridge came from Emmental's area effect spells.  The final group of druids were quickly disposed of (in this install efreeti, among other things, cast instantly - which makes them very useful for spell interruption).  The rakshasas were left alone while Cernd had a go at Faldorn by himself - unlike with Strategems v28 he has no problem in that fight.

 

Back at Trademeet, Emmental reported in and had a look at the shops, but there was nothing really worth buying - the Cloak of Balduran and Tymora's Gift are much better for most purposes than the Cloak of Displacement and Belt of Inertial Barrier and I won't carry the others around for the very rare occasions when they might be useful.  Clearing the tomb and helping Tiris left Emmental just a whisker under 3m XP.

 

I decided it was time to go and settle accounts with the vampiric wraiths at Watcher's Keep.  They were immune to a sunfire spell trigger, but were both taken to near death by a triple skull trap and a further one cast at Emmental's own feet finished them off (protection from magic energy being used as one of his buffs).  That got him to level 18 - summon planetar.

 

There was a potentially dangerous moment when he rested inside the Keep - the rest was successful, but some phase spiders teleported in when he woke up and poisoned him.  However, one advantage of wearing the robe of Vecna is that Bhaal cure poison now casts at speed 0 and he was therefore able to cure himself without risk.  He carried on to loot the top floor without particular problems - a first use of incendiary cloud making a nasty mess of a group of mustard jellies.  He tried activating the statues, but decided he needed to run when confronted by the combination of dimension door, remove magic / true sight to strip buffs and death spell + time stop and maze to get rid of summons.  Coming back, Emmental used spell immunity as protection and used a couple of misleads and mordy swords to allow him to shrug off numerous high-level spells from one statue, but finally got him (that's his own skeleton warrior in the screenshot that's gone hostile when out of sight for a bit).  A couple more statues were quickly killed while Emmental was misled before he rested.

 

Back once more and he had a go at the remaining statues.  They used true sight on him, but his mislead image was back near the door and he was able to continue to attack them in safety - getting to level 19 (improved alacrity).  He needed to use his own true sight to spot the thief that moved around and hid in shadows regularly.

 

At that point Emmental had no 9th level spells (HLAs are cast 1/day rather than as 9th level spells in this install), so he went to buy a Bigby's Crushing Hand from Athkatla.  He's just arrived in Windspear and used improved alacrity for the first time to beat up the initial ambush there.