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[Grond0]

Emmental {2} - elven wild mage (update 6)

 

At Windspear Emmental didn't have any acorns, so just moved straight on to the dungeon - where Digdag failed to survive a sunfire trigger.  The planetar disposed of Ruhk and Emmental moved on to the orc archers.  They should not have caused any problems, but a dreaded no-save hold surge occurred.  Emmental was down to the last orc archer on one side at the time and had mirror image as well as stoneskin active.  However, the surge would probably still have been terminal if he hadn't remembered to set his contingency:

 

The golems were planetared before Emmental killed a few chasing vampires himself.  Then, with most spells used, he rested and let a new planetar finish off the remaining undead.  It also helped chew through some werewolves before disappearing and allowing a couple of mordy swords to take over for more golems (they are now led by a juggernaut golem, so don't get stuck in narrow spaces).  That was enough for level 20 (energy blades).  Getting to that level also means Emmental is now assured of getting a skeleton warrior with animate dead, rather than a skeleton.  His new energy blades were soon put to good use to cut Tazok down to size.

 

The planetar / mordy swords quickly killed the genies (while Emmental stayed out of talking range to avoid their buffs firing), but there was an interesting sequence with the Guardian.  It would not appear while a mislead was active and then ignored summons to chase Emmental.  He ran through a couple of doors closing them behind him - and the Guardian opened them again to follow.  Emmental then ducked into the Director's room and closed the door - and the Guardian opened the wrong door, triggering a trap and then did it again before finally getting the right door (and dying in melee)!

 

After resting, Emmental used improved alacrity to put an incendiary cloud and then wilting into Samia's room.  Akae was the only one to come looking for him initially and was able to talk in Samia's absence.  Emmental tried to produce a planetar (a skeleton warrior had already gone hostile on him), but only succeeded in blinding himself.  However, a couple of sunfires killed Akae and Chak and a third finished off his own skeleton warrior.

 

Conster was helpless after being affected by remove magic.  After thinking about it I decided that Firkraag should be manageable and decided to have a go at him.  After buffing, a spell trigger of 2 x lower resistance + pierce magic opened up his defences and improved alacrity allowed Emmental to pour in 4 acid arrows, 3 magic missiles, a skull trap and a sequencer triple skull trap.  That only got Firkraag to badly wounded, but Emmental brought out a planetar as well to try and finish the job.  However, Firkraag's contingency to renew breached stoneskins kept him going and his high damage output beat the planetar's attempt to heal.  A mordy sword replaced the planetar, but Firky ignored that in favour of going after Emmental.  A breath bounced off fire protection and, as the dragon attempted to get back into melee, those early acid arrows finally told.

 

Reporting to Garren Windspear got Emmental to level 21 (dragon's breath and a final reduction in saving throws).  Before returning to Athkatla he decided he should have another dragon date.  This time he did much less preparation and relied heavily on the planetar.  It used all 3 of its heals, but did eventually manage to work through Thaxy's defenses.

[corey_russell]

Nice going there Grond0! Keep up the focus! Be awesome for a wild mage to do the trilogy no-reload, no less...after, if a fallen paladin can do it, surely a wild mage can too, right?

[Grond0]

Thanks Corey.  If I were playing basic BGT then I reckon a wild mage would have a pretty good chance at this stage.  However, with Ascension (that I've never seen in action) added to SCS I don't think Emmental's got much of a prospect.  However, he's still in there slugging away for the moment ...

 

Emmental {2} - elven wild mage (update 7)

 

Back in Athkatla Emmental quickly dealt with the resistance in the Copper Coronet sewers and the slaver ship.  The only potentially nasty surge was here, but the blinding effect did actually give him a saving throw.

 

After investigating Valygar's House, Emmental went to pick up his body from Umar Hills and was soon taking a ride in the Planar Sphere.  He made a mistake when buffing for the halflings by going invisible - causing the skeleton warrior to immediately turn hostile.  However, the planetar didn't need any help anyway.  After sunfiring some more enemies Emmental produced a pair of fire elementals to deal with their kin - though it took a while without fire damage.  I thought Lavok's buffs lasted just long enough for him to survive a planetar, but after cautiously exploring behind an elemental, Emmental found that Lavok was already lying on the ground waiting to die.  He initially took a more active role against Tolgerias, but after losing all his buffs to remove magic he retreated to recover - but the planetar finished the job on its own (level 22 - comet)

 

The cold room was no problem, but Emmental was short of summons for the fire room and was wary of the extra abilities a number of the enemies had - as a result he ran away to rest.  Coming back buffed up he summoned another planetar to deal with the invisible at will greater fire elemental, the fast salamander noble and the gaseous form taking noble efreeti.

 

Mordy swords helped kill various golems in the engine room before Emmental rested up in order to delegate demon-hunting duties to the planetar.  After giving Lavok a last breath of fresh air Emmental went to Ribald to arrange for the Solamnic Knights to be returned home.  He then watched his apprentices make a dagger and a wilting scroll before attempting a Staff of Power.  For the first time ever I saw that completed, though Larz seemed to think it was necessary to indulge in necromancy to find that out.  The staff can erect a GoI as well as firing a lightning bolt causing a no-save stun.  However, Teos wouldn't then make an appearance.  Eventually I consulted a walkthrough, which suggested that Larz should have died as well and his survival is probably a bug stopping Teos spawning again.  To test that Emmental summoned a fiend - that wouldn't attack Larz initially, but eventually did so when a planetar went into the room to annoy it.

 

Larz's death did indeed encourage Teos to come back, but the sequence still seemed bugged as there was no sign of a messenger to summon Emmental into an ambush.  He eventually gave up on finishing the mage stronghold quests and started on a lich-hunting expedition instead.  That commenced in the Temple Sewers.  The sea troll and a beholder and gauths ignored a skeleton warrior put up for them and sought out Emmental.  However, his saving throws make him safe from immediate harm by beholders.  A backstabbing kobold was countered by using his invisibility ring and he killed lots of kobolds with a sunfire trigger.  I was cautious about hitting Roger and just missed the beholder with that, but another scorcher and a few darts finished that off before Emmental got low on HPs.  That got him to level 23 - extra L6 spell.

 

After resting to heal up Emmental set the planetar on the rakshasa and then made his way through to Gaal to open up the Unseeing Eye quest.  He also took on the Shade Lich there.  After using protection from undead and spell immunity: abjuration he did initial damage with an incendiary cloud, but that and wiltings failed to do any more harm.  Resorting to a planetar to defend against a cornugon allowed the shade lich to unleash his full spell arsenal.  Emmental's help allowed the planetar to kill another fiend and a fallen planetar, but it then died of attacks by the Shade Lich during a time stop.  Further summons were also evaporated - with one of those Emmental was caught in the fringes of a dragon's breath (Tymora's Gift helping to reduce damage down to 30 there).  When the lich finally ran short of spells Emmental was able to finish it off with a helping of energy blades.

[Grond0]

Emmental {2} - elven wild mage (8th and final update)

 

There's no more need to worry what Ascension might have in store!

 

Moving quickly on to the Bridge District Emmental nipped in to the temple to heal up and then went to confront the Elemental Lich while his protection from undead was still operating.  Another spell immunity: abjuration provided a bit of protection while he opened with the remainder of the energy blades used on the Shade Lich.  They started doing damage just too late to prevent a mordy sword being summoned and that managed to get a hit in as the last of the energy blades were used.  Remove magic bounced off his spell immunity, but Emmental did take damage from a wilting before his own wilting got rid of the mordy sword.  Despite being down to 39 HPs he fought on and the lich proved surprisingly slow to replace his stoneskin or PFMW when that ran out.  As a result it died of MMMs before it could summon the expected demon.

 

I didn't fancy taking any more liches on without resting so did that - only to unexpectedly get summoned to the Planar Sphere (I thought the delay after the last encounter was only supposed to be a couple of days and it's been much longer than that).  However, Emmental duly went, though took the precaution of entering already buffed.  A couple of skull traps and a sunfire trigger reduced the odds against him and 2 further sunfires left only a fire elemental to be beaten up with his staff.  Emmental used a mislead to sneak in next to Lord Ketlaar and imprison him.  Now he has no obstacle to his enjoyment of his stronghold (but also no reason to go back there).

 

After resting and preparing Emmental went to tackle the City Gates lich.  He used MMM to kill a couple of cornugons before relying on the crimson dart briefly.  However, when the lich summoned a third cornugon he cast his last MMM and quickly finished the lich as the fiend was appearing.  With the lich dead he was able to leave without killing the cornugon - and did so.  

 

Emmental went straight to tackle Kangaxx, but I got a bit distracted by RL events and allowed his spell immunity to expire and his buffs were dispelled - time for a quick exit!  Nothing followed him upstairs so he darted the minotaurs, while waiting for the fiends to disappear, then put up another scroll of undead protection and spell immunity: abjuration.  However, he had to run away again when confronted by not just another cornugon, but a dark planetar as well.  Back again, he dodged an efreeti while taking pot shots at Kangaxx with the sling of seeking until that struck home.

 

I didn't think there was any prospect of killing Kangaxx's demi-lich form immediately, so rested before coming back.  Despite protection from undead Kangaxx used Ruby Ray of Reversal on Emmental during a time stop.  That dispelled spell immunity and Emmental didn't have time to renew it before being hit with breach and malison during a second time stop.  That was followed instantly by a third, but this time Kangaxx only buffed himself.  Emmental put spell immunity back up at that point only for it to immediately be dispelled again by spell strike.  He renewed it again with his final memorised spell and was in the middle of casting a ruby ray at Kangaxx when he died!

 

I would really like to know what killed him - it's so annoying the game doesn't tell you :

- malison had meant that FoD could potentially have affected him, but he shouldn't have been targettable through the protection from undead scroll.  A couple of rebounding MMM had taken HPs down to 59, but again he shouldn't have been targetable by PW:kill.

- with his belt equipped even a theoretical maximum damage from ADHW would only do 50 HPs, so that shouldn't kill him.  Breach had stripped his fire protection so a dragon's breath could well have killed him, though I would have expected to see that animation at least start rather than him just die instantly (I also wouldn't expect him to be targeted with that spell; ADHW is a bit different as that is often thrown out on the lich itself as part of a sequencer).

It's possible that Emmental was targeted by some sort of grouped spell including something like a FoD that bypassed the undead protection - possibly a chain contingency set to attack the nearest enemy might do this?  The other main possibility would be wail of the banshee as Emmental had been made vulnerable to that by malison and not taken any corrective action.

[polytope]

 

I would really like to know what killed him - it's so annoying the game doesn't tell you :

- malison had meant that FoD could potentially have affected him, but he shouldn't have been targettable through the protection from undead scroll.  A couple of rebounding MMM had taken HPs down to 59, but again he shouldn't have been targetable by PW:kill.

 

I believe that with SCS "Spellcasting Demiliches" they simply ignore ProUndead scrolls - also true of Improved Bodhi and the Improved Shade Lord.

 

I've also noticed that they cast at Vecna-speed, so you wouldn't see a PW:Kill coming before it took effect.

 

A wild mage solo/no-reloading Ascension would be one for the record books, I can imagine some real obstacles though. In particular, the possibility of your ProMW spell surging would leave you open to Illasera's arrows.

 

I've been v busy this week but did the pool battles and had a shot at the final throne battle late last night (or was it the night before?). Game CTD after a couple of rounds, though actually I think I might've been saved by the bell as a few things had already gone wrong... Shouldn't play when tired.

[Aasim]

@Grond0

Liches should be able to target you through Pro Undead afaik, but I doubt it's Finger of Death that killed you, since the casting animation is relatively long.

I'm fairly curious, however, why did you tackle Kangaxx anyway? While his ring is awesome , a mage has little use for it....

 

Game CTD after a couple of rounds

Unfortunately, Ascension, especially with SCS, pushes your computer to it's limits due to a multitude of fairly complex scripts running simultaneously. You might want to lower the game resolution, set FPS on 30 if you play on higher, turn off any sounds (this will make the game harder, but it does help), make sure no programs are running in the background, or turn off 3d acceleration, even if I doubt that would help much.

[corey_russell]

Sorry to hear about your wild mage's demise, Grond0. Personally, I find pro magic scrolls more effective against Kangaxx - problematic for a mage, granted, but you could use haste potions, etc. so maybe it would still work.

[Grond0]

I believe that with SCS "Spellcasting Demiliches" they simply ignore ProUndead scrolls - also true of Improved Bodhi and the Improved Shade Lord.

 

I've also noticed that they cast at Vecna-speed, so you wouldn't see a PW:Kill coming before it took effect.

 

A wild mage solo/no-reloading Ascension would be one for the record books, I can imagine some real obstacles though. In particular, the possibility of your ProMW spell surging would leave you open to Illasera's arrows.

I agree if Kangaxx was ignoring the PfU scroll then PW:Kill would be a likely candidate.

 

By the time a wild mage gets to ToB they will almost certainly have access to chain contingency.  Using that it's possible to buff with triple chaos shield - and guarantee that a NRD spell will cast successfully.

 

 

@Grond0

Liches should be able to target you through Pro Undead afaik, but I doubt it's Finger of Death that killed you, since the casting animation is relatively long.

I'm fairly curious, however, why did you tackle Kangaxx anyway? While his ring is awesome , a mage has little use for it....

Ordinary liches certainly were not targeting through PfU.  That doesn't make them easy targets of course as they can still hit with area effects such as remove magic & ADHW and summons such as planetars and fiends are potentially nasty.  However, the scroll certainly makes them a lot easier.  If I'd realised the demi-lich was ignoring the scroll I wouldn't have gone after him.  The rewards were a bit higher for me than would be typical (regeneration would be helpful as I wasn't allowing healing potions and poison immunity would be similarly helpful in the absence of antidotes), but I agree it would have been no particular problem to continue without the ring.  I attacked more from a desire to be completionist than thinking I needed the Gaxx ring to carry on.

 

 

Sorry to hear about your wild mage's demise, Grond0. Personally, I find pro magic scrolls more effective against Kangaxx - problematic for a mage, granted, but you could use haste potions, etc. so maybe it would still work.

I agree that would be a possibility, although overcoming dark planetars without spells could be a problem.  Maybe I'll give it a try next time and see how it works .

[Grond0]

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 45 - (update 1)
Caddy, human paladin (Grond0) & Xzur, human necromancer (Gate70)
 

This duo made a decent start to BG2 yesterday.

 

The dungeon encounters were all completed without real trouble, though Caddy did get a bit carried away with opening containers without resting and got taken down to 6 HPs by one spike trap.   The circus was restored before they reported to Gaelan Bayle and then helped Hendak out.

 

The Suna Seni ambush was fought off on the way to Watcher's Keep.  The side rooms were cleared there first to make sure the golem manual was to hand before opening the main door.  There were a couple of vampiric wraiths there, but Caddy got lucky and destroyed both of them with Azuredge.  That allowed a bit more loot to be obtained, though saving throws are not yet good enough to risk the FoD trap on the ammo container.

 

There was now enough money to pay Gaelan off and get the AoP from Aran Linvail.  The need to get that was emphasised when Hareishan was encountered in the Docks.  Caddy tried out Azuredge on her, but she saved several times and he was drained to L3 and was running when the golem managed to finish her off.

 

The Renfeld ambush eventually triggered here and he was returned to the Harper HQ.  Prebek & Sanasha fell without difficulty to allow that to be looted.

 

At the Bridge District Xzur picked up the berserker horn on the way to punish Neb for his misdeeds.  The skinner quest was quickly finished - Caddy dual-wielding Arbane to protect against the ghasts before moving on to the Fallen Paladins.  That was made more difficult than it should have been when Caddy attempted to put the berserk warrior up, but drank a potion by mistake - allowing the paladins to defeat the golem before turning on the warrior.  Not wanting to take potions deliberately, Caddy ran into a house to enable Xzur to kill Anarg with some spells (no license got yet).  The remaining paladins were then killed by Caddy throwing axes while Xzur ran them round.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Caddy, paladin 9, 110 HPs (incl. 5 from helm, 10 from bracers), 395 kills
Xzur, necromancer 11, 42 HPs, 87 kills, 1 death

[corey_russell]

Good update there, Grond0/Gate70. One question though - is Xzur a brother/cousin of Xzar? Has Caddy noticed any erratic tendencies in Xzur that you my have noticed in Xzar? Regardless, best of luck guys.

[Grond0]

Something of a twin I believe, though Xzur is surprisingly steady actually - Caddy hasn't been caught by friendly fire too often (at least not yet ...).

[polytope]

Okay, tried it again without crashes: Eryx and party have finally beaten Mel.

 

Pool battles were no problem, although the demons here gate in other demons given time (annoyingly, they do this even when ethereal). I could imagine it leading to a solo character getting mobbed. Aleks got lvl 31 here btw, the last level up.

 

Extensive prep before touching the last pool, including the expensive potions I've been hoarding (bar magic shielding, which were saved for latter emergencies). Although Aleks usually wields Crom +  Ages, I decided to use Defender + Ages + Potion of Storm giant strength for this fight, I also had Aragrish accoutred with the Abishai hide armor, (which I've been restricting myself from up till now) thus both warriors were 75% damage resistant with hardiness. Summoned a simulacrum of Eryx via Vhailor's helm, strangely this sim had neither ProMW, Stoneskinn or Mirror Image memorized, even though Eryx had a couple of each (sims in my install can't use quickslot items either) - which was going to make him a bit useless. 

 

 

The five arrive! (or rather four of them, plus Gromnir and Sarevok) A crucial summon here was the Djinni (from scroll), with SCS they have the ability to cast ProMW and can't be banished by Death Spell either, an Eryx sim would've been better ofc, if not for that odd bug of him having no combat protections (perhaps a side effect of those items like Wonderous Gloves giving extra spell slots). Should've summoned a simmy of Artemisia instead.

 

Our archer used a mind flayer circlet to control Sarevok - this was cheesy and not necessary either, I thought it would be useful to have an extra distraction vs Abazigal and Illasera, also the possibility of him pulling off a Deathbringer assault on someone worried me - then again, could've just stunned him with Smite and used Kuo Toa bolts + called shot to ensure the stun didn't wear off (particularly with an Archer simmy).

 

Sendai for some reason Dimension Doored right next to my party (and CC summoned a fallen Deva, which lasted no time at all to Aleks and Aragrish's attacks), so Eryx opened with Sound Burst (RR bard HLA, one of the replacements for Traps/Evasion - it deals 15d6 and deafens enemies if save vs breath failed, which Sendai was!). A spellstrike + breach from Randolph under Improved Alacrity quickly took down her protections and at about this time, Randolph's CC fired, casting ProMW, and Limited Wish (and something else I've forgotten... maybe Mordy?) - he also Ruby Ray + Breached Abazigal and summoned a planetar before IA ended.

 

 

During his LW Time Stop Randolph tried to lower Illasera's magic resistance with Pierce Shield and shower her with Flame Arrow and Magic Missiles - even though he took a step backward after each cast I forgot that Flame Arrow has the fastest projectile of any spell - so they were mostly wasted vs her MR. The reason for Time Stop rather than simple IA is that Illasera apparently turns ethereal if she can see a party member. He threw in a Dragon's Breath toward TS end (which inflicted disappointing damage to both Illasera and Abazigal).

 

Balthazar prefered to attack Yaga during the TS, even though Sendai should be higher priority.

 

However, after TS ended Balthazar decided to teleport over to Illasera and stun her with his Smite-like ability. I was surprised she could be stunned, as she definitely couldn't when we fought her earlier in the forest. Not complaining though.

 

Abazigal was hard pressed by Aleks + Aragrish (Leksa contributing with Energy Blades and Implosion) and surprisingly was the first of the Five to die. I thought Melissan would join in then, but Sendai somehow died mid teleport immediately afterward. Aha, here she is:

 

 

Illasera (who had been stunned) fell immediately after her stun wore off, I shouldn't have been trying to re-stun her, as that probably prevents her death script from working. Then Gromnir followed (he seems very resilient to melee attacks - maybe should've breached his Hardiness while IA was still running, Yaga's poorly aimed Firestorm helped).

 

Melissan activated Divine Mantle, teleported East and started casting Alteration, so immediately had Eryx use focus, Balthazar decided to use Lunar Stance and Yaga Shura decided to die (it took some time for this big dumb giant to realize he's dead, sorta like trolls). Eryx and Balth distracted her during TS, preventing her from attacking the frozen party.

 

Randolph had already shot Pierce Shield and Breach at her just before she stopped time, so her blade barrier and other buffs would vanish as soon as it ended.

 

 

Incidentally, Improved Haste had worn off by now - Eryx recasts it from memory, Aleks using Improved cloak of Protection and Artemisia with Darkfire Bow, should've left the amulet of Cheetah speed on Aragrish so he could also IH himself, but he had enough Whirlwinds anyway.

 

Randolph Carter the sorc had not much to do now except pray to the great old ones (...or something), he'd used up most of his spells in the initial phase vs the five (not even managing to kill any, due to the incredibly annoying mechanic of Flame Arrows outrunning Pierce Shield spells...) - otoh this meant the rest of the party were still in top shape, but it was sloppy play.

 

Since Melissan didn't give her speech, I decided Sarevok had to die too, thus ends the brief Bhaalspawn family reunion. Sure enough, Mel becomes aware of her mortality and starts summoning demons:

 

 

Not many demons though, I was expecting a horde and a mad scramble to finish Mel off before being overwhelmed (I noticed that Ravager halberd and Ixil's spike both hit through her Divine Mantle - one of the few times our Archer has found a use for a melee weapon). I let Planetar distract the demons (Leksa cast remove fear when the demons panicked her), then a final mass attack on Melissan decided the contest.

 

Taking the advice of Balthazar, Eryx gives up the essence of Bhaal for good.

 

Well that's my first successful Ironman game! It didn't feel v legitimate though; I didn't start in Candlekeep; I used an OP multiplayer party; I didn't use the Item Randomizer; I used cheese sometimes, like the Mind Flayer circlet on Sarevok (I would've just recruited him if playing with a normal party) or resting repeatedly in some areas where you realistically shouldn't rest and lastly I probably shouldn't have used the Chosen of Cyric's items (though they're still less imbalancing than Item Upgrade and most similar mods IMO).

 

Incidentally SoA took 85 days and 9 hours (much of it grinding in chapter 2...), the entirety of ToB took 14 days and 7 hours, shows what a difference epic levels make. While the early game was harder with six persons, the end game was much, much easier.

[Alaestr]

Congratulations, polytope! It was a good effort crowned with well deserved victory - a pleasure to read. 

 

The lack of PfMW as well as other combat protections in simulacrum's spellbook is something which I experienced as well. I guess it has to do with SCS install as I don't have any other mods running.  

[Serg BlackStrider]

Yes, congrats, Polytope! Exciting reading indeed! And following your run made me pretty sure that performing a full Trilogy no-reload will not be a problem for you. So, I'm eagerly looking forward for that 

[Aasim]

Gratz, Polytope....you make it seem rather easy

[polytope]

following your run made me pretty sure that performing a full Trilogy no-reload will not be a problem for you. So, I'm eagerly looking forward for that 

 

That's kind Serg, but not anytime soon I'm afraid, I don't know BG1/ToTSC nearly as well as BG2 (in particular not remembering exactly where traps are and what they do since one can't just shrug and walk over them like in ToB), also, I don't expect to have a lot of free time in the near future - I'll try and finish Polytweak 3.0 anyway.

 

Gratz, Polytope....you make it seem rather easy

 

Thanks, I remember Alesia did the same battle earlier in this thread with a solo beastmaster, and Saros once with a solo wizardslayer on insane, now that makes it look easy.

 

My final impression on this run was that ToB in general was too easy even with SCS, mages simply couldn't get past the party's resistances, saving throws and other protections. I also noticed that "cannon fodder" mages appearing in groups like those in Sendai's enclave often cast ProMW/Mantle or equivalent as a first move which is ineffective because they then get debuffed anyway by Remove Magic or hit with high enchantment weapons, or even stunned by Power Attack with a normal weapon and killed before their aura is clear... Maybe mages appearing as part of a horde should focus more on fast casting offensive spells and at least doing a bit of damage in their time.

 

The spellbooks of ToB mages could use some adjustment anyway, save-or-else spells are too easily resisted by then - Power Words, Maze, Breach and Bigby's Clenched Fist spells would be better, also the best damage dealing mage spells tend to be fire based, whereas it's easy to have your fighters in the late game highly fire resistant just from items, although Cone of Cold/Death Fog/Skull trap etc. are problematic to use for mages with allies (reminds me of why Rakshasas are so nasty in the early game) while MAA and Chain Lightning are a bit pathetic damage wise. Even their demon or Dark Planetar summons weren't effective vs fighters with HLAs.

 

Some of the SCS tactical upgrades to Abazigal/Sendai's lair (extra drow/demon squads ambush on returning from an area) might be easily countered by the protagonist's Pocket Plane ability allowing safe rest anywhere (not that it was needed), maybe PP-ing in the enclaves should be blocked (even makes sense RP wise) and enemy re spawns increased... Or maybe it should be impossible to rest in the Pocket Plane until you've completed the challenge after each of the Five's death (which also makes sense), forcing a player to either face the challenge room or fight their way out of the enclave for... Oh wait, there's a convenient exit portal in both cases, scratch that idea.

 

The battle with four dragons was fun, as was improved Abazigal and Tamah, but they still get debuffed fast by a sorc with Robe of Vecna + Alacrity and owned by warriors with HLAs. Nerfing the robe to give only a +2 bonus to casting speed (as some mods do) wouldn't have changed things, since the relevant debuffs mostly have a casting time of 3 or less (SCS actually reduces the casting time of Ruby Ray slightly) even Spellstrike and Breach are only 5 so several can be shot in a round under Alacrity. On the other hand, nerfing HLAs would have made it even harder for enemies to deal meaningful damage to the party. In sum, I'm not really sure how to design encounters to be challenging for a very high level party - Ascension finale is probably the best show I've seen in that regard.

 

Another thing is that the "chess game" with antimagic seems broken in recent versions of SCS. The only thing that prevented Spell Immunity from being totally overpowered in old versions was that all Spell Immunities could be stripped easily with one Spell Thrust. Since Spell Thrust is now blocked by Globe of Invulnerability you must rely on Secret Word and the use of Spell Shield by enemy mages doesn't help things: You need 1 SW for Spell Shield, 1 for Turning, 1 for Globe, then either Spell Thrust (except I didn't memorize it, because it's kinda useless now...) or 2 SWs for each Spell Immunity (abjuration/divination), only then can you Breach the damn mage, ToB mages were kind of a chore with them not having enough damage output to kill you and you not having enough antimagic to beat them quickly unless you'd just rested. On the other hand, Spellstrike at least was useful when I finally got it at sorc level 25 (never bothered with it in the past).

 

I also have a problem with Spell Shield in that it no longer blocks Wish:Breach - that's probably the trump card enemy mages have vs a well protected player, but it was tedious to see it used so frequently (I've no problem with Anadramatis doing so though, that was a very cool battle), and it's inconsistent with regular breach.

 

I would change Spell Thrust to work as SW currently does (remove one spell protection up to the 8th level, bypasses Globes) and Secret Word to work as ST (stripping all 5th level spell protections and below, also bypassing globes). I have many other ideas for balancing the spell system, but my thread on G3 is the place to discuss that, not here...

[Serg BlackStrider]

 also, I don't expect to have a lot of free time in the near future - I'll try and finish Polytweak 3.0 anyway

Good to hear that - I'm going to modify my current SoA/ToB setup with your mod among the other ones and it would be nice to have the newest version. 

[Aasim]

That's kind Serg, but not anytime soon I'm afraid, I don't know BG1/ToTSC nearly as well as BG2 (in particular not remembering exactly where traps are and what they do since one can't just shrug and walk over them like in ToB), also, I don't expect to have a lot of free time in the near future - I'll try and finish Polytweak 3.0 anyway.

 

My final impression on this run was that ToB in general was too easy even with SCS, mages simply couldn't get past the party's resistances, saving throws and other protections. I also noticed that "cannon fodder" mages appearing in groups like those in Sendai's enclave often cast ProMW/Mantle or equivalent as a first move which is ineffective because they then get debuffed anyway by Remove Magic or hit with high enchantment weapons, or even stunned by Power Attack with a normal weapon and killed before their aura is clear... Maybe mages appearing as part of a horde should focus more on fast casting offensive spells and at least doing a bit of damage in their time.

 

The spellbooks of ToB mages could use some adjustment anyway, save-or-else spells are too easily resisted by then - Power Words, Maze, Breach and Bigby's Clenched Fist spells would be better, also the best damage dealing mage spells tend to be fire based, whereas it's easy to have your fighters in the late game highly fire resistant just from items, although Cone of Cold/Death Fog/Skull trap etc. are problematic to use for mages with allies (reminds me of why Rakshasas are so nasty in the early game) while MAA and Chain Lightning are a bit pathetic damage wise. Even their demon or Dark Planetar summons weren't effective vs fighters with HLAs.

 

I'll respond just to a portion of this - I sincerely hope you get back to modding, since some creatures from BG1 really need some buffs (i.e. Dread Wolf, which are quite common in BG1).

Non-magic weapons vs PfMW - by all means, any mage using PfMW is dead in a single round come ToB. I either tweak the spell to grant full protection against all weapons, or simply don't use normal weapons since this is a spell which massively advantages the player over the AI enemy. 

For Chain Lightning, you might want to check SpellPack's version of this spell - it bounces from target to target, and it's quite common to get hit by it numerous times.

[corey_russell]

@Polytope: Congratulations!

 

Yent II entering BG 2 portion of a trilogy no-reload challenge...

 

Yent II and friends made it out of Chateau Irenicus without any trouble. These are the stats after BG 1.

 

Yent II - TN, Human level 8 fighter, 95 HP

STR 19 DEX 18 CON 19 INT 18 WIS 9 CHA 3

 

Forrest - NE, Gnomish level 8 berserker, 79 HP

STR 18/94 DEX 18 CON 18 INT 11 WIS 3 CHA 16

 

Misty - CG, Dwarvish level 8 berserker, 103 HP

STR 18/97 DEX 17 CON 19 INT 11 WIS 3 CHA 7

 

Joshua - NG, Half-Orc Kensai, 82 HP

STR 19 DEX 18 CON 19 INT 11 WIS 3 CHA 5

 

Hanna - NG, gnomish level 7 cleric/level 8 thief, 42 HP

STR 15 DEX 19 CON 18 INT 9 WIS 20 CHA 3

 

Paja - CE, gnomish level 9 illusionist, 38 HP

STR 9 DEX 18 CON 18 INT 20 WIS 8 CHA 3

[corey_russell]

Yent II the level 9 fighter/level 10 mage - Update 2

 

Yent II has done well - he's unlocked his fighter abilities. He's taken care of the slavers in the slums, Lilacor quest, cleared out the undead in the graveyard, helped the paladin and Wellyn, a number of ambushes, and D'Arnise Keep. Most of this went smooth. Hanna tried to backstab Glaicas and in response he killed her - so we had to pause to run to a temple and to return to the keep - the return went smoothly. The umber hulks were charged by the berserkers and Joshua, since they all had various immunities to confusion. Torgal failed his save vs. death from the cloudkill and died instantly, so that went pretty well.

 

Will try to keep the focus. It's nice now that Yent can wear full plate if his spells aren't needed, as Paja's and Hanna's can handle most situations.

[Grond0]

Let me belatedly join the chorus of congratulations polytope - your run made both entertaining and instructional reading.

[corey_russell]

Yent II the fighter dualed to mage - FINAL Update!

 

Yent II and team battled in the warehouse in the bridge district. I thought with full plate and stoneskin he would be doing well. But no, the Balor held him and killed Yent II before his friends could save him - RIP. Yet another arcane character failure. I tell ya, it's hard to keep these guys in one piece for me. Back to the drawing board...

[Grond0]

Hard luck Corey - you'll get there.

 

Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 45 - (update 2)
Caddy, human paladin (Grond0) & Xzur, human necromancer (Gate70)
 

There was a bit more progress yesterday, with just the one nasty moment.

 

After reporting to the temple about Sir Sarles we tried to recover the Dawn Ring, only to find the character we needed to speak to was nowhere to be found (tried at 9.00 pm, 10.00 pm and 2.00 a.m.).  That used to be a regular problem with a previous version of BGT, but has been working OK recently, so I'm not sure what went wrong this time.  While waiting around we took the opportunity to clear out the sewers under the Copper Coronet along with a nest of slavers.

 

Went to the graveyard to do a few tasks, though the attempt to rescue Nevin was unsuccessful.  There were no problems downstairs with Pai'Na in order to get Xzur equipped with some headgear.  After tracking a kidnap victim to the Bridge District Xzur went to release her (we didn't bother bringing the pantaloons through from BG1).  After being very disciplined for a long time Xzur got a warning from the Cowled Wizards in that encounter and finally decided it was time to get a license.

 

Aran's tasks saw Lassal punished and the Guild Contact exposed without difficulty (although Caddy took a bit of damage in between from an ambush followed by helping Sansuki fight off Tanova).

 

The final action of the session was geared towards fighting the liches.  Their various dens were opened before the duo headed to the temple sewers.  Before starting the Unseeing Eye they quickly killed the sea troll for Roger and got a cloak from the rakshasa.  The glitch came when Xzur was spotted by Tarnor before he had brought out his intended summons.  Caddy coming to offer support was targeted by a FoD and, despite taking an invulnerability potion, still had a 10% chance of dying - but he saved.  Gate70 crashed at that point so I had fun bringing out the numerous summons available to Xzur and they worked in combination with Azuredge to finish the encounter without further problems.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Caddy, paladin 10, 113 HPs (incl. 5 from helm, 10 from bracers), 484 kills
Xzur, necromancer 12, 47 HPs (incl. 4 from ioun stone), 107 kills, 1 death

[Aasim]

Yent II the fighter dualed to mage - FINAL Update!

Yent II and team battled in the warehouse in the bridge district. I thought with full plate and stoneskin he would be doing well. But no, the Balor held him and killed Yent II before his friends could save him - RIP. Yet another arcane character failure. I tell ya, it's hard to keep these guys in one piece for me. Back to the drawing board...

 

Just how did a Balor get there!?

[Gate70]

Congratulations Polytope, you make it all seem so relaxed.

 

When I get a bit more time I'm thinking about a run with Bioware NPC's from BG1 into a modded SoA/ToB so will be looking at WeiDU logs to see if I can shamelessly copy someone elses install.