15226 réponses à ce sujet

[Gate70]

I knew it wasn't fighter material, couldn't remember more than that.

[corey_russell]

I knew it wasn't fighter material, couldn't remember more than that.

I see no problem then. We have already sold it anyways, who knows who we sold it to...

[Grond0]

Zart{4} - elven wild mage (1st and final update)

 

This version of Zart at least made it to the dungeon - but no further.  She'd just about cleared the initial level and was looting the mistress's room.  I had intended to use vampiric touch to boost HPs before opening the chest with the portal key, but got distracted.  She still had mirrors to protect her, but the spike trap missed the mirrors and went right up her ...

[corey_russell]

@Grond0: Sorry to hear of that problem - doesn't stoneskin help with that kind of trap?

[Dalavar_Wolfmage]

One thing it might be nice to have on the first page "hall of heroes" is whether any of these successful runs were solo or not.

 

I am planning on trying a no-reload run of SoA and ToB with Ascension, Tactics, Sword Coast Strategems, and the Item Upgrades mod.  Initially was thinking about doing a party, mostly to have fun trying out some of those item upgrades.  But now am thinking about making the attempt at solo.  If going solo, I'll most likely choose a Fighter/Illusionist, so I'm curious for example if the person who completed with this character did it solo or as the leader of a party.  (The links on the first page are mostly broken).

[Grond0]

 

@Grond0: Sorry to hear of that problem - doesn't stoneskin help with that kind of trap?

 

It would, but I don't think there are any stoneskin scrolls available in BG1 in my installation.

[corey_russell]

One thing it might be nice to have on the first page "hall of heroes" is whether any of these successful runs were solo or not.

 

I am planning on trying a no-reload run of SoA and ToB with Ascension, Tactics, Sword Coast Strategems, and the Item Upgrades mod.  Initially was thinking about doing a party, mostly to have fun trying out some of those item upgrades.  But now am thinking about making the attempt at solo.  If going solo, I'll most likely choose a Fighter/Illusionist, so I'm curious for example if the person who completed with this character did it solo or as the leader of a party.  (The links on the first page are mostly broken).

Off-hand, I know Grond0's characters were solo, Alesia's were all solo also, BBMorti's Anatole was solo, and the rest were with parties. As for the links, it's possible they were broken when the forum got moved. Any volunteers to help me fix the links? I tested them after the move, but perhaps the old forum is not available anymore.

[Dalavar_Wolfmage]

Cool, thanks.  Looks like it's been pretty well covered by solo arcanists, so I'd be trodding on familiar ground if I were to pursue with the same.

 

Maybe a Swashbuckler (though they're kind of arcanists via scrolls), or an archer, would be fun to try.  Archer is my favorite class, but I think they have no chance.  When I've done vanilla archer solos in the past, you end up using melee weapons half the time, because even at Proficient, things like Defender of Easthaven end up being better than the best bow with all the bonuses.

 

Or maybe Ranger/Cleric or Inquisitor.  I suspect I'd need to be heavy in the physical resist, so the Inquisitor's lack of Armor of Faith might hurt severely.

[Grond0]

Welcome Dalavar_Wolfmage and best of luck with whatever you decide on.  I would suggest choosing whatever class you like, rather than trying for the 'best' - any class can perform well depending on how you play.

[polytope]

Good to see a new participant.

 

One thing it might be nice to have on the first page "hall of heroes" is whether any of these successful runs were solo or not.

 

I am planning on trying a no-reload run of SoA and ToB with Ascension, Tactics, Sword Coast Strategems, and the Item Upgrades mod.  Initially was thinking about doing a party, mostly to have fun trying out some of those item upgrades.  But now am thinking about making the attempt at solo.  If going solo, I'll most likely choose a Fighter/Illusionist, so I'm curious for example if the person who completed with this character did it solo or as the leader of a party.  (The links on the first page are mostly broken).

 

 

Solo vs party should maybe be mentioned in the "special" notes. The F/I was half of a multiplayer duo.

 

If you care about making the 1st page though, it needs to be a full trilogy run - quite a few successful runs aren't listed there because they were SoA+ToB only.

 

Off-hand, I know Grond0's characters were solo, Alesia's were all solo also, BBMorti's Anatole was solo, and the rest were with parties.

 

And most of Saros' IA characters.

 

Cool, thanks.  Looks like it's been pretty well covered by solo arcanists, so I'd be trodding on familiar ground if I were to pursue with the same.

 

Maybe a Swashbuckler (though they're kind of arcanists via scrolls), or an archer, would be fun to try.  Archer is my favorite class, but I think they have no chance.  When I've done vanilla archer solos in the past, you end up using melee weapons half the time, because even at Proficient, things like Defender of Easthaven end up being better than the best bow with all the bonuses.

 

Or maybe Ranger/Cleric or Inquisitor.  I suspect I'd need to be heavy in the physical resist, so the Inquisitor's lack of Armor of Faith might hurt severely.

 

From my experiences with SCS, Tactics etc I'd say:

• Swash, very vulnerable in the early game to enemy thieves with SCS, your Detect Illusion skill works to revel them after they drink invisibility potions, but not when they start out hidden. OTOH if a bounty hunter can make it, so can a swash


• Archer, too frustrating to stay out of melee range when solo, I'd prefer stalker (iirc Alesia almost got a solo stalker through trilogy with SCS + Ascension)


• Ranger/Cleric, multi gets their buffs dispelled by everyone, dual is a weaker fighter late game, I'd prefer a F/M/C as you can use Spell Immunity to keep buffs intact esp since Insect Plague isn't that good anymore with SCS spell tweaks (F/M/C is probably weakest of the fighter/mage types - including dual classes and blade - but this means it's not so OP as to be unfun to play)


• Inquisitor, great in early game; SI:Abjuration, Divination (or both) is quite common for late game SCS mages, this can be solved with Ruby Rays and such for an iniquisitor in a party, but solo can't do much about it (well, you can run away and wait their buffs out, I don't like doing that). Still a good kit, but cavalier is a serious contender.

Surprisingly, it looks like nobody's yet done SCS + Ascension with hardcore solo sorcerer.

 

Lastly, if you're going to use the most recent version of SCS (28) you need to manually edit a few files to be able to play it past Sendai's enclave, and to complete the final Ascension fight. Thread here.

[Dalavar_Wolfmage]

Welcome Dalavar_Wolfmage and best of luck with whatever you decide on.  I would suggest choosing whatever class you like, rather than trying for the 'best' - any class can perform well depending on how you play.

 

Thanks.  I like all classes, so it's more about trying to knock off the next most feasible challenge.

 

 

 

If you care about making the 1st page though, it needs to be a full trilogy run - quite a few successful runs aren't listed there because they were SoA+ToB only.

 

 

Don't care about the first page, just doing something new in the game.  I'm also familiar with the way Saros plays, and it bears no relationship whatsoever to anything I'd consider fun or a challenge.  BTW, I would of course suggest adding SoA+ToB runs to the first page, because... why not?  380 pages isn't something many people will read through, but it would be valuable to see all of the successful runs catalogued.

 

 

• Ranger/Cleric, multi gets their buffs dispelled by everyone, dual is a weaker fighter late game, I'd prefer a F/M/C as you can use Spell Immunity to keep buffs intact esp since Insect Plague isn't that good anymore with SCS spell tweaks (F/M/C is probably weakest of the fighter/mage types - including dual classes and blade - but this means it's not so OP as to be unfun to play)
• 
  
• Inquisitor, great in early game; SI:Abjuration, Divination (or both) is quite common for late game SCS mages, this can be solved with Ruby Rays and such for an iniquisitor in a party, but solo can't do much about it (well, you can run away and wait their buffs out, I don't like doing that). Still a good kit, but cavalier is a serious contender.
• 
  

Surprisingly, it looks like nobody's yet done SCS + Ascension with hardcore solo sorcerer.

 

Anything with arcane magic seems like it's been done to death.  Between the Spell Immunity spells, and Project Image abuse, it seems like the path forward with that type of character is pretty well laid out (and I think one person here did document a Sorceror in this type of game).  For Inquisitor, there is the Rod of Reversal, which is available for Abazigal/Sendai and onwards.

 

 

Lastly, if you're going to use the most recent version of SCS (28) you need to manually edit a few files to be able to play it past Sendai's enclave, and to complete the final Ascension fight. Thread here.

 

 

Thanks - is this needed if I don't have EE?

[Aasim]

Thanks - is this needed if I don't have EE?

Yup, SCS28 has issues regardless of your game. For soloing, I'd opt for a sorcerer as the best choice. A fighter-cleric multiclass is also a very valid choice (dwarf). Depending on your install choices, a Cavalier can go a long way as well, Blade is good, berserker/barbarian, cleric-ranger, fighter-thief are all good solo characters. I'd avoid Archers and Inquisitors tbh. Inquistor is nice, but nothing earthshaking. Sorcerer is.

If you're worried about Project Image/Simulacrum abuse, don't use them, I never use these spells for example. Installing Spell Revisions also limits such abuses, if you wanna call them that.

[Dalavar_Wolfmage]

Yeah, for SCS, Tactics, and Ascension, I typically install all of the "hardest" options, except for the ones allowing enemies to use multiple Images/Simulacrums, as I don't use those myself.

 

In the interest of doing something that seems new though, I think I am going to pick an Archer.  (Or possibly an Archer dualed to a Cleric; they still get slings, I think, which I would use most of the time).  I might also try to manually alter the Moon Dog script.  I love that little guy, he's so useful but his script makes him go insane and he almost never listens when you tell him to cast a particular spell.

[corey_russell]

Dalavar_Wolfmage: You asked "why not" include BG 2 only no-reload successes on the first page of this thread. The thing is, since this challenge has existed (which has been going on for many years), there have been a HUGE number of successful BG 2 only no-reloads. So many, in fact, I would venture to say a BG 2 only success is not notable. Trilogy runs on the other hands (BG 1, BG 2 and ToB all no-reload with the same character) on the other hand, have been attempted 1000's of times, and yet the only successes are those on the first page - those ARE notable and thus are recorded.

[Dalavar_Wolfmage]

Noted.

[corey_russell]

Multi-player No-reload

Neequan - gnomish fighter/thief, controlled by Corey_Russell

Wesorc - elvish sorcerer, controlled by Dogdancing

 

So the party headed to the Umar Hills Temple area to adventure, and adventure it was!

 

First challenge was the large ambush just outside the mirror - we had invisible stalkers as distractions and Neequan did sunray from the Daystar - this worked out fine.

 

We pulled the next group (wolves and skeletal warriors) carefully, though using haste on the skeleton warriors. As usual, Corey_Russell did the questions perfectly for the piece of the sun item. Next was the large ambush by the sun gem on the pedestal. Just before the fight, Wesorc summoned as many spiders as she could - this worked out great to keep Wesorc out of trouble (not much problem for Neequan with his shield of harmony protecting him).

 

We rested to restock our spells/abilities. Some snares laid and the ambush on the path to the fire pit room was dealt with - we had invisible stalkers again, not that they can hurt the undead.

 

Neequan then put on his leather and scouted ahead to see what the party would be up against (Goodguy and Badgirl died here - we certainly didn't want to repeat that). Hmm, bone golem, greater mummy (hate those things) and two skeleton warriors. Neequan backed off. We decided protection from undead scroll would be our best bet. But first,we need to get rid of the body of the priestess we were carrying so we don't get that bug that happens if you talk to her with pro undead active. Ok we do that, Neequan uses pro undead scroll, oh that's right bone golem not undead!

 

Neequan beats a hasty retreat to Wesorc and her invislble stalkers, but the bone golem follows. Neequan was getting hit hard, and Wesorc valiantly tried to hurt the golem with magic missiles - too bad the golem's magic resistance stopped it. So instead, Wesorc activates group haste - good thing as here comes yet another bone golem and the first one isn't dead yet! Neequan dying fast - Neequan asks for RoR heal - this works and finally the bone golems are dead.

 

The skeleton warriors and greater mummy were no problem, the protection from undead scroll was still active. We proceed deeper find that area with all those letters - well Neequan didn't see any enemies, but they spawned when he went back. Neequan then proceeded to hit the bone golem with his tuigan's bow, this was working well at first, because the undead were trapping the bone golem so it couldn't reach Neequan. Unfortunately right about now, Wewsorc's invisible stalkers came to "help" - the undead of course saw the stalkers so they moved and now the bone golem is after Neequan!

 

Neequan runs and shoots and runs and shoots, toward's Wesorc's position (I forgot he had a haste potion active to make the most of his scroll) - Wesorc gets some control problems and stays in melee range of the bone golem. Corey_Russell told Dogdancing to do mirror image and run, and she did and eventually Neequan's arrows did the trick. The remaining undead were still no problem as Neequan's scroll was still active. Good thing Neequan used the haste potion as the undead scroll expired same time as the last undead dying. After forging the sun star/gem, Wesorc leveled and got a level 6 spell. While the stalkers are great since they last so long, but not so great they can't hurt anything requiring magic weapons. So we decided to get fire elementals.

 

Neequan was going to ignore the shadow dragon, but now that Wesorc can cast 4 fire elementals, this changes things. So the plan was to summon 4 fire elementals, genie lamp, resist fear and Neequan and Wesorc were to stay at range at all times. Dogdancing got some control problems though because her MMM's wore off and she got into melee (read: chunking) range of the dragon. Wesorc withdraws and then Neequan asked her to blind the dragon. She managed to blind Thaxxy! Victory was now sure...we continue to range and our summons are still whacking at Thaxxy - success!

 

We do a few buffs for Shade Lord. Most important though is probably SI: Necromancy by Wesorc and Improved Invisibility by Neequan (this put his save vs. spells at -1 - just enough to resist a finger of death should that occur). We enter the Shade Lord's domain and Wesorc takes out the altar with a sun bullet. She then pumps a few magic missiles into the Shade Lord. The Shade Lord didn't appear to be doing much, perhaps stymied by our improved invisibilities (both players have RoAC rings). The shade lord died quickly in any case.

 

We return to Umar Hills and have fight a few rangers - some invisible stalker distractions as well as Neequan backstabs and the devastating play of Wesorc - glitterdust. Clean victory. We report to the mayor to get our reward and sell our junk. About 6 snares were laid by the merchants by the inn (thinking WAY head to flesh armor, if we get that far).

 

We return to Waukeen's Promenade to get the Rhynn Staff for Wesorc to replace her basic +1 quarterstaff she was using. While we were here, we also upgraded the Horn of Valhalla for Wesorc. Dogdancing needed to stop, so ended session here.

[Dogdancing]

I am a woman who likes steel in my hand vs skirting combat and casting off to the side. So I always play a melee character. On a completely flakey whim decided to play a sorcerer on husband/my latest multi-player.

 

Important to note is my extensive disastrous past gaming history with pets. My favorite was in Everquest when our party had retreated to heal up and my druid told  her pet bear to "sit" and after I clicked SIT, the damn thing rushed away from the camp like it was hasted and returned a minute later with a huge train that killed our party.

 

Last night Wesorc clicked select all and followed after Neequan.  The stalkers seemed reluctant to follow Wesorc over the lava and disappeared. (they have been trouble makers since they killed all the Paladins and broke that quest.) so I didn't concern myself with them. When I caught up with Neequan and the stalkers didn't show up I forgot about them.

 

Waiting for Neequan to kill the trapped Bone Golem, I inched up a bit and all of a sudden the stalker zipped past me (shades of my stupid bear in everquest) and brought a nice helping of chaotic-ness into our battle. If that bone golem hadn't been so intent on devouring Neequan it could have killed me dead as any of the numerous times it walked right next to me as I tried to get out of its way.

 

Later Wesorc tried to off her self my offering herself up to Thaxxy as a viable chunking target. At that point I think I would have jumped up and down in celebration if I had gotten chunked and gleefully rolled a melee toon to continue the trilogy.

 

The grand question is...will a mob end our run or will my bumbling about with a caster end our run. Its funny to think that in the future, "playing with Dogdancing in your party" will have to be listed as a mod, that substantially increases the difficulty of the game. LOL.

[corey_russell]

Guttax the half-elf Cleric-Ranger - Micro-update

Traveling with Korgan, Minsc, Viconia, Nalia, Imoen

 

Guttax and team have done a few things in the Underdark. The mass of elementals were defeated easily. The initial drow party couldn't put up much resistance either, nor the spore colonies. Massive buffs and 5 ariel servants were used to defeat the demon at the Svirfbelin village. 

 

We decided we would do the beholder lair first. We did lots of buffs once again...I tried something new this time - I tried a chaos - the beholders didn't seem to do much so maybe it helped, but no chunkings or deaths this time. Minsc and Korgan soloed this lair. Minsc used potions of genius before engaging the mind flayers in the area, but he got stunned - Korgan went into melee and managed to save Minsc. The other incident of note is when fighting the Elder Orb the Orb tried imprisonment - Korgan did enrage, hoping he would be targeted - he was! Which means the imprisonment did nothing and the lair was cleared without further incident.

[Aasim]

 

"playing with Dogdancing in your party" will have to be listed as a mod, that substantially increases the difficulty of the game. 

Lol....  Made my day.

[Grond0]

Quad multiplayer attempt 1 - (update 2)
Grond0, Dogdancing, corey_russell, Gate70

 

There was a generally comfortable session today, although it included a third death for the run.

 

The team started in the Copper Coronet sewers so thought they might as well do the slavers.  Invisibility 10' allowed them to surprise Capt. Haegan and his guards and quickly overwhelmed them.  A combination of skeletons and silence then set the wizards up for defeat.

 

With the loot from that they were able to pay Gaelan Bayle and pick up goodies from Aran Linvail.  They then set off for Trademeet, but turned back after rescuing Renfeld.  Prebek & Sanasha were confronted by an enraged berserker and barbarian in a BOGOF offer, but didn't seem to think it was a fair deal.

 

After looting the Harper HQ and watching Xzar get assassinated the team successfully arrived in Trademeet.  A helping of protection from petrification later and the genies were subdued to get the Shield of Harmony and a few other goodies from the shop.  Moving on to the Druid Grove Yuledan proudly started attacking some spiders with his new dwarven hammer thrower after being assured that it could be used in melee.  Unfortunately, Grond0 and Gate70 forgot to mention that it was necessary to choose a melee attack with the weapon rather than accept the default missile version .  As a result Yuledan was being hit hard and often.  Ratic healed one lot of poison and Yuledan swallowed a potion to cure a second lot - but then died of excess damage before he could retreat.

 

After a temple visit the remainder of the Grove was quickly subdued, although the rakshasa were left untouched.  I particularly enjoyed Iskvael successfully casting horror on the 2 spore colonies - those little roots they use for moving were twinkling away as they tried to outrun Ratic, but they were eventually cut down.  Cernd was left outside the party and made short work of Faldorn.  Back in Trademeet Tiris was not asking for help (we've not done the skinner murders yet), but the tomb inhabitants were pacified.

 

The final objective of the session was the de'Arnise Hold.  That was all straight-forward, ending with Torgal being pulled away from his giant troll friends and overwhelmed.  Ratic accepted the care of the castle, though he's unlikely to spend much time there.

 

Stats (cont. from BG1):

Grond0 - Ratic, barbarian 10, 96 HPs, 425 kills

Dogdancing - Wewa, berserker 10, 106 HPs (incl. 5 for Helm), 264 kills, 1 death

corey_russell - Yuledan, fighter 9 / cleric 9, 99 HPs, 172 kills, 1 death
Gate70 - Iskvael, mage 10 / thief 11, 50 HPs, 87 kills, 1 death

[Alaestr]

Really quick progress for a quad party. It shows how experienced all of you are.

I hope to get back to no-reloading, now that my finals are finally over.

[Gate70]

I particularly enjoyed Iskvael successfully casting horror on the 2 spore colonies - those little roots they use for moving were twinkling away as they tried to outrun Ratic, but they were eventually cut down. 

I can't remember seeing them move before, reminded me of the ghosts in Pacman when hasted.

 

The sessions are about 2-3 hours each and 4 characters is making for rapid progress.

[corey_russell]

Guttax the Half-Elf Cleric/Ranger - Underdark Update

Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Viconia, Nalia, Imoen

 

Guttax's team has escaped out of the Underdark. The actual battles were pretty smooth, no deaths and for once no chunkings. We did everything here, except not all the Ust Natha stuff. We did however do the entire Adalon quest line, but what we did was just before returning to Adalon we dropped her eggs on the ground - I vaguely recall her automatically sensing the eggs on me and whisking me away - but we need her blood.

 

So Korgan used the boots of the north and borrowed Guttax's helm of defence to put Korgan's save vs. cold to 70% - I forgot to get a cold protection scroll, hmmm. Korgan tried to hurt Adalon with his dwarven thrower but it had no effect. He was able to eventually draw Adalon to the entrance. Viconia tried to help with her sling, but she wasn't hitting, probably due to her Thac0. So then Imoen and Guttax assisted - Guttax immediately made a difference and got some hits in, and in fact got the kill shot. Imoen used her Tasheron's bow as well as a spell thrust and breaches - success! Now we will be able to forge the flesh armor, once we can get out of the Underdark.

 

We had to battle some re-spawns of the Kua-Toa on our escape - we made it to the surface without incident. Viconia had to swear a geas, and the party rested and will consider our next move.

 

I did run into a very strange bug though - I was at 2.2 million total experience and when I leveled 13 cleric I got a fighter only HLA! I'm not sure what to make of that...I also leveled to fighter level 12 next in the Underdark and I did NOT get an HLA then (which is right). I've never heard of this bug before, has anyone else heard of it?

[Aasim]

I did run into a very strange bug though - I was at 2.2 million total experience and when I leveled 13 cleric I got a fighter only HLA! I'm not sure what to make of that...I also leveled to fighter level 12 next in the Underdark and I did NOT get an HLA then (which is right). I've never heard of this bug before, has anyone else heard of it?

This is well-known bug, and it's only "fixable" if you use ToBEx. Hardcoded, apperantly. Anyways, this is in game for over a decade so I'd consider it more like a game feature than a bug per se . 

GL with your troupe, and keep up those Chaotic Commands!

[corey_russell]

This is well-known bug, and it's only "fixable" if you use ToBEx. Hardcoded, apperantly. Anyways, this is in game for over a decade so I'd consider it more like a game feature than a bug per se . 

GL with your troupe, and keep up those Chaotic Commands!

Thanks for the quick feedback Aasim. From a no-reload point of view, that's a huge help getting an HLA early, though if it's the only one until 3 million then that isn't too bad. Still, I think this means I won't be playing a cleric/ranger anymore (e.g., win or fail this will be my only cleric/ranger character). I'm not going to try to "fix" it, but will not use the HLA until I am at 3 million experience, like all the other classes.