15253 réponses à ce sujet

[Wierdo]

Hi Gate70, good to see that you have made it out of Irenicus' dungeon in one piece, more or less.

See you down at the Copper Coronet sometime soon?

[Gate70]

I'm in there now

Fimm, feralan ranger travelling with Minsc and Jaheira.

A circus tent mystery seems like a trivial task, right up until we face creatures requiring magical weapons. Minsc and Jaheira switch to melee while I shield them. My axe is no good and my frustration builds when I realise we cannot find the exit so must proceed instead. At least I can help with the lycanthropes.

It's not long before the circus is back in action. Aerie wants to travel with us but she doesn't figure in my plans.

My rage protects me from a vampire called Hareishan while Jaheira dooms and insects her. Minsc kills her with the sword of chaos.

Inside the Copper Coronet I charm a winter wolf into helping defeat a beastmaster. Once the tavern has changed ownership we recruit Jan the gnomish thief for his crossbow skills, then break into a slavers compound.

We have to break out again to rest (including a strange dream) after two battles, returning to deal with 'Captain' Haegan and a couple of caged trolls. Then we exit into the sewers, rest again (another dream) and explore further. Soon Minsc is trying to dual-wield Lilacor and the sword of chaos. I'm happy with Kondar as a reserve weapon.

[Gate70]

Fimm, feralan ranger travelling with Minsc, Jaheira and Jan. A wall of text.

Another night, another dream. Afterwards we explore Watchers Keep. My weapons are useless against a stone golem but Minsc hits hard enough to kill it before I take much of a beating. A bit further on two vampiric wraiths attack, and I am all raged out. Minsc intervenes as Jan summons a flesh golem and Jaheira summons an insect plague.

I am drained badly (level 7, 11hp) and Minsc less so (level 8, 50hp), so it is fortunate we have managed to shut a door on the wraiths and golem. The wraiths outlast both the golem and insects so we step outside and pay 500gp for a greater restoration before leaving the keep.

Instead we locate the bridge district skinner murderer, but he escapes. His rune assassins almost kill Minsc before we kill them. Luckily for us one of the nearby chests has a pearly white ioun stone so Minsc can slowly recover without needing further healing.

Gaelan Bayle reduces his fee to 15,000gp so we pay while we have the cash. On our way out we rescue Sansuki at the cost of a flesh golem, berserk warrior and a couple of levels for Minsc. Habib picks on Minsc too so we take him to a temple and get him restored again, then ask Jaheira to memorise NPP. Jan also purchases a lesser restoration scroll as an added precaution.

On our way to the city gates Eldarin and his slavers yield some items of value. Our reputation notches up as we release a genie from the influence of a rakshasa called Jafir.

On to Windspear hills where we expect to help some dryads, only to find we are attacked by foul creatures that turn out to be a group of knights after their death. Then we are attacked by lycanthropes, so I treat Kondar to some fresh blood. They quickly shred me before Jan can hold two of them with a spell. I gulp a potion while Jan stuns two more with flashers.

We are attacked in the home of Garren Windspear and cannot prevent the kidnap of his daughter. One of the attackers dropped a battle axe +2 so it's not all bad news. We return the acorns before leaving.

Cromwell wants more money to commission ankheg armour than we have, and Minsc loses Boo. I am forced to rest before fighting a friend of the kidnapper and Jaheira is poisoned by Baron Ployer as we do so.

I test my new axe on Vivick until he convinces Billy the kid to tell us where Boo is. A storekeep directs us to Eleanya, and I forego a cabbage answer for some flattery. Boo is back with us, and Minsc is more than restored too. Cowled enforcers tell Jan he is free to fire off spells, and Jaheira has learnt some new skills.

Baron Ployer and his assassins are in a derelict building, and despite our best buffing Minsc succumbs to their attack. Jaheira memorises a raise dead spell and we head to the Coronet. After resting we manage to revive Minsc and commission the ankheg armour for Jaheira.

Umar hills next, and after discussing enchanting the human flesh I talk to Minister Lloyd, Daar and Jermien. Shadows manage to hold me and then Minsc. Jaheira and Jan save us with the help of another berserk warrior and flesh golem, then we eliminate a second group before obtaining the blood of a mimic. Jermien has created a stone golem that runs amok, so we dismantle it before brokering Madulf's deal with Minister Lloyd.

[Gate70]

Fimm, feralan ranger travelling with Minsc, Jaheira, Jan and now Mazzy.

Mazzy has been imprisoned in the temple ruins to the north of Umar, and is keen to join us. A dragon wardstone sounds good but we're young and foolish so attack the shadow dragon instead. Our summons fall quickly until Jan summons ogres that soak up damage as well as they dish it out. Eventually they die and after a couple of nymphs are gone we're on our own. Jaheira has used doom and insect summons, then tries to shield us with iron skins. Jan is switching between spells and flashers, causing reasonable damage. After wearing through stoneskins Minsc hits, as does Mazzy, but I get the final whack.

(pressed wrong key for screenshot so got nothing - this pretty much sums up that battle, should have died but somehow squeaked through)

Jan and Jaheira emerge relatively unscathed. Minsc has chugged 1 or 2 potions of extra healing. Mazzy and I should both be dead but 14 or so potions and attack/retreat tactics have saved our lives. I pick up a few dragon scales, a belt of inertia and the Daystar longsword.

After resting upstairs we buff and venture outside. Jaheria one-shots the shade-altar with a sunstone bullet while Minsc critically disrupts the shade lord casting.


Mazzy and I have hit Shadow Patrick and I use a Daystar Sunray to fry shadow Patrick.


As we charge the shade lord the sunray effect gets there before us.


Fimm, feralan ranger 10. 128 kills, shadow dragon.
Minsc, ranger 10. 126 kills, Hareishan.
Jaheira, fighter 9 druid 12. 23 kills, baby wyvern (one of the disguised knights?)
Jan, illusionist 10, thief 11. 7 kills, shadow.
Mazzy, fighter 9. 7 kills, skeleton warrior.

Modifié par Gate70, 27 avril 2011 - 03:27 .

[Thailog]

I'm rejoining the challenge with Grimm, the halfling Wizard Slayer. My mods are pretty much the same as last time.


BG2 Fixpack
1PP
Item Revisions
Spell Revisions
Unfinished Business
Fade NPC
Quest Pack
Banter Pack
IEP Banters
Rogue Rebalancing
SCSII
BG2 Tweaks
aTweaks
Level 1 NPCs
Widescreen


As with my previous attempt, most of the smarter AI components from SCSII are installed and nearly all of it's tactical challenges are skipped. Using Level 1 NPCs, I've changed Minsc into a Barbarian and Fade into a Swashbuckler. Also, I'm playing at Core Rules but everyone always gets max HP and mages never fail at scribing scrolls into their spellbooks, thanks to BG2 Tweaks.


Chronicles of Grimm the Wizard Slayer, Part 1



The escape from Irenicus' dungeon goes smoothly, except for the Ogre Mage summoned by the genie right at the beginning who provides an unusually challenging battle. Jaheira and Minsc join the party while Yoshimo gets turned down. Outside, Imoen is kidnapped and the group heads for the slums after resting up. They accept Gaelan's offer and go to see Nalia at the tavern. Grimm agrees to help her with the problems at the keep but he doesn't let her join the party.

After disposing of some thugs, the group proceeds to the Bridge District where they are informed of the recent murder streak. They visit the Five Flaggons inn and promise to rescue Haer'Dalis before heading toward the Temple district. The group takes care of Roger's troll but they decide to bypass the Rakshasa for now. After dispatching some mephits in Mekrath's lair, Grimm disposes of the wizard's imp and returns the mirror to him getting Haer'Dalis to join up in the process. The bard wants to retrieve his gem right away but Grimm stops him since the group doesn't have any means to bypass the traps which protect it at the moment.

The party returns to the Copper Corronet where Grimm frees the slaves and instates Hendak as the tavern's new owner. After selling off some excess gear, the group scrapes together 15,000 gold and pays Gaelan off getting an audience with Aran Linvail. At the guildhall, the shadowmaster introduces Grimm to Fade, a Tiefling rogue, who joins the party in their efforts against the rival guild.





On the way out, Grimm runs into Renal Bloodscalp and agrees to look into some shady dealings at Mae'Var's guild for him. The rogue is suspicious of Grimm and wants him to steal an amulet from a priestess of Talos to prove his worth. While traveling, the group is ambushed by Suna Seni and her minions which nets Haer'Dalis a new sword.

Grimm thinks it would be best to sneak up on the priestess at night so the party heads down to the sewers to pass the time. Fade disarms the traps in Mekrath's lair and recovers the gem for Haer'Dalis while Grimm and the others take out some salamanders. Heading back, the party disposes of the Rakshasa and his kobold minions before Fade grabs the priestess' amulet. Mae'Var is satisfied and the group is given a new task by Edwin, the guild's resident mage. He wants Grimm to take out a Cowled Wizard who has been monitoring him.

Both floors of the mage's house are filled with monsters and Grimm realizes that this may not be an easy task. It appears that the wizard has anticipated the party's arrival as he is already buffed with several protective spells when they arrive. Luckily, although Grimm's attacks can't penetrate the mage's Stoneskin, the spell failure penalty goes right through it!



Sweet! After being hit by several of Grimm's crossbow bolts, the mage is unable to get off a single spell which allows Jaheira and Minsc to finish him off. However, Edwin still isn't satisfied and sends the group to fetch him some documents from a man named Marcus who is currently visiting the Sea's Bounty tavern. Grimm gets the documents with ease but Jaheira runs into an old acquaintance of hers, a certain Baron Ployer. Apparently, he wants to get revenge on her and summons several mages to his side who cast a powerful curse on her before escaping. Jaheira is severely weakened by the spell and Grimm decides to look for a cure as soon as possible.

After returning the documents to Edwin, the party takes out a Shadow Thief traitor for Mae'Var earning his complete trust. On the other hand, Edwin seems to know that Grimm intends to betray the rogue and decides to join the party rather than facing them in battle. After presenting the evidence to Renal, Grimm is given permission to dispose of Mae'Var but he opts to postpone that for now in order to search for the mages who have cursed Jaheira.


Party overview:

Grimm - Wizard Slayer(9)
Minsc - Barbarian(9)
Jaheira - Fighter(8)/Druid(10)
Haer'Dalis - Blade(11)
Fade - Swashbuckler(13)
Edwin - Conjurer(9)

[Gate70]

Fimm, feralan ranger travelling with Minsc, Jaheira, Jan and Mazzy.

Mazzy teaches Gorf the squisher a lesson, then we turn to head for the de'Arnise Hold. On the way we rescue Renfield, and get attacked by Parisa the nightstalker as we return him. Xzar wants us to work for him, as does Rylock. Prebek and Sanasha are soon history, as is Xzar. We rest at the Seas Bounty tavern and end up clearing a nearby pirate cave.

Mazzy wants to see Watchers Keep for herself. I get level drained again but at least we've cleared the central room. Sister Garlena restores me and we return inside again. After dealing with the statues we emerge again, only for Mazzy to receive a family message. Clumsy fool that I am, I say the wrong thing and she clears off (Oops, finger trouble worsening).

We track her home but the damage is done and she refuses to talk to me. As well as her bow and sword she has another sword Ilbratha, the ankheg armour, girdle of piercing and the regenerative ioun stone. There may have been other items, but it could have been so much worse.

Trademeet is in trouble, so we clear out the animals but the druid grove will have to wait. Instead we return to the temple district and wander through the sewers. Tarnor the hatchetman and his gang are tough but once we cast insect plague and hold monster they soon fall. Then we find Keldorn and convince him to help with the druid grove.

We carefully deal with trolls, druids, rakshasa and eventually Jaheira can challenge Faldorn. Doom and two insect plagues are enough to convince Faldorn to become a panther. Jaheira adds iron skins and a fire elemental, choosing to run until each spell aura is cleansed. With Faldorn dead we can leave the grove, restore peace to Trademeet and get some shopping done.

Jaheira is not amused at our heroes of Trademeet status.

[Wierdo]

@Gate70: Yes, it is unbearable!

@Thailog: Good to see you back, I have always enjoyed your posts!

Well done to both of you, you are ahead of me already - with real-world concerns pressing my attention and energy, I play this game bit-by-bit and pretty slowly anyway!

[Thailog]

Chronicles of Grimm the Wizard Slayer, Part 2


Grimm takes the party to the Government District hoping that they will find some clues about the mages who had assaulted Jaheira earlier. They run into one of them near the council building and he offers to betray Ployer for money. Being a Wizard Slayer, Grimm refuses choosing to face the mage in combat instead. While they are here, Grimm procures a spellcasting license, commissions Sir Sarles for the Temple of Helm and rescues Viconia from some fanatics. Back at the slums, Jaheira talks with Bernard at the Copper Coronet who reveals that Ployer is hiding in a derelict house nearby.





The battle goes better than expected. Ployer is taken out in just a few hits by Minsc while two of his mageling minions succumb to Jaheira's Insect Plague and get wiped out by Haer'Dalis and Fade. The third mage tries to protect himself from magical weapons only to get shredded by Grimm's mundane crossbow bolts. Jaheira retrieves a lock of her hair from Ployer's corpse and starts feeling better. As the group heads toward Waukeen's Promenade in search of Illithium, they dispatch a vampire fighting some Shadow Thieves. Meanwhile, Minsc wants to help a boy whose mother disappeared inside an enchanted circus.

By the way, due to a bug in SCSII, the illusionary werewolves here deal real damage even if you don't attack them. Luckily, Fade's Detect Illusion skill is at 100% which is enough to dispel the creatures instantly. Without the werewolves, Kalah and his shadows are easily dealt with and the circus returns to normal. After tracing the illithium to a duergar at the Copper Coronet, Grimm remembers his promise to Hendak and decides to check the area for further slaver activity.

After clearing out the sewers, Minsc gets Lilacor and the party assaults the slaver's base. The first wave of enemies is dispatched without problems, but the second group with the two mages puts up quite a fight. The manage to charm Edwin and dispel most of the party's buffs before Jaheira hits them with an Insect Plague. However, due to changes made by SR/SCSII, the mages are still able to cast some spells despite the insects, so Grimm swarms them with his spell-failure flavored bolts.





After getting the reward form Hendak, the group heads for the docks where they try to help Mook fend off a vampire. She goes down and Grimm takes the shipment to Aran who wants him to take care of some Shadow Thief traitors and find Gaelan's missing fence. Before that, the party clears out Mae'Var's guild which nets them a sizable reward from Renal. The money is put to good use as the group does some heavy duty shopping at Waukeen's Promenade. As they get some rest at the local inn, they get into a fight with some thugs on the upper floor.





Interestingly, with Item Revisions, the Crossbow of Searing enflames even normal bolts which allows them to deal fire damage that can pass through Stoneskin. Very cool. After the thugs are dispatched, Fade gulps down a thievery potion and swipes a bunch of scrolls from the local merchants. Next, the party heads for the Bridge District where they discover Arledrian's journal, take out the Shadow Thief traitors and expose the murderous tanner. Aran is satisfied and now wants the group to attack the rival guild, but Haer'Dalis is getting restless about returning the gem so everyone heads back to the Five Flagons inn. Realis opens a portal which attracts some planar bounty hunters who capture the entire acting troupe, including Haer'Dalis. The rest of the party rests up, picking their spells carefully before entering the planar portal.


Party overview:

Grimm - Wizard Slayer(10)
Minsc - Barbarian(10)
Jaheira - Fighter(9)/Druid(12)
Haer'Dalis - Blade(12)
Fade - Swashbuckler(14)
Edwin - Conjurer(11)

[Thailog]

Wierdo wrote...

@Thailog: Good to see you back, I have always enjoyed your posts!

Likewise, thanks! 

I think I've learned a thing or two during my last attempt, so hopefully, things will go better this time. My current strategy is to send in a few summons first, in order to soften up the enemies and have them waste a few spells on them. We'll see how it pans out.

Modifié par Thailog, 28 avril 2011 - 09:55 .

[Gate70]

Fimm, feralan ranger travelling with Minsc, Jaheira, Jan and Keldorn.

The de'Arnise Hold is briefly explored until we meet Daleson and the forge but after that I decide we should sort out the cult of the eyeless for Keldorn instead. We're prepared for the horde of shadows, Jan takes advantage of the eyeless cultists and steals all their loot.

We descend a huge staircase to fight spiders. A wandering horror scares Minsc so badly he jumps out of his shadow dragon armour and runs off. Keldorn dispels his fear so we can kill the spiders and get Minsc dressed again.

I sneak up on some mutated gibberlings then Keldorn dispels protections from Yuan Ti twice. I buff and sneak behind three gauth as a flesh golem, berserk warrior and wolf attack. We all join in, as do some shadows. Keldorn takes too many gauth wounds and has to retreat but my rage has gone (dispelled?). I am held and drained, even with the gauth dead everybody struggles to save me. In vain...and as I start to crumble away I realise Keldorn could have dispelled my afflication.

RIP Fimm the L11 feralan ranger with 166 kills to your name including that unpronouncable shadow dragon.

(I'd normally use the shield of cheese here but the randomiser saw to that. Good luck everyone and I'll try to be back with a TotSCer)

Modifié par Gate70, 28 avril 2011 - 07:17 .

[Thailog]

Condolences, Gate70. You were brave to tackle the beholder lair before Spellhold and without Balduran's shield. I wouldn't have dared.

Even without mods, I find beholders uber-hard and I can't seem to devise a proper strategy against them without using the shield/cloak of cheese. The only other approach that worked for me was a 3xSunfire spell trigger which usually takes out pack of beholders in one shot. However, that requires a high level mage and a lot of resting.

[Grond0]

Thailog wrote...
Even without mods, I find beholders uber-hard and I can't seem to devise a proper strategy against them without using the shield/cloak of cheese. The only other approach that worked for me was a 3xSunfire spell trigger which usually takes out pack of beholders in one shot. However, that requires a high level mage and a lot of resting.

The last time I tried to use the shield the beholders used telekinesis to steal it off me!  I was reduced to using invisible scouts to guide fireballs in from a distance.

[Thailog]

Chronicles of Grimm the Wizard Slayer, Part 3


The party enters the planar prison and immediately faces off against a pack of bounty hunters. Grimm scores a lucky critical on one of the Yuan-Ti mages killing him instantly while Minsc and Jaheira engage the other one. After the mages go down, the other enemies are wiped out with ease. I should mention that Fade's detect illusion skill comes in handy against SCSII thieves who just love to guzzle invisibility potions.

After dispatching a group of thralls the party takes out a few more mages, some salamanders and a wyvern. Further ahead, they encounter the Master of Thralls, who seems to be a demon of some sort. Edwin conjures up a few ogres as cannon fodder but gets too close and ends up being paralyzed by the fiend. Minsc and Jaheira break off their attack on the air elementals and focus on the demon but it goes ethereal.





A few moments later the fiend emerges at full health, having completely regenerated on the Ethereal Plane. It bypasses Minsc and Jaheira and teleports straight to Edwin, who is still paralyzed, nearly level draining him to death. The Red Wizard recovers just in time to evade being killed, but most of his spells are gone since he's been drained to a level 3 mage. To make things worse, nobody has a restoration scroll at hand so he has to make due. Fade joins Jaheira and Minsc and all of them keep whaling at the demon until it disappears and regenerates once again. Things aren't looking so good.

Fade applies an Oil of Speed, Jaheira drinks a potion of Hill Giant Strength while Minsc uses his last rage for the day when the fiend reappears. It keeps slashing at Fade who takes heavy damage but is at least immune to the level draining thanks to her special amulet. Their combined efforts finally manage to bring down the beast and the party gets an orb which frees all the other thralls.

The released prisoners jump at the Warden and Jaheira sends in a few summoned leopards to help out. Minsc tries to join the fray but the Warden hits him with an Imprisonment spell so Fade calls a berserker with the Horn of Valhalla to take his place. Jaheira summons some more leopards and Grimm keeps pelting the Warden with his spell dirsupting bolts but he somehow manages to imprison him too.





Fortunately, Imprisonment on the main char isn't fatal with Spell Revisions, so the rest of the party carries on. The leopards keep slashing at the Warden and Jaheira nails him with an Insect Plague after summoning a shambler from her shield. With his spellcasting disabled, the Warden falls to the summoned creatures and the berserk warrior lands the killing blow. After the remaining party members gather their bearings, Edwin uses a scroll of Freedom to release Minsc and Grimm. Since SCSII mages love casting Imprisonment, it's always a good idea to keep a number of these at hand.

Grimm discovers a key on the Warden's corpse and the party leaves the planar prison along with Haer'Dalis and his friends. The bard rejoins the group and Edwin's levels are restored at the local temple. Minsc wants to visit Umar Hills and help Delon as he had promised, but the group gets waylaid by some bandits and end up carrying a wounded Harper back to his friends.

Grimm accepts Xzar's quest and slays some mages to get into the Harper hold. From there he retrieves a bird who turns out to be an assassin and kills the mad necromancer. A woman named Merelinde appears and takes Jaheira away on some Harper business. Next morning, the group is invited back to the Harper HQ but this turns out to be an ambush and they are forced to fight their way out which gets Edwin a Ring of Wizardry. Minsc once again reminds Grimm of the problems in Umar Hills so the party finally leaves Athkhatla and heads into the wilderness.


Party overview:

Grimm - Wizard Slayer(11)
Minsc - Barbarian(11)
Jaheira - Fighter(9)/Druid(12)
Haer'Dalis - Blade(13)
Fade - Swashbuckler(15)
Edwin - Conjurer(11)

Modifié par Thailog, 29 avril 2011 - 01:43 .

[Wierdo]

Wierdo's Bhaalspawn Bretheren

Firkraag Part 1

Gone to the Windspear Hills to return the Dryad's acorns. On the way, the party is ambushed by bandits and trolls (together). After the fight, Meronia shows up and spirits Jaheira away.

At Windspear, Jaheira turns up again and explains that the Harpers want to see Wierdo. However, she has just gotten Garren Windspear's quest to save his son, so tells Jaheira that they must complete that first as a matter of priority.

Time to assault Firkraag's lair. Wierdo uses a tried-and-true Immolation Strategy on the hobgoblins just past the entrance. However, Chief Digdag gets away.


"Love a warm welcome :devil:"

Wierdo spotted a rukh transmuter with four 'kamikazi kobolds' guarding a door. She then launches a Fireball from a distance which takes out the four kobolds (gee, I wonder what their special attack was? Guess we'll never know now ... ), but the rukh is completely unfazed and apparently oblivious to what just happened. Wierdo then gets its attention with a backstab. Helloooooooooo! 


"Ummm - who are you talking to?"

Wierdo found a Ring of Fire Resistance on the rukh - which explains a few things. This is going to be handy for executing Immolation Strategies

Moving right along, the party becomes invisible again before going through the door. Good thing too as the next room turns out to be a shooting gallery - that is, orcs waiting to shoot at the party!


"Wow, is this just for us?"

Wierdo draws the orcs out by moving into the next room and becoming visible, before ducking back and picking the locks of two secret doors that Nalia had just discovered. Taking advantage of the party's four fighter-types, they split into two teams and rush the orcs. Minsc cops a few hits from flame arrows but nothing too drastic.


"Hi boys! Nice place you have here!"

The party then encounters a troll cook, and then a bunch of hobgoblins with a wizard and shaman.  Annakin decides to try another Bolt of Polymorph out, which works beautifully to turn the hobgoblin captain into a squirrel! Noice.


"Would you like a nut?"

Party Overview:

Wierdo - Illusionist/Thief (11/11)
Annakin - Berserker (11)
Bruce - Monk (11)
Minsc - Ranger (10)
Jaheira - Fighter/Druid (9/9)
Nalia - Mage/Thief (12/4)


Next: Vampires

Modifié par Wierdo, 30 avril 2011 - 10:46 .

[Wierdo]

Wierdo's Bhaalspawn Bretheren

Firkraag Part 2 - Vampires

After clearing out what looked like all of the vampiric mists, orcs & hobs, Wierdo smelled vampires ahead. This was from experience (INT=22) and a message that appeared "Ancient Vampire - hidden" and "Ancient Vampire - shapeshift rat". Hmmm.

Turned out there was a group of ancient and elder vampires in the room, a tougher fight than I had expected.


"You go first!"

Everyone got buffed. The party had no Daystar and no cleric for Protection from Evil, which left them at a serious disadvantage against vampires, liches and other high-level undead. Fortunately, Wierdo had previously pickpocketed Silvanus (guy that lives above Gaelan Bayle in the Slums and sells some stuff) for the 'Silverblaze' +3 dagger which does Negative Plane Projection 3 times per day, and it is +5 against vampires. Very handy little item.

Immolation strategy was called for. Annakin & Minsc used our two Rings on Air Control (one from BG1) to gain Improved Invisibility, and were also pre-buffed with Protection from Fire spells. They then took the lead and attacked while numerous fireballs (from spells and Brown Mold Oil potions).



Annakin and Minsc each used the Silverblaze dagger to get temporary protection
against level drain, and Annakin used it as his off-hand weapon until Bruce joined in the fight. Annakin used the Flame Tongue (which is +4 vs undead, and brought through from BG1) as his primary, and Minsc used the Flail of Ages and a +1 large shield (+4 vs missiles).

It was interesting when the ancient vampires summoned a horde of giant rats. Amusingly, Minsc used his enhanced Charm Animal ability to pull the almost all of them over to Wierdo's cause! Allies from an unusual source.  


"Minsc has become the Pied Piper."

The vamps also summoned some dread wolves which were immune to Minsc's charms, but the rats kept them busy so everyone was happy   Also found out that the rats were capable of hitting ancient vampires (which is pretty amazing as the party need +3 weapons) and giving them 'sickness'.
 
Nalia summoned an efreeti from her bottle just before getting dominated by a vampire, which complicated things a bit. That meant that Wierdo didn't have Nalia's +3 MM Meteors and spell support. However, the party managed without her and she was pretty harmess. She seemed to use most of her meteors on rats! She didn't cast any spells and no weapons except for +2 Arbane shortsword in her left hand.

The Ancient vampires would drain three levels (!) and near the end of the fight Minsc did get hit a couple of times (after the NPP from Silverblaze had expired). He had also been drained one level by the vampiric mists near the entrance and was down to Lv3 by the end!

For some reason, after the fight a few of the rats seemed intent on targeting Wierdo, even though they were still controllable. So Minsc ordered them all (repeatedly) to gather together in the vampires room, then Nalia cast Cloudkill on the lot of them. Given that these rats have about 3 hit dice and a special attack, they should be worth a lot more than 1xp!

As Minsc was badly level drained and there was no cleric in the party (Wierdo shoots eye-daggers at Jaheira, thinking 'what good is a druid?' Hmph!), and no scrolls of Restoration (Bruce, as a monk, can read cleric scrolls), the party had to trek all the way back to the city to find a cleric. Wierdo apologised to Garren that his daughter would now have to spend about an extra week languishing in Firkraag's dungeon. Oh dear.

Next: Distractions in Athkatla

Modifié par Wierdo, 30 avril 2011 - 11:24 .

[Thailog]

Chronicles of Grimm the Wizard Slayer, Part 4


At Umar Hills the party discovers that some shadowy creatures are responsible for the local murders. However, instead of following their trail, the Grimm picks up Valygar and gets him to open up the Planar Sphere. The Wizard Slayer postpones going inside for now and decides to tie up some loose ends first, so the party finishes the illithium quest, takes down the fallen paladins and returns the dawn ring to the temple of Lathander.

Remembering Aran's final task, Grimm takes the group to the graveyard where they rescue Gaelan's missing fence before entering the vampire lair. Fade worries how Grimm will fare against the bloodsuckers and gives him her amulet. Somehow, he is able to wear it, despite being a Wizard Slayer. Sweetness. Everyone buffs up while Jaheira summons a Shambler and a Fire Elemental to help out with dispatching the vampires.





After the lair is cleared, Bodhi appears only to get smacked up by Fade's snares which force her to flee without harming anyone. On the way back, the group stops by the crypts where Edwin seeks a Nether scroll from Neveziah the lich. However, it turns out he was extremely beefed up thanks to SCSII. Seriously, I think this mod takes things too far at times. As I recall, this guy was nowhere near as hard in the original game. Anyhow, Edwin makes the lich waste his most powerful spells by sending in waves of ogres and spiders as cannon fodder while Grimm tries to disrupt his spellcasting with his crossbow. However, the lich sees through the ruse and dimension doors to the party before conjuring up a Mordenkeinen's Sword. Grimm takes the sword down and pushes the lich away using his Divine Wrath Bhaalpower.





The undead spellcaster retaliates by dropping a 3x Skull Trap sequencer on the party which kills everyone except Grimm, Jaheira and a summoned Ogre Mage. Grimm is badly wounded so he runs away to chug a few healing potions while Jaheira and the ogre try to buy him some time. After he gets healed up, Grimm uses the Rod of Resurrection to bring Edwin and Minsc back. They distract the lich until Grimm causes enough spell failure with his crossbow so that the undead caster is unable to get off any more spells. He crumbles to dust and Edwin nabs the Nether Scroll from his corpse.

However, it seems that the party just can't get a break. As soon as they exit the crypts, Fade gets kidnapped by a bunch of slavers. A letter which they leave behind indicates that their hideout is located somewhere in the Temple District. Grimm decides to stop by the slums where the party picks up Jan to serve as a backup thief until Fade is rescued.

As it turns out, she's being held at the guarded compound. Damn, I didn't want to face those guys so early. This will require some careful planning. After clearing out the invisible stalkers and the helmed horrors at the lower floor, the party retreats to select a different spell setup and get a few potions from Roger.

In the morning, the group returns and buffs heavily before climbing the staircase. Immediately after spotting the enemies, Edwin starts casting Cloudkill, Jan conjures up a Web and Jaheira aims an Insect Plague at the cleric. Meanwhile, Minsc summons a berserker from the Horn of Valhalla while Haer'Dalis attempts to confuse Koshi and Ketta using his harp. As expected, Sion's chain contingency kicks in and he turns invisible getting several spell defenses up at the same time. However, Edwin's Cloudkill and Jan's web are now in place so his regular spellcasting get disrupted.





Meanwhile, Grimm, Minsc and Haer'Dalis take Koshi down while Jaheira targets one of the minotaurs with her Wand of Heavens. Simultaneously, Edwin disposes of Sion with a second Cloudkill. With the greatest threat out of the way, Jan and Grimm focus on dispatching Ketta while Minsc and Haer'Dalis distract the minotaurs. The creatures gulp down some healing potions but Edwin and Jan pitch in and take them out in a hail of Magic Missiles. The only one remaining now is the cleric who is still webbed and wounded by the Cloudkills. A few hits from Grimm's crossbow seal his fate and the guarded compound is cleared. Phew!

The group finds Fade in a nearby room but she is guarded by another mage called Mallon. Fortunately, a single hit from Haer'Dalis' Namarra silences him before he manages to get off any dangerous spells allowing the rest of the party to take him down. Fade rejoins the group and Jan departs. After looting the place, Grimm takes everyone to get some rest before reporting Bodhi's defeat to Aran Linvail. The Shadowmaster offers to take the party to Spellhold but Grimm wants more time to prepare. Rumors of fabled riches locked away inside an ancient fortress have recently reached his ears so he takes the party toward Watcher's Keep.


Party overview:

Grimm - Wizard Slayer(12)
Minsc - Barbarian(12)
Jaheira - Fighter(10)/Druid(12)
Haer'Dalis - Blade(14)
Fade - Swashbuckler(16)
Edwin - Conjurer(12)

Modifié par Thailog, 01 mai 2011 - 07:34 .

[Thailog]

Wierdo wrote...

It was interesting when the ancient vampires summoned a horde of giant rats. Amusingly, Minsc used his enhanced Charm Animal ability to pull the almost all of them over to Wierdo's cause! Allies from an unusual source.  

LOL! This is so awesome! I take it you're using SCSII's improved vampires. I skipped over that component as it seemed to hard for me.

Annakin used the Flame Tongue (which is +4 vs undead, and brought through from BG1)

Interesting, are you using a mod that imports a second Flame Tongue and the Ring of Air Control?

Modifié par Thailog, 01 mai 2011 - 07:46 .

[Wierdo]

Thailog:
Seriously, I think this mod takes things too far at times.

I second that motion! Spell pre-buffing is taken too far. Vampires, liches and certain other undead are made into much more serious opponents.

I am using improved vampires and SCSII spellcaster prebuffing of "only cast short duration spells when created in sight of a PC". In practice this isn't a limitation as they always seem to just cast any defensive spell they want, then immediately launch into an offensive spell.

Wierdo wrote:
Annakin used the Flame Tongue (which is +4 vs undead, and brought through from BG1)

Interesting, are you using a mod that imports a second Flame Tongue and the Ring of Air Control?

No. Nothing illegal either like SK or CLUAconsole. Seems that Wierdo hid several several items on Spangle (who is invisible most of the time) and also on Boo. Spangle is invisible most of the time (even Wierdo had to use a Find Familiar spell to find him). Boo is very evasive, and there is so much of Minsc for him to hide in.

As to how such items fitted on such small creatures I can't exactly say. Some kind of Tardis  'bigger on the inside' thing. Both Spangle and Boo are extra-dimensional creatures, and I note that Wierdo's Bag of Holding and Ammo Belt vanished. Maybe it is better that we don't know the details.

Spangle and Boo smuggled a few other items through for Wierdo, including a 489 Arrows of Detonation, 949 Acid Arrows, a Wand of Fire with 50 charges, an Efreeti Bottle (found near the end of SOBH), Anni's +2 Full Plate and Semaj's Ring of Protection +3.

Modifié par Wierdo, 01 mai 2011 - 10:33 .

[Alesia_BH]

Hi All.

I finally got BG running smoothly on my Macbook Air. It looks like Alastria should be heading to Suldanessalar soon.

I seriously doubt that she'll survive SCS Irenicus (I've never faced him before) and I feel like I'm marching her off to her death. But she deserves a chance I guess. Here goes nothing as they say...

Wish her luck (she may need it...)

[touch_of_the_void]

I finally got BG running smoothly on my Macbook Air.

How much of a pain was this? I've not tried it but am tempted...

Wish her luck (she may need it...)

Good luck

[Thailog]

Chronicles of Grimm the Wizard Slayer, Part 5


The party arrives at Watcher's Keep where Edwin has a revelation regarding the Nether Scroll and decides to try out a powerful spell. It backfires, turning him into a woman, which triggers all kinds of funny comments from the other party members. On the first floor of the keep, the party dispatches some orogs and vampiric mists while Grimm gets his hands on a Case of Plenty and an Ammo Belt.

With a little help from Jaheira's summoned shambler and Edwin's Flesh Golem the group takes down two statues that were guarding the altar and acquire Foebane which gives Haer'Dalis a strong hint about his next proficiency pick. Jaheira then summons two more elementals which help the party fight off some more statues who are hanging around the portal to the next level. Interestingly, there are fewer of them here than I remember from my last run, probably because my current party is still in SoA. Most notably, the mage statues are absent which makes this battle a lot easier.





Before entering the second floor, the group steps outside to rest up. As they leave the keep, Dermin, one of Jaheira's Harper acquaintances shows up. They talk a bit and she unexpectedly leaves the group in the morning. Elminster pops up bringing Jaheira's farewell note which gives Fade an opportunity to pickpocket a Ring of Protection +2 from him. The party returns to Athkhatla in order to confront the Harpers and Jaheira soon rejoins. After dispatching her captors and selling off their gear, Grimm has enough money to purchase the Firetooth crossbow from the Helmite priestess back at Watcher's Keep. Nice!

The second level of the fortress holds a powerful demon, but he's apparently not the Imprisoned One that the Helmites were talking about. After disposing of a Rakshasa Rukh and a few Desert Trolls, the group runs into some Air Elementals and recovers a scepter from the northern room. In the eastern room, Grimm expects to find golems but runs into a pack of mephits instead. Going down, the party secures the second scepter after dispatching some slimes and a giant snake. Next, they flood the icy chamber with poison vapors allowing Grimm to dispose of the Ice Golem and its minions from a safe distance which nets him another scepter. The party heads back for the surface to rest up only to get ambushed by Dermin and his cronies. This time, he's not in the mood for talking.





Grimm and Edwin focus on the enemy mage while Haer'Dalis confuses Dermin and the dwarven fighter using his harp. The wizard goes down quickly as Grimm keeps disrupting his spells with his flaming crossbow. The remaining enemies fall quickly and Jaheira is satisfied that her feud with Dermin is finally over. Back on the keep's second floor, the group gets rid of some vampiric mists, a few Fire Elementals and a Fire Giant before securing the last scepter which allows them to free the caged demon. The fiend assumes the form of a Shambling Mound and immediately smothers Fade with a paralyzing acid blob. Ouch!





This form can only be damaged by electricity so Minsc switches to his Halycon spear while Haer'Dalis equips Usuno's Blade. Grimm packs out some Bolts of Lightning (crossbow ammo) and Edwin pitches in with some lightning of his own which brings the demon's health down a fair bit. Meanwhile, Fade recovers and runs away to heal while the fiend changes its shape again. The Ice Golem form is a poor choice since Jaheira had summoned two Fire Elementals earlier After Edwin hastes them, they burn the demon to a crisp rather quickly.

The party descends to the third level where they encounter an elven man who was driven insane by his constant battles with the demons that are occupying this level. Jaheira heals the poor fellow's mind and he instructs the group that they need to repair the Scepter of Radiance in order to navigate the maze on this level. However, Grimm thinks it may be too soon to face a bunch of powerful demons so the group heads back to the surface. Remembering the promise that he made to Nalia, Grimm checks his map for the location of her castle.


Party overview:

Grimm - Wizard Slayer(13)
Minsc - Barbarian(13)
Jaheira - Fighter(10)/Druid(12)
Haer'Dalis - Blade(15)
Fade - Swashbuckler(17)
Edwin - Conjurer(13)

[Wierdo]

Thailog wrote:
Elminster pops up bringing Jaheira's farewell note which gives Fade an opportunity to pickpocket a Ring of Protection +2 from him.

Ooo, that is a nice score! I'll have to keep that in mind for my own game as the Jaheira romance progresses!

[Thailog]

Wierdo wrote...

Ooo, that is a nice score! I'll have to keep that in mind for my own game as the Jaheira romance progresses!

Hehe, thanks! You can even get a second ring when he comes back to bring Jaheira the Harper Pin. 

However, you have to be pretty fast since he sticks around only for a few seconds each time. He also carries a few potions and an Amulet of Protection, so be sure to pick his pocket several times. The old geezer also moves pretty fast so be sure to use Haste or the Boots of Speed so your thief can catch up with him (Fade used Arbane's Sword to haste herself).

Modifié par Thailog, 02 mai 2011 - 07:29 .

[Wierdo]

More +2 rings are always handy

Fade is a mod NPC? Seems like fun if you, like myself, enjoy playing thieves. I generally prefer multi-classed or vanilla thieves rather than kits, but reading your commentary gives a different perspective.

Spangle and Boo smuggled a few other items through for Wierdo, including a 489 Arrows of Detonation, 949 Acid Arrows, a Wand of Fire with 50 charges, an Efreeti Bottle (found near the end of SOBH), Anni's +2 Full Plate and Semaj's Ring of Protection +3.

To be a bit less mysterious about this, you can bring some items in from BG1.

If, at the very start of the game (BG2-SOA, in Irenicus' dungeon), you hit the space bar to pause the game in the first second or so, you can access the inventory screen and drop any items your characters have. This way you don't lose them.

Many or perhaps the majority of BG1 items cannot be imported this way. Only items or equivalents with the same item codes will be imported. Bags of Holding, ammo belts, scroll cases etc will not come through and all items in them will be lost.

It is a little cheesy - but I am playing with item randomiser and SCSII, improved vampires and Ascension. In addition to that, I am putting up with Jaheira just so that Wierdo can use her Harper Pin! Gotta love the immunity to magic missiles and 100% electrical resistance.

Modifié par Wierdo, 02 mai 2011 - 08:10 .

[Thailog]

Wierdo wrote...

Fade is a mod NPC? Seems like fun if you, like myself, enjoy playing thieves.

Yeah, you can get her from here. Honestly, she's one of the best written NPC mods that I've tried. The author uses Planescape Torment style of writing by giving contextual descriptions of the situation in addition to the regular dialogue. I personally enjoy that approach, though it may not be to everyone's liking. Also, her romance is better executed and has a more realistic pacing than most of the original Bioware content.

On the down side, there's no voice acting and no ToB content at the moment, but that may come in a future update. Her original portrait is also fairly unimpressive but there are several alternatives (like the one I'm using) available on her forum. She also doesn't have a kit assigned by default (plain thief) but you can use the Level 1 NPC mod to give her one. I think Swashbuckler fits her quite nicely, considering her backstory.

I generally prefer multi-classed or vanilla thieves rather than kits, but reading your commentary gives a different perspective.

Yeah, the thief kits from the original game were kinda bland, but I find that Rogue Rebalancing makes them a lot more appealing and manages to do so without going overboard. It also makes things somewhat more plausible e.g. by removing the pseudo-magical traps from the Bounty Hunter and giving him proper, alchemy based abilities instead. The thief HLAs also become a bit less generic. For example, I especially like how it changes Evasion.

Many or perhaps the majority of BG1 items cannot be imported this way. Only items or equivalents with the same item codes will be imported. Bags of Holding, ammo belts, scroll cases etc will not come through and all items in them will be lost.

Interesting, though I've noticed that some mods bring BG1 items to BG2 as well. For example, I've found the Dagger of Venom and the Cloak of Balduran available for sale in my game. And by the way, if you're looking for some cool thief gear, check the merchant on the first floor of the Shadow Thief guild. She carries some awesome stuff in her special stock, but you have to pay to see it, same as with Ribald.

Modifié par Thailog, 02 mai 2011 - 08:54 .