15218 réponses à ce sujet

[Aasim]

A wise move there as aTweaked Greater Earth Elementals are even more vicious. A non-stop Earthquakes which in turn could call force more Greater Elementals... Impish Face & Co had quite a hard time with them even at full six members party. Fire Elementals are pretty easy exp source though even being aTweaked.

I don't install these anymore. One Aerial Servant/Greater Earth Elementa could probably kill 99% of creatures in Alkathla....alone. 

Last time I used these I unleashed two of Cernd's Fire elementals on Sahaugin. Didn't take a scratch, killed every fishman there was.

[Serg BlackStrider]

I don't install these anymore. One Aerial Servant/Greater Earth Elementa could probably kill 99% of creatures in Alkathla....alone. 

Yes, when they are your allies they are splendid, when they are foes - they are vicious... and broken =)

But, vs Improved Vampires and Mind Flayers (who like to go invisible at will as well) Aerial Servants are pretty useless (IMO) - both stay invisible all the time and do nothing.

 

And one more thing about aTweaks - at least in my setup they somehow broke Skeleton Warriors. They turn hostile for no apparent reason far too often now   so I almost stopped using them at all.

[Blackraven]

Norgath, Dwarven Bounty Hunter (update 12)

 

In the northern Bridge District Norgath heard voices whispering in his ear, but as he looked around, he saw nobody near him. As he walked past one of his guild contacts, a Halfling cutpurse, the voices gradually grew louder until in front of a derelict building, the whispers had evolved into normal speaking voices. Norgath disarmed a trap on the door, and picked its lock, and then went inside, just in time for a meeting between members of a select association of powerful beings, called Twisted Rune. Norgath however, not a member of that company, was understandably unwelcome, and told by a Lich that he would pay with his life for his intrusion.

In a small chamber before the large meeting room, Norgath placed six regular Thief traps and one Maze trap (in case the damage traps proved insufficient). When the Lich teleported toward Norgath, the traps killed it. Before he could proceed to enter the meeting room, a warrior came charging in. Norgath retreated and quaffed two potions (Invulnerability and Fire Giant Strength), and then beat the warrior in a straight fight.

Hidden in shaodws he then entered the larger room, where he saw a Beholder and a Vampire. He retreated to place more regular thief traps as well a Time trap, and attempted to lure the Beholder toward him. The Beholder followed and Norgath learned that his Time trap triggered from a larger distance than the other traps. As time continued Norgath lured the Beholder a bit further into the anteroom to have it trigger his damage traps, and - unaffected by the creature's ceaseless stream of spells - he prevailed over his foe in melee combat. Norgath's Efreeti engaged the Vampire, allowing the Dwarf to finish the undead creature off with a backstab.

The Efreeti then caused a female Human Mage to activate her many spell buffs before it was banished from the prime material plane with a ADHW. Norgath then waited out the mage's buffs until only her Stoneskins seemed to be intact. That was his sign to throw a Maze trap in her direction. At the maze point, Norgath planted a Time trap and four Spike traps. The former snare triggered first when the woman returned, prompting Norgath to launch a couple of arrows of dispelling at her, so that she would hopefully be completely unprotected against Norgath's Spike traps once time continued. This worked as expected; the Dwarf's summoning of Kitthix as a decoy proved unnecessary. The Bounty Hunter found a Staff of the Magi on the woman's corpse, with all manner of useful properties.

 

When he left the Bridge District, Norgath was surprised to be ambushed by travelers who shapeshifted into stoneskinned, spell casting copies of himself. Norgath had no idea who these 'people' were, and Blackraven had no knowledge of this encounter (and the shapeshifters' abilities) either. The Dwarf could have fled the scene but Blackraven was too curious for that. Norgath therefore played it safe, spamming the creatures with Cloudkills until all but one of them were dead. The last foe was finished off in melee. (I have no idea what this encounter is from. Maybe part of the Sellswords or Back to Brynnlaw mods, both of which I will probably skip in favor of the main quest.)

 

Norgath rested, procured the Iron Horn of Valhalla and the help of some of Aran Linvail's Assassins as well as Knights of the Order of the Radiant Heart. He then visited Bodhi's lair for a second time. At the entrance he met the Paladins and with their help Norgath slew a first pack of Vampires and their summoned rats. Further on Norgath and the knights met Drizzt and his band, and together they battled more vampires until Norgath, beset by some of the Vampires and by Giant Rats cast a Sunray with Daystar. (Blackraven somehow thought it a party-friendly spell, too much solo'ing perhaps.) Both Drizzt and the Paladins understandably abandoned the Dwarf. Thankfully Nordath managed to deal with the remining Vampires and Rats. In a conference room, the Bounty Hunter found some of his guild colleagues fighting more Vampires including a wizard. He slew one of the creatures but saw another one, the wizard, injuring his fellows with her fireshield, until Norgath dispelled it using the Staff of the Magi.

 

When the last Vampire fell, a door opened. Behind it was a stairway that led to lower level. Norgath and Arkanis went down there. Through a corridor they came upon a room with pools of blood on various sides. It contained numerous Vampires, including Bodhi, and Grimwarders. Norgath proposed a cautious approach, but Arkanis simply waded into battle. The Dwarf retreated and soon found that many of the duo's foes were after him. A swarm of bats frustrated his trap-setting in the corridor ('casting failure' - should have set the snares pre-battle), and he soon found himself under attack by Bodhi, two spellcasting Vampires, one of them gating in a Glabrezu, and plenty of Giant Rats. He healed himself with the Rod of Resurrection, equipped Mazzy's sword for stun protection, and slew some of the rats to break free and retreat upstairs. When he descended the stairs again, he found 'only' the Glabrezu, the rats, and one Vampire to deal with, and this he did.

Hidden in Shadows he then spotted Bodhi, another Vampire and two Grimwarders, before they could notice him. With his speed weapons and a Gaxx-Haste Norgath brought Bodhi to her knees once, and after she fully healed, he used his Bracers of Blinding Strike plus his Assassination HLA to take her down a second (and last) time.

Artemis Entreri (two Staff of Striking backstabs) and the remaining opposition were then slain without difficulty. (The spell casting vampires seemed to have vanished.) He looted the premises for a couple of high level spell scrolls and the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, and then he left Bodhi's lair intent on not returning there anytime soon.

[Aasim]

But, vs Improved Vampires and Mind Flayers (who like to go invisible at will as well) Aerial Servants are pretty useless (IMO) - both stay invisible all the time and do nothing.

Personally, I kind of like the elementals (apart Earth ones - they are really powerful). I'm having issues with Aerial Servants - their permanent invisibility makes them (imo) utterly broken. 

[Alaestr]

Blackraven. I don't think I remember Artemis Entreri guy, is he from a mod? Commendable work on the Twisting Rune though. How did the beholder not Anti-Magic rayed your brave dwarf?

 

 

Al, the illusive half-elven Blade. Update No.4

 

Sadly in the middle of the session my computer decided to shut down. I have no idea why and as far as my saves go I am OK - I have an autosave, the text I was working on however is lost (I am especially sad, becuase I found it particularly funny), so I am going to just summarize what happened in a few sentences. And maybe add a little bit of screenshots. 

 

Al cleared the slaver ship, did the quests in Umar Hills and killed 2 of 3 hostile parties in Athkatla. The elf worked for Paladins of Radiating Heart and completed their quest. 

 

The infamous trap.

My adventures with the rainbow spray trap.

Image of Al in work showing his usual setup to kill parties.

 

The computer shut down in the temple sewers and I have a save before entering the location. So I have a pleasure of writing how I deal with hostile parties once again. Al is now level 17 and he has access to contingency. Custom preparations include 2xWeb minor sequencer and II contingency on seeing an enemy. The rest is some physical buffs (IH mainly, DUHM, MI, Blur) and spell protections (SI:Abjuration and SI:Enchantment and MGoI). I also put in Al's spellbook 2xRemove Magic to dispel mages' stoneskins. To initiate fight Al casts the sequencer and rushes into the fray hunting mages. Once casters are dead fights are nigh unlosable. The same happened during the fight with temple sewers party. After the deed was done, Al rested and approached Rakshasa, who uses normal weapons, so the fight was a piece of cake (nevermind surrounding cobolds). The blade stole every useful potion from Roger while under the influence of 4 potions of master thievery. The unfortunate hero was on his way to the Unseeing Eye hideout when he encountered 3 beholders. I almost screamed terrified at the monitor: what the hell? Then I remembered:

~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8042 // Increase difficulty of level-dependent monster groupings -> Almost-maximum difficulty (maximum for everything except liches): v30 

 

Yup.

 

I cheated a little bit, since I encountered these guys before the computer crash and knew they were there, so I made Al drink potion of invisibility behind the corner instead of panicking and thanking autopause for probably saving elf's life. There was no way the blade could go toe to toe with beholders, so Al just snuck past them. In the hideout Al managed to repel a bunch of ettercaps and shadows. The former he killed with Varscona and Stonefire, the latter with ranged Azuredge buffed with IH and offensive spins. 

 

I decided to clear the way to the liches, but not engaging them yet. So equipped with SI:conjuration, SI:enchantment and knocks Al detrapped the doors in the Bridge district and in the Docks. Al still saved againt the trap on the doors in the bridge district, but hopefully is is not an insta death trap. Does anyone remember what kind of trap it is?

 

I decided on the next move - Trademeet, so Al obediently trotted that way. He got himself waylaid by bandits. Again. Al just ran away. In Trademeet it wasn't long till the blade obtained his third summon and expelled troubling genies. As a reward my questing hero recieved a collection of precious stones and Shield of Harmony, which he sadly couldn't use at the moment. I convinced my character to ravage through town's stores and to buy Ras and Belt of Inertial Barrier. Both usable by blades and both useful. The summon is especially handy in lich fights. 

 

I am getting tired, so I am making a break. Might come back to BG today yet, but not right now. I am looking forward to killing me some trolls, eh? 

[Grond0]

I decided to clear the way to the liches, but not engaging them yet. So equipped with SI:conjuration, SI:enchantment and knocks Al detrapped the doors in the Bridge district and in the Docks. Al still saved againt the trap on the doors in the bridge district, but hopefully is is not an insta death trap. Does anyone remember what kind of trap it is?

The lich door in the Bridge District is a petrification trap - so not a good one to be taking a chance on when solo ...

[Serg BlackStrider]

 

When he left the Bridge District, Norgath was surprised to be ambushed by travelers who shapeshifted into stoneskinned, spell casting copies of himself. Norgath had no idea who these 'people' were, and Blackraven had no knowledge of this encounter (and the shapeshifters' abilities) either. The Dwarf could have fled the scene but Blackraven was too curious for that. Norgath therefore played it safe, spamming the creatures with Cloudkills until all but one of them were dead. The last foe was finished off in melee. (I have no idea what this encounter is from. Maybe part of the Sellswords or Back to Brynnlaw mods, both of which I will probably skip in favor of the main quest.)

 

I believe (and if I remember correct), I had that encounter even in vanilla, sans-SCS or other mods setup.

 

edit: Yup, from Dan Simpson walkthrough:

The Doppleganger Brigands

 

            While travelling between areas you will be "waylaid" by a group of

            what appears to be peasants.  They ask if you are the famous

            adventurer, renowned throughout the Sword Coast.  Say yes and they

            suddenly turn themselves into cloned versions of your party!  Who

            knows what diabolical scheme they have concocted to use with a

            cloned version of your party.  Kill them.  I didn't really find

            anything else remarkable about them.

[Blackraven]

Blackraven. I don't think I remember Artemis Entreri guy, is he from a mod? Commendable work on the Twisting Rune though. How did the beholder not Anti-Magic rayed your brave dwarf?

 

I was surprised about the absence of anti-magic rays as well. Not that they would have made a big difference. Norgath was in good health, and needed neither potions nor summons to keep him going. Maybe SCS makes Beholders use the rays more commonly on casters? 

 

The lich door in the Bridge District is a petrification trap - so not a good one to be taking a chance on when solo ...

Al could cast Protection from Petrification on himself. I think there's a petrification trap in Spellhold as well.

 

 

I believe (and if I remember correct), I had that encounter even in vanilla, sans-SCS or other mods setup.

 

edit: Yup, from Dan Simpson walkthrough:

 

Thanks!
 

[Alaestr]

The lich door in the Bridge District is a petrification trap - so not a good one to be taking a chance on when solo ...

 

Told you I was a wee bit rusty I couldn't remember what the trap was. Well, then Al took an unnecessary risk, but his saves vs spells were pretty good back then. IIRC Al had 3 and with Spirit Armor on it should lower to 0. I need to include SI:Alteration in the trap springing combo. 

[corey_russell]

@Gate70, Grond0: Sorry to hear the end of your MP run - was there anything in the beholder lair you even needed? I would skip the elder orb unless you can had arcane backup myself. Good luck in your next attempt.

[wing]

The Sweeteners' run came to an abrupt end this morning when I picked a fight with Amalas without proper preparation, resulting in a pathetic game over. The lack of anyone with a fighter-level THAC0 made an astounding difference. It was surprising to see just how hard a time everyone else was having hitting opponents. thinking now that a cleric should be a multiclass cleric/fighter in order to be a little more effective in combat. I might return to them later.

 

With that over, I moved on to my next group, Sorcerer(CHARNAME), Assassin, and unkitted Fighter.

 

Here they are in Trademeet, after completing the Chateau (did everything, but Ulvaryl got away), the Circus (Kalah didn't even get a MM off due to backstab+warhammer+our MMs), the Copper Coronet and its Sewers (but not the Love Boat), and removing the Genies from Trademeet (II, ProPetrification on the party). Most interesting drop so far has been Khan Zahraa, who was hanging on to the Night's Gift +5 armor and the +3 Blade of Searing. Otherwise the drops have been unremarkable, though Ribald is selling the Pommel Gem for a measly 4500 GP and Kalah was hanging on to the Ring of Danger Sense.

 

Most stationary groups thus far have been scouted under stealth or Invisibility, then hit with Web, Skull Trap, and Horror as necessary. The ambushes I forgot to prepare for so they got a little hectic, but the run has been smooth so far. 

 

Left - Assassin 11, 70 HP, Mephit Portal

Right - Fighter 9, 121 HP, Cambion

and Center - Sorcerer 10, 54 HP, Mephit Portal

[corey_russell]

@Wing: Sorry about the Sweetener's end.

 

Corarcher Update:

Traveling with: Misty (Fighter), Forrest (Ranger), Hanna (Swashbuckler dualed to mage), Joshua (Jester), Cernd

Imprisoned: Paja (totemic druid)

 

We made some more progress, a lot of little stuff. A few ranger quests were done, all successful - must be missing at least one of the tasks, no moondog yet. Numerous vampire ambushes weathered okay - the occasional death and level drain, but nothing a temple can't fix.

 

We also made progress on the main quest - Mook once murdered once again,and the Shadow Thief traitors were finished as well.

 

We also made a run on Thaxxy, despite no level drain protection. We are all at least level 12 though, so that helps. We initially were going to do buffs and summons, but we got no buffs at all. Thaxxy did death spell with AI off. I told party to halt and turned on AI - and Hanna promptly threw a bullet at the beast! Hmm...well Joshua casts resist fear,Hanna does lightning bolts throughout the fight, as does Joshua, and the rest of the party attacked. Party  members got confused, Misty runs in fear the whole fight, but the party wins with no deaths!

 

We think we are ready for the guarded compound, will probably do next session.

[Alaestr]

wing, back right into the game with a new party. A commendable spirit!

 

corey, I bet you had your finger on RoR the entire fight just in case Misty needed healing. 

 

Al, the illusive half-elven Blade. Update No.5 and finale

 

New day brings new adventures. Al travelled to Druid Grove and started hacking his way through hordes of trolls. I sadly found out that Spirit Trolls still disappear every round in my installation. God, why? They are single most-annoying thing to deal with in the game.

Plowing through the monsters Al arrived at the troll mound. Before entering I prepared Al with 4 Fireballs and SI:Evocation in his spellbook.  Is it good, guys? I can't tell.

 

Then after dealing with bands of druids, Al learned the hard way that SI:Enchantment does not protect from Mykonid's confusion... Sometimes BG does not follow my intuition. 

[Grond0]

Sorry to hear that Alaestr.  The game is a bit inconsistent in how it treats monster attacks, but in general their special abilities are counted as natural rather than magical in origin.  A scroll of magic protection will not therefore protect against the 'natural' gaze of a basilisk and the same applies to umber hulk confusion - and myconids as Al discovered.  

 

Items protecting against specific effects work whether those effects are natural or magical in origin, so the shield of harmony for instance would protect against myconid confusion.

[Alaestr]

After my failure yesterday (I actually played out the last update of Al in yesterday's morning) I procured my BG1 Berserker save. I had had some brief affairs with fighter kits in the recent past and I came to the conclusion I actually like the berserker kit very much. Those protections from Rage are just too good to pass up. It is in direct confrontation with my usual arcane-centered gameplay and I still do not feel comfortable soloing the game as a fighter, but maybe one day. 

 

Without further ado, please welcome. 

 

Bonaventura, the bloodthirsty berserker. Update No.1 

 

     He advanced from BG1 with a decent 54 base hp on level 8 with 2 pips in long swords, bastard swords and two weapon fighting. I dropped Nalia after she opened the safe and cast Haste on Bona. Jaheira and Minsc were dropped as well after releasing them for experience. The whole 1st level of Chateau went surprisingly smoothly and I do not know if it was a matter of low thac0 or just pure luck on the rolls (I had some fortunate rolls in duergar fights). The order of buisiness was as follow: clear everything up to the library (including golems), kill Otyiagh while hasted from a potion (got the bugger with 3 hits, lucky I guess). Clear the library, deal with Illyich enraged and still buffed from the previous fight mincemeat Cambion (this fight was not so fortunate). Then Bona grabbed the statue and opened mephits' plane, which the berserker freed of mephits with a use of second and last Rage. A bit of running back and forth secured Varscona for him. Haste potion wore off by then, so the mighty warrior let himself be poisoned by two traps and cast Neutralize Poison. Detrapped Helm of Balduran and moved on to fake Ellesime's chamber. There got himself poisoned once again and neutralized poison for the second time and last time. He maintained his hps by gulping potions of healing and resting after tripping the first trap in Elle's room. 

 

     The second floor began with the infamous mephits' portal room. Bona psyched himself up, bullrushed into the chamber and caring naught for mephits' hits he vandalized the portals. This time I didn't even bothered with prioritizing radiant mephits' spawn point. Rolling on the boiling rage of the recent encounter the berserker marched and popped a poor clone of beautiful elf in two heavy hits. He dinged to level 9 by that time (flails proficiency point). I used his second rage on the north-eastern group of duergars. Ulvaryll escaped the punishment, the doppelganger didn't. 

 

     You can make yourself acquainted with Bonaventura now. Here is his character record at the moment of leaving the chateau and here you can find his inventory screen. Quite a bloody fellow, wouldn't you agree?

 

     Bona made a quick work of the circus quest, releasing Aerie, ignoring werevolwes and flooring Kahlan with merely two blows, thus refuting gnome's dreams of greatness. Quick visit to Adventurere's Mart to sell loots and buy RoAC and 2 potions of fire breath allowed the warrior to tackle Suna Seni and Renfeld encounters. On his way to Slums, Bona was intercepted by one Mr. Gaelan Bayle and the berserker promised him to bring a lot of money in exchange of helping to find Imoen. Cursory look at the Gaelan's friends' wares concluded in buying Glasses of Idenitification. Bona headed to Copper Coronet, taught a valuable lesson to misters Bregg and Cohrvale, beat some loser in the arena, weaseled his way to backrooms of the inn, found a teddy bear on the body of Llynis, fought in the first line of Copper Coronet rebellion (rage, DUHM, potion of invulnerability). From the newly unlocked merchant, Bona bought Azuredge and he descended to the sewers. Enemies there were no match for the hasted raging berserker and soon the talking sword was in Bona's possesion.

 

      Rested and under the veil of II from RoAC, Bonaventura hunted down Suna Seni and engaged them in an alley. DUHMed, enraged, the warrior opened the fight with potion of fire breath on the mage and walked past the priest killing them both. Thinned gang stormed Bona's position, but the berserker hold steady and soon he was collecting loots. He also advanced to level 10 (-1 thac0). The same trick was used to deal with Renfeld's oppressors. Travelling back to Slums, Bona recieved a warnig from Cowled Wizards. I guess they don't really like II from the RoAC, huh? The berserker travelled back to Waukeen's and stocked up on Protection from Undead scrolls and oils of speed. 

 

     But firstly Bona visited Docks and did some work there. Mad cleric fell to Rage, Sanasha and Prebek killed by the same Rage and Oil of Speed. Had to gulp potion of invisibilty and wait out being winded to apply second Rage. Grabbed full plate mail from the  body of certain Mr. Dirth, sprung upon pirates hiding in the tavern. On the way to Temple District, I instructed Bona to buy Scroll of Protection from Poison from temple of Waukeen. In Temple District I commenced the Unseeing Eye quest then travelled to Government District, where Bona saved Viconia, grabbed quests. Next stop Graveyard District.

[corey_russell]

 

corey, I bet you had your finger on RoR the entire fight just in case Misty needed healing. 

 

 

 

Nope, you would have lost the bet. Misty mostly stayed out of trouble as she was feared so she ran away from the dragon. No one got close to dying, in fact I didn't even need to do as much as a heal potion, we had killed it before it could do too much damage.

[Blackraven]

Norgath, Dwarven Bounty Hunter (update 13)

Before he returned the Rhynn Lanthorn to Elhan at the Elven Encampment by the Underdark Exit, Norgath acquired the Flail of Ages (minimal effort, only two Trolls and Glaicus were slain, other enemies were evaded using SotM-invisibility) and the Human Flesh Armor (hostile wizards fell to traps). The Dwarf then traveled with the Elves to Suldanessalar. He didn't help the Elves in their battles against Golems, Skeleton Warriors, and Rakshasa, except where necessary to secure items needed for summoming Rilifane's spirit or for access to the Tree of Life.

 

This meant two battles: 

(1) Nizi the dragon, brought down with Maze traps followed by damage traps, and eventually Time traps + speed attacks. The trick with a single, powerful foe as this one, is to always set a new Maze trap after you've already Mazed them. That way you can continue setting damage traps without having to worry about enemy attacks. In this case I underestimated the Black Dragon's HP pool and so I failed to set a Maze trap where I should have. This was repaired with an oil of speed, which allowed Norgath to distance himself sufficiently from his foe to set new traps.

(2) Suneer, a Rakshasa, an Iron Golem, and a a Glabrezu. The wizard was immediately dealt with in one backstab. The Rakshasa's protections were dispelled with the SotM, and the creature's damage spells did little to upset the Dwarf, so its death was only a matter of time. Norgath then managed to engage the Glabrezu out of the Golem's sight, and dealt with the demon in melee (Scarlet Ninja-To, plus Mazzy's Sword for stun protection). The Golem was a simple matter of hit and fade tactics with the SotM.

 

Norgath then climbed the Tree of Life. It was weakened by parasites that produced (aTweaks') Elder Earth, Air and Fire Elementals, dangerous creatures. Norgath dealt with them with Maze traps and damage traps, and backstabs using the Iron Horn of Valhalla Berserk warrior as a decoy. Irenicus cast two Time Stops in which he Wished for Norgath's protections to be removed, summoned two Gelugons and two Efreetis and Breached Norgath's virtual inexistent buffs. Norgath waited for the demons and the Efreeti to be unsummoned, placing a number of Spike traps in the meantime. When lured into them Irencius proved insusceptible to their damage, probably due to Spell Shield or Spell Deflection. Shambling Mounds were summoned to provoke Irenicus into wasting more spells, and more importantly, Kitthix succeeded in her attempt at webbing him (after some of his protections wore off). The wizard fell but took Norgath with him into hell.

 

There the Dwarf faced a number of tests. He failed to contain his wrath against Wraith Sarevok (killing it with traps), earning himself +2 STR (and +1 DEX). But he did not give in to his Fear, Selfishness, Greed or Pride, which resulted in Immunity to +1 weapons or less, +10 resistance to magic, +2 to all saving throws, and +20% resistances to fire, cold and electricity.These choices changed his alignment from LE into LN (courtesy of Revised Hell Trials).

Spoiler

I'm playing with the Tactics-SCSII hybrid version of Improved Irenicus in Hell (so not the pure Tactics version, which is probably the hardest version). It consists of two fights. The first is against Shattered Irenicus with five lackeys whose powers are loosely based on the Hell Trials. The minions spawn from the different stairs that lead to the Hell Trial areas. Wraith of Wrath Sarevok who drains STR upon hit, a a level-draining Mordenkainen-like Blackrazor Sword, a CON-draining and thus extremely dangerous (Elder) Orb of Fear, and a level-draining Dragon of Pride. Selfish Jon can recharge his spell repertoire at will and ‘shatter' charname's magic. The second fight is the normal fight against Slayer Irenicus, aided by four demons, with the only differences being SCS scripting and aTweaked demons.

Norgath rested before opening the gate to meet his nemesis, and placed three Spike Traps where the Orb of Fear would appear (southeast), and three Spike Traps at the point at the spawning point of the Sword of Greed, which is invulnerable to physical attacks and can only be slain with magic such as Magic Missile, or as it happens, with traps (southwest). At the point where the Black Dragon would likely spawn (east), a Time trap was placed. The Dwarf then rested a second time, to get all his traps back.

 

Norgath drank an oil of speed and had a short chat with Irenicus, and then battle broke out. The first thing that happened was the dragon triggering Norgath's Time trap. The hasted Dwarf proceeded to hit the creature first with the SotM to dispel any protections, and then lots and lots of times with his speed weapons (dealing 167 damage in total) until the Time Stop ended. He then retreated to place a Spike Trap just before the dragon would reach him. The snare killed the monster, and at the same time good news came from other corners of the area, with the fall of of the Orb of Fear and the Sword of Greed. The Wraith of Wrath was a beast. Norgath stood no chance against it in melee combat. But he still had all his traps but one Spike trap just spent on the Black Dragon, so he resorted to setting a few more damage traps. (A combination of regular thief traps and Spike traps. I don't remember how many, but I know I did make sure to save quite a few Spike traps for Slayer Irenicus.) The traps finished off the Wraith of Wrath quite nicely. Irenicus seemed remarkably tame. He must have been saving his energies for his Slayer form. He did little more than repeatedly removing Norgath's protections and casting relatively harmless spells such as Finger of Death, Melf's Acid Arrows and PW: Blind. When injured, Irenicus would heal himself (he had Heal and Cure Critical Wounds, as if he were a Priest). Norgath actually took advantage of this by meleeing the wizard when he had no more triggered/contingencied PfMWs. The Dwarf's speed attacks would interrupt his Irenicus' spell casting and eventually bring him to his knees. Time for round two.

 

Slayer Irenicus, assisted by two Glabrezus and two Balors, was more aggressive than Shattered Irenicus but again not as aggressive or effective as he might have been. He summoned a Fallen Planetar, and intially he joined the demons in his pursuit of the Dwarf but after a while he stopped - it seemed he did not see through invisibility/stealth, and would cast True Sight. Norgath limited himself to running at triple speed (boots + potions), and dealing the occasional blow to one of the demons with the SotM that he used to remain invisible (and thus untargetable) and to dispel buffs. The Bounty Hunter thought himself safe from Slayer Irenicus' wrath when the latter had lost sight of the Dwarf, but then the wizard cast a Time Stop and he knew very well where to find Norgath.

In my opinion Norgath's run should have ended there if only because I had no summons active at that moment - even though I'm aware that that wouldn't have guaranteed Irenicus targeting them rather than Norgath. Either way Irenicus wasted precious time doing nothing and casting Breach before he attacked, allowing Norgath to survive the onslaught. (This actually occurred twice, i.e. with two Time Stops.)

I can't see why Slayer Irenicus didn't simply deal out a lot of damage, PW: Stun Norgath and finish him off. Could it have to do with Norgath's invisibility? As I mentioned above, the Slayer resorted to casting True Seeing in order to detect Norgath's presence.

 

Anyway, with a lot of hitting and running Norgath succeeded in killing off the Bators and Glabrezus. Fast regenerating Slayer Irenicus fell to loads of traps. He was first softened up with a Maze trap followed by Spike traps. Then more Maze traps, regular thief traps and Time traps (for Assassination and speed attacks). The Vhailor's Simmy helped with this. Thus Norgath survived Hell and Irenicus, and he got his soul back. I feel that it's not really deserved. I think the first fight was well done, metagamey sure but with complete control, which is satisfactory to me. Otoh Norgath's survival of the second fight just seems based in luck and deficient scripting. It detracts from the satisfaction I could have felt there.

[corey_russell]

Congrats Blackraven on defeating Irenicus! You say you had to do two fights, but fight #2 can be completely avoided. If you put the sword, cup, and the 3rd item into the container in the middle of the room, Rillifane will kill the enemies for you  in vanilla - do you have a mod that changes this? You do have to be visible to put the items in the container.

[Blackraven]

Congrats Blackraven on defeating Irenicus! You say you had to do two fights, but fight #2 can be completely avoided. If you put the sword, cup, and the 3rd item into the container in the middle of the room, Rillifane will kill the enemies for you  in vanilla - do you have a mod that changes this? You do have to be visible to put the items in the container.

Thank you Corey
Interesting. I tried placing the items on the altar before fighting anyone, but nothing happened. This may have been due to invisibility though...

[Grond0]

Well done Blackraven - sounds like a pretty good fight to me!  Hope Norgath can keep it up in ToB.

[Blackraven]

Well done Blackraven - sounds like a pretty good fight to me!  Hope Norgath can keep it up in ToB.

Thank you Grond0. I guess Irenicus just had an off-day, can happen to all of us... 

[Serg BlackStrider]

Congratulations, Blackraven, on finishing Jon-boy! I concur - well done! I don't think I'll ever try even a bit *easier*  the Tactics-SCSII hybrid version of Improved Irenicus in Hell in no-reload... - the very thought about that makes me shudder.  Take my hat off!

 

BTW, aren't those Hell Fiends used aTweaks' Fiendish gating or you don't have that component installed?

[Blackraven]

Congratulations, Blackraven, on finishing Jon-boy! I concur - well done! I don't think I'll ever try even a bit *easier*  the Tactics-SCSII hybrid version of Improved Irenicus in Hell in no-reload... - the very thought about that makes me shudder.  Take my hat off!

 

BTW, aren't those Hell Fiends used aTweaks' Fiendish gating or you don't have that component installed?

I understand the shudders... My last no-reload character that made it into Hell in a playthrough where I had the Tactics/SCS hybrid Improved Irenicus component installed, died horribly in Hell. That . My current install is without the Fiendish gating though, and I must say that does make a difference.

[Alaestr]

Blackraven, it looks like an amazing effort! Those traps really do miracles. Best of luck in ToB.

 

 

Bonaventura, the bloodthirsty berserker. Update No.2

 

     After the dinner break I resumed Bona's journey. He cleared Graveyard of the undead on the surface, he opened some quests but finished none but Wellyn's. Underground was tackled with oil of speed, scroll of protection from poison, namarra and varscona. Pai'Na succumbed to the added Rage and DUHM. Bona used scroll of protection from undead to help him defeat enemies in the southern tunnels. 

 

     Afterwards I steered my character to Umar Hills and did the killing of mimic, Valygar and his friends there. Then Bona end up in Trademeet and acquired Efreeti Bottle after he managed to silence the owner with Namarra. The adventurer quickly came back to Athkatla for a scroll of protection from petrification. He used it to smash genies to pieces after succesfully silencing both of them. His efforts were rewarded with a lump some gold, precious stones and Shield of Harmony, which he could make use of unlike the poor blade. 

 

    In the Druid Grove Bona started mowing through hordes of trolls. He dinged to level 11th in the process. The smart warrior avoided Troll Mound for now. Kyland Lind encounter was somewhat difficult, but managable with potion of invulnarability, potion of power and a few potions of healing. I bought some oils of speed from old lady in the tower and soon enough Bona watched Cernd kick Faldorn's ass. Citizen of Trademeet rewarded Bonaventura with a hefty sum of gold and promise of ever-lasting friendship, though the warrior didn't believe in the latter. I bought the berserker a few new shinies. Belt of Inertial Barrier and Cloak of Displacement. Skipped Ras, because I didn't have enough gold. 

 

     I decided to try and conquer Ruined Temple next. Armed with scrolls of protection from undead and azuredge Bona fared very well there. There were hiccups on the way, since it appears the bone golems don't count as undead. But Bonaventura is a one tough cookie and he can take punishment. Also a lich spawned as a random encounter just when my scroll of protection of undead wore off. I immediately applied the next one and some running around and avoiding magical sword was in order, but in the end Bona managed to show the lich who is the boss. Shade Lord can't penetrate a scroll of protection from undead, so the fight is trivial. The fighter advanced to level 12th in  the dungeon. I didn't march to collect the reward instead I persuaded Bona to commit to the higher cause and travel to Nalia's Keep. 

 

     With 65k from level 13th I set on killing trolls to ding. Once it will be done I will go on reading scrolls spree and returning quests spree. De'Arnise Keep is a perfect spot to farm trolls,  since they respawn! Hooray for infinite exp. Job well done, developers. Ridding the ground level of the regenerating menace advanced Bona to level 13th and I could break the berserker into mage. Wohoo! I left the keep and went to Umar Hills to recieve a deserved reward. 25k of exp sufficed to level 5th. The spellsword returned to Athkatla to sell loots and also to complete a few crucial quests: Renfeld chain quest, a part of Mae'Var's questline, solve mystery murders in Bridge District. Having read all the scroll I had, Bona ended up on level 9th. My character checked out all the merchants I could think of who sell interesting scrolls and bought them as an essentially free exp. Bona finished Reijek's tale in Trademeet, found the man in red clothes, cheesed Cowled Wizards, snatched Horn of Valhalla and upgraded it, completed minor quests in Graveyard, finished quests in Umar Hills, continued Mae'Var's questline. The fight with Rayic was an interesting one. Bona was level 12th, so he had acces to 6th level spells, but I avoided minor sequencering him and contigencing him. The spellsword took Rayic mano-o-mano. This is   assortment of buffsRayic summoned up front. Still vulnerable to True Sight, Rayic, you never learn, mate. Bona summoned a skeleton warrior to occupy Rayic. It worked, since the mage started to cast spells aimed at melee foes - teleportation field and web. In the meantime my hero cast True Sight, Spell thrust exposing Rayic's physical protections. It had a surprising but welcomed side-effect - Rayic failed a save and got himself webbed! Before that though he managed to Remove Magic Bona, so meteors I prepared beforehand were gone. The upcoming star of magic calmly Breached the cowled wizard, summoned meteors and started raining astral death on the enemy. Rayic fled downstairs and soon fell to Magic Missiles. 

 

     Fight against Mae'Var saw once again 2xWeb sequencer. The plan was to web enemies and 2xSunfire + 2xFireball. In the end Bona had to finish 2 assassins in melee, but the fight went as expected. The hero also showed the shlaver shcum where its place. I told my character to pay 15k Bodhi and advanced the plot further. At this point Bonaventura was 8k away from 13th level and he dinged doing dirty work for the vampire. He ran more errands for Bodhi and was tasked with killing Aran, but did not attempt it. 

 

     The spellsword visited Windspear Hills briefly to kill the initial party and return the acorns to the mama dryad. He didn't stay long, leaving for Temple District where he declared to aid paladins of Radiant Heart. He succesfully complished the quest and headed to De'Arnise Keep, where he killed golems and Glaicus in order to forge FoA. Killing Glaicus advanced Bonaventura to level 14th! He regained his berserker levels! Woohoo. I finished the session after forging FoA.

[Grond0]

Gloin - dwarf kensai (update 1)

 

Gloin completed BG1 without the use of any potions and will be attempting BG2 in the same way.  He's also not allowed to use any other item-based active healing - such as the rod of resurrection.

 

He cleared everything in the dungeon without difficulty - horror disabling all the potentially dangerous mephits and casters from out of sight - though Ulvaryl managed to turn into bat shape and fly away.  He got his 9th level from returning the genie's flask and finished his hit die rolls with HPs 1 above average - I think that's a new high for my current sequence of dwarf kensais, so hope that's a good omen.

 

With neither XP nor gold being a high priority for a solo kensai Gloin has concentrated on upgrading his equipment as follows:

- the ring of human influence at the circus.

- the RoAC from Ribald.

- Azuredge and Stonefire from Bernard after Hendak took control of the Copper Coronet (level 10).

- Kitthix and ioun stone from Pai'Na.  He had a protection from poison scroll if necessary, but horror did enough to keep him safe from the spiders.

- Arbane from a horrified Suna Seni.

- shield amulet and FoA at de'Arnise Hold after defeating Glaicas (left Torgal and most other opponents).

- Ras, BoIB and Cloak of Displacement from the merchant in Trademeet after Taquee handed over the efreeti and Kitthix webbed the Khan.

- marched through the Grove to pick up Belm, then bought Necklace of Missiles after watching Cernd snack on Faldorn (level 11).

- picked up Ilbratha at Umar Hills, but didn't go to the ruined temple.

- in the Planar Sphere used summons to lead on the way to Lavok, picking up the ogre gauntlets en route (level 12).  There was one nasty moment prior to that when Gloin had sent horror ahead of him into Necre's room.  That had affected Taibela and it looked safe for him to follow Kitthix in - but Taibela seemed to ignore her condition and cast chaos on Gloin (possibly I missed a remove magic being cast?).  Gloin last axe shown in the previous screenshot killed the other attacker, so was just being attacked by Taibela - his spell save of 1 left him vulnerable to domination, but he saved against that and other spells didn't do much before he recovered his senses just in time as some summoned skeletons approached.  He used the Horn of Kazgaroth for the first time to boost his saving throw against the Tanar'ri.  For Tolgerias the efreeti used stinking cloud from out of sight, while Gloin used II.  As soon as that took effect Gloin put on Arbane haste and ran through into the fire room and picked up the Staff of Fire before running on into the engine room (I thought trying to finish Tolgerias off while under the influence of stinking cloud was too risky).  Repowering the sphere got him to level 13 before he made his way out again - a stream of fire elementals making Tolgerias simple.

- with the funds gained while in the Sphere he paid off Gaelan Bayle and went to collect his +2 ring.  On the way he came across Hareishan and let her eat Azuredge - I don't usually get this far into the game without any vampire ambushes.

 

Gloin was still a bit under-levelled / equipped for the Planar Sphere really and hence resorted to a new tactic (for me) of using invisibility to grab the Staff of Fire to help out.  The lack of invisibility other than the RoAC has made several encounters more difficult so he'll be going after Mencar's group next to get Brennan's ring.