15226 réponses à ce sujet

[Blackraven]

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

 

Hey Alaestr, thank you! I'll try to keep it up. The traps are doing a great job indeed.

It's funny that now that I've been playing a Bounty Hunter for such a large portion of the trilogy, I really wonder how on earth I would get by without my traps (i.e. with another class/kit). But of course other Charnames including your Berserker are showing that the game can be tackled with pretty much any class. Hopefully you can keep your good progress going.

@Corey, best of luck with the Guarded Compound.

@Grond0, a promising start after your solid run through BG1. I hope Gloin can keep it at it!

[Alaestr]

Bonaventura, the bloodthirsty berserker/mage. Update No.3

 

     A new day brings new adventures. Left off in cold chambers of De'Arnise Keep, crowded  by ever present darkness Bona was frozing off his balls while I was sleeping. Ah, good times. I saw the judgemental frown on my characters face, when I loaded up the save. "I've work to do. This sitting around is useless", he accused. Wow, mate, slow down.  If it goes badly, you are going to regret that I even woke up today. 

 

     I used Bona's high spirit to straighten up Torgal. Lured the abomination to the anteroom of the lower level with II. A bunch of buffs were applied, mainly physical ones (II, oil of speed, potion of invulnerability, mirror images, blur, stoneskins, spirit armor, resist fear - crucial. etc), Cacofiend was summoned and Torgal was overhelmed. The spellsword mained FoA with offhand Belm and used shield of harmony when winded from raging. Rest of the group waited for Bona to rest and reapply the buffs, this time with an addition of some spell protections - GoI, spell turnings SIs. Namarra's silence proved super effective against snake mages and the fight was soon over with a help of Cacofiend. 

 

     The hero sold loots in Trademeet and acquired a new toy - Ras, completing his zoo. It was high time the lone warrior seeked out some company. Mencar Pebblecrusher was not a welcoming fellow, neither was Captain Dennis of mercenaries of Riatavin. The leader of a party in temple sewers gave Bona a cold look, so the spellsword iced him in return. Rakshasa yielded his cloak, Keldorn tasted the sharp end of FoA,  Mekrath's found his undoing. No zoo in the mage's bedroom this time around. Used rage to grab the portal stone (I recalled the trap was domination). Also prepared the way to kill liches, using SI:Alteration SI:Necromancy and Rage combo. He advanced to level 15th (mostly unremarkable).

 

     I felt like Bona could handle the liches, so I equipped him accordingly. Key to understanding the liches in SCS as a scroll of protection from udead addict is their 3xRemove Magic spell trigger which they fire when a character is too close to them. This deadly sequencer can dispel the scroll and liches like to quickly follow it with some deadly spells - PW:Stun, Domination, Petrification, Finger of Death, etc. Remove Magic removes also potion effects, so there is little one can do once dispelled but read another scroll quickly or chug a potion of invisibility. The second problem when facing the undead mages are summons, but only Gaxx has the ability to use HLA so fiends can be dealt with using potions of clarity, raging, drinking potions of invulnerability. The worst case scenario is lich casts remove magic at his summon and it dispells your character. Have potions of invisibility at hand!

 

     Bona was using Azuredge and falling liches left and right: City Gate lich, lich in Bridge District tried to be cute and cast invisibility after first hit - True Sight revealed him and he had nowhere to disappear, Shade lich just walked around waiting for an axe to the face. Kangaax does not die immediately from Azuredge, but still recieves damage from it. The lich managed to summon a Pit Fiend, which Bona meleed enraged while keeping Gaax out of LOS. Then the hero threw a rain of axes in Gaxx's direction, which finally broke through his stoneskins. Demilich is immune to damage from Azuredge so one needs to find another way to kill him - I usually melee him with Daystar after depleting his spellpool with summons. I summoned a final Mordeikanen's sword and the game crashed while the lich was soul trapping it. Eh. My install is somewhat unstable it seems. I had a pleasure of doing it once again. This time around Gaxx summoned a Dark Planetar, which hit like truck, cast firestorm and was generally a menace, so Bona just fled upstairs and waited the summon out. He came back after a short break and started luring out spells and soon Gaxx fired his Shields' sequencer. The hero strapped the lich off stoneskins with the sling of seeking +5 and finished the foe with Daystar. Ring of Gaxx is his. 

 

     Dinner break!

[Grond0]

Gloin - dwarf kensai (update 2)

 

Gloin has continued his progress, concentrating on acquiring specific equipment rather than just gaining general experience.

 

Starting at the Docks Gloin noticed some muggers approaching.  For a bit of fun I decided he should use the fire shield from the Staff of Fire.  I almost never use this and therefore didn't realise that, like the RoAC, the Cowled Wizards regard its use within the city as forbidden.  Being a super-cautious type I decided to go and pay for a license at that time .

 

Next up was Mencar's gang.  The opening preparation saw Brennan's doom sealed to ensure he didn't run away with the ring.  The rest of them were then split up using the stairs and soon finished off.

 

Moving on to the Temple Sewers Gloin killed the Sea Troll - just to make sure it didn't pop up at an inconvenient moment later - before wandering round the centre area killing off kobolds.  With nearly all those dead Gloin went to collect a new cloak from the rakshasa.  He also opened up access to the Unseeing Eye in order to be able to get at the lich there (level 14).

 

It will still be a while before he can break down Kangaxx's door, so he went to call on Mekrath as the first stage of getting to the Planar Prison.  A Kitthix web killed him and Gloin sneaked past the guards to get the Portal Gem.

 

At the Planar Prison Gloin entered invisibly and summoned some helpers (including using a fire elemental for the first time since the Planar Sphere - I'm trying to minimise the use of those).  The mage bounty hunter died before buffing and the others coughed their lives away in a stinking cloud - providing Gloin with the Boots of Speed.

 

Moving around the area Gloin killed a group of umber hulks and then meleed a wyvern.  However, his saving throw of -1 proved insufficient against wyvern poison and his HPs drained away rapidly.  I finally bit the bullet and got out his only green scroll with HPs down to 11 - here is his situation when the green scroll took effect .  After resting twice to heal up he continued on round and saw off the Master of Thralls without incident.  His initial attack on the Warden with summons and thralls was unsuccessful and he had a running fight with the umber hulk guards before coming back.  A couple of charges from the Horn provided a saving throw boost to ensure 2 attempted chaos spells wouldn't affect him.  He then retreated to wait out some buffs for a bit before using Ras as cover for a final assault.  The loot from that included part of the Wave halberd.  Releasing Haer'Dalis got Gloin to level 15.

 

After buying the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, Gloin's DUHM could push strength to 24 - sufficient to get at Kangaxx.  He therefore used a scroll of undead protection to do the rounds of the liches.  It took him 8 attempts to break down the door to the City Gates lich, but since I knew it was possible Gloin persevered and got Daystar as his prize.  That soon disposed of Kangaxx to leave the spiffy Ring of Gaxx - Gloin swapped that for the Claw of Kazgaroth at the local temple.  He couldn't then resist maximising his charisma by using the Rod of Terror on some nearby pirates.

 

Gloin failed to save Mook, but compensated by rescuing Sansuki.  Telling Aran what was going on got Gloin to level 16 and he'll be continuing on with Aran's tasks shortly.

[Blackraven]

Norgath, Dwarven Bounty Hunter (update 14)

 

Norgath left Suldanessalar after being thanked by Queen Ellesime and the Elves for saving their community. He went on to travel through the vast Forest of Tethyr in a southerly direction. He rested in the Grove of the Ancients, and listened to a number of cryptic prophecies from talking stone heads until his keen ears heard an adventuring party approach. The Dwarf set some of his Spike traps just in case they wouldn't be friendly. That turned out to be a wise decision. The party was led by a female Bhaalspawn who had made it her business to hunt and kill other Bhaalspawn, including himself. She was accompanied by wizards and fighters.

Norgath hates fighting multiple enemies in relatively cramped spaces (which is why ToB is going to be hard for him, or to be more sincere: for Blackraven). He retreated to the point where he had set his traps, and was relieved to see Ilasera (his main concern) follow him. The traps dealt serious damage, but they didn't kill his foe. Nevertheless they gave the Bounty Hunter a good headstart in his melee dealings with the female, and after heavy blows had been dealt on both sides, he prevailed. Norgath then wanted to see what Ilasera's followers were up to, but found himself transported away to a hellish pocketplane, a creation of his own mind in Bhaal's realm. There the Dwarf met a Solar and Saravok's spectre which he brought back to the world of the living by giving it a small part of his soul in return for information. He also got his second Imp pet (next to his trusty familiar), Cespenar, who upgraded a couple of weapons for Norgath: his elemental staves were merged into a Staff of Elemental Mastery (fewer but stronger summons, higher enchantment), Haer'Dalis' short swords were upgraded, mostly for Creeping Chaos, and so was the Short Sword of Backstabbing. (Speaking of Imps, I experimented with releasing and picking up Norgath's Imp familiar and had no problems there in spite of the fact that the Hell Trials saw Norgath's alignment changed from LE to LN.)

 

In his pocketplane he had to face a challenge: killing a stream of increasingly powerful creatures. This part was extremely laggy, with the screen freezing for seconds at various times. I allowed myself a reload when after one of the lags Norgath suddenly saw himself injured and surrounded by Bodhi and Sarevok (who hadn't been there before) and Ogre Magi, with no means of escape.

The second time Norgath went through the fight, there were lags as well, but they didn't affect gameplay as much. At any rate, Wand of Cloudkill charges killed off everything but the strongest enemies: Sarevok, Bodhi and Irenicus apparitions. Norgath first felled hasted Bodhi in melee (generously chugging potions of extra healing in the process). Sarevok's movement rate was much lower, so he was much easier to fight. He was slain with hit and run tactics. Irenicus, finally, was as soft on Norgath as he had been in the past. Inexplicably he cast unimpressive spells like Remove Magic or Sphere of Chaos at Norgath, but when the Dwarf called forth his Horn of Valhalla Berserk Warior, the wizard somehow thought a Comet an appropriate measure against the summon. I really fail to see why he didn't drop the Comet on Norgath. The Dwarf dispelled the wizard's protections with his prized SotM (what a fantastic weapon!), before finishing him off with his speed weapons.

 

Sarevok explained to Norgath that he had to go to the town of Saradush, north of the Forest of Mir, because it was there that Alaundo's prophecies appeared to be unfolding. The town was besieged by Fire Giants led by a Bhaalspawn Fire Giant named Yaga-Shura. Within its walls many more Bhaalspawn had gathere, and the ruler over the town was a Bhaalspawn as well, a Half-Orc named Gromnir Il-Khan. Upon arrival Norgath slew a number of Gromnir's needlessly hostile soldiers. He then retrieved a stolen spellbook for a wizard (who gained little from it, as he would soon find lots of spells missing, stolen by Norgath). He also made an evil merchant and his lackeys pay with his life for kidnapping, blackmailing and framing innocent people.

From a Priestess of Waukeen the Dwarf received a key that would take the Dwarf through the prison into Gromnir's Palace. And he bought from her a Ring of Animal Friendship that Cespenar used to upgrade the Staff of the Woodlands; the Imp also fused the Bone Club and the Gnasher into a new Club +4 Fulcrum (which was unintended because Norgath had wanted to Blackblood and Gnasher fused into a Club +5 Pitchwife). Norgath now has a great collection of weapons but being a solo adventurer he can only use one or two at a time...

 

In the prison Norgath encountered and slew numerous Vampires including an Elder or Ancient variant. There were also many guards, but they never saw Norgath sneaking past them. He reached Gromnir's Palace, the first level of which was heavily guarded. The Dwarf took out a battle mage with a Staff of Striking backstab, and used the same tactics against the remaining guards.

Norgath's prevalence over these guards marks Blackraven's most successful SCS no-reload run to date, besting his attempt wiith Thani who fell in this fight due to some very unfocused playing. (Thani had completed two levels of Watcher's Keep though, while Norgath hasn't even entered the Keep. So it could be argued that Norgath hasn't surpassed Thani yet. Nevertheless plotwise, Norgath is now Blackraven's most advanced no-reload character.)

 

Upstairs there was even more resistance: two battle mages and a wizard called Karun the Black, an Orog priest curiously named Halbazzer Drin, a couple of ranged and melee warriors, a hasted rogue Eler Had, and of course Gromnir himself, accompanied by a fell cat named Ramazith. Besides, the casters would summon no less than seven Skeleton Warriors to their side. The room was much too confined and crowded for Norgath to be able to set his traps, and the opposition was way to powerful to be fought in a straight fight. So the Dwarf saw two options: summons or stealth (and lots of patience). He took the stealth route. Gromnir was the only one to see through Norgath's SotM-invisibility, but the Dwarf could easily outrun the Half-Orc thanks to Boots of Speed and oils of speed whenever the warrior whirlwinded. Thus Norgath set to gradually thinning the opposition's ranks. Karun the Black and the battle mages (after a couple of SotM dispels), Eler Had, Halbazzer Drin: they all fell to Norgath's vicious surprise attacks. He would also hit Gromnir time and again with his SotM. When the battlefield had become more manageable, Norgath revealed himself on one side of the room, provoking the remaining foes to attack him there, until the Dwarf went invisible again. He then hasted to the opposite side of the room, where he placed a Time trap. Being the only one to see through Norgath's invisibility, it was Gromnir Il-Khan who followed Norgath and triggered the Time trap. The Dwarf then equipped Daystar in the main hand and the Scarlet Ninja-To in the off hand, activated Assassination and within the duration of the Time Stop he finished the Half-Orc (who had already been injured from previous SotM surprise attacks).

 

A woman named Melissan teleported in, surprisingly because she was supposed to have been imprisoned by Gromnir who had distrusted her. Like Gromnir Norgath didn't trust the woman, but he nevertheless decided to follow her leads to places where Yaga-Shura the invincible Bhaalspawn Fire Giant could be weakened, so that he could be slain.

[corey_russell]

@Blackraven: Looks like nice progress - perhaps this will be your trilogy success?

@Grond0: Nice self-discipline there in paying off the Cowlies - your characters have died plenty to those guys, no need to add this Kensai to that list of victims.

[Grond0]

Gloin - dwarf kensai (update 3)

 

The Guild Contact didn't detain Gloin long and he moved on to the vampire hide-out.  Azuredge did the bulk of the work there, though Tanova wished she hadn't tried to get a true sight of a sunray. Gloin produced summons for the first time there to deal with Bodhi (level 17).

 

His last equipment target before going in search of Imoen was to upgrade the MoD.  Neb proved an easy target on the way there - failing to disappear quickly enough under a DUMH / kai / Gaxx hasted assault.  Arriving in Brynnlaw Gloin equipped the iMoD and had the luxury of seeing the ambushing vampires evaporate in melee.  He then dual-wielded Belm for the first time to allow him to strike down Perth before he could react.

 

Quickly using Burning Hands on Perth's book, Gloin moved on into Spellhold.  He fake-talked the demon to avoid losing any stat in the dream before gratefully picking up a bag of holding.  He made his way through enough of the first level to escape to the next - Azuredge doing most of the work as usual.  The second level, where Gloin picked up a couple of pairs of elemental protection boots, was also straight-forward, though I did mis-click on the last conversation test, meaning Gloin missed out on the chance of appeasing the troll god with a head.

 

After resting Gloin persuaded Lonk to open the cell doors and a quick assault saw Jon on his way before Gloin went invisible and ran away before the murderers could arrive.

 

He took ship with Saemon and soon arrive in the City of Caverns, where a fight with an ettin took him to level 20 and his first HLA.  That was WW, which soon got a try-out against the spectator.  Gloin picked up the +2 cloak there and he got a further cloak soon after when Kitthix webbed a priestess.  After going invisibly to the prince and agreeing to help him Gloin used Gaxx haste to kill the king and his guards just as the prince was arriving.  As a punishment for his late arrival the prince got a close up view of Gloin's new WW in action.  He picked up the remaining part for the Wave along with the Impaler before departing for the Underdark.

 

In the Underdark the first group of drow are not much good in melee, so easy meat for a kensai wearing the Cloak of Mirroring.  Gloin moved swiftly on to the svirfneblin village where some summons occupied the balor while Azuredge did its work (level 21).

 

Gloin has normally killed as few enemies as possible in his travels.  However, I've had trouble in the kuo-toa tunnels before with calls for help bringing out reinforcements, so he cleared the whole area systematically.  A single GWW was too much for the kuo-toa prince to handle, while the demon knights were all taken down from range by Azuredge.

 

At the beholder area there was no real need to kill the elder orb, but I wanted revenge for a recent MP death there.  The elder orb just survived an opening GWW, but a single hit from a follow-up WW finished it off before it could attempt an imprisonment.  Invisibility was then used to go and collect the Greenstone Amulet.

 

Gloin didn't bother with the illithid area, but just fought his way through more drow (level 22) to find Adalon.  He's just been welcomed into the drow city, after almost (but not quite) succumbing to the temptation to proclaim he was working for the dragon.

[Grond0]

Gloin - dwarf kensai (4th and final update)

 

For the ambush on the way to rescue Phaere, Gloin sent Kitthix on ahead to trigger buffs.  The only attack he was afraid of was N'ashtar's maze so Kitthix was intended to just make him use his mislead.  After waiting that out Gloin closed in gradually to get opponents to chase him one at a time and he soon despatched all the attackers except N'ashtar.  For him he just ran around, always keeping a healthy distance away, throwing Azuredge every now and then.  He was part way through the cheating bastard's mage's 3rd and final stoneskin and the battle wouldn't have taken much longer when from out of nothing the following happened:

 

Since I 'knew' the spell he was casting couldn't be maze I didn't even react in time to equip the Sword of the North.  Gloin was thus relying on his standard 20% MR - and that was not enough.

[Alaestr]

Grond0 - o.O what did just happen? My condolences though. Gloin was one tough nut.

[Blackraven]

@Grond0, ah man that's a sad and frustrating end there. Cheating indeed... what touch spell did that wizard cast?

@Corey, thanks. Well trilogy success is still far away, but who knows?
 

[Grond0]

Thanks both.  Although maze is supposed to be a touch spell there are various enemies who consistently use a ranged version of it, e.g. Abazigal.  There's some sort of sense in a dragon having a special ability that differs from the standard spell (rather like the demi-lich ranged imprisonment ability), but that's not something you would expect from a standard mage and N'ashtar doesn't use a ranged maze on a regular basis.  I suppose I'll just have to resort to keeping summons active against him in future, even though that seems like overkill.

[corey_russell]

Thanks both.  Although maze is supposed to be a touch spell there are various enemies who consistently use a ranged version of it, e.g. Abazigal.  There's some sort of sense in a dragon having a special ability that differs from the standard spell (rather like the demi-lich ranged imprisonment ability), but that's not something you would expect from a standard mage and N'ashtar doesn't use a ranged maze on a regular basis.  I suppose I'll just have to resort to keeping summons active against him in future, even though that seems like overkill.

Sorry to hear Nash'tar got you again. I agree the "touch" range of maze is quite far. For my solo characters anymore, my standard procedure is to buy from the Ust Natha merchants, then kill Adalon, thus bypassing this encounter entirely. A solo character doesn't need the experience, after all. The only item of note is the +4 Halberd, but you can get the Wave in chapter 6 and that is good enough. I might make an exception if I have sure fire defense (MR, SI, etc.), but like I said, for solo the encounter is unnecessary. Skipping unnecessary and potentially dangerous encounters is how plain-jane fighter kit Noywad III made it so far (3rd battle of Melissan).

[Blackraven]

Norgath, Dwarven Bounty Hunter (update 15)

 

Norgath rested at his pocketplane and then traveled to the Forest of Mir in search of clues about Yaga-Shura's invincibility and possible ways to undo it. On his way he had his elemental summons deal with some of Yaga-Shura's soldiers. It saved a merchant from certain death. The Dwarf took many valuable scrolls, potions and items as payment for his good deed. 

In the Forest of Mir he was greeted by different types of undead creatures, including a Master Wraith disguised as a resentful Gorion. Norgath used Sunrays against the creatures, to great effect. The damage he inflicted on one of them, a Devil Shade, was astonishing (possibly breaking another of Blackraven's personal records). The Master Wraith fell to SotM dispels and Daystar combined with Scarlet Ninja-To attacks. A Skeleton Mage seemed to be alarmed by the commotion. It approached and time-stopped stealthy Norgath but did little to upset the Dwarf otherwise. Norgath retreated and dealt with the creature using Maze and damage traps. He then ventured deeper into the woods, bypassing more hostile undead thanks to SotM-invisibility, until he met Yaga-Shura's foster mother Nyalee. She sent him to the Marching Mountains to retrieve the Fire Giant's heart and hers, needed for the woman to break her foster son's invincibility.

 

In the Marching Mountains Norgath found Yaga-Shura's lair. The Bhaalspawn himself wasn't there - he was at the Siege Camp just outside Saradush, but he had many powerful creatures guarding his stronghold. On a first level Norgath encountered Lizard creatures, Fire Trolls, a Bone Fiend, an Erinyes, Burning Men, Fire Giants, a Fire Lich, Efreetis, and a Flaming Skull. Many of said creatures, though thankfully not the Fire Giants (the most plentiful of the Dwarf's foes), saw through Norgath's invisibility and made placing snares practically impossible. The Bounty Hunter had no business with any of these creatures, so he couldn't really be bothered with risking his neck against them. Norgath therefore opted for a stealth-based approach, much like he had done in Gromnir's Palace. It resulted in an exciting experience for both Norgath and Blackraven, as there were various narrow stairs and passages that could easily get the Dwarf blocked by the bulky hard-hitting Giants and the many other creatures that roamed about and saw through his invisibility. So it was not without difficulty that the dexterous Dwarf assembled four wardstones that gave him access to the second level.

On his way up to the second level Norgath got what he had coming with his elusive antics: he found himself stuck between Fire Giants and Fire Trolls. The Dwarf got free by summoning his Djinni at the top of the stairway and going invisible again with his SotM. The Fire Trolls' hits were taken while the Giants went after the Djinni, creating some room to manoeuver for the Dwarf. The second level housed more Giants and creatures of fire, including Brimstone, a Dragon, and Imix, a Prince of Fire. It didn't change the Dwarf's strategy: he zizagged his way past the opposition, retrieved the two hearts, and (barely) slipped past the creatures again, back to safety. He returned to the Forest of Mir where Nyalee used her druidic sorcery to undo Yaga-Shura's invincibility, only to regret her action moments later. She attacked Norgath but proved herself unprepared for his traps.

 

The Bounty Hunter relaxed for a bit at his pocketplane, and then traveled to the Siege Camp. As before, Norgath had little interest in battling Yaga-Shura's cronies; his fellow Bhaalspawn was his quarry. Again, SotM-invisbility proved extremely useful. None of those present noticed the invisible Dwarf except Yaga-Shura himself. Norgath knew he wasn't as strong or hardy as his foe, so he prefered not having to fight the Giant in straight combat. Besides he was sure that such an approach would result in the minions joining the fray to help their master. He therefore decided to set as many damaging snares as possible at an unguarded point, and to use SotM-invisibility to lure the brute toward them. His first attempt failed as the snares were triggered by a Lieutenant warrior. Several more attempts were just as fruitless: each time there seemed to be some stray goon or even a summon around to sacrifice their life for their commander. Norgath is a patient and headstrong Dwarf though. Eventually, a number of traps, including a time trap that allowed for an Improved Haste plus Assassination assault with the Fulcrum Club and Scarlet Ninja-To, brought Yaga-Shura to the brink of death, and said weapons' intermittent poison/acid damage did the Giant in.

[Blackraven]

Norgath, Dwarven Bounty Hunter (update 16 - final update)

Ok sadly the second pocketplane challenge has just ended Norgath's run. In it he had to fight Sarevok, Angelo, Semaj, Tamoko and an evil version of himself. Traps set at the entrance point injured both faux Norgath and Angelo, but killed neither. Faux Norgath saw through invisibility, and he had potions of speed and whirlwinds that combined with his boots of speed made him lighting fast. Real Norgath quaffed a potion of speed as well to avoid most of his clones' whirlwind strikes.

He survived his clone's whirlwind attacks, and seemed to manage reasonably well, but when he tried to restore his health with a Rod of Resurrection, the heal simply took too long (in spite of Norgath having a clean aura). He suffered various hits in the process, not just from faux Norgath but also from others, as using the Rod made the Dwarf visible. His health got dangerously low when finally the RoR flower animation appeared, but somehow it was too late. One of his foes must have managed to land a good hit before the Bounty Hunter's health was actually restored. Well at least it's comforting to see that even at this stage of the game I'm capable of providing a relatively anti-climactic end to an otherwise highly enjoyable (and for me successful) playthrough. 

[Grond0]

Sorry to see that Blackraven, but an impressive performance to get that far.  I think that battle is pretty nasty - maybe a good place to use a mordy sword scroll?

[Blackraven]

Sorry to see that Blackraven, but an impressive performance to get that far.  I think that battle is pretty nasty - maybe a good place to use a mordy sword scroll?

 

Thanks Grond0. You're right I would have been better off with summons there. Mordy's would have been a good candidate as you say, as would the upgraded Elemental Staff summons.

[Grond0]

Durin the Deathless - dwarf kensai (update 1)

 

In the dungeon Durin took his final level - just the 7 HPs taking him to 105 - still 6 above average, making him the toughest of this series of kensais.  Using horror as a disabler he made safe progress and successfully dealt with all the inhabitants, including Ulvaryl.

 

Durin quickly set the circus to rights to get the ring of human influence and bought the ring of air control.  After reporting to Gaelan Bayle he did the same to the Copper Coronet - getting to level 10 there.

 

The Suna Seni ambush was fought off on the way to Watcher's Keep.  He looted the side rooms there, but vampiric wraiths were waiting in the main room and he had to retreat hastily.

 

Back in Athakatla a bit more travelling saw him save Renfeld and he used the RoAC to kill Prebek and Sanasha with one hit each before looting the harpers.  There's not actually anything useful to him there, but unlike Gloin he's picking up all XP and loot offered early on.

 

An undead protection scroll allowed him to make short work of the upper Graveyard and the Southern tombs, while the RoAC II stopped Pai'Na casting and allowed him to save against spider poison.  He then completed the Graveyard quests - including tracking down the kidnappers and releasing a victim.

 

In the Temple Sewers he helped Roger and got himself a second-hand cloak.  He had a lucky escape there when he got too close to the encounter spot near the door to the lich while running some ettercaps round and an ooze mephit appeared.  Durin immediately collapsed in its stinking cloud, but fortunately recovered just before the ettercaps arrived after they were briefly delayed by Kitthix and he found a use for his new(ish) cloak.  As PFU scrolls are plentiful he used one to kill the Shade Lich and Elemental Lich, even though he can't yet get access to Kangaxx or the City Gates lich.

 

Next he ran the Fallen Paladins around until they dropped - making sure to trigger the conversations with Bubbles first as they don't pause the action (level 12).

 

Moving on to Trademeet Durin picked up the efreeti bottle and bought Ras, the BoIB and CoD.  He had no problems clearing the Grove, except for being slightly too slow to kill Kyland Lind after he was webbed and he managed to run away.  After watching Cernd chomp Faldorn, Durin cleared the tomb (level 13) and bought the Necklace of Missiles.  A quick trip back to Athkatla to use his new summons in solving the skinner murders and Durin returned to finish off his work in Trademeet by helping Tiris.

 

[Serg BlackStrider]

Sad to see your splendid run has ended in wrong way, Blackraven...

[Gate70]

Sorry to read about a Pocket Plane defeat Blackraven, & of another maze Grond0 but I see another kensai has already arrived

 

Blaggerd the Blackguard got through BG:EE (4 attempts this time) so I thought I'd start his SoA journey off today. His xp imported was closer to 300k than 161k, so looks like he overdid BG:EE slightly.

 

After dumping Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira the first part of the chateau was quickly completed, picking up the Sword of Chaos (2 pips 2 handed sword plus 2 pips 2 handed weapon style). The Air Plane saw Malaaq hand over Bala's Axe, and Blaggerd grinned (1 pip in axe with  80% spellcasting failure on hit plus Blackguard poison might stop the odd maze attempt or two).

 

Yoshimo grabbed a bunch of loot and cleared off as usual, leaving Blaggerd to poison the mephit portals. Ulvaryl the vampire tried to escape at near-death but Absorb Health put paid to that (I thought undead might be immune). 

 

With the chateau closed off, Blaggerd decides to loot a few corpses and head for a store.

[Gate70]

Blaggerd believes he has identified what proved to be a fatal flaw with the Two Handed gang. Mainly that he's better off alone instead of having 5 other people to share loot and experience with. & so the tale of death kicks off in earnest.

 

Various causes of trouble on the streets of Athkatla find out the painful way that a greater menace has usurped them, Blaggerd quickly disposing of Cohrvale and Bregg before demonstrating it is no safer indoors by slashing Amalas to pieces in a fighting pit. No rest for the wicked though so Blaggerd casts DUHM and goes in search of an ambush.

 

After one uneventful trips he meets Suna Seni and her slavers on a second. His aura is still clouded for some reason but the brief wait for the Sword of Chaos to be poisoned isn't a problem and he is soon picking valuables from the array of corpses. Minutes later Blaggerd has added Renfeld's attackers, Hareishan the vampire and a mad cleric to his tally.

 

Officer Dirth is next, followed by Prebek and Sanasha. At Watchers Keep Brother Odren is bullied into accepting help before purchasing a potion container and departing once more.Renal Bloodscalp asks if Blaggerd can fit in another job or recommend someone to deal with a deceitful situation. Hmm. Hmm. Fit someone up then callously murder them? That's more of a hobby than a job so Blaggerd accepts, only to find some empathy with this Mae'Var. After all, he is lying thieving bloodthirsty scum interested only in his own endeavours. Sounds familiar.

 

First, ransack a temple to grab an amulet. After breaking in and doing the deed, Blaggerd attacks and chunks the sleeping Weathermistress anyway (note to self, pay attention as typing this up I then realised the two Storm Knights outside were hostile and had half-killed Blaggerd). Bad mistake on their part too...

 

Now Edwin wants some murder and torture done, the day gets better, at least until the mephits guarding Rayic Gethras' house cause serious injury. After finishing them off Blaggerd rests before moving on to The pair of stone golems. They too cause significant wounds so after another rest Blaggerd nips upstairs to pay Rayic back. After only one hit the mage gets PfMW active so Blaggerd applies a dirty trick (learnt from Grond0) and uses his fists, the poison steadily mounting until Rayic bloats onto the ground.

 

Marcus suffers an accidental snapped neck in the Seas Bounty tavern before Embarl is skewered onto the Sword of Chaos.

[Gate70]

Renal Bloodscalp is less than happy about the premature execution of his underling. Blaggerd almost decides to play double or quits.

(I have a feeling Arkanis might be brought in if that happens, but seriously tempting anyway)

[Blackraven]

Nice work Gate70, I liked the poisoned fists trick. What happened with Mae'Var?

[Gate70]

Lucette escapes, although she takes a dose of blackguard poison and an absorb health as a reminder not to hang around quite so long in future. Blaggerd heads to the Temple District and wavers at the sewer entrance before visiting the Radiant Heart instead. Sir Ryan Trawl fails to see the dark aura emanating from Blaggerd and asks him to deal with a group of fallen paladins.

 

Once there Blaggerd realises some smugglers are talking to the fallen paladins, and before they can reach an amicable agreement he sets about the bookish smuggler and starts an unholy fight. With just Rindus left Sir Reynaud de'Chatillon finally speaks out and the fight continues. Blaggerd nips over and chunks Rindus after Reynaud does the hard work, then agrees to steal a golden cup from the Order.

 

Blaggerd briefly considers recruiting the fallen paladins into a new Two Handed gang but Anarg arrives to spoil matters. Blaggerd uses his first extra healing potion, followed by 3 more before Anarg, Reynaud and the fallen paladins take their final fall.

 

Ever the opportunist, Blaggerd picks up their armour and heads to a store as Valen and Brus arrive with propositions. A mugger is stupid enough to think the badly wounded and heavily laden blackguard is an easy mark and a couple of necklaces are added to the sale proceeds.

 

Sir Ryan Trawl rewards Blaggerd, and in his battered state there is little appetite for clearing the Radiant Heart (again, not sure of consequences). After paying 15000gp to Gaelan Bayle funds are tight so the Gloves of Healing and 40 bolts of biting are traded for Glasses of Identification and Blaggerd makes a start on identifying and selling items from his trophy hoard outside the Adventurers Mart. 12 items, 14500gp. Now, who's next.

[Gate70]

Blaggerd decided to blackmail Mae'Var but he has a go away dialogue once the quests are done. So I decided to see what would break if Blaggerd cut a few corners and throats.

 

edit, & whoever mentioned the Vhailor voice a few pages back - thank you. Blaggerd sounds... well... like Vhailor...

[Epsil0]

Gondil, Human Cavalier, update 1

http://forum.bioware...nge/?p=18590520 is the end of his BG1 adventures.

Mods of note: Rogue rebalancing, SCS, Unfinished Business, and Item Randomizer (rerandomized from last time.)

Gondil has entered Amn, and within the first 5 minutes of play I nearly got him killed. For the heck of it, I decided to choose to press the button, triggering an Ogre mage that I definitely wasn't prepared to take in the least. Two Stoneskins to work through, no armor, no potions, no enchanted weapons, and only Imoen with arcane spells... I'm just lucky no one died in that fight.

At this point, there's only one choice that really makes sense: heal Gondil up as much as we can, and then send him alone vs the Duergar squadrons. Fortunately, we make it to the potions of extra healing before anyone kicks the bucket prematurely. It's all normal from there, except for when I accidentally ran Imoen into a couple Duergar by herself, and after she runs back to the party, we find this:

So we kill them. Ulvaryl escapes after killing the Battlemage this time: there wasn't too much I could do about it.

 

The tent is quickly restored and an Avariel added to the party. Gael gives his offer of 20k, but the 10k for the magic license must come first. The only question was how to get it. First, though, we traded Yoshimo for Jan, who should be the permanent thief on this team. Jaheira's Pixie dust was the answer to the early game pre-magic license issue, traveling around invisibly until both ambushes were ambushed and demolished. From there, we went to free the slaves (only mages in the Coronet are level 1s or something: they cast Charm person once and started meleeing things instead,) and obtained Liliacor before taking out the Slaver ship as well. I had a tense moment when I realized I didn't have any fire to kill the trolls outside of arcane spells, but it seems that even though "Cowled wizards detect spell casting in most of indoor Athkatla" is installed, the slaver's ship is exempt. We have the gold for the license now! 

 

We purchase it, then Jaheira gets cursed and then uncursed in rapid succession. We paid off the mages from Ployer: I don't fancy fighting 3 mages indoors at this point! The Harper quests are done, and Xzar is summarily executed. Boo is stolen, and some script kept crashing the game after retrieving Boo from that mage: the fourth time was the charm, and we continue. The easy, short quests are now all finished: time to go item hunting. Only items of note up until this point has been the RoAC, and the Staff of healing. Not even wanting to THINK about Spirit trolls, I decided that Gondil and company would go to Windspear hill. The only mage of note there is Conster, right? Right?

 

Rakshasha Transmuter says hello.

This is the aftermath of the battle: both Jaheira and Minsc were taken out by the same Sunfire, and by some fortunate luck, I had JUST swapped one of Aerie's 4th level slots for Magic weapons, the only weapon I had that could break through the Rakshasha's resistances. Even so, I burnt 10 Extra Healing potions by the end of this fight. We get them raised. It's clear sailing from here, right?

 

...

 

 

*sighs*

 

Everyone's invisible, so I'm not actually in any danger, but this is as irritating as all heck. I attempt a plan using their lack of true vision: Gondil and Minsc stand up front invisibly, blocking a door, while Aerie and Jan blast away with every damage spell they had, hoping to overcome the ridiculous regeneration. It fails almost instantly: I had left a tiny gap between Gondil and Minsc, allowing a Hidden, Rat-shaped Vampire through, killing Jan (though neither level draining nor chunking him.) Aerie drinks my last invisibility potion, and I consider the situation. She's almost at level 9 cleric, so she COULD Raise Dead Jan if she gained enough EXP. So we test this with only Aerie. After 3 attempts and 3 times running out of spells before any Vamps die, I give it a rest and leave Firkraag's dungeon for another time. Maybe a 3rd mage will make this possible? Or maybe just the two, if I play it correctly.

 

We solve the Skinner murders after Raising Jan: Minsc dies, and Aerie STILL isn't level 9 cleric. Off to Umar hills, then. We negotiate a treaty, help make and help destroy a Stone Golem, and sneak into the temple invisibly. A Fire Elemental from Jaheira does work: it managed to get from the beginning of the temple to the penultimate fight without even taking damage. Mazzy accompanies us for now; she might take Minsc's position in the long run. Aerie FINALLY hits level 9 from a random Shade Wolf kill. Deaths are no longer quite as irritating now. But it's time for the Shade lord, and I have no permanent Negative Plane Protection items yet.

 

The plan was to get aboveground invisibly, get to the alcove in the southwest where no one can see you, and blast away with AoE spells, since the Shade Lord doesn't come looking from past experience. This... doesn't work. Everything has Magic Resistance up the wazoo. Shadow Patrick is pulled though, and killed at range by Aerie, Jan, and Mazzy. Still the Shade Lord isn't looking. The Shadow Altar is destroyed with a Sunstone bullet. Still not looking. I have Jaheira summon her Fire Elemental to get the SL to waste some of its higher level spells: Black blade of disaster comes out as well as a Death spell after a couple unsuccessful blows at each other. And the Shade Lord comes looking now. Jaheira and Jan both start up their group invisibility spells: Pixie Dust lands first, and the SL goes all the way to the SW of the alcove while we escape to the northeast. He's still not dead yet: the solution finally comes with the old idea of stealth-shots, even if Mazzy can't stealth. 20 +2 arrows later from 5 pips in Shortbows, this happens:

 

And then, in a nomination for the worst-times-for-love-talks-to-initiate category, right after Mazzy's inscription of the altar for the fallen, especially Patrick...

 

We got Ashideen and the Strong Bow out of this, though, as well as levels on Gondil, Jaheira, Jan, and Aerie. We're back in Immesvale awaiting decisions...

[Epsil0]

All this trouble ends up for naught though, as I ignored invisibility while traveling once... Greater Commands and Chaos coming out quickly disabled my entire party before I got to do pretty much anything. Gondil falls swarmed by bandits.